Benni, Singapore, Singapore

anni


Posted Jan 11, 2008, 3:45 pm
Hi folks,

I cant wait to start travelling .... wow I am so excited. I just heard that my first stop will be *gasp* Australia!!! I mean like ... wow ... its not round the corner though, is it?!
I am staying there with Sara  :) and guess what I will be travelling to America with her.
Its one small step for a teddy .... you get the idea!!!  :D

And in case you were wondering what I look like ... here is a lil photo session my owner did. Germanys next top teddy - Im telling ya  B)

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/4494/dscn4998ru9.jpg

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/1536/dscn5000sq1.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3940/dscn5001gm8.jpg
this is me and my friends! I KNOW I am the smallest - but you know what they say about small teddys eh? big heeeearts
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Jan 21, 2008, 3:28 am
Hey! Guess where I am? I arrived in Orange today, and with quite a bit of jet lag, and you know what, we're even a day ahead of you, when I'd normally be sleeping I'm now awake and it's only 2pm! How strange! It's also quite warm here, but thankfully it's a bit cloudy so it's easier to get used to, Sara said... she said it's been extremely hot here lately so I'm glad it's not that hot today. I don't know what I'd do coming from Germany in Winter to extremely hot. I'm sure I'll get used it it, even if it is a couple more days...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_welcome.jpg

Here's a picture of me straight after I got here - man am I glad to get out of that box, got a bit cramped in there thankfully it was only a week, I might have started getting sick otherwise.

Sara says we won't be going anywhere until Thursday, which is fine by me. I need that time to rest, but in the mean time I get to see what our travel itinerary looks like, did you know I'm going to be in South Korea for 24 hours? Wow, how exciting! Even though Sara says it might get a bit boring that's why she's glad to be bringing me with a few others along with her in her carry bag. Then off to Seattle for 5 weeks!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_travelitenerary.jpg

Maybe when I come back from Seattle on the 10th of March, Sara said there might be a chance of actually seeing a beach on the way back home, it wouldn't be a really nice beach, but a beach none the less if she can on the way home... we'll see how hat goes. :-)

Well bye for now! I'll update again soon!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Jan 21, 2008, 3:59 am
Hey again! Sara decided she'd show me around the house and decided to take some photos while she was at it... I even got to visit with Leo Lion and Super Grover. :-) They're both toyvoyagers too, Leo Lion will be traveling with me and two other stuffed animals that aren't toyvoyagers but travel everywhere with Sara... as well as the other little toyvoyagers that are coming that haven't arrived yet. Super Grover told he's going to be traveling to Austria and France with someone and he'll be leaving later in the week. How exciting, he's going to Europe, and I just came from there... how strange!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/tv_groupphoto.jpg
Aren't we all cute together? Super Grover is even a bit smaller than me!

...and here are some photos of me around the house, we'll start with the birds... I visited Sara's aviary that she has in her kitchen and there are a lot of colorful birds in there, and some noisy ones too (the quails at the bottom).. but they're all so nice!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_birds1.jpghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_birds2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_birds3.jpghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_birds4.jpg
...and as you can see at the end of our little photo session, one of the Gouldian finches actually checked me out. He looks kind of angry, but he's really nice. His name is Grimey. Sara said. She told me all the names of the birds, but I don't remember them all, there are too many. ;-) But there are star finches, zebra finches, gouldian finches, diamond doves, spice finches and button quails at the bottom. They're all very small like me!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_fish.jpg
I also visited with the fish! They're all live bearing fish, well most of them anyways, they're colorful and Sara told me that a lot of them are actually pregnant as well, so we're just waiting to have babies now to have lots of baby fish. They move really fast don't they?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_mice.jpg
...and last of all, the mice... they're names are Moo, Charlotte, and Little Foot. They are all sisters and one of them is a long-haired mouse, I've never seen them before, and when this picture was taken I hadn't seen them either, they were sleeping in a tube instead of in their house. How silly! But the moment the photo session was done they all came out for a play!

All these animals are so cool! Sara told me she will probably take me to Cook Park before Thursday so I can see this wonderful little park in the middle of Orange. I'm excited!

I'll update again sometime soon!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Jan 22, 2008, 7:11 am
Today another toyvoyager came to visit! This is the second of the five other toyvoyagers coming along with us! His name is Cronus he's a wild cougar, but he's very friendly and him and I have become very good friends even in only one day!]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/cronus_groupphoto.jpg

Sara took us outside with Andrew today into the backyard. It wasn't too bad outside, wasn't too cold and wasn't too hot, so I sure enjoyed it! I saw my first glimpse of Andrew but I was in Sara's hands so Andrew didn't squish me...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_andrew2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_andrew1.jpg

The moment we got outside we jumped on the car and Andrew tried to get both Cronus and me, but we we're just out of reach, it was fun to see him try to get us! :-)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/cronus_and_benni_car1.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/cronus_and_benni_car2.jpg

...once we finally made it to the backyard Andrew started messing with the cockatiels and Cronus and I had a bit of time together, we played hide and seek in the hydrangeas outside... can you find me?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_flowers.jpg

...you probably can, I'm not hiding too much, I'm so small I don't want to get lost... here I am! Aren't I cute?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_flowers2.jpg

And here I am resting on some blue flowers of the same species - Sara told me that because they're the same flower the reason some are pink and some are blue is because the soil will make them change color depending on what type it has. She also says they don't do much with them, but they're very pretty to have in the backyard every Summer. :-) They smell really pretty!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_blueflowers.jpg

After playing hide and seek for a while we sat down with one of Andrew's balls and played with it. That was really fun but was cut short when Andrew noticed and grabbed Cronus in the middle of a roll... oh well, I'm tired anyways...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/cronus_and_benni_playball.jpg

It was almost time to go in, but I was exhausted so Sara put me on the clothes line, Cronus went on too but he was too heavy so he stayed on one of the metal bars instead... the wind blowing me felt so good after all the activity today!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_clothesline.jpg

Well I had a busy day! Hopefully tomorrow we'll go to the park! We'll see, either way I'm going into town! How exciting! Well goodnight and I'll update again soon!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Jan 23, 2008, 2:29 pm
Hey again! I didn't do much today, it was a pretty lazy day at home - Daniel and Sara went off to the shops all alone but they made up for it by making me and Cronus a butterscotch sponge pudding later on that night, it was quite good! We even got to help make it!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus1.jpg

Here we are starting it, it's a powder just like a cake but kinda different - and then we added some brown sugar, because well it makes it taste just that much better!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus2.jpg

We added an egg, the egg was almost as big as me so I let Cronus break it, and we had Daniel put the egg in so we didn't spill it all over ourselves, our fur is too nice to be messed up with egg, that wouldn't be any fun! We had fun watching...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus3.jpg

But then the spoon was turned to us, it was time for us to mix, because I'm so small, Cronus helped me mix it and we took some turns but it was fun, eventually it was all stirred in good... of course Sara helped out a little bit to get the last little bits, but I'm proud of it!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus4.jpg

Then there was nothing much we could do because boiling water had to be poured over the top of the mixture, and that's just way too hot, I felt the steam of it on top of the pudding mixture and I couldn't believe how hot it was! I'm glad Daniel and Sara helped me with that!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus5.jpghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus6.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus7.jpghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus8.jpg

Ooop! All ready to go in the oven now! We only have to wait 15 minutes to see what we helped create and I'll get my first taste, it smells really yummy!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus9.jpg

Oh look it's done! How pretty is that? I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to help as I'm so much smaller than everyone, so that was pretty exciting for me!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus10.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_and_cronus11.jpg

Oh, and did it EVER taste good!

