Full Circle

Rob had his yearly work trip to Fairbanks, so Amelia and I tagged along once again.  Fairbanks is about 6 hours north of Anchorage and is considered an arctic desert.  Record high of 99 and record low of -66 (no not the windchill) … no winter’s in Fairbanks for me thank you very much.  We traveled North through Denali on the way up and through Glenn Allen on the way back ... a full circle.  http://www.explorefairbanks.com.  

We headed out early…Rob had to get to work by noon or so.  A sleepy Amelia was plopped in the car filled with snacks, toys and anything I could think of for the long journey.  She is used to long plane and car rides and did marvelous as usual.

Just a few spotty showers and the sun broke just in time for the southern tip view of Denali.  It was leg stretch time so we got out and snapped a few photos.

After dropping off Dad, we headed to Pioneer Park for a train ride, carousel ride, swinging, and their Air Museum, where Amelia enjoyed time in a helicopter.  http://www.co.fairbanks.ak.us/pioneerpark 

 Inside the Helicopter

She had already gone on the train and was waving as it went around again with an apparent film crew aboard

 Nothing like a swing

The next day we headed to the Museum of the North where she ventured around, more interested in the rocks that were in a few of the exhibits. 
http://www.uaf.edu/museum/  

 They had a great kid exhibit where we spent a good 45 minutes.

 Waiting for Max and Ruby to come on

The older tourist group loved her, they waved from the bus.

Off to the Large Animal Research Center that is part of UAF.  Research on seeing how well the animals can live is more like it…nothing that would hurt them.
http://www.uaf.edu/lars/.

 I bought her a stuffed musk ox and she fed it grass and built a rock fort while we waited for the tour to begin

I found this funny...much more interested in rocks than caribou and musk ox

We stayed at Pike’s Lodge on the Chena River.  http://www.pikeslodge.com They have a new golf putting course that was right outside our room that Amelia took advantage of and we ate at Pike’s Landing right next door a couple times too. 

One evening we ventured to the North Pole….yes THE North Pole!  Amelia’s face looked bewildered when I told her we were going to Santa’s House.  And not the excited bewilderment … more like “uh  oh no I am not” kind of bewilderment.  I convinced her to get out of the car by saying I was sure Santa was not there as he was too busy, but we could take a peek at Dancer!  She loved the reindeer, but as soon as she spied Santa inside….WOW tears and screaming!  Dad had to go tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas as she kept saying “dollhouse” “ponies” in her crying voice.   Dad came thru! http://www.santaclaushouse.com

We headed back home the LONG way.  Thru Glenn Allen and then down.  It is an 8 hour drive, but I had never been on that road and we had the whole day to get home.  We stopped near Delta Junction for a picnic with the Alaska Range and Mt. Hayes and Mt. Deborah in the distance. 

  The pipeline near Delta Junction

We stopped in Glenn Allen and could see the Wrangell Mts and then headed to the Matanuska Valley.  We stopped at Matanuska Glacier for a late lunch and Amelia got a chance to run around and stretch before the final leg back home. 

 The pipeline near Paxon