The North Pole

So, on Wednesday morning July 8th, we left the North Fork of the Chena and headed back into Fairbanks. We did a little shopping in Fairbanks, and then headed back out north to hit the Richardson Hwy to drive to Delta Junction.

However, on our way we drove through North Pole, AK. Now, we all know who lives in North Pole don't we? Yup...Santa Claus!! We HAD to stop at his house since we were driving by! He has the coolest house! It was, of course, all decorated up for Christmas, b/c it is Christmas there all year long. The outside of the house was all painted up with murals of him and his elves, and Mrs. Claus and him on his sleigh with the reindeer pulling it. Speaking of reindeer...they were just outside the house too. Yup...we got to see Santa's reindeer too. We couldn't see Rudolph, he must have been taking a nap. But, I think we saw Prancer and maybe Dasher too. :)

And...we were lucky enough to see Santa!! I missed seeing him last Christmas with Lachlan, so we were excited to get to see him. We of course had to take pics to prove that we actually saw Santa. He is the nicest man! Lachlan had just woken up...actually we woke him up to go in and see Santa, so he was still a little out of it at this point, but he warmed up quick. It was so cute! Santa loved his name, said he doesn't meet many Lachlan's. And, he was great at getting Lachlan to smile at him...Lach kind of just stared at him for a bit, but never did cry.

We got some cute post cards and sent them to our nieces and nephews which was fun. I called my older nephews to tell them where we were, and they thought it was the coolest thing. They told me their Christmas list's so I could put in a personal request with Santa. They also asked if there was snow and if it was cold...which it wasn't...at all. Just an FYI; the North Pole has summer time too...in fact when we were there it was about 95 degrees! It was sooo hot! The reindeer were shedding off their thick winter coats so they looked a little funny..

There were all kinds of Santa's helpers at his house too...and I feel bad for them. Shayne and I had been camping for about 6 days at this point, and granted we went swimming about 2 days earlier, but still...I'm sure we didn't smell so good! And...I had leg/armpit hair that was at least a week long, and I was wearing capri's!! Aaahhh...camping is so much fun!! :)

Anyway...this was probably one of my most favorite things we got to see and do on our trip. How can you not just love going to see Santa Claus at his house?

Interjection...

So, I have about 6 more posts for the camping trip I've been posting about. However, I find myself getting more and more behind as our summer goes on. So, I'm going to start posting recent "things" as well. Seriously...I haven't posted Lachlan's 10 month pics, and we are about 5 days from his 11 month b-day. So...I"ll finish documenting our summer, but will be working at it from both ends...just so I can finally catch up!!

Land of the Midnight Sun

I took these pics our last night on the Chena River, Tuesday July 7th. I put Lachlan to sleep in the tent while Shayne started fixing up supper...I think we had Halibut that night. I took these pics around 10:30-11:00...at night. It's amazing how bright it was. It stays light where we live, but the further north you get the more sunlight you get in the summer. So, to be 8-9 hours further north was quite a difference. It never did get very dark. It gets "dusky" at our house, but it didn't even get to that point here. We loved this little camp site. Can't wait to get back.

As a side note...isn't Shayne the best?! He totally cooked supper and breakfast, and sometimes lunch for me, the whole trip. He's the best husband! I also think he's totally HOT in these pics!! Maybe that's too much info...but seriously...how can you not be completely attracted to this good lookin' guy who's cooking your supper? And it wasn't just b/c he was cooking for me, he does that fairly regularly. I seriously love this guy!!

Fishing on the Chena River

These are pics of us fishing on the North Fork of the Chena River. It's not just fish, it's us with fish. There's a big difference! :)

I loved the one's with Shayne fishing with Lachlan. If I went fishing it meant Shayne had Lachlan either in his arms or on his back. Such a good daddy!