Sara told me they're just waiting on the other two to arrive, which should be tomorrow then we're taking a trip to Cook Park. The day was started late for Sara today so it delayed everything... I've heard there are a lot of Australian birds at Cook Park, I wonder what I'll see!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Jan 25, 2008, 9:09 am
Guess what? We took a trip to Cook Park today - it was pretty warm outside but I got some see some native birds and some very pretty and very unusual trees! Oh, and of course some ducks! Ducks are really cool, but really really big! They don't look that big in pictures, but man am I tiny as compared...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_carride.jpg
Here I am getting ready for our trip to the shops before we went to Cook Park... I was actually pretty comfy here!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/cronus_benni_carpark.jpg
When we got to the shops it was quite busy, Sara said she thinks it's because it's 'Australia Day' weekend, so everyone was at the shops, it was hard to find a park so we just found the first one and parked there... me and Cronus stayed in the car while Daniel and Sara got some errands done.

When I first got to Cook Park there we're a lot of huge trees, so of course I wanted to climb one...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_treeupclose.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_treecloseup.jpg

Granted I never got up very high, but it was a very huge tree as I'm sure you can tell. I've never seen a tree this big before!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_ducks2.jpg
I laid out in the sun a little bit - it was very warm so it was pretty enjoyable! Then I got a little visit from a local duck...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_ducks.jpg
The ducks in the background here Sara calls "fancy" ducks because they have a dark brown head and are so different from the other ducks... although they make scary noises for their "quack" I've never heard of a quack period, let alone one that sounded so strange, but it was cool too! They're very pretty aren't they?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/fancyduck2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/fancyduck3.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/fancyduck.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/magpie.jpg
On the way to the huge bird aviary they have in the middle of the park we had an encounter with a Magpie, they're Australia's crows, they're very noisy, but very smart Sara says. They're funny looking aren't they?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/cockatoo.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/easternrosella.jpg
We finally got to the huge bird aviary and we saw an Umbrella Cockatoo, these are HUGE birds. Their beak is almost as big as me... how scary! The other bird Sara says is an 'Eastern Rosella' - she also says you can see these sometimes in the tree right outside her house... how pretty!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_fountain.jpg
This is a fountain the middle of Cook Park, it's really a pretty fountain! Then I noticed something kind of strange...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/strangebugs.jpg
These bugs we're near the fountain, what a strange pattern they have on their backs, I've never seen anything like this before!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/credensa_far.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/credensa_close.jpg
Then me and Cronus took a bit of a rest on this thing in the middle of the park...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_strangetree.jpg
I took another rest in another strange tree in the park, there was SO much to see here!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_flowers-1.jpg
...and here I am in some pretty flowers!...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/prettyflower.jpg
...and more pretty flowers!...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/alltuckeredout.jpg
It was nearing the end of our time at Cook Park and both Cronus and I were very tired, so we took a little nap on this bench until Sara and Daniel woke us up and took us to the car...

On the way to the car we spotted some fish in the pond...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/fishies.jpg

...and even a Bronzewing that Sara says commonly come in her yard to eat seed that she leaves out for them from her inside birds... they're so cool looking!...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/bronzewing.jpg

Wow it was a big day for me! I'll update again soon!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Jan 28, 2008, 3:52 pm
Hello! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, first Sara was sick - yuck! Then she got a letter saying that she had a house inspection the day before we leave! So she's spending her time cleaning the house when she wanted to be resting before our long trip. So Cronus and I have been lazy, lounging around and eating these yummy candies...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_candy.jpg

...Sara says they're German, so when I get home, you'll have to buy me some of these! They're so yummy! But this pack isn't to be opened as it's something to snack on while we're in Korea for the 24-hour layover. Oh well. :-) I think I'm getting a little buddha belly anyways from eating too many, better lay off them. :-)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_postcards.jpg

...so while Sara and Daniel have been cleaning their house up and down, Cronus and I have also been writing out postcards for her, as she wants to send out her maximum so when she's gone they'll arrive and she'll get mail when she's gone, coming home to nice postcards is always a great way to come home, much better than bills she says. I say I'd agree!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/charlotte_running.jpg

We've also been watching the mice run in their wheel in the night, and the birds singing during the day! There is never a dull moment in this house. :-) This is one of the first times that Charlotte has actually started running in the wheel, Sara says she's the chubby one that's got long hair, she's very pretty... the other two are a bit smaller but both have such cool personalities. The birds of course are awesome too, I've really started to love them, and I think I'm going to miss them when I'm up in America for 5 weeks, Sara says she knows she's going to during that time too!

Well tomorrow is going to be a bit more of an exciting day. We're going up to Mount Canobolas, which is an extinct volcano around 20 minutes drive from Sara's house, and probably come home via Lake Canobolas so I can see a bit more of Orange. Hopefully it won't be too hot, it's been scorching the last few days!

Well I'll update again soon! I hope your doing well!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Jan 29, 2008, 1:59 pm
Hey! It was a really hot day today, like, very hot, it was 31'C in the house today and sadly, it still is! :-( It's too humid and ugh, I can't wait to get back to cool weather, but cool weather is forecast for the day we leave... awww!

Well today we went up to Mount Canobolas, it was a bit windy up there but it felt better than being on the ground, and it was really high up!... but we'll start from the beginning...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_carride4.jpg

This is just going towards Canobolas in the houses in Orange, it shows how bright it was, although I don't think the picture really gives it justice...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_carride3.jpg

Around half way there now, you can see the gum trees starting to come up a lot more, and man were there a lot!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/road_to_canobolas.jpg

Sara took this as we we're driving by, but we we're going pretty fast, I'm suprised it came out so clear... finally we got to the top!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_view.jpg

Here I am at the top! Look how far up we are! To put it into perspective the little town below us is Orange... so we we're quite a ways up... here are some more pictures from the top of the mountain...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view1.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view6.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view78.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view8.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view9.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_towers.jpg

As you can see, you can see quite a distance! I went up and looked at the map which showed all the directions of each town...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_map.jpg

But because I'm so light the wind actually blew me a little bit to the side, oh well, at least I didn't get blown too far. :-)

Sara and Daniel also showed me the map which shows the points of the mountain range, and which parts actually had eruptions, I think they said the last eruption on Mount Canobolas was around 50 million years ago...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_information.jpg

I don't know if you can read what the sign says as it's a small picture, but I'll have Sara type it out for you...

"Within a 30 kilometre radius of Mount Canobolas, approximately 30 vents are known to have erupted. These eruptions commenced about 50 million years ago and halted approximately 10-15 million years ago. The Mount Canobolas vents erupted over that entire period, while others within the 30 kilometre radius we're active for shorter periods. The basalt capping has largely weathered away, producing fertile soils as far away as West Wyalong."

So you know how far away that really is I just had Sara do a search for you, and it says West Wyalong is around 2 hours and 40 minutes drive towards the Bush from Orange. :-) That's a long long way!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_curse.jpg

Before we we're ready to go on our next trek for the day Sara showed me some "Patterson's Curse" which is a nasty weed that got brought into the country a long time ago by someone from England who thought it was pretty. It's spread all over the country, and causes massive hay fever and it can get so bad it can kill life stock in some areas of Australia... thankfully most of it has died out... but it was still quite rampant up at the top of Mount Canobolas....

On the way down the mountain Sara got out and took some photos at a lookout point...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view3.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view4.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/canobolas_view5.jpg

Next stop Lake Canobolas...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/lakecanobolas_view2.jpg

When we got out of the car this is the first thing we saw when we walked into the park... Sara says this area was dry as a bone before but now they've put water back into it... and it had a few ducks to come with it...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/duck_swimming.jpg

Here's a view of the area around Lake Canobolas...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/lakecanobolas_view.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/lakecanobolas_view4.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/lakecanobolas_view3.jpg

...and then we noticed the seagulls... must get closer...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/seagull_far.jpg

...not close enough...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/seagull_closeup.jpg

...still not close enough...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/seagull_flight.jpg

...whoops there he goes!... I wish I could have gone swimming though, the water looked so good on that hot day! Sara said there was one last stop before we got home...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/benni_aldi.jpg

Look familiar? :-)

Well I'm probably not going to be doing much more as we're leaving very early Friday morning and I'll update again probably when I'm in America next! How strange is that!

