Fairbanks

This summer we took a big road trip up to Fairbanks because we had never been there. The kids all did great on the whole 6 hour trip, but less than an hour out of Fairbanks, Caleb and the girls all got really hungry, so we pulled into a little town called Nenana. Nenana is famous for putting a big tripod onto the river every year and holding a big lottery as to when the ice will break in the spring and cause the tripod to fall. There's a big clock tower by the water and everything. It's called the Nenana Ice Classic. We took a picture next to one of the old tripods. Up to this point, we've been really lucky stopping at cute little restaurants. Not true in Nenana. We stopped at this little restaurant which had a bunch of locals dining in it. It was horrible. I'm not even sure what mine was trying to be. I think it may have very well been the worst food for which I have ever paid money. But, I nursed Caleb and the girls were fine with their corn dogs, and everyone was much happier for the last leg of the road trip, so I guess it was worth stopping.

In Fairbanks, we drove out to Chena Hot Springs to visit "Elsa's Castle" (as we called it). It was this amazing ice museum where they hired a married couple that have both won international awards for their ice sculptures and they just build and maintain the ice full time. You can actually pay an exorbitant amount of money to stay in one of the little bedrooms inside. The whole place was amazing and completely worth the money. It was mind blowing. 

(Before our turn in the ice museum, we played on the playground.)

Here we are knocking at Elsa's house. Caleb might be blind here.

This is a picture of the outside of the ice museum inside an ice sphere. (It's much less impressive in the photo because you miss out on the 3-D effect.)

We caught Tom in the ice outhouse. 

The parkas they had for us to use were one size fits all, and were a bit big for the girls, but they stayed warm and cozy.

This ice display was meant to mimic the Northern lights. Caleb was captivated.

The ice xylophone inside the ice igloo actually worked. Caleb and Sabrina loved it.

Here we are by the ice fireplace (fake fire of course) and you can see the reindeer hides on the ice stools.

If you pay extra you can get a drink in an glass made of ice. We didn't, but when someone else was finished and left it at the bar, we snagged it for a picture.

Here is the ice workshop where they build everything. Crazy.

On the way back from Chena Hot Springs, we stopped at the oil pipeline. This pipeline zigzags across the state, but is only accessible in a few places.

These are called pigs. The one on the left is an old one and the one on the right is current one. They go through the pipe and clean them out and make sure nothing gets clogged.

Part of the history of Fairbanks involves big sternwheelers on the river, so we took a ride on one down the Chena River. If we paid extra we could have had dinner on the boat. We were the only people on the boat who didn't, so for most of the ride we had the whole upper deck to ourselves while everyone else was eating below, which meant there was no one to be annoyed by our kids acting crazy most of the time.

Here is some of the characteristic architecture along the riverside.

We stayed at Pike's Waterfront Lodge, also on the Chena River, just down the street from the riverboat dock. The hotel was awesome. They gave us these ice cream tokens for free ice cream every night. Sabrina thought they fit nicely in her glasses. The girls still ask when we can go back and eat ice cream every night. The hotel was the start of the Iditarod one year when Willow didn't have enough snow. So they had a big commemorative start there with fake sled dogs the girls posed with. One night, with the help of a baby monitor app, Tom and I explored the hotel after the kids were asleep. They had bocce ball, a putting range, and a place you could throw rocks into the river. We had a good time. 

Right before leaving town, we stopped at the famous antler arch in downtown Fairbanks.