Day 28 (July 18)--North Pole, AK

We wanted to make sure we hit the Fairbanks area even though it was now a 7 hour round trip. We decided we would ease into this day and book a room in Delta Junction so we don't have to stress and make it back to Tok for the night. 

Fairbanks is a large museum and gold area and although none of that interested us too much we also needed to get me a new phone b/c....life! 

We made sure to stop by the North Pole, AKA Santa's House, before hitting Fairbanks. I love Christmas so it was a non-negotiable! A new reindeer area has opened there so we got to see them. Do you know the difference between reindeer and caribou? Reindeer have shorter legs since they're "domesticated" more and don't have to search for food. (At least that's what the salesady @ REI told us!)

The large Santa was pretty creepy so I didn't force the boys to take a picture.  There were some cute tile murals on the surround of Santa's House that were pretty cute. The inside was tons of ornaments, decorations,  souvenirs,  etc. 

"Hey, where'd my reindeer go??"

Jeff and Riley found another Dickens Village scene to add to our collection. 

On to Fairbanks we went to explore a bit and get me a phone. This was originally going to be our "civilization spot" of the trip since Fairbanks is the 2nd largest city in Alaska, so it kind of became that anyway with our needs! I saw an REI and the boys and I got new hiking backpacks. 

Not that anyone cares, but we have been Camelback users for about 8 years. In fact Jeff and I are still on our first ones while the boys have gotten larger ones. The hikes we took this trip needed more equipment in them (bear spray, bug spray for the large Alaskan bugs, small tent shelters in case we got stuck in a random downpour--which we thought might happen one day), and we realized we were inadequately prepared.  Plus mine is currently about to break in one spot. Luckily we had a sales lady come up as we were looking and convinced us to try the Osprey brand, which is very customizable.  That's what we ended up going with--just in case you've made it to the end of this thrilling section of the blog!

Everyone agreed on Thai food again before we headed back to our room in Delta Junction and ended this long day. I'm so proud the food palettes have expanded a little with the boys--little things like this matter! 

Side note: I got to share a bed that rolled to the middle with the child who moves the most. Jeff got to share with the one who likes to snuggle. Who can guess the kids???

Prayers as we travel the bad roads back into Canada for the night as we head towards the ferry. Lots of damage can happen on these washboard roads.