Oh, and we said goodbye to our dear friend Super Grover he'll be on his way to Austria tomorrow! Isn't he just adorable?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/saragoescrazy3/byebyegrover_besafe.jpg
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 1, 2008, 7:48 pm
As I know you know now, I'm in South Korea. It was a long flight but I was nice and tidy packed with the other toys coming along for the ride, wasn't too bad, but I know Sara was extremely tired and kept falling asleep throughout the entire flight. Now isn't much better, I can tell she's been having problems sleeping. Guess it's not easy to sleep across 3 chairs in the terminal, they were kinda hard!

I landed when it was dark so I don't have many pictures as of yet, but I have a picture of me with a Korean payphone, some korean signs, and an asiana airlines plane in the background. I'll have Sara get some better photos later, and hopefully this time I"ll get a window seat. While I saw out the window, it was cloudy most of the way... this time it'll be dark most of the time, but I've done it - I just need a photo of what I saw out the window... I'm a bit nervous to be sitting on the window and it's a bit ackward, but we'll do our best!

I'll update again when the jet lag wears off enough to have Sara get up and do the photos for you! Only 14 more hours until we leave the airport! Wish us luck!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 4, 2008, 6:27 am
Hey! Guess where I am? I'm back in a cold climate after visiting South Korea, so now I've been to four out of 6 possible continents to visit. Antartica isn't really that accessible people have told me! :-) Sadly though on the plane to America I wasn't able to see out the window as I was on the exit door, and there wasn't a window next to me! :-( I'm hoping to get some pictures on the way back to South Korea before going back to Australia. As Sara told me that going to South Korea will be daytime, it will be night time on route to Australia... :-)

But here are some photos Sara took for me!...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020954.jpg
This is on the way to Bathurst, we were just about there when this photo was taken and it was a very bumpy road, it was probably like 1 in the morning at this point, so I was VERY tired like Sara and Daniel were.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020972.jpg
When we were at the airport we sat in a lounge and watched some planes take off, look how icky it was outside, it was really raining hard. Even the night before we left we had a blackout for a few hours!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020976.jpg
...and this is the exact plane I rode on to South Korea! See how big it is? It was amazing!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020982.jpg
Now I'm in South Korea... uhhh I'm SO tired! It's like 2 in the morning in this photo... I was quite bored too! Thankfully I had Cronus and Leo Lion to keep me company. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020986.jpg
Here's a Korean pay phone, how weird is that? I saw Sara getting very confused instead she used a different one that wasn't so scary and intimidating... haha...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030011.jpg
Here was a sign outside of the internet cafe... not quite sure what it says... :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030009.jpg
They had these signs all over the airport, it says 'Happy New Year' as you can see one in english in the background...

Here are just some random photos from around the airport.. :-)
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030015.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030014.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030017.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030026.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030023.jpg
That's the Korean money too, it was so weird to have someone say to Sara that she owed them 27,000 won at one point! :-P

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020983.jpg
It was time to sit down and rest for a while - but of course, we had a pepsi for all of us to share... :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020988.jpg
I had one last view outside...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1020998.jpg
Now it was time to take a bit of a rest...

Now here are some random photos from Korea during the day. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030030.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030033.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030035.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030034.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030044.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030060.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030050.jpg

Almost time to go!...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030061.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030064.jpg

...now I'm off to Washington! Now we have a 9 hour flight that was full of scary turbulence, I didn't like it! :-( But we got there okay! We arrived at 1130am. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030071.jpg
When I arrived I met up with Charity Bear for the first time, she's from Russia! We just relaxed the first day because of all the jet lag we barely slept for 3 days straight it was nice to get some sleep finally!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030075.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030077.jpg
Then I met up with the two house cats that live here, they're pretty big, in the first photo is the boy called Jethro, and the second cat that's sniffing at us is Ellie, she's very curious. Sara said they were born the day after each other so they're not brother and sister but they look so alike don't they? I call them "Cow Kitties". :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030083.jpg
This is a view from Sara's parents back porch, it was pretty grey and dark outside so you couldn't see much, but they're surrounded by the mountains! There's been some avalanches in the mountains lately since it's been snowing so much, hopefully it'll be a bit clearer to get better photos soon!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030078.jpg
Here's a pavlova Sara made today for her parents. It's really yummy! It's a very famous Australian desert!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030084.jpg
Okay it was time to rest for the day, still very jet lagged but hopefully we'll do something fun once the jet lag wears off a bit. :-)

I hope you're doing well! But I'm having so much fun here!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 9, 2008, 10:21 pm
Hey! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, it's been really rainy here as Sara told me that Shaggy Bear has been taking my place while I'm gone, keeping my bed warm maybe? :-) He looks really nice so I don't mind... but I have been pretty busy here, although sadly not a lot of photos. Sara keeps forgetting her camera or just not in the right place or right time to take photos of all of us, but she tries her best. :-)

On Thursday we got to visit with Sara's sister, Julie. She's got 4 kids, and here's a picture of all of us with Alissa...



Alissa is 6 years old and she absolutely fell in love with all of us... we had an extremely busy day but in the morning I got to visit a bit with Tank a "tuxedo manx cat" which means it's tail is very short... not docked, but just born very short... isn't he cool looking?

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/tankscared.jpg

Granted, not really the best photo of him... but he was scared of some of the dogs that were over for a few hours. I was a bit scared too though, they were SO much bigger than all of us and they were all very rowdy! But I did meet one nice pup, his name is Scooter...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/scooter.jpg

He's a 9 week old "hot dog" dog, isn't he cute? He loves to cuddle with anyone and everyone and seriously, could not hurt a fly. So I was more than happy to spend some time with him... :-) We we're busy most of the day though so not much else was photographed plus it was really yucky outside, but I'm going back next week so hopefully I'll get some better photos then!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/salmon_dinner.jpg

We went shopping on Friday and got some Sockeye Salmon, it was SO yummy! Sara said bears that are a bit bigger than me love to go fishing and catch these when they're running upstream. Thankfully the bears aren't in the area, or at least where I live... although we do get possums and raccoons Sara says... hopefully we'll be able to see some while I'm here maybe. I've seen some squirrels, but they were moving so fast I couldn't get a photo of them...

Then today we went to a hobby show expo thing where I saw a lot of model planes flying and even go-cart racing with really small kids, it's amazing how fast they were going, but it was really cold so we went home... maybe later we'll go to Lake Tye... Sara has been meaning to get some photos and take us down there with her but it's just been so icky outside... but there are hopefully some plans to go to Leavenworth and maybe the San Juan Islands... Leavenworth is a small German tourist town on the other side of the mountains, hopefully we'll go there - it'll be very homey I'm sure. :-)

I'll update again soon! Sorry it took me so long I've just been so tired, all these dark rainy days make it so hard to want to do anything much! Maybe we'll get some snow! :-)
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 11, 2008, 5:16 am
Hey! Straight after I updated yesterday Sara took me, Charity Bear, Cronus and Leo Lion for a little walk. We went down the street and visited Lake Tye since it was actually cloudy but not raining so we took some advantage of it... first stop off we made was to have a bit of fun at the park... but sadly it was all closed off, this shows you how much rain we've been having lately... isn't it shocking?

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030177.jpg

... but thankfully I was able to swing on the swings a little bit, too bad they're so big for me, but I did my best... you know, it's not the size that counts. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030184.jpg

... and then we finally got to Lake Tye... there actually were a few people there, but we did our best we still had a lot of fun but there sure was a big chilly wind that seemed to go straight through you...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030189.jpg

... this is obviously straight facing the lake, now I turn around... and this is what I see...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030191.jpg

... although it's cloudy isn't it just SO pretty? Who would know I would get much closer to them today!... I'll update that a little bit later though!...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030205.jpg

These were some of the ducks at the lake, they were all really close to each other while they were swimming no matter what... maybe they were family, Sara told me it looks like there are three males, but maybe one female? So probably a family of ducks! How cute!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030211.jpg

Last but not least... before we went inside to rest and get some dinner at the really yummy taco truck we watched the sunset. This picture doesn't give it justice, but it was really yellow! The first sunset that's actually been seen behind the clouds! It was very pretty!

