Heading for the Holidays

We are gearing up for Christmas here in Alaska. Tess’s last final exam is today. Alicia’s last day of school before Christmas Break is tomorrow. The excitement builds!

Tess will continue to work at the childcare facility on the local military base (JBER) during her school break. Alicia will be going to the same program she attends afterschool called Camp Fire. Only it will be full days, like day camp. I have the full week between Christmas and New Year’s off from work as our company has a mandatory shutdown (paid) during which time we are forced to spend quality time with our families. Cool, huh? So, Alicia and I will be having lots of fun during that time.

Since I posted last, we’ve done our Denali Road Lottery trip. Each year, the National Park Service holds a lottery (in June) to provide 1600 passes for individuals to drive their personal vehicles into Denali National Park over the course of a 4-day weekend in mid-September. Denali NP closes for the season just prior to the Road Lottery weekend. At all other times, the only travel into the park is via tour bus. Personal vehicles are not allowed beyond Milepost 15. Winning a lottery pass allows you to drive yourself all the way in to the end at Milepost 92.

We’ve put in for one of the passes every year since we moved here in 2006. This is the first year we’ve gotten one. And, actually this year we got TWO! So, we gave one to our friends and they accompanied us in their vehicles.

You can see photos from this trip here:

Denali Road Lottery Photo Album
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150313126133159.351458.523908158&type=1&l=ea77ff9010

Earlier this month, Stephen, Alicia, and I ventured up to North Pole to visit Santa Claus at his house. We try to make this trip each year. But we had to cancel it last year for monetary reasons.

On a good day, it’s about a 5 hour drive to North Pole from the Anchorage area. The city of North Pole is just down the road from Fairbanks in interior Alaska. The weather was less than ideal on the weekend we made the trip. So, it took us 7.5 hours to get up there and over 8 hours of driving to get back home. Nearly 16 hours of driving for approximately 16 minutes with Santa…. It was worth it! Alicia had a wonderful time visiting the big guy. And, since we arrived at his house first thing in the morning, we were able to have a pleasant visit with him without feeling rushed by other waiting visitors.

We also visited with several of Santa’s reindeer in the pen next to his workshop.

Normally we stay in one of the DNR public use cabins on the Chena Hot Springs Road. These are rustic, with wooden bunks, a wood stove, and an outhouse. They rent for $45/night. We did have one reserved for the trip. But we ended up having to reschedule the trip for a different weekend to avoid missing my office Christmas party. And, our cabin wasn’t available. So, we found a good deal on a hotel in Fairbanks and booked that instead. For an additional $13/night, we got running hot water, actual beds to sleep on, and an all-you-can-eat continental breakfast buffet! Alicia proclaimed it her favorite hotel “so far”. We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

If you’d like to see some more photos from our trip, you can find those here:

North Pole Trip Photo Album
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150430285648159.371416.523908158&type=1&l=33184bd7ba