Wednesday, June 16

On Wednesday morning, we had another great breakfast at the hotel and headed back on tour with the first stop being of the Alaska Oil Pipeline. The 800-mile-long Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is one of the largest pipeline systems in the world. It stretches from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope, through rugged and beautiful terrain, to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in North America. It crosses three mountain ranges and over 800 rivers and streams. About one half is under ground and the other half is above ground. Since pipeline startup in 1977, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the operator of TAPS, has successfully transported over 14 billion barrels of oil.

The next pictures are of the pipeline.

Max our bus driver told us about pipeline	View of pipeline	Vertical line on map shows location of pipeline	Two retired pigs. The one on left  cleans the pipeline	Interesting front porch on house across from pipeline	Another view of pipeline

Leaving the pipeline, we visited the North Pole. North Pole, Alaska is 14 miles southeast of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway in the Tanana River Valley. The area known as North Pole was homesteaded in 1944. Later the homesteaders sold the property to a company who named it North Pole. The name was selected to attract the toy industry to manufacture articles made in "North Pole". The project failed to blossom but the town has continued to grow with street names like: Santa Claus Lane, Snowman Lane, Kris Kringle, Mistletoe, Holiday Rd., Saint Nicholas Drive, North Star Drive, Blitzen, and Donnor.

The following pictures were taken at the North Pole.

Laura and Santa	Santa	Santa Claus House	Our bus driver's church sign	Our bus driver's church

I made the picture of Max's church because I was fascinated by the fact the church members built the church themselves. They got a permit to cut logs on public lands and cut and prepared the logs for the building. He said they had carpenters, electricians, cabinet makers and many talented people in their church so, they did not have to spend money for labor. They are presently building a parsonage for their pastor.

Following the North Pole, we ate lunch at the Wolf Run Restaurant.

After lunch, we visited the Ice Museum of Fairbanks, Pioneer Land and ate dinner at an Alaskan Salmon Bake. At the museum, we saw a video of the ice sculptures that are featured in a festival held in March in Fairbanks. Artists from all over the world come to create figures of of huge pieces of ice. The following pictures are taken of the remaining activities of the day.

Frozen In	Glass of Ice	Sign in Ice	Cold in here	Ice Sculptures
Pioneer Land	Pioneer Land	Salmon Bake	Hot fire	Salmon Fillets
Prime Rib	Grills	Clam Shell Bucket	Wooden Figure	Group Eating