North Pole, Fox and Fairbanks

Our day started a lot later than usual and it was very cloudy and overcast. After a long day of flying yesterday and a very late dinner it was almost 1:00am (3:00am in Santa Fe) before we got to bed. So we didn't leave the hotel until about 10:00am. The first order of business - breakfast. I asked the woman at the front desk for suggestions and the first thing out of her mouth was Denny's. Well, we ate there last night because it was so late and we couldn't find anything else open and we didn't want to eat there again. So I asked for something local and she suggested The Cookie Jar and gave excellent directions on how to get there. We weren't disappointed. The special today was Eggs Benedict (Thomas' favorite) and that is what he ordered. I ended up with Nolan's Own Breakfast (their own homemade cinnamon roll cut in half, dipped in egg batter, grilled & dusted with powdered sugar then served with ham and hash browns) and it was incredible, but way too much food - I only ate a little over half of what was on the plate. Now that we were full it was time to see the Fairbanks area.

From the restaurant we headed southeast for about 13 miles to North Pole. It drizzled a little during the drive but never really rained. We arrived and went to find deniserows' Kodiak Bear #33. We parked and made the short walk following the clues and easily found the box. It has wet in the area so the ground and plants were very damp and the mosquitoes were out in full force. So we took the box back to a picnic table that was dry and almost mosquito free. I enjoyed stamping in to my first Alaska letterbox and even included the image in the travel journal I am keeping of this trip. We then put the box back in place and headed back to the car. From where we were parked we noticed a very large Santa and decided to leave the car where it was and walk to see the Santa. This area was Santaland RV Park (but they decided not to reopen in 2011 and it is now known as Christmas Creek Market) and the giant Santa stands at the entrance. We took a few pictures and then walked around the area. There were booths set up for their annual Summer Festival for the Fourth of July. They had vendors selling arts, crafts and food. After a look around there we headed next door to the Santa Claus House. We looked for another letterbox that was supposedly hidden under a sleigh by a forty foot, two-dimensional wood cutout Santa. We didn't find the box but we also didn't get too search very well. There were a lot of people wanting to take pictures in the sleigh - so the box may be there and we just missed it. Anyway, we gave up on that and went into the Santa Claus House. This is really just a big Christmas store. And I loved it - because I love Christmas and decorating. We looked around and we found a couple of ornaments to take home to commemorate our trip to Alaska (two dogs - a samoyed and a siberian husky). We try to do this on most of our trips but we aren't always lucky in finding something we like. So we bought the ornaments and a few postcards and I made a note on one of the postcards and had it mailed home just so I can have the North Pole postmark on it for my journal. After shopping we checked out the reindeer in the pen outside and then headed back to the car. We drove back to Fairbanks but didn't stop as we headed north towards Fox.

We didn't go all the way into Fox. We stopped at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Visitor Center around mile marker 8 on the Steese Highway. Here you are able to get up close and personal with the pipeline and find a letterbox if you are so inclined. When we first arrived there were five tour buses there so we decided to look for the letterbox since the clues took us away from the main area. I found the box (A Gift from Oregon by The Flaky Lady) and found a place to sit and stamp in. While I was doing that Thomas took a little walk and got pictures of the pipeline. Once the box was hidden and we made our way back to the visitors center and everyone was gone. We took more pictures and just as we were leaving another three tour buses appeared. I'd say we lucked up and avoided the crowds. It was an interesting trip and we got to learn about retired pigs.

We returned to Fairbanks and made our way to Clay Street Cemetery to find St. Anthony by Chopped Liver. It was an easy find and a peaceful place to sit and stamp in. We weren't in the cemetery for very long mostly because there weren't any really interesting headstones. Thomas and I usually enjoy walking around cemeteries admiring some of the more elaborate or detailed headstones but we only saw a couple of interesting ones - we did find one we really liked mainly because of the epitaph . . .

TO THE MEMORY OF
ALEXANDER BARRACK
BORN IN SCOTLAND
DIED IN FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
SEPTEMBER 3RD 1916 AGED 69 YEARS.
THERE WAS NO GREATER OR MANLIER MAN.

From the cemetery we headed to the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center which is home to the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, Alaska Public Lands Information Center and Tanana Chiefs Conference. We got some brochures and maps and I got two National Passport Stamps - one for Gates of the Artic National Park and one for Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Leaving here we walked to Griffin Park and saw the Moose Antler Arch entrance and the Alaska-Siberia Lend-Lease Memorial. Then we walked over to Golden Heart Park and saw the First Unknown Family Fountain. By this time the skies had gone from overcast to thick dark clouds and in a matter of seconds the heavens let loose and we were standing in a downpour. Thankfully we had jackets, hats and umbrellas and we stayed pretty dry as we made our way to do something inside. While at the visitors center earlier we picked up a card for the Ice Museum. Before going to Golden Heart Park we had checked out the museum and found that the next presentation and tour was at 4:00pm and we were killing time in the area until it started. But once the rain came down we made the short walk to the museum and waited for the next 15 minutes until the tour started. The short movie was about Ice Alaska and was pretty interesting - enough so that it made me want to travel to Fairbanks in March just to see it. After the short movie you can walk around the theatre and see some ice sculptures that are preserved behind glass and you can even enter one of the rooms (which is at 18 degrees) and get up close to some of the sculptures and take some pictures. Then we watched a carver work on some ice. It was a nice way to spend an hour or so on a rainy afternoon.

We left the museum and walked a block or so to Lavelle's Bistro for dinner. Thomas had a sesame chicken salad and I had beer battered halibut. It was a pretty good meal and by the time we finished eating the rain had completely stopped and the sun was trying to peak through the clouds. So once we left the restaurant we walked a little more downtown and stopped by Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race headquarters. During our time downtown we also did a little letterboxing and picture taking. It was a good afternoon in downtown Fairbanks.

Since we had a long and late day yesterday we decided to head back to the hotel and take it easy this evening. We still have a full day tomorrow in town and we need to be rested to make the best of it.