Friday, June 24

The Santa House in North Pole, Ak

A giant wooden mosquito at the Knotty Shop

Rika's homestead

The pipe line

One of the many spectacular views we saw today

The Riverview B & B

Today we left Fairbanks and headed south on the Richardson Hwy. We stopped in North Pole, Alaska and did some early Christmas shopping at the Santa Claus House. We also stopped again 10 miles down the road at the Knotty Shop, a shop that had a large variety of Alaska made gifts and specialty items made from the burls of trees. We drove several hours and decided to stop at Rika's Historic Roadhouse. It was a homestead of Rika from Sweden. She ran a boarding house on the Tanana River for the miners during the gold rush. Today was the nicest day yet and as we continued south we had some of the most spectacular vistas of the Alaska mountain range. We pulled in to the Riverview Bed & Breakfast at around 6pm. After checking in we went down the road and ate at the Gakona Roadhouse. We are now updating our journals and packing for the next 3 days that will be spent in McCarthy and we will more than likely be off the grid. I may not be able to post until Tuesday. So until then, I wish you a great week end.