DAY 17 NORTH POLE, AK

Day 17. Today we visited the North Pole! Not the magnetic north pole, but North Pole, Alaska, which is about 10 miles out of Fairbanks going south on the Richardson Highway. North Pole is repleat with Santa's house, candy cane light posts, and Christmas decorations throughout the small town. The attraction for us was to send postcards to our small nieces and nephews depicting Santa's house (in winter) and postmarked from "North Pole, AK". They should bring a smile when they arrive. We have concluded, upon further research, that it will be too difficult and costly to travel to the Artic Ocean. As a compromise, we plan to drive to the Artic Circle on the Dalton Highway, about 1/3 the distance to Prudhoe Bay. We are not equipped with the necesssary emergency equipment should we have a breakdown along the Dalton Highway. Perhaps we will do in on another trip in the future. Tomorrow we plan to take the Discovery Steamboat up the Chena River which flows through Fairbanks. It is a 3 1/2 hour tour revealing the history of the city and its earlier inhabitants. The weather today has been perfect with highs in the mid 70's. The low last night had to be in the low to mid 50's--perfect for camping. Even the mosquitoes have not been too bad, although we did break out the Deet last night. We are looking forward to seeing our daughters, who will be flying up on June 12 for a week. Plenty to see in the mean time...