Traveling with the Grobmyers August 14, 2024 Fairbanks and Santa

 We have a very full and fun day today. There’s a lot of fun things to do in this area. We also learned yesterday that Fairbanks is the perfect place to come see the Northern Lights. They average seeing them 100 nights a year. Of course, next week starts the “season” for them.

We started the morning today with breakfast. We both found this place on line, so we had to try it. Guy Fieri brought Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives to The Cookie Jar (episode 9 season 38).

After a short wait we were seated. The place was hopping this morning. We swapped what we normally get and Joe got waffles and I got the biscuits and gravy minus the gravy. It was very good. We got one of those cinnamon rolls to go and it was a snack this afternoon, the cinnamon roll was light and not doughy like some rolls can get especially that big.

After our filling breakfast, we headed to a very special place, the North Pole. You know who lives at the North Pole. The Big Guy himself, Santa. We were lucky he was there today and not working in his toy shop or off on vacation with Mrs. Claus. This was our first trip to Santa Claus House and we really enjoyed it.

Santa told Joe he was on the naughty list this year.

When we finished with Santa we walked next door to the Antler Academy to play with Santa’s reindeer. These reindeer were fun. They live here year round except on their big night. Right now they still have the fuzzy antlers. Several of them had huge antlers. We learned that carrots are not great to leave out for the reindeer on Christmas Eve because they do not have upper teeth. Oats and barley is better for them. Blitzen was in time out when we got there because he had not been nice this morning. When we was let out he went wild over the food we had. He licked my arm and almost knocked us down trying to get to the food. The others were pretty patient and not as rough trying to get the food.

He reindeer were so much fun and not something we knew we could do. I can’t wait for them to stop by our house Christmas Eve.

After we snacked on our cinnamon roll, we headed by up to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to their botanical gardens. I had read they had a huge sampling of peonies but they were not still in bloom here. Never fear there were plenty of other things blooming. This area is a working farm and a test garden. The flowers are just so pretty and the colors are so vibrant.

A weather station.

There were lots of tree and bushes with various berries on them. I didn’t recognize many of them. So if you recognize any of them please let me know.

They grow the green beans on these columns.

The red stalk corn was unusual.

We weren’t quite ready for dinner and we had picked up a flyer for The Great Alaskan Bowl Company. They make their bowls there in house and we could even watch them. They had various sizes and shapes. The work was incredible.

We then headed over for dinner. Joe had found the Pump House. It is on the historic register.

During dinner Joe remembered one more place he wanted to see here in Fairbanks, the Alaska pipeline. It was just a short drive out and we could see it.

The birch trees are beginning to change color ever so much. It won’t be long until fall is in full force and that first snowfall is just around the corner.

We had a very full day today but it was so much fun. Now to try and repack our suitcases a little bit and get ready for that drive back to Anchorage tomorrow. We head home bright and early Friday morning.