Santa's Letters and Gifts

"Personalized Letters from Santa and Unique Gifts from North Pole, Alaska"

There is a lot going on in North Pole and Fairbanks this month, including the annual North Pole Summer Festival and the annual Golden Days celebration in Fairbanks. In addition, our local gardens and wild berries are starting to grow and we are beginning to reap some of the bountiful harvest. We will finish up with information about summer activities.
Photo Above: Our son holding an oversized radish from our garden. Click for larger image.

Upcoming North Pole News for August
Our North Pole, Alaska News page will be delayed for the month of August. We will publish this page in late August and we will combine the August and September news. For all of our faithful readers, we apologize for this delay.

Photo: A beautiful sky photo taken at Fairbanks soccer fields last month, during our son's game.

North Pole Summer Festival July 3, 2010
One of North Pole's biggest events will take place on Saturday, July 3rd. It's the annual North Pole Summer Festival 2010 and there's a lot happening around the town of North Pole. Be sure to come out and see the Parade, Talent Show, the Bicycle Contest and Bed Race, and there will be craft and food vendors at the North Pole Elementary School parking lot.

This celebration has been a part of the community for many years. Last year saw record attendance at both the Parade and Festival. To learn more about the event, visit the City of North Pole Web site or call 907-488-8584 for more information.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
We want to wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July!

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Golden Days in the Golden Heart City of Fairbanks -
July 21-25
It's that time of year again when we celebrate our rich gold rush history, complete with Felix Pedro weighing in his gold at the local bank. Felix Pedro was the famous Italian gentleman who first discovered gold in our neck of the woods.

Many events are scheduled throughout the week, including the Kick-off Party and Old Tyme Games (July 21, 5:30pm -10:00pm), Kiwanis Sourdough Pancake Breakfast (July 22-23, 6:30am-10:00am, Sadler's Parking Lot), Young Pioneers Day (July 23, Noon-4pm, Pioneer Park) and the Golden Heart Comedy Night (July 23, 7pm-10pm, Pioneer Park). The comedy night is extremely entertaining with contests for the hairiest beard, legs, chest and so on (you get the picture and there are plenty of menfolk in town that qualify for this contest)! Also featured on comedy night are comedians' Mr. Whitekeys of Anchorage, AK and Phil Palisoul of Denver, CO.

Two of the top Golden Days attractions are the Golden Days Parade which will be held on Saturday, July 24th at 10:00am and the Rubber Duckie Contest held in the afternoon at 2:30pm, after the parade. Upwards of 6,000 rubber ducks will be dumped into the Chena River and then the ducks will race downriver toward the finish line at the Cushman Street bridge. The top winners of this contest take home cash prizes and gifts, determined by their duck's placement at the finish line.

Finishing out the celebration is the "Governor's Picnic" at Pioneer Park on July 25. Come meet Governor Parnell while he and others serve up BBQ food to hungry folks.

There are many additional events scheduled for the week and we have just listed a few. For a complete schedule of events, visit the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce Web site.

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Gardens, Wild Berries and Flowers in the Interior
We love walking back to our garden beds filled with freshly ripened lettuce, radishes and basil. Oh what joy it brings to have a fresh salad prepared from our garden. We also enjoy turkey and avocado sandwiches filled with fresh lettuce, tomatoes and basil or a toasted bagel, topped with Hummus, fresh radishes and cucumbers, and roasted red bell peppers.

Photo: Our greenhouse lit up by evening sun.

In the fall, we pick the remaining basil leaves just before the first frost hits and then we make homemade pesto - a truly wonderful treat when served with hot pasta on a chilly fall day! We also use basil to prepare one of our favorite dishes,Thai Green Curry; the fresh basil makes a perfect addition to this yummy meal. While we wait for our tomatoes to ripen, we are buying them at the farmer's market because tomatoes take much longer to ripen in our northern climate, unless they are grown in a greenhouse.

We have some wonderfully-wild raspberry bushes growing in our backyard and we hope to begin harvesting them soon. Below is a photo of our friend's son plopped in the middle of our raspberry bushes last year, enjoying the bountiful supply of raspberries.

In addition to wild raspberries growing, there are many wild strawberries ripening at the moment, and we have a few plants growing near our garden beds. Blueberries are the next predominant wild berry that ripens after the raspberries, generally ripening in mid-to-late July or early August. While we have no wild blueberries growing in our yard, they can be found along various roadways and hills in the surrounding North Pole/Fairbanks area. Some folks have secret picking spots and don't like to let others in on their favorite place.

In spite of our short summers, we are grateful for the return of warm weather and the perennial display of wildflowers that grow throughout the summer months. In addition to perennial flowers, there are many beautiful annual flowers planted within the city limits, local parks and at local businesses.

Some folks get quite creative with their flower displays; planting flowers in recycled things like the trunk of an old car, gold dredge buckets, weathered tires, wheelbarrows, sinks, toilets, teapots and watering cans. The ideas are endless - if you have the opportunity to walk or bike around town, you'll get an up-close view of some of the creative ideas inspired from living here in the interior of Alaska.

Summer Activities and Daylight Hours
Now is the time that Alaskans hit the lakes and rivers for sun and fun, including swimming, boating and fishing. There are also lots of great bicycle trails running adjacent to many of the roadways and several nice hiking trails just a short drive from North Pole.

We thoroughly enjoy the 24 hours of daylight we receive during the summer months, but summers tend to be quite short in terms of warm weather in the Far North. August temps usually cool down considerably. Now we have reversed the daylight cycle and we are loosing four to seven minutes of daylight each day; this pattern will continue until winter solstice on December 21st when we start to gain daylight once again.

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That's All For Now
That's all for now folks. We may add additional information/events as they occur, so be sure to check back occasionally. Click to go back to the About North Pole page or you can visit our About Fairbanks page and go to the What's New section to see what's happening in Fairbanks.

Attractions, Events and Activities in Interior Alaska...
North Pole and Fairbanks may be far removed from the Lower 48, but here are numerous attractions, activities and cultural events happening throughout the summer and winter months. For more information, be sure to contact the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau. Also visit the Travel Alaska Web site for a complete listing of information and attractions statewide.