Well I'll update again soon there are a lot of pictures, we visited Wallace Falls in Gold Bar today! :-)
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 11, 2008, 7:15 am
Hey again! So today we took a hike up to Wallace Falls, in Gold Bar, Washington which is just a neighboring town to Monroe, Washington... maybe a 15 minute drive up to the Wallace Falls State Park. It was very pretty and pretty cold initially but it quickly warmed up once we started walking...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030216.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030218.jpg

This is a view from the very beginning of the trail, isn't it beautiful? It's so cloudy and gross looking but it's still gorgeous, it's got a lot of snow and had a very cold wind coming down from the mountains... but it wasn't too bad after a bit of uphill walking. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030222.jpg

Here's the river that comes off of the many falls that are around where we were walking. We walked the wrong direction for a while, but we finally found our way... it was pretty crazy!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030230.jpg
Here I am next to the water, isn't it nice looking? Oh but it also looks SO cold!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030238.jpg
... and here I am next to another set of falls, much smaller but it sure was nice to look at all the surroundings!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030242.jpg
Now this is the direction we went the wrong way for a while - this hill got extremely steep and very hard to climb. Only at the top was when everyone realised we were going the wrong direction... Oops. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030248.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030252.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030258.jpg

Here are the rest of the photos from the trip up and back down. We didn't fully make it, because of a past injury Sara had we had to turn back early, didn't help she sprained her ankle and bruised the bottom of her feet pretty good... but saying that, we have plans to do it again - and make it to the top this time. It's a 2.7 mile walk up to the top of the falls. We'll be doing it again hopefully before we go back to Australia! :-) So you'll see this all again hopefully soon!...

On the way home we stopped and got some dinner at a BBQ Bus in a Reptile Zoo car park. It was really yummy, and pretty unique! :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030270.jpg

There was another bus that was right next to it that had tables to actually eat your food in... very cool! I really enjoyed it and the food was awesome!

... Almost home again, we stopped at a river right near where we live for the time being in Monroe, it was very cold and getting dark... the water looks like it was freezing, and again, a cold breeze, but even colder than earlier!...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030272.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030274.jpg
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http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030286.jpg

The last photo is of a railroad track that used to be there a few years ago but they tore it down because people were getting injured on it... cool photos though, we didn't stay long because it was freezing we finally went back home and rested our feet!

No plans as of yet for more, but a bit of rest this week and back off to Kirkland. Expect another post soon! I hope you're doing well! Talk soon!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 14, 2008, 6:49 pm
Hey! Went went again to Kirkland yesterday, although sadly didn't get many photos. We just bought up for Valentines Day, Sara says while she isn't with Daniel she's making light of the situation and got a few presents for him for when she goes back to Australia. How cute! :-)

So all of us ran errands with her around town, here's a picture of me next to the little area where all the shops are in an area of Kirkland called Kingsgate.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030332.jpg

Sara says she knows this area very well, because if you look behind all the stores and you could see through the trees she lived in apartments behind there for a few years before moving to Australia. She told a bit about living in this area, and how it's extremely expensive to live there! Thankfully I don't have to pay bills or rent, that doesn't sound like fun at all!

We went and had teriyaki for lunch and it was REALLY yummy! No photos as Sara probably would have gotten some dirty looks taking photos when she was the only one in there with us... but later on we got back home to Monroe and got to see an even better sunset!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030339.jpg

...the clouds are pink, Sara always says... "Pink sky at night, sailors delight... pink sky in the morning sailors warning" meaning if there's a pink sky at night - it'll be a nice day tomorrow, and in the morning means storms... so I guess it'll be a nice day tomorrow! It's Valentines Day tomorrow, I wonder what that will bring to us? :-) We shall see!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 15, 2008, 5:50 am
Hey! It was a pretty busy day today, didn't get too many photos, but none the less it was still fun, more fun ahead for tomorrow I've been told... :-) But we'll go into that a bit later. :-)

You know I told you that we bought a heap of stuff for Daniel? Well here's what's on the list to come back home to Australia with us, not much as of yet, but I'm sure the pile will just keep growing...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030349.jpg

There's a lot more kool-aid than what's shown but we all helped pick out what we thought Daniel would like for his very delayed Valentines Day he's going to have... yummy candies! :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030345.jpg

... and here's me with the candies we all got today, each of us got a little lollypop to suck on, even though it's almost as big as me, I guess that means it'll last longer. :-)

... oh, and I totally talked Sara into buying this - not like it too a lot of effort, but check this out... does this look familiar?

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030352.jpg

So apparently they have an American version of it - how strange is that? Sara also bought some Haribo Frogs today! Yummy! Well tomorrow we're off to Redmond (Famous for being the home of Microsoft) and Bellevue maybe... :-) Maybe we can see a bit more.. then probably Saturday will be something exciting! Lots more pictures to come! :-)
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 20, 2008, 6:15 pm
Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a long time, this is the first chance I've gotten to sit down... we've seen A LOT in the last few days and I've been so worn out - when we all get home we all love to just relax on the bed until bedtime because it's just so tiring all the sight seeing we've been doing. Sara says it'll probably take a few days to get all the photos up from the last few days but she'll do her best... what's to come? Well, you'll just have to wait and see...

Saturday, because it wasn't so sunny out we decided this would be a great day to visit Snoqualmie Falls... very famous falls in Snoqualmie, Washington here's me at the top of the falls...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030388.jpg

Next to the top of the falls is a hotel called the Salish Lodge, it looks very expensive to visit there - Sara says she's never been in there before...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030407.jpg

Straight across from where we were standing at the top of the falls on the observation deck that hangs over the edge kind of - this is the view straight across from us... it kind of puts it into perspective on how high we really are!... See that we're over the top of some of the trees?!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030398.jpg

...and this is the view kind of straight down facing the Snoqualmie River... Sara doesn't like heights but I think she said we we're over 300' up over the edge of the falls...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030399.jpg

Then we took a trek down to the bottom of the falls it's half a mile down and half a mile back up... it was really busy at the lower observation deck so Sara didn't have a chance to get us all with photos sadly but we stayed safe where there was no chance of us getting knocked out of Sara's hands...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030416.jpg

As you can see there are tons of people on the rocks. It was a bit too slippery for our liking so we just took a few photos and headed back to the car, a bigger day was in store for us tomorrow... I'll update a bit later with those photos...
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 20, 2008, 7:17 pm
So Sunday was the big day, we went through the Cascade Mountains and all that snow and got to see the Bavarian town called Leavenworth... for some reason it reminds me a lot of home, do you know why that is? Well we'll get onto that later... :-P

First stop, Lake Wenatchee for a family picture... that was a bit broken up and sadly no real good photos turned out (Sara said anyways) but she sure had a good slip in the snow and was bleeding a lot so we didn't stay too long, here's a photo of me at Lake Wenatchee.. isn't it pretty?

