Our final day in Fairbanks had us heading to the El Dorado Gold Mine just ten miles north of town. There the tour starts with another train ride, this time on an open car, short gauge train.
Here's our train pulling into the station.
Our conductor was this nice man named Earl who serenaded us with Johnny Cash songs and songs he wrote himself, like, "I've Fished Everywhere Man". He was a lot of fun and he encouraged us to sing along, which is something I am usually willing to do!
Here are our prospective miners ready to head up to the mine!
Before we could start mining ourselves, we watched a sluice box demonstration followed by a mining demonstration.
Here the water is pouring down the sluice and Kieran is paying close attention!
They give everyone a bag of dirt to put in your pan and mine with. They guarantee that everyone will find gold! Alastar is excited to start panning to find his gold!
Laura and Kieran are hoping to strike it rich too!
Here the boys are with their gold! Alastar found $12 worth of gold and Kieran found $8 worth of gold! Laura and I found some gold too, so it was a strike it rich day for all four of us!
Kieran, myself, and Alastar sit outside the door to the mine. What nice boys to pose for a photo with auntie!
After the mine we were heading to Nicole, TJ, Cedar, and Coral's house for a Memorial Day BBQ. But, along the way we decided since it's right here, let's check out the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 
Here is Kieran in a cross-section of the pipeline that has a "Hog" in it. Hogs are what are run up and down the pipeline to keep it clean from sediment buildup. 
After a wonderful lunch we headed down to the playground at the nearby elementary school. There was this awesome see saw that had room enough for all of us! We have Coral, myself, and Alastar on one side..
And Cedar, Kieran, and Laura on the other side. It was a hot afternoon so Kieran decided that he needed to go sans shirt. Shortly after playing we had to bid farewell to our friends and hurry off to the airport to catch our flight home!
Here we are on the plane! Now, the boys flew before when they were babies, but they don't remember this and so this was their first flight in their minds. They were excited to be on a jet! Listening to them and watching them on the plane was some of the funniest stuff of the whole trip. All in all it was a fantastic trip! I had a lot of fun and I think the guys and Laura did too. But after all the adventures we had, the boys both told me the highlight of the trip was:
The hotel in Fairbanks had an indoor pool!
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