We spent a day in Fairbanks boating along the Chena River and play panning for gold. On return to our hotel, our bus driver/tour guide gave our group some ideas on how to spend the evening. He recommended the all-we-could-eat salmon bake and dance review, or the gold rush dinner show. There would be shuttles from the hotel and back for both shows.

However, my wife and I only wanted to have dinner at the hotel and then go to bed, since we had to be up at 4:15 a.m. for an early flight out of Fairbanks. Then our tour guide told us we were passing the Alaska State Fair. "But you won't be interested in that," he added.

Of course I wanted to visit the state fair! After dinner, my wife went to bed and I walked about a mile and a half to the fair, not to return to the hotel until midnight. Among the pleasurable sights at the fair was this young woman juggling a passel of torches from atop a tall unicyle, before a mostly rapt audience of Alaskans and one Californian with his camera.