My family had the opportunity to spend some time in Fairbanks Alaska last year while on vacation.

It was the best vacation I ever remember. Here are some of the highlights of our trip I would recommend these ideas to anyone traveling there in the summertime.

We took a hot air balloon ride over the Tanana Valley. It was so beautiful, none of us had ever been up in one before - but I bet we all go up again soon.

We kayaked down both the Chena and Tanana Rivers. It was really a great time. We loved the scenery and the rivers. Later we took a riverboat down and that was very interesting but we preferred the more active approach. We saw lots of people canoeing down it too.

We spend a few days hiking in Denali National Park and really enjoyed the trails. It was some of the best hiking we had done in awhile, and we are ready to go back there again soon.

We went to a street fair that was to celebrate the midnight sun and couldn't get over how friendly everyone was, we really felt like we were a part of it.

While it was a bit intimidating we took a car trip on Dalton highway. We ended up going North of the Arctic Circle and climbed Brooks Range. I can't get over how far North we were. You can't even use words to describe the views, it is a drive you have to take for yourself.

Some other fun things we did was pan for gold and take in a dog mushing demo. Both were extremely interesting to me as I was not familiar with either one.

It was just unreal how much the sun shone. I hope someday soon to be able to go back in the winter and experience the Northern Lights.