Alaska Review! Day 7--Fairbanks to Delta Junction (Part 3)

We were finally ready to leave Fairbanks.  We were headed to Delta Junction, but not before we made one more stop. 

North Pole and the Santa Claus House. 

It seems that often, people want to make a specific trip just to North Pole.  I'm not sure if they think it's THE North Pole (which it isn't) or what, but I will say that unless you are a huge Christmas fan, want to experience Christmas in July (if it's July), or are passing through, I wouldn't try to move mountains to visit here.

Now, with that said, we did spend over an hour here, but I'm a semi-big Christmas fan, it was July 8 and we had to pass through anyway.

The nice benefit of this is that you can visit Santa during the correct hours.  I swear that Trust and I did not plan to dress alike.

Imp was pleased to learn he is on the nice list, especially since there were only

until Christmas!

We spent a lot of time looking at the variety of items...some weren't even Christmas themed.

 

 We didn't get the cap.

Trust did mail her postcards from the store, so they would have the "North Pole, AK" postmark.

We finished up and headed out.

 The kids posed with the giant Santa in the parking lot.

 This is something in the parking lot as well...the Reindeer Experience.  It was closed, but we could still see the reindeer chilling out.

We looked for some dinner. 

 Not here, but we were amused at the signs.

We wound up at a Pizza Hut, because there wasn't really much to choose from and we all like pizza.

While we waited, Imp colored a minion.  He loves the minions.  The folks in the restaurant even hung it up.  I guess there is a contest and you can win a free soda, but alas, we weren't going to be around to claim it.   The meal cost $56, because, well, it was pretty much just pizza and a few drinks.

On our drive to Delta Junction, we had torrential rain storms, so I didn't take a ton of photos...just a few of the pipeline as we started down the Richardson Highway.

The zig zagging is impressive to me.

We stayed at Kelly's Alaska Country Inn.  I will have to say that this was a nice surprise.  We were told that we'd have 2 queen sized beds and a pull out in our room.  I don't know if things changed between September and July, but we were essentially given an apartment.  We had two separate bedrooms, a full-sized kitchen, and a living room with the couch.  Three TVs.  All for $139.  It was clean and comfortable and we loved our stay there.

With this day, our trip is officially half over.  There is still a lot more to come.