It was so hot during the day, wet wading was a welcome respite. The water was pretty cold, but after awhile your feet went numb so you couldn't feel it anyway. :) Seriously though, it was so hot it felt good to get in the water. Once again...one of the very few times you can wet wade in Alaska. Most the rivers we fish are glacially fed so they are pretty stinkin' cold!

Shayne also took pics of the dogs, to prove they were with us. They loved this campsite. They had free run of the place, but they are good dogs and stayed close. Except for Bo, who decided to leave the river when we were fishing under the bridge, and run up the bank onto the road to run around. Not a good idea! Needless to say, I nearly skinned him alive!! Ok...he never let me that close, b/c he knew I was pretty ticked at him. Good thing that road doesn't get much traffic. Other than that incident they were great! We were glad we could take them with us.

Lachlan was such a trooper while fishing. He would either just watch what was going on, or fall asleep in the pack. Such a good boy!

Grayling on The Chena River

So, this will be a fairly boring post for anyone not interested in fly fishing. However, for Shayne and those he associates with...this will be a fun post. It's pictures of the Grayling we caught on the North Fork of the Chena River. That's it...just the fish.

They are so cool looking though, I couldn't help but post all these pics. They are probably my favorite fish...not just b/c they are so gnarly looking, but b/c they are so dang aggressive when it comes to what they eat. They'll take almost anything off the surface of the water. It's our only chance to fish dry flies here in Alaska, and there's nothing more fun that fishing dry flies, especially for grayling. I love it! So does Shayne, but of course we already knew that! :)

Anyway...these fish have incredible colors on their dorsal and pectoral fins, and have awesome spots throughout their body. They range in colors from turquoise to pink...pretty cool. They aren't the biggest fish in Alaska, but they are fun. Shayne took the pic of the baby Grayling, to show that even the babies have that huge dorsal fin. Shayne caught most of these fish and took the pics himself...I was usually watching a monster back at camp. It's all good though, b/c I caught some nice fish too.

North Fork of Chena River

So, we found this little pull out off the road that goes out to Chena Hot Springs. It was right on the North Fork of the Chena River and even had a little outhouse for campers, like myself. It was perfect! It was our favorite campsite for our entire trip. We camped here for two nights. We stopped here on Monday, July 6th and stayed there until Wednesday morning the 8th. We had shade for the 90+ degree heat, the river that had lots of Grayling in it, and not very many mosquitoes! We still set up our new shade tent, which was perfect for Lachlan to nap in during the day and for us to just chill in at night when the mosquitoes got worse. We had the citronella candles out in force in the evening, and seriously...the mosquitoes weren't bad at all. It was heaven! We could even let the dogs have free run around the place, b/c it wasn't an official camp site. We had so much fun here, and are planning on going back the next time we are up in that area. I'll post pics of the Grayling we caught in this river in the next post.

Chena Hot Springs

Yeah for Chena Hot Springs!! We had been camping/not showering for about 3-4 days at this point. So, we were definitely in need of some cleaning. On Monday, July 6th, we went from Fairbanks north to Chena Hot Springs. It's a natural hot springs there, but they have a small indoor swimming pool, regular hot tubs, and...showers! So, we went there for a couple of hours. We didn't have our waterproof camera...(I had accidentally dropped it out of the diaper bag onto the driveway where Shayne ran over it with the truck...so it had been sent off for repair...whoops!)...so we didn't take any pics while swimming. I think it's enough to say we enjoyed ourselves, Lachlan had fun splashing around, and the shower's were divine...even though they smelled sulferish...they cleaned off the dirt. What else do you need?

On the way to the hot springs we saw a moose cow with a very newborn calf. Now, we see moose all the time, but she was fun to watch in the pond with her head underwater eating weeds. You can't see the baby calf...he was hiding in the long grass behind her. It was fun to watch her from the road. Yes...we stopped to take a pic. Shayne hates it when tourists stop on the road to take pics of moose. Lucky for us it's not a heavily traveled road. :)