Raise your hand if you’ve been to the North Pole!

Today was a really exciting day, because at the end of it I got to say, “The North Pole? Santa’s house? Oh yeah, I’ve been there!”

Yeah, THAT North Pole. And THAT Santa!

But let me backtrack a little…

It’s our first full day in Fairbanks, and we rented a mini-van to make the most of it. I picked it up at 9 a.m., and returned it 12 hours later.

During that 12 hours, Amber and her parents (collectively, the Stricklands), Edra, Mark and I piled in and out of that van approximately 372 times. But our first and most exciting journey was to North Pole, Alaska, where it’s Christmas year round.
North Pole was about 20 minutes from Fairbanks. It was a pretty drive, green and loads of trees everywhere. There was almost no traffic on the highway, which in itself was a nice relief from congested California.

We knew we were getting close when we saw the Universal Welding company sign, held up by two 20-foot candy canes. Santa was close!

We exited in North Pole, and followed the signs onto Santa Claus Lane. All the light posts were candy canes, too, as were any kind of pilings or poles sticking out of the ground. We passed the North Pole post office, which receives all the letters to Santa at Christmas. Somehow we took a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood, but even that was fun. We turned left on Snowman Ave., and passed Santa’s Senior Center. We also passed a house with Christmas lights and trees in the front yard, which made us laugh.

We finally found a local shuttle driver who pointed us in the right direction. Soon enough we saw a ginormous Santa Claus, next to the Santa Claus House. The passengers in our car were downright giddy with excitement.



We spent the next hour browsing in the shop, and reading the letters decorating the walls -- letters children to Santa. But the highlight was meeting the Jolly Old Elf himself!!

With jingle bells ringing and Christmas carols in the background, Santa made his entrance. He ho ho hoed into the building, and headed straight for Mark. Grasping Mark’s hand in his, he told him very earnestly “Merry Christmas!” and continued on.
It felt like meeting a rock star!

Mark sat on Santa’s lap and talked to him for a bit, then Santa took a picture with all of us. We were laughing the whole morning.

We made a quick detour to see the reindeer out back, and then it was off to our next destination. We stopped for a quick lunch, which we ate outside because it was so nice (70 degrees and sunny!). We couldn’t believe our luck with the weather – everybody had on short-sleeved shirts, and when we ran into the Wawerchaks later, they were wearing flip-flops! In Alaska!

Vicki in flip flops

After lunch, we drove to the museum at the University of Alaska. It was a gorgeous building, and the exhibits inside were amazing. Lots of stuffed arctic animals and hands-on touching stuff. We all dug it a lot.

Plugs to keep car engines from freezing in winter

Mark contemplating Fairbanks

But we weren’t even halfway done with our day. We had a car, and intended to use every minute of it! Our next stop was at the Large Animal Research Station (LARS), which studies musk ox, reindeer and caribou. We could see the animals in the distance. They had huge heads and fur all the way to the ground – they kinda looked like compact little buffalo with ram’s horns drooping down. I was excited to take a tour, but we saw a tour in action and they were nowhere near the animals. Standing in the sun for an hour while the musk ox were still far away didn’t sound like any fun, so we bailed on the tour.

But all was not lost! Amber read about a local place that made homemade ice cream, so we headed over there for our next stop. The ice cream was amazing! They had all sorts of crazy flavors – cinnamon showers, carrot cake, chocolate walnut, kahlua just to name a few. Mark and I ordered the Nanook Nosh, which was vanilla ice cream infused with chocolate, caramel and honey swirls. It was outta this world! It was hot by this time, 84 degrees, so we sat in the sun, eating ice cream and marveling how wonderful Alaska is.

We dropped Edra back at the hotel after that, then headed back out to Pioneer Park (this was not a relaxing day at the beach kinda vacation!). Pioneer Park was funny – half public park with playgrounds and local kids, and half old town with tiny museums and tourists. We wandered the streets, reading about each little cabin. Mark and Amber stopped to play checkers outside one cabin, and then we found the cabin we’d been searching for.

It was a place called 40 Below Fairbanks. For five bucks, we donned giant parkas and entered a small, refrigerated room that was about (you guessed it) 40 degrees BELOW zero. Seriously!!! I’ve never been that cold in all my life. I was wearing cotton pants, and my legs instantly chilled. Next were my ungloved hands, which fumbled clumsily with the camera. The girl working there sent us in with cups of hot water, which we tossed into the chilled air. The water turned into an icy mist before our eyes! That was really cool. There was a banana in there, which you could hammer a nail with, and a thermometer which showed it was actually about 45 degrees below zero.

My eyelashes and nostrils froze quickly. I tried to be brave, but I’ll admit it, I was the first one to run from the building. I could hear Mark shouting, “Party pooper!” as I rushed out of the cold, almost tripping as my glasses fogged up from the sudden temperature change (from 40 below to 84 above zero!). Amber came out next, and after a while, her dad Bill and Mark. Mark apparently wanted to stay in even longer, but Bill was done.

Here’s us inside in our parkas:

45 degrees BELOW zero! And we paid for this!

Mark throwing boiling water into the air -- and watching it turn to an icy mist!

In the 80 degree weather afterwards

We perused Pioneer Park for a bit, looking in the museums. Then we wandered over to the Salmon Bake, which had been very highly reviewed.

It was a bit of a bust – very touristy, and the salmon wasn’t all that great. The halibut was good, but fried. They also had fried cod (the halibut was better) and prime rib (Mark said just okay). It was pricey and touristy, and we vowed not to make that mistake again.

It was nearing time to take the car back, and we were all pretty tired. After one last stop at the local Safeway, I dropped the crew off at the hotel and then returned the car. Amber had sent the hotel shuttle after me, and as we drove back, I marveled at how light it still was. If I’d returned from any other vacation day at 9 p.m., it would’ve been dark, and I would feel exhausted. But the sunshine messes with you here – your body says it’s tired, but your brain says it’s till daylight. And you can’t decide whether to go to bed or keep playing!

It’s now 11 p.m., and still light as it was at noon. But I’m going to bed anyway – got another big day tomorrow, sunny night or not!