UPDATED: Gov. Palin's Picnic in Fairbanks

Gov. Palin greets constituents in Anchorage on Saturday.
Picture courtesy of Wilbur Mercer.

Check back here for updates on Gov. Palin's picnic and farewell speech in Fairbanks as the afternoon and evening go on. KTUU will be live streaming from the event, and C-SPAN will also cablecast the transfer of power. It's likely that more news organizations will carry the speech live, so we'll add more links as we see them.

For now, here's the governor's tweet from this morning:

Beautiful Frbnks morn;cabinet members here w/me & LtGov to serve @ picnic,then changing of guard ceremony;Great to be in Golden Heart City!

UPDATE by Tim: For any of our readers in Fairbanks (I know we have a few), drop us a line at editor@conservatives4palin.com - especially if you can send pictures. (Bonus points for Jay Ramras pics!)

For our other readers, let us know if you spot photos on Flickr, Twitter, or wherever, so we can link them or request permission from the photographers to post them.

UPDATE II by Tim: We're temporarily Twitter-following reporters that are up in Fairbanks for the event. Right now we know of Neal Karlinsky of ABC and Chris Welch of CNN. We've heard that Matthew Simon of KTVA is there but he doesn't seem to be updating his Twitter feed.

If you guys know of any other Journo-tweeters up there, let us know. C4P's Twitter is here, for those who are unaware of it. We hope to someday reach 1% of the number of followers that the Gov has.

Looks like Mark Bowers and Tiffany are tweeting the event too. So is Adrienne.(h/t Rachael)

UPDATE III by Tim: We just got our first photo of today's event in Fairbanks:



Interesting Tweets from Mark:

OMG THE BEST EVER protester totally punked by Sarah's mom!

he had no idea until the end, and she was so polite

I had spoken to him too , but all he had was she was gone during campaign 08 otherwise empty

Looks like most contentious picnic yet!

Another pic from the event:



More from Mark:

PDS Protestors now gathered into a pathetic little clot. 4 signs. Maybe 8 people (being generous)

Yet have seen camera crews go over to see them 10 times. More interviews than protestors

And this from Karlinsky:

Palin's personal advisor says stepping down isn't the end--but the beginning of "new chapter" where she'll be even more visible.

Here's a photo of some "protesters":



Actually, Neal Karlinksy has tweeted a pic of the gigantic anti-Palin "protest". Look and laugh, look-and-laughers!

Sean Cockerham posts at the ADN Alaska Politics Blog:

Hundreds of people are waiting in line for one last chance to meet Sarah Palin as governor and get a free lunch.

Palin, who is handing out salmon burgers again today at the third and final governor's picnic, is scheduled to give her resignation speech at 3:18 p.m. Alaska time. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be sworn in to replace her.

The atmosphere at Pioneer Park is festive. People are here to see Palin, check out the Alaska State Barbecue Championships or look at the old river sternwheeler Nenana or the replica Gold Rush town.

It’s a sunny, pleasant day, with the temperature pushing 80 degrees.

Jonathan Martin of Politico is also tweeting from Fairbanks:

many palin signs, pro and con, in fbx. much verbal back and forth but no fisticuffs (yet). another strong out of state contingent

Crowd shot:



Kim Murphy at the LA Times has coverage as well.

UPDATE by Mel: Video of Gov. Palin's farewell address here.