Today, we went into the Arctic Ocean!  The Arctic Ocean is not accessible to the general public because the Prudhoe Bay oil fields are along the entire coast.  To access the Arctic Ocean, we must register for a tour (set up before we arrived in Deadhorse) — which requires giving basic information for a security check.

We had a great tour of the oil fields.  Our tour guide, AJ, gave us a lot of information about the operations of the oil fields.  Although most of the oil wells are owned by two companies, BP and Conoco-Phillips, there are many international companies present for support and/or exploration. AJ had a lot of information about the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, and about Alaska more generally.

Then we arrived at the Arctic Ocean!  All of us went in the water — it was COLD!

After our trip to the Arctic Ocean, we had some time for showering (and warming up) before lunch.  After lunch, we took a trip to the general store. It was a fun trip. The store had a mixture of souvenirs and basic necessities.

The afternoon was spent working on assignments, talking with people around the hotel as a part of their place-as-text assignment, and resting. We had some free time during the evening so that the students would be ready to drive south on the Dalton Highway on Sunday.

While the students were resting, we had to replace a tire on the large van.  We heard many stories that flat tires are not uncommon on the Dalton Highway.  We were lucky that we did not have a flat tire while driving to Prudhoe Bay, but one tire did develop a leak and could not be repaired; so we had to replace it.