Our second day in Fairbanks, Alaska started with a trip to North Pole, Alaska to check out the town and shop in Santa Claus House, the biggest shop or if you want to call it, "toy store" in town.

Larissa and I checked out of our room at the Golden North Motel in Fairbanks and made our way the 13 miles southeast to North Pole which is actually a suburb of the city of Fairbanks and only has a population of about 1,800 people. During the summer, it's a big tourist area for people wanting to visit Santa Claus House and check out town which is decorated with, you guessed it, candy canes and other Christmas themed things. Streets are named St. Nicholas Drive, Santa Claus Lane, Kris Kringle Drive, etc. Every Christmas, Children from around the world believe that Santa actually does live here in North Pole, Alaska and write thousands of letters to the 99705 zip code asking for toys and other wishes to be granted. If you are good, you get your presents, but if you tick off anyone in North Pole like Senator John McCain did when he called the city council of North Pole "elves" one time for needing money for a pork barrel project, you will get a lump of coal. And that's what the mayor of North Pole at the time did to Senator McCain, he sent a not so nice letter along with a lump of coal.

Larissa and I arrived in North Pole before Santa Claus House opened for business at noon on Sunday, May 23. While we were waiting outside for the doors to open, we walked around the place taking pictures of the quaintly decorated outside and seeing some of Santa's reindeer having a rest in the pen near the building. One of them had a broken antler, and they seemed kind of tired and slept most of the time we were there.

I wanted to see Santa, who is on duty in Santa Claus house most of the year and I also wanted to get some Christmas ornaments for my friends Carole and Ray-Ray and our Christmas tree as well along with t-shirts for Dad and Uncle Dave. When we were finally let inside at noon, Larissa and I hit the racks for souvenirs and browsed around the store looking at the beautiful souvenirs and other things North Pole related. I was able to get three t-shirts for about $9 each, two for Dad and uncle and one for me that said, "I STILL BELIEVE!" on it. I then hit the ornament section and bought a bunch of ornaments. One was a dancing moose for Ray-Ray, one was an angel moose for Carole, and I got a hand-blown goose for our tree along with a bone shaped one for Amanda that said Best Dog. A bone-shaped one saying "Tramp" would have been more appropriate for my little girl, but they didn't have one that said that!

I was looking forward to seeing Santa Claus to get a head start on my requests for Christmas (a Boston Red Sox player in a big red bow under the tree for starters, tickets to a game with airfare paid another gift, etc.), but when Larissa and I got to Santa's station, there was a sign on his chair that said he wasn't there and getting ready for the busy Christmas season or on vacation. BUMMER! He was going to be back next week, but I was going to be home in Florida by then. So much for the early visit to Santa Claus.

I dumped about $96 in souvenirs at Santa Claus House and was proud of my purchases and everyone was happy with their gifts. When I got home to Florida, people thought I had been to the actual North Pole which is quite a distance from Fairbanks. I had to tell them it's a little town outside of Fairbanks that has a Christmas theme every where. If I ever come back to North Pole, Alaska, I will make sure I will be there when Santa is there. I was disappointed he wasn't there, and I just wanted to tell you so, Santa Baby!