Winter Wonderland

---

After a breakfast of biscuits and gravy (er...) we set off to the North Pole. Well, to North Pole, Alaska, where Christmas is celebrated 365 days a year. Santa was sadly on his Fall vacation, but we still got to send post cards from the town and arranged for him to send some letters to loved ones nearer to Christmas. The whole town was decorated, even the McDonalds, whose golden arches stood tall above a 30 foot candy cane.

After lunch in the northern most Dennys in America, we headed to the Chena Hot Springs Resort. First stop was to the Ice Museum to see award winning ice sculptures, see the ice bedrooms and drink the world's strongest appletini, served in an ice glass. We were bundled up into Parkers on top of our coats and look like the Michelin man in all our photos. Highlights included playing the ice xylophone in an igloo and watching cocktail glasses being sculpted from ice.

From one extreme to the other, straight after the Ice Museum we headed to the Hot Springs, which encompassed floating around in a 105F rock pool. Daisy handled the heat fine but Laura sometimes found it a little too much to bear, we did both take a moment to appreciate where we though and how much we had seen and done in the last week. The sky had finally(!) cleared up and there was even blue sky overhead to round up our great day.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the 'Interior' and begin our long drive down south to explore the coastal region of the state.

---