Yesterday was a full day of travel! Those of us coming from Wisconsin had a long day on the plane and Cole & Celia dropped off the Choih family at the Anchorage airport, and picked us up at the Fairbanks airport later Friday night! We "slept in" Barnowsky style today, meaning no one slept past 8am, and had a big breakfast. Then we set off to hike Angel Rock loop in a State Park about an hour outside of North Pole. On our way to the park we saw a mother moose and her twin calves! We were so excited! The hike took us about 3 1/2 hours to go 5 miles according to the GPS, but the trail map said it was only 3.5! Who knows! The climbs were difficult, but the views were beautiful! Cole and Celia's dogs Mia and Bosco came with us and by the end of the trip we were all pretty wiped out - Bosco barely made it. Cole ended up carrying him a couple of times to give him a break - he's just a puppy, and did a great job!

After coming home and having a quick snack (not even any lunch!), Kevin, Keely, Jane & Cole headed out to visit Eielson Air Force Base. The base was quite large and we did get to see Cole's flight line with both blue and white and black and white painted F-16s. They are called the Aggressors because they act like enemy planes in training missions.

On our way home we happened to drive through the town of North Pole so we had to stop at Santa's House! Here we saw some reindeer and unfortunately Santa was already off duty for they day. We were able to find some nice Christmas ornaments as a memento of our trip to Alaska though!

Finally, we got home for a delicious dinner of fried halibut, roasted veggies, and Stoneman's sweet corn! It was amazing! It was even so nice outside we could eat on the patio. It was a great first day in Alaska!