Alaska, The Great White North. Day Two

We got a few hours sleep before we hit the road again on day two. 

We weren't up for a whole lot since we were tired not only from our overnight excursion to the Arctic Circle the previous night, but we were still tired from about eighteen hours of travel the day before that.

We found Gold Daughters, a gold panning tourist stop. They show how to pan for gold and then let you loose to see what you can find.

It was a whole lot of fun! We stayed for a couple hours, going through pan after pan of dirt, looking for those shiny gold flakes. We all found quite a few little bits and pieces and each had a nice vial of gold flakes by the time we finished.

It was hard to stop. All of us kept saying "one more pan" and going back time and time again. I think we all had gold fever.

While we were panning in the trough, we struck up a conversation with one of the owners, Ilaura, of Gold Daughters. We asked how she got started in gold panning (her dad), how the business got started (she and her sister came up with the idea), and how long they had been in business. She was very gracious and answered all our questions. She wandered off to help some other visitors and then came back and asked if we wanted to see their private collection of prehistoric bones and artifacts.

Yes, please!

There were hundreds and hundreds of bones and other specimens in a separate building they had on the property. We wandered around, looking at everything and listening to Ilaura talk about how and where they found all the bones.

A very pleasant time.

When we left Gold Daughters we headed to North Pole, Alaska. I only took a couple shots because we didn't stay too long. We stopped at the Santa Claus House and found a few souvenirs to bring home. 

Love the candy cane light poles.

After a quick dinner at a Chinese restaurant, we headed home for a good night's sleep.