October 10 - “I told you he was real!”

After breakfast we called the Arctic Circle tour people. We are all set for our travels to the Arctic Circle on Sunday. 

First excursion on the agenda … Paws for Adventure dogsledding. We joined the group that walked over through the woods from the Lodge to the kennels. Lots of barking and howling to greet us. 

After the organization’s introduction, we were given free rein to pet all of the dogs. We even got to harness the dogs to the leads when it was time for the ride. They pulled their training wagon - a 5-seater ATV loaded with tourists. It was lots of fun to watch the dogs get beyond excited just by our presence. The ride itself was fun but extremely bumpy. 

After a lunch of some really good soup (pasta Italiano), Diana Campbell shared a lecture. Seems her family were among the first to climb Denali. And her grandfather was the first of their tribe to attend and graduate college. What did I learn from the lecture? Well, I was really sleepy. Remember we didn’t get much sleep the night before.  I may or may not have been dozing the while time. But I did learn that the Alaskan mountain Range is ultimately part of the Rocky Mountain Range. Well, how about that. Small world …

After the lecture we loaded up the bus and headed to my most anticipated part of the trip … Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole. What an experience. 50-foot tall Santa statue. Massive mural on the front and side walls. Thousands of square feet of Christmas merchandise. However, the best part of the whole thing? Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus were on site. 

They were absolutely amazing. They even spoke fluent Spanish to a little Spanish kid. They were excited to chat with us, and they even posed for a picture and a quick video with us. I told you he was real!

Back at the lodge we had a little downtime before Aimee made a presentation about a Gondwana tour in her country, Argentina. 

The evening ended with a farewell video by Laurie, compiling all the photos and videos uploaded to date. Also, we enjoyed a farewell dinner prepared by a private chef named Ben. Thanks for coming over to us, Ben. 

P.S. I think Laurie missed us. She sounded the Aurora Alarm around 11:30 to wake us up one last time. The lights were there, but not nearly as active as the night before. Gonna be hard to beat that one. 

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭9‬ says, Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Father, thank you for our incredible week. Bless Ryan and Aimee and Jack and everybody else involved in making it a really great experience. Amen.