There is a lot to do and see in Fairbanks, and I don’t pretend to have seen it all, but I did hit the places that interested me the most. First of all, no one in their right mind would be ten miles away from Santa’s North Pole and not visit! Welcome to North Pole, Alaska!
Hang on, it gets better! Complete with a pen of reindeer, a Santa themed RV park, and Santa’s house! Did I beg a fellow tourist to take my picture in front of Santa’s house? You bet!
Step inside, and you are overwhelmed by, well, Christmas! Like it was when you were a child. The place, although certainly a tourist attraction, is still worth seeing, just for the sheer quantity of Christmas inside. Of course Santa is there… where else would he be?
And, wow! It just goes on forever…
And ever….
Half the fun is checking out the kids… They are in the zone, man! That’s Santa! Wow!
There is a big board where letters to Santa are posted. These are priceless!
Ok, Y‘all.. I hope you know that if you get anything from me for Christmas, it’s guaranteed to include a genuine North Pole Alaska Xmas ornament! LOL! Thank you, VISA.
Now, generally, I don’t do museums, unless they are really exceptionally unusual…. I kinda burned out on museums when I was fulltime RVing… after you see enough of them, you’ve seen enough of them… However, friends told me to scope out the museum at the University of Alaska.. I’m glad I did! First off, the building itself is worth the trip, what stunning architecture!
Inside is, well, a museum, but one of exceptional quality. You are greeted by an almost 9 foot tall grizzly (stuffed) and the displays are well done, and highlight different parts of the state, by region.
I’m not going to subject you to a play-by-play of the whole place, so here are a few pix of the displays that caught my eye.
This deserves special mention: the largest public display of gold nuggets and dust in Alaska! Some of the nuggets are in the several pound range, and are placer gold… which means they were essentially just laying there waiting to be picked up!
Upstairs, the museum turns to art gallery, and there are some awesome displays. I was especially impressed by the ivory carvings and scrimshaw art. Again, just a few samples.
Ha, Ha… OK, An outhouse, I get it! Plumbing FREEZES in Alaska, so just about everyone needs a backup john. This is one I’d be proud to dump in
We’ll close out this whole museum tour with a very unique experience:
You may want to grab some headphones for this…
Pretty cool! And tomorrow is another day!
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