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030433.jpg

As you can see in this photo, 95% of the lake was actually frozen over. Sara's brother Todd was out sitting on the lake for a while before the family photos had started. Me and the other toyvoyagers just sat in the snow and waited patiently (as patiently as you could) for our photo shoot to have happen. Then we were put back in the backpack where it was SO much warmer... I think Sara told it it was 23'F outside where we were sitting... brrr!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030454.jpg

Next stop was just a little mountain on the side of the road, I think it looks pretty cool. Sara didn't stay out with us very long though since we were only half way to Leavenworth - still a ways to drive, and a lot more snow to get through before we get there!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030473.jpg

...and finally we are in Leavenworth... most of the time we were here we just visited shops and looked at all the interesting things they had, there was so much to look at - we spent a few hours walking through the main parts of the town... here are some of the photos Sara took...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030475.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030476.jpg
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http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030498.jpg

By the time it we were done it was almost time to head home. We had a late lunch at a restaurant called King Lear's. Sara had a German sausage and her dad had a Bavarian Bratwurst... they were really yummy they said... the other two had just a hamburger and soup, so nothing really fancy for being in a little American German town... hehe. :-)

On the way home we stopped at a little shop before we got fully into the Cascades called The Alps, and this is a view from the shops... there was SO much snow, no wonder they've been having avalanches... there were a lot of road signs fully covered by snow... that's a LOT!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030516.jpg

Well more updating later... we still one big day to go after updating Friday (when Sara gets the photos off of her dad hopefully tonight)....
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 20, 2008, 11:10 pm
Hey... Monday was another HUGE day for all of us... we woke up at 6am and were on the road to Anacortes by 630am. No stops along the way we had to make a ferry by 830am. When we got there one ferry had just left to another route so we just missed a picture opportunity, little did we know how many picture opportunities we were heading towards...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030529.jpg

This is me standing way back from a ferry dock. We docked at a dock right next to this one... but this is the one the ferry took off from when we arrived there... there wasn't too long of a wait and our ferry arrived...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030535.jpg

That's the view we had from the car waiting to drive onto the ferry, they're HUGE! Sara says there Washington States biggest attraction! It was very exciting to be on something so huge, and so nice!

The moment the ferry took off from Anacortes Sara took all of us outside to the front of the ferry, it was REALLY windy, so windy when Sara took the lens cap off of her camera it blew out of her hand and onto her bag... thankfully it didn't blow into the cold ocean, that'd be no good! So we didn't get a lot of outside photos for fear of loosing us... here I am...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030545.jpg

...and here I am in front of the front of the ferry, the captain of the ship looked at Sara a bit funny when she saw her holding us up for some photos, hehe... this ferry's name was the Kaleetan. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030547.jpg

Here's some pictures Sara took from the ferry - it was around an hour ride until we arrived at the dock in Orcas Island...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030566.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030556.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030605.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030590.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030606.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030615.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030575.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030573.jpg

...and now we have arrived at Orcas Island... how exciting! Time to go to the car as were ready to start docking on the island...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030622.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030715.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030714.jpg

First things first... time to get some breakfast, it's now 930am and we had a nice breakfast at a place called the Sunflower Cafe. It was yummy now were on our way to Mount Constitution... a very long and winding road later we were almost there...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030692.jpg

... another 10 minutes of winding roads and we were there... besides a steep hike up a snow filled hill, it wasn't easy for Sara to get up from the fall she had had the day before, but we made it up, very slowly but none the less... and wait for it, these pictures are gorgeous!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030679.jpg

Now that we're up at the top of the hill it's time to climb up this tower... it was around 300 feet tall in itself and the mountain is around 2500 feet from sea level, so it's the highest point in the San Juan Islands so we got to see everything, this is the view of the ground from the top of the tower...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030650.jpg

...and here I am at the top, looking out over the islands...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030635.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030636.jpg

In the first photo I'm looking out over islands and you can see Mount Baker in the background, one of the three volcanos in Washington state... and the next photo is a photo looking over part of Canada... :-)

Here are the other photos that Sara took at the top of the tower... not all of them, but some of them... :-) Enjoy!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030627.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030642.jpg
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http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030680.jpg

It really was absolutely gorgeous... well with 40 minutes to spare after driving time we headed back to the ferry dock for our 115pm ferry... we got there, and it was full! Dang! The next ferry was 335pm. We had a long wait in the ferry line, instead we went and got some souvenirs and some postcards, and had some lunch at the ferry dock. Yummy!

Finally 3pm rolls around and we're ready to board the ferry to go back home... bye bye Orcas Island... here are some more photos on the way home from Orcas Island...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030751.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030753.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030774.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030788.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030792.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030795.jpg

Well that was a BIG day for all of us... the next day was pretty lazy and slow but that wasn't a bad thing... not much planned as of yet, but on Thursday we're going to Kirkland again to see Sara's family... :-) I hope you enjoyed what you saw of my busy last few days! It was very exciting! I had lots of fun!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 25, 2008, 10:16 pm
Hey, finally I'm able to update about Dixie's BBQ. This is a very famous BBQ place that a lot of famous stars and athletes have come to eat and make their mark on this famous restaurant. People from around the world have come and seen and eaten at this place and tried the famous "man" sauce.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/IMG_0946.jpg

I can't even describe it, but Sara described it as the hottest thing she'd had in a long time. Sadly, Sara didn't get the photos so she wasn't able to get us in the shot, but we were there and experiencing everything, but not quite man enough to try the "man" sauce. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/IMG_0938.jpg
Here's a picture of Sara with the owner of the BBQ. He was pretty fun and he carried around the sauce in a little pot and he asked Sara how much she wanted "a little or a lot" and he put a tiny little drop of it on her sandwich and told her to stick her fork in it to try... and even that tiny bit on the edge of a fork, her mouth was burning for probably a good 10-15 minutes easily... not really for the lighthearted.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/IMG_0945.jpg
Sara even got to put a pin on the map of where she's from. Of course the yellow pin is hers it's exactly put on Orange, NSW Australia. How exciting!

Now, to really show you how many people from all over the world have been there - here are the maps surrounding the walls with all of the other pins marking their place in the world...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/IMG_0940.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/IMG_0941.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/IMG_0942.jpg
...and the last picture is the new maps that have been put up, which is where Sara put her pin point in the Australia map. How cool is that? It's amazing how many people have visited this one little BBQ restaurant!

Later that day we got to visit at Sara's old schools and met up with her first grade teacher even but no pictures - she didn't want her picture taken because she was sick so we didn't stay too long! It was a nice day out definitely!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 25, 2008, 11:39 pm
Hey! I've been so lazy lately, since we did so much running around and a lot of sight seeing last week, Sara, me and the rest of the toyvoyagers have just been lounging around the house not doing too much... it's not too bad though - I don't mind it so much! :-)

But saying that... today we got a new visitor! How exciting! :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030811.jpg

Her name is Mel how exciting to meet a little koala bear, who would have known we would meet her in Washington?
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Feb 29, 2008, 12:15 am
I have been slow to update - since it's coming closer to the time were heading back to Australia there's much less going on... but today, we made a 7 layer cookie thing, it looks really yummy! We all helped as much as we could in the kitchen with Sara, but mostly we watched...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030819.jpg
First the one cube of butter needed to be chopped up and put in...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030823.jpg
We melted all the butter in the oven at 325'F until all the butter was melted and we then sprinkled graham cracker crumbs all over the top of it... yummy!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030824.jpg
...and even more graham cracker crumbs!...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030825.jpg
Then it was about time to pour the sweet condensed milk over the top...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030826.jpg
All done... it's starting to look so yummy... but looks even more yummy very soon! :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030827.jpg
Then we sprinkled the chocolate chips, and coconut over the top... mmm!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030828.jpg
Then sprinkled walnuts over 2/3 of it, because Sara's brother doesn't like nuts, oh well, looks so yummy already though!

...22-25 minutes later...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030829.jpg
Out of the oven, still very hot but looks SO yummy! This is a desert tonight after dinner... yum yum yummy! Sara said she wanted to give everyone the recipe too incase they wanted to make it too... so here it is:

SEVEN LAYER MAGIC COOKIE BARS   
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 pkg. (6 oz.) butterscotch chips
1 1/3 c. flaked coconut
1 c. chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for glass dish). In a 13 x 9 inch baking pan melt butter in oven. Sprinkle crumbs over it. Mix together and press into pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumbs. Top evenly with remaining ingredients. Press down firmly. Bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool before cutting.

