Christmas in June? Nope, just the sights at North Pole, Alaska.
A huge Santa and a sleigh are outside the store here.
Reindeer are available for feeding and petting, too
The dark 'velvet' on the antlers is just getting going for the summer.
Murals outside the huge shop.
Jason in front of the tile mural outside the Christmas shop in North Pole.
The entire building was wrapped in these colorful tile murals.
Reminded me of Bronner's in Michigan. Christmas all year round!
A giant stuffed moose inside.
Even Sasquatch gets to play here in North Pole.
A map of the Daton Highway, the only road up to the Arctic Ocean and Prudhoe Bay.
A giant 'Rolligon' vehicle at Chena Hot Springs, just NW of Fairbanks. A guy at the visitor center in Fairbanks, our first stop there, gave us his 2nd day of paid camping permit to use at the campground out at the Chena Hot Springs. So we got some gas and headed out the 60 miles for the night.
Lots of old artifacts at the Springs scattered across the property.
An old snowplow or grader.
A fish sculpture made of old metal.
Even here, the famous 'Chickenstock' festival gets play. We missed the festival when we came through Chicken, but it seems to be a very popular activity.
A huge cargo carrier plane on posts is a weird sight at Chena Hot Springs.
Giant nozzles spew the hot water across the springs. You could stand under the flow or spray for different levels of pressure, to get your own water massage.
Other hot pools at the springs were not for people.
A metal dragon sculpture at the hot springs.
A chunk of ice from the Ice Arts arena in the background. Shaped like a giant igloo or snow arch, inside are permanent ice sculpture displays. The bar inside is made of ice, as are the drinks glasses. You can order your fancy drink in an ice glass and keep the glass until it melts. This remnant was outside along the parking lot.
A huge standing vice that caught the attention of Jason and other men. Inside the restaurant building with the gift shop and bathrooms.
An antique piano that still works. A father and daughter played it for a bit while I waited for Jason to finish using the bathroom.
Cubes of material to be recycled. Aluminum cans, exhaust pipes, rubber seals, and other weird stuff compacted into cubes awaiting removal from behind the Chena Hot Springs hotel.
Colorful snow cats available for tours when it snows here. This is a 5-star resort and is open year round. Apparently, viewing the Aurora Borealis while soaking in the hot springs is a very popular winter activity.
Old delivery trucks still sit on the property. It's like an antique museum to take a walk around here.
Jason standing in the steam of the hot springs in the early morning.
The ramp down into the hot springs pool. It was really hot at the bottom of the ramp and I moved quicky into the center of the pool. I had to fin my hands back and forth and up and down to mix the cooler water with the hot spring water.
We were alone in the early morning in the hot pool. Nobody under 18 years of age was allowed in the hot pool. They had indoor pools and hot tubs they could use, but not the main pool.
Jason in the outdoor hot tub after the steaming hot spring pool.
A pile of moose and caribou antlers on a pole.
We hiked along a nearby trail and spotted this big beaver dam. Note the difference in water level of the water beyond the dam, how much higher it is.
Looking from the other side of the beaver pond on the higher level. The beavers are starting a new dam here with all these trees they've chewed down. They control the pressure of the water behind the dam by adding and removing tree limbs when necessary.
A big burl on a birch tree along the Nature Trail at Chena. These tree trunks make very interesting supports when peeled.
The mush dog compound at Chena Hot Springs. They keep over 80 dogs here to give rides to tourists.
A string of sled dogs ready for tourists.
The 'sled' they use when there is not snow.
Cute windmill made of dogfood bowls.
You don't see this sign in many places.
We stopped at the Delta Meat shop and bought some buffalo hot links. You could buy reindeer ones, too.
They were tasty when we grilled them up.
This tiny battery for our GoPro camera had us waiting in Fairbanks for several days. Sending it to General Deliver befuddled the UPS guys and they were about to send it back as undeliverable when we finally tracked it down at their offices. They didn't seem to know that General Delivery refers to the US Post Office.
The box this tiny thing came in. Note the abundance of stickers.
Wads and wads of this bubble wrap coddled the lithium-ion battery in the box within a box. So much overpackaging.
With a new battery for the camera in hand, we took off from Fairbanks.
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