North Pole

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Today was a long, marvelous, busy day.It started with breakfast in the "lodge". It was better than just a continental breakfast, and the "lodge" actually had moose antlers over a stone fireplace. Then, we decided that since it wasn't raining and there weren't too many clouds, we'd drive back up the park road and try to get a glimpse of Denali. We got lucky! Only 30% of visitors get to see it because it is only "out", as in not enshrouded with clouds, about 10% of the time! We took pictures of snow-covered mountains nearby. Then, in the right spot to be able to see the mountain, we thought we saw a peak that was not a cloud. We got out the binoculars and there it was! The pictures make it look like it's floating. We were SO excited! One goal met! We stopped in the visitor center for Denali National Park. It was interesting, of course. Then we went into a bookstore. Oops! This crowd loves books. Then we heard the train whistle, so Rowan had to go see the "real train". The Alaska Railroad stops at the park. On the way back to the car, they found some wild blueberries that needed to be picked.
We were later than planned to get on the road to Fairbanks, but that was okay!
On the way, we stopped in the town of Nenana because its visitor center was a log cabin with a sod roof and it had a log cache on stilts beside it. The caches were built to keep food and hides away from bears and other predators. Next to these was the Nenana Ice Classic tripod. In the winter, it's set up in the middle of the river. People buy tickets to guess when the ice will break up and go down the river. The tripod is connected by a wire to the bank and a clock. When the wire breaks, the clock lets everyone know what time the ice broke up and then they can figure out who the winner is. What a fun way to look forward to spring!
We stopped in at North Pole, Alaska next. It was the cutest town, with street names like Santa Claus Lane and light poles that looked like candy canes. We went into the Santa Claus House to take Rowan to see Santa! Jan and I were getting all choked about seeing Santa! Rowan sat on his lap long enough for us to snap pictures. Then we all shopped at the massive Christmas store. The reindeer were right outside. What a cool stop!
We stopped at a park to ask for directions. It turned out to be Pioneer Park. It had a little train that we thought Rowan could ride on, but they were on their lunch break. We looked around the park and let Rowan play. Seth had a caribou burger. After that, we wanted to see the Alaska Pipeline and exhibit. It was enormous! What an engineering feat to build it, keep it warm enough for the oil to flow, but keep the supports cool enough so the permafrost wouldn't melt and refreeze and twist and bend the pipeline! Finally, in downtown Fairbanks, we wanted a photo next to the mile marker at the end of the Alaska highway. We had a photo at Mile 0, so we wanted one at the end, as well.
At last, we could stop for dinner. Carol had a friend who had recommended a Thai place in Fairbanks. Jan and Rich and I went to Soapy Smith's, of Skagway fame. Jan commented that it felt like Christmas vacation - we saw Santa, it had been cold and rainy, and we were buying gifts! When she gets home, summer will be a shock!We were all tired and happy from a fabulous day. We sure crammed a lot into it. Rowan never complained with all the riding in the car he had to put up with. In all those miles of forest, we still never saw any animals except a snowshoe hare, a red squirrel, and some birds.
After we got back to our rustic cabins, Jan and Vivian and I stayed up until about 2 AM working on the puzzle. We couldn't get the dark parts together until morning when the light would be better. Yawn!

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Photos

Denali
It's official name is still Mt. McKinley. The peak is snow-covered white one BEHIND the brown one.