That's not all we did, because we're leaving soon we helped Sara put together her bags for leaving, she reorganizes them a lot, so we we're seeing how everything fit, we'll be on the carry on so we won't be like these other poor saps...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030830.jpg
...not sure if you can see, but under Cronus foot kind of is a stuffed toy, a few actually, and the big eye you see is a scarecrow wind sock that Sara got, isn't it cool? This is a huge vaccum seal bag that Sara puts everything in to fit it a lot better than what she'd normally be able to fit...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030831.jpg
After all that was done we got a new sitting place for a little bit of time while we're not doing anything... aren't we all just so cute? :-)

Yesterday was our last day in Kirkland, it was all sad goodbyes and everything, but we made it - next stop is Olympia to see some other parts of Sara's family before we head back to Aussie land...
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Mar 4, 2008, 6:04 am
Hey! Yesterday we went to Cabela's a very popular outdoor type store, it's known for its huge display of, well... it's centre piece lets say... it's huge and even has a little aquarium thing within the centre piece, it's very interesting to see all the different wild animals though...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030838.jpg
Here's a picture of me standing near one side of the huge centre piece... here are some other photos..

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030842.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030856.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030912.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030864.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030855.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030850.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030859.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030858.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030870.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030871.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030874.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030921.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030923.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030934.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030890.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030936.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030920.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030931.jpg
As you can see there we're a LOT of animals on this huge piece, most of them are very old going back as much as 90 years ago for some of them, there was even a huge polar bear and a musk ox!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030884.jpg
This is one of the fish that Sara got clearly in a photo in the little aquarium thing they had, this is called a Sun fish and Sara said she used to catch these when she was younger in Wisconsin visiting with her grandparents, kinda pretty aren't they?

... and upstairs, they even had a small African exhibit with some unique and interesting animals...
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030903.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030902.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030909.jpg

... the last picture is a White Rhino, which are the less critically endangered of the two Rhino species, it was interesting to see one, kind of sad though seeing all the animals at the same time...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030950.jpg
Last but not least we got to see a big cat that resembled Cronus there we're a few of them on the centre piece, it's amazing to think that a cousin of Cronus can be SO big, and so fierce looking!

After we left, we went to a house where Sara spent time with some more of her family, there was a crazy dog so we didn't come out much besides to just be seen and that's about it - we had to stay protected in the bag, there was no time for pictures, the dog was just so crazy! But it was a very busy day! I'm glad I'm back home, more relaxing, we fly out on Saturday morning!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Mar 8, 2008, 7:37 am
We had our last visit around Washington today before we leave tomorrow morning, I'm so excited but so nervous, first stop was in Everett, not too interesting, we had to go with Sara to her step mom's appointment with the neurologist... here we all are... :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030970.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030969.jpg

Then we we're off to Seattle - we went inside a few shops on the Seattle waterfront, and there we're a lot of really cool wooden statue things that we're hand carved... here's one of them I particularly liked! :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030973.jpg

...we took a stroll down the waterfront and we saw this sign - which is a memorial, it's straight in front of the Argosy cruises for the Lake cruises and the Locks cruises that they have in Seattle! It looked exciting, but not today! :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030976.jpg

...and then after a bit more walking we got to the world famous Ye Olde Curiosity Shop...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030977.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040008.jpg

This was the entrance to the store, it was already quite interesting... so I wonder what's inside! I've heard a lot about this store from Sara...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030981.jpg

...and meet Sylvester... the most famous well preserved mummy in the world!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030985.jpg

...and here's some information about our famous Sylvester, we heard a lady talking about the origin of Sylvester... apparently after the cowboys found him they left him standing on the side of the road for people to see, then one day a traveling circus drove by him and covered him in arsenic which caused his preserved state even more so, and then they brought him with them around the United States on the traveling circus. Then eventually a dentist actually got a hold of him and had him in his office and had him occasionally pop out on some people (mean huh? haha). When the dentist died, the wife called the Curiosity Shop and asked if they'd like him for their museum... and of course they agreed! :-)

...and now it's time to meet Sylvia...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030984.jpg

...she is a white, female mummy, probably a Spanish immigrant found in the highlands of Central America. Scientists say that she died in her early thirties from tuberculosis, prehaps contracted during the long sea voyage to the New World...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030986.jpg
Here's more information again about both Sylvia and Sylvester... very interesting information really... :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040005.jpg
Here's an interesting thing - in the middle of the closed off area on the waterfront, there was an actual working carousel that was really pretty! I wanted to ride, but I was way too small! :-P

We decided to get some food at Ivars, the famous seafood shop on the Seattle waterfront, they have a lot here, but they were founded and established in Seattle from 1936.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040009.jpg

While we were waiting for our food, we saw some seagulls up close!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030998.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1030995.jpg

...in the background of a second one you see a famous and familiar sight of Washington, the ferries!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040011.jpg

Sara thought this was cute... the Clam Central Station across from Ivars!

When we got home we we're so tired, but we had to pack and get everything ready, we're about right on the limit for stuff we can bring back to Australia - so how exciting will this be! :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040014.jpg

So before we decided to travel, we decided to get up to date with the world... :-) Here I am reading the newspapers from the countries I will be visiting... :-) How exciting! <3

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040016.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040024.jpg

...and here I am remembering all my fun times while I've been in Washington... my favourite was Leavenworth, how exciting it was to visit a town that looked so much like home, and yet so far away from home!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040025.jpghttp://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/P1040030.jpg

...and now it's time to write up my last entry for America then I'm off to Australia again tomorrow! Wish me luck!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Mar 11, 2008, 11:54 am
Technically yesterday we left for South Korea, at 1240pm we flew out of Seattle... and 11 or so hours later, we are in South Korea, and it's 5pm... just after... so lets start from the beginning...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/benni_airportseattle.jpg
Here I am at the gate where Sara will be boarding the plane... we only have a few hours to wait now since we managed to get through customs, immigration and all the screening pretty quickly...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/seattle_flightboard.jpg
We had to check the board to make sure our flight was on time...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/asiana_seattleairport.jpg
After about an hour our plane arrived, and we got to watch it be loaded up with everything and pretty soon we were about to board and go on our 11 hour flight to South Korea, I wonder what we'll see now that Sara has a window seat...

Very shortly into our flight we got to see some gorgeous mountains from the air, Sara says these are the mountains on the Washington Peninsula, they're called the Olympics...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/olympicmtns_fromair.jpg

We got to take a nap, and next pictures we're in Japan... here's what we saw...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/japanese_mtns1.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/japanese_mtns2.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/japan_volcanofromair.jpg

As you can see we saw a lot of mountain ranges and everything, and even a volcano we flew over... we're not sure what it is called but it sure looked pretty!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/benni_japanflight.jpg

Even more exciting we even got to see Mt. Fuji, it's in the far distance, and if you look closely behind the lower engine you can see Mt. Fuji in the middle...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/mtfuji_fromtheair.jpg

We then crossed the sea between Japan and South Korea, and we started to come closer to landing, Sara got some photos of Seoul...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/seoul_fromtheair.jpg

...and now we've landed in South Korea...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/landing_southkorea.jpg

When we got to Korea, it was a lot of running around, and a lot of  long lines but we stopped for a moment to see the beautiful Korean sunset that was happening right before our eyes...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/southkorean_sunset.jpg

Funny enough our terminal was the same terminal last time that we were sleeping at before, so the picture looks extremely similar, that's because it was the same exact area... here's our next plane to Sydney...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/asiana_korea.jpg

We've got another long 10 hour flight ahead of us, and then a day in Sydney to plan, we'll see how that goes... we're off to board the plane!... see you in Australia!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Mar 11, 2008, 12:08 pm
After a long and turbulent 10 hour flight we've made it to Sydney, we got through customs and immigration almost at record time (for Sara anyways)... first things first, we got to visit Botany Bay, here I am in front of the bay on the side of the road... so pretty isn't it?

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/benni_botanybay.jpg

This is a photo just by itself, the little peninsula sticking out is actually the airport runway, so we got to watch some planes landing and taking off it was quite interesting...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/airport_botanybay.jpg

What's even more interesting is... this is the plane we all arrived on from South Korea, and now it's going back - not even 2 hours later! It was interesting to watch the plane that had only just arrived, seeing it take off back again... how cool is that?

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/asiana_botanybay.jpg
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/asiana_takingoff.jpg

We took a bit longer on the road and we got to one of the proper beaches, we had to go to the beaches with the shark nets, we stopped at the first one and had a bit of a dip (well I didn't, I don't like the water!) in the Kyeemagh Baths...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/baths_sign.jpg

Here are all of us on the beach...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/group_beachphoto.jpg

...and here I am out in the water, Sara was holding me because she knows I don't like the water, it wouldn't be good for my fur!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/benni_baths.jpg

Here are some seagulls, there we're quite a lot of them really!..

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/seagulls_baths.jpg

We took another bit of a drive down the beach to the next bit of the shark nets, and we even got to see the Sydney skyline... as you can see, even for a Monday morning there we're a lot of people at the beach... and this is just where we were...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/botanybay_sydney.jpg

...another 2'ish hours later we we're on the road to Orange, which most definately is not coastal... so no more pretty beaches, but that doesn't worry me too much... but we stopped off in the Blue Mountains and got to see the famous Three Sisters...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/benni_theesisters.jpg

There were lots and lots of people sightseeing there when we all visited there... but we got in and got out pretty quick, we all just were very tired and wanted to get home!
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Mar 11, 2008, 12:21 pm
Today we went to Blayney and on the way to Blayney we all got to see an emu, what a famous Australian animal. :-)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/blayney_emu.jpg

...and when we got home we met up with another toyvoyager,

Mulalu how exciting, he came all the way from South Africa, so we had a group photo together, now I can also introduce you to everyone, most you've seen before, but there are a few new faces that we met up with when we flew into Sydney...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/toyvoyager_groupphoto.jpg

From left to right it's Mulalu, Luke, Mel, Cronus, Alpina, me, Benni, and Charity Bear... the walrus, lobster and turtle are soon to be toyvoyagers... :-)

Pretty soon I'll be ready to leave Sara and go to my next host, I'm getting so excited to see even more of the world! :-)
sararingham
sara.ringham@gmail.com

Posted Mar 14, 2008, 6:30 am
We have spent our last night in this oven called Orange. It's really unseasonably hot, so I bet it's about time to go to the beach, I heard we're going to the Central Coast. Not only that, but I'm going with Charity Bear at least I'll know someone where I'm going, so it's not so scary! I'm getting very excited, time to get situated...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/benni_andcharitybear.jpg

...and now time to say our goodbyes to everyone!...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/toyvoyager_photo/benni_andcharity_byebye.jpg

It was sad to say goodbye, but they all wished us well and told us  to have a good trip! We're off to the post office!
Yillup


Posted Mar 18, 2008, 12:26 pm
Hi everyone again! I have arrived on the beautiful Central Coast safely. I was very glad to get out of that little post bag. What with me, Charity Bear and our books it certainly was getting pretty stuffy! Yesterday was a pretty boring day - we sat around at home doing not much. In fact Kylie was still in her pyjamas when we arrived in our package in the afternoon!

I did help Kylie with some of her scrapbooking though! Charity Bear and I helped with some cutting (I was clever and held the sharp scissors. Don't worry, I was VERY careful).

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1259/060fk7.jpg

I also helped choose some fabric flowers - green ones like my top...

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/673/062tj0.jpg

It was very different today though. We went to the local library in the morning for "baby bounce" - a group of mums and kids who get together and sing nursery rhymes with their babies. Kylie has a 2 year old daughter and a 3 month old son, and they both loved it.

In the afternoon we went to have lunch with Kylie's "mothers group" - a group of mums who all had a baby about the same time as each other.

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7299/009smlkp3.jpg

Kylie had to save me from being slobbered on by the babies!

I hope we can go to the beach soon! the weather has been very warm and sunny!!
Yillup


Posted Mar 19, 2008, 11:42 am
We went to playgroup today, where Elizabeth got to play with some of her friends and had some fun in her faourite place the sand pit! There was lots of yunny food there too...

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1752/001yq3.jpg

It's getting close to Easter! We had an Easter egg hunt at the playgroup today where all the little kids had to find chocolate eggs and put them in their baskets to eat later. Charity Bear and I found a nice shiny egg to share! I only had a nibble - a little chocolate goes a long way when you're as little as me!

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6848/003mb2.jpg

We also very kindly offered to help Elizabeth eat hers, but she only let us have a photo taken with them - she ate the rest herself!!

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/774/002oo6.jpg

I can't wait until Easter - there'll be even more chocolates then! YAY!
Yillup


Posted Mar 26, 2008, 11:38 pm
We haven't been doing very much here in the last few days. Kylie's been busy doing things around the house so we haven't been out much!

Today we did go to visit Kylie's mum's house and in the afternoon watched as a big storm rolled in from the south.

I was a little bit scared, but Kylie said it was very common in Australia for big storms to happen in the evenings. Usually they happen in summer, but it's been a very hot start to autumn here, so the weather's a bit confused!

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4171/012smlkt5.jpg
Yillup


Posted Mar 31, 2008, 11:44 am
Today Charity Bear and I went with Kylie and Elizabeth and Phillip to the shops. We went to Borders to do a bit of research on travelling the world. There were SO many places I'd love to go visit! Wonder how many of these places I'll see on my journies...

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We also had a look in the kid's section of the book store. Elizabeth loved the Wiggles books the most, while we hang around with the DVDs.

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Spending time in a family with a 2 year old, I'm getting to know all the words to the Wiggles songs off by heart! I'll be able to sing "toot toot chugga chugga, big red car" in my sleep soon! :)
Yillup


Posted Apr 4, 2008, 3:42 am
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We were the welcoming party for a few new toy voyagers today! Mulalu, Alpina and Mel came in the mail to join us! YAY! More friends to play with!
Yillup


Posted Apr 5, 2008, 8:52 am
I spent a beautifully sunny autumn day today at The Entrance. There is a gorgeous water fountain there that kids can play in. I watched but didn't go in as I didn't want my fur to get wet!

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There was a bit of a carnival thing happening while we were there, with 2 HUGE jumping castles, face painting, plaster painting, and lots of yummy food for sale like corn on the cob and fairy floss.

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The Entrance is famous in Australia for it's pelican feeding every day. We all went down to the water (not too close!) and had a look at these big funny looking birds!

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This is the information about the feeding on the website:

Quote:
Pelican Feeding is the Central Coast's most popular tourist attraction and operates 3.30pm daily, 365 days a year come rain, hail or shine.

The pelican feeding attracts tens of thousands of families back to The Entrance where they get an entertaining and educated commentary about the pelicans, bird and marine life and general information about the area.

Just over twenty years ago, the pelican feeding started by accident when staff from a local fish and chip shop would throw out scraps. It became such a ritual that whenever the staff were late in throwing their scraps out, the pelicans would cross the road and come up to the shop to be fed.

One of the main objectives of the pelican feed is to keep an eye on the pelican's medical conditions as many have hooks and lines tangles up in their gullets, wings and other parts of their body. The feed is a chance for the co-ordinator to assess their well being. It's certainly an amusing show to come and see.

At least 1 or 2 birds a week are removed from the water and sometimes the outcome is bad for the injured birds but most times its just a simple extraction of a hook and they are on their way.

The Entrance has now been internationally recognised as 'The Pelican Capital of Australia' and we want you to be part of it. So when you visit us at The Entrance be sure to wander down to the pelican pavilion on the foreshore for an experience you will treasure.

The Pelican Feed is proudly sponsored by local businesses within and around the Central Coast and if it wasn't for their support and enthusiasm it wouldn't be as successful as it is today.


We all got our photo taken in front of a sign showing how far some of the nearest places overseas are! Boy Australia is a long way away from anywhere else!

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When we got home we found there was a bush fire on the hill near Kylie's house. Bush fires are very common in Australia Kylie tells me. Even though we've had a good season so far, the fires can still be bad!

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Melancholy Pie


Posted Apr 28, 2008, 2:47 am
I was so happy to see Benni had arrived when I got home late on Wednesday. He was just in time for our trip to Hawkes Bay for the long ANZAC weekend which we were leaving for the next day straight from work!

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Melancholy Pie


Posted Apr 28, 2008, 3:14 am
Benni got to come with us on our weekend away to Napier to see Sol's mum for her birthday and for a long ANZAC weekend.

Benni got to sit up the front on the dashboard to whole trip (because he's so small) and saw lots of sheep and cows and ponies. The trees were very very green and we had to go up so big hills called the Rimutakas. We even saw the wind farm on the way there.

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We planned to spend 3 nights in Napier and we wanted to go up Te Mata Peak and to the hot pools while we were there.
The weather on Friday was very nice so we drove up Te Mata peak to get some photos.

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-Benni with a map of Hawkes Bay at Te Mata Peak
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-Benni with the map showing the longest place name in New Zealand and one of the longest in the world: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu
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On Saturday night we went to the hot pools but Benni couldn't come in or he'd get wet. We went for desert afterwards though and saw the fountain which was all lit up and changing colours.
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We had to come back on Sunday for some final pictures of the Napier waterfront. We had to come and see Pania of the Reef, a statue on Marine Parade. The statue was stolen in 2005 but was later found in someones backyard and returned to the waterfront.
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-A shot of the rocky waterfront
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-The lawn leading down to the soundshell
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In Eketahuna on the way home we saw a really big Kiwi hiding in the bushes!  ;)

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Melancholy Pie


Posted May 13, 2008, 12:06 am
It's been very cold, dark and sometimes rainy in Wellington as we descend into winter so Benni has been spending his days cuddled up in bed with the other teds and watching TV with me at night.

But tomorrow is going to be a big day when Benni comes out to celebrate Sol's graduation from Architecture school.

There will be photos coming soon  :D
Melancholy Pie


Posted May 20, 2008, 9:35 am
Sol graduated from Victoria University and Benni got to come along and participate in the parade and photos.

It started at10am with a gathering at the Architecture & Design School and then we walked to the other side of town.

These are some of the punga sculptures outside the library
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And this is the City to Sea Bridge, the carvings are of whales and in the background you can see the lagoon. Up the top on the left side you can just see the harbour and the hills beyond it.
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And these pictures are of me and Sol in his cap, gown and hood with Benni :]
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The next thing we need to do is secure Benni's hand back on because it's almost coming loose. He'll need it for his next adventure.
Melancholy Pie


Posted Jun 5, 2008, 7:25 am
Poor little Benni with his broken hand.
We knew we had to fix his hand before he took off to Singapore so we did this at night on the 26th of May.

By now Benni's hand was only hanging on by a thread so we took it right off and got some cotton and a needle to work with.
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We had to do lots of twisting and threading to make Benni's little arm sturdy enough to attach his hand back on but in the end we managed it and he's all better and winging his way to Singapore. Miss you Benni!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/2552382849_65d05a801a.jpg?v=0

Michi


Posted Jun 26, 2008, 6:14 am
I've arrived in Singapore for some time now! But michi was rushing for an exhibition booth so she didn't bring me around in case I break my hand again >_< Well now that her work is done, she promised me to bring me around more often! I've been careful not to over exert myself. Singapore's weather has been insane - it's either too warm or pouring incessantly.

Some highlights since I've gotten here!


I met fellow ToyVoyager Dio!! Dio came from Netherlands and we've been watching the Euro, pictures coming soon!

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:) We were having fun while Michi was busy with a photoshoot




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Why are the illustrated bears on the cover so scary?




We went for dinner at Le Bistrot, near the Kallang River in Singapore!


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Feeling a bit tipsy after some pinot noir..




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Yummy lamb!
Michi


Posted Jun 30, 2008, 3:14 pm
Hi guys!


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New friends



I wonder how are things at home? I've been catching Euro 2008 with my new friends in Singapore. Dio and I had to wake up at 2.45 am to catch all the telecasts in Singapore. It's too bad that Germany lost in the finals :(


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/galetia/ToyVoyagers/P1030646.jpg We napped the whole day just so that we can wake up for the live telecast in the middle of the night. (See clock on top right hand corner) Dio's team (Netherlands) was out earlier, so he had no preference for this match.





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But I was obviously rooting for MY TEAM






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But ah well, we just didn't have the luck. I watch in pain as Iker Casillas lifted the trophy.



It's interesting how many people in Singapore (or elsewhere in Asia) watches the Euro, despite the time difference. People would actually take leave from work just to watch these football tournaments.





I've also been eating around Singapore recently, together with my travel mate Dio.


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We had some Salmon Sashimi at this Jap buffet.


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And then some buffet at Raffles Hotel. My small tummy couldn't really take all the meat and raw oysters (and yes, more sashimi). Michi has a crazy obsession over wasabi.





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Pea soup~







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Time for some dessert. Tirasimu.. Orange Peel.. Macaroons.. Bread & butter pudding..





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Coffee~ <3


Michi


Posted Jul 21, 2008, 3:58 pm
Michi took Dio and I to a revolving restaurant for dinner. The restaurant revolves around full circle every 2 hours or so!



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This is the lift to the restaurant! The chinese characters state Huan Ying Guang Lin - Welcome!



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Singapore's skyline! The tall buildings in the background are located in Singapore's main financial district.






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This is the view of Singapore's port, one of the busiest ports in the world.





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Dio and I got a good view of the forklifts and containers. I'm so glad to have Dio as a travel mate! :)




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And the food starts piling up! The chinese restaurants like to place a circular food revolver to pass the food around the table. Maybe it's the collective nature of Asians - they prefer such indirect, subtle gestures instead of asking others to pass the food around? :) Peanuts and pickled stuff are served as sort of appetizer before people order food.




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Yes... this is sharks' fin.. a Chinese delicacy, but many people find it very cruel to eat this dish as sharks are killed solely for the fins.




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Peking Duck wrapped!




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Herbal Jelly~ it is a form of dessert for the chinese. It's supposedly made from turtles?? But nowadays its mostly just flavouring
Michi


Posted Jul 21, 2008, 4:06 pm
More views from the restaurant


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View of Pulau Brani. Pulau means island in malay, and many islands in Singapore retain the Malay names.





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View of Pulau Brani and Sentosa (right)! Singapore is building a casino on the island to inject life into the tourism industry. If you stare hard enough at the pictures you will see the merlion statue on the island!





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Vivocity, a major shopping mall in Singapore



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Night views of Singapore.
Michi


Posted Jul 21, 2008, 4:17 pm
Michi took us out today! Hee hee

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This is a view of one of the many green spots/parks in Singapore. If not for these trees I think Singapore's heat would be quite unbearable!


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On the car



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We pass by the vicinity of Sentosa again. The cable car links Mt Faber to Sentosa Island.
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Henderson Wave Bridge~



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We ended up at Beach Road again!  A sneak peak of the financial district in the background.



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Ice Tea served in the local manner. This tea (a favourite of michi's) is called teh bing in Singapore. It's basically lipton tea or similar, made with condensed milk and chilled with ice.  :rolleyes:
Michi


Posted Aug 23, 2008, 8:26 am
Benni has headed off to Brunei through registered mail! I wonder whether he has reached Brunei safe and sound?

Here are some more random pictures I found of Benni~


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Benni with the Chinese Fu Lu Shou deities (Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity)


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Benni and Dio playing Grand Theft Auto


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Benni with Dragonfruit~~


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Farewell party with the stuffed toys~!

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