Go, Little Duckie, Go!

A traditional part of the Golden Days Celebration Weekend

is the Rubber Duckie Race.

We joined in and "purchased" a little, yellow, rubber duck.

He wasn't for our bathtub at home, however.

At precisely 2:30 in the afternoon a net filled with 1,000's of these little guys

was opened, spilling them into the Chena River from a bridge just upstream

from the downtown area.

If you look closely to the back of the river in this picture you can see a line of yellow.

They bobbed along down the river, some floating on their backs,

some on their sides, and others getting stuck in the grasses along the river.

The crowds along the riverbanks cheered with all their might.

Can you see the mob watching the river race?

Each little duck wore a collar identifying it to its "owner".

The first one to the finish line won $10,000.

Other prizes included airline tickets, gift cards and other great prizes.

Once the first 60 winners were hand picked out of the river,

the recovery of all the, sad but true, losers began.

Big nets scooped them up and dropped them unceremoniously into a boat.

Meanwhile, we headed to the announcer's booth to see if our little

rubber duckie was a winner.

Jack shows off the ticket we are sure (well, hopeful, anyway) will win.

But alas, our little duckie never made it in with the winners.

He may have lost his way and headed into the weeds or tumbled blindly downstream,

upside down in a very embarrassing position, or even been forced to the back by more aggressive duckie floaters. We will never know his fate.

But we do know we had fun joining our voices with all the others as we cheered him on.

We enjoyed watching the race and the netting of the wayward ducks.

And the flowers around Fairbanks just keep getting fuller and bigger and brighter.