Cronus, San Antonio de Belén, Heredia, Cost

masucci Posted Jan 16