As we made our way towards Fairbanks, we passed over the bridge at Hurricane Gulch, 300 feet above the stream bed. We then stopped in Nenana where President Warren J. Harding drove the golden spike at the north end of the Nenana rail bridge on July 15, 1923, to complete the Alaskan Railroad. Today, Nenana remains the largest and most important port in interior Alaska.

The next day we began our tour of Fairbanks with a visit to the museum at the University of Fairbanks.

Our next stop was along the Trans Alaska Pipeline that runs 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope, through rugged and beautiful terrain, to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in North America.

No trip to Alaska is complete without a visit to the North Pole. And yes, Santa was there (Thanks Lyle!).

Also included during our stay in Fairbanks was a cruise aboard the sternwheel riverboat Discovery along the Chena and Tanana rivers, with banks rich in gold history. We stopped at a replicated Athabascan village to learn more of their culture and history.