Santa's world of Christmas Kitch

The lovely guy at the B&B in Fairbanks didn't feel much like making breakfast so instead he gave us a sizeable slab of smoked Alaskan Salmon and a bag of fresh blueberries - which made us very happy bunnies, I do love random wee things like that. It was extremely delicious, we splashed out on a tub of cream cheese and a box of crackers and then ate ourselves silly on Salmon, so nice to have a night without noodles.

Heading south from Fairbanks we were running in line with the famous alaskan oil pipeline, we stopped and gawped at it for a while at a point where it is accessable from the road and where there was a security guard sitting in his car monitering the comings and goings. I wonder if this is a cushy full time job or simply necessary at present due to the various attacks on the pipeline throughout the last year, although if I planned an assualt on the pipeline, going to the most public possible spot would seem a tad stupid.
We pulled into North Pole where it is christmas all year round. The lamp posts are shaped and painted to look like candy canes, the street names all have christmas themed names like snowman lane and mistletoe road, it is all very obviously tourist orientated and to me felt a little desperate. This did not stop us happily contributing to the local economy by stopping at the mecca of all things christmas kitch - 'Santa Claus House'. We spent over an hour wandering in this vast store which sells all conceivable items relating to a cosy consumer christmas. Most entertaining were the letters which papered the walls, written to Santa from all over the world and sent to 'The North Pole', they all end up here and the lovely local people have taken it upon themselves to reply to each one. The letters were hilarious, ranging from demanding shopping lists, to repentant children apologising for missdeeds and begging to still be included in santas list. There were letters from young sceptics who apologised for saying they did not believe in him and hoped that they would be forgiven and one that amused me greatly where a wee boy was dobbing in his brother who had said Santa was not real and was therefore not deserving of a visit - the ultimate sibling retribution.

Also making me giggle, a string of christmas lights in empty cartridge shells - only in America!