Fairbanks Trip

I decided on a whim one afternoon to take a road trip up to Fairbanks. After picking up a rental car and purchasing some snacks I hit the road around 9 pm (though with the amount of daylight it seemed more like 3 or 4 in the afternoon). Driving through the night I pretty much had the road to myself and the darkest it got was dusk between 1-2am. It was an absolutely beautiful drive passing by vast untouched Alaskan wilderness, Denali national park and the massive silhouette of Mt. McKinley. I arrived in Fairbanks around 3am after coasting for the last 10-15 miles concerned that I was almost out of gas. I attempted to sleep in the back of my rental car for a few hours without much success, had breakfast at the local Safeway and explored town a bit. Fairbanks was larger than I anticipated and now the 2^nd largest city (surpassing Juneau) in Alaska. Just ~ 10 miles away I visited North Pole, AK themed as though Clauses actually reside there. At the Santa Claus House guests year-round can get a picture on Santa’s lap and have letters from Santa sent bearing an authentic North Pole postmark. Along with other memorabilia, the house has an entire wall covered with children’s letters to Santa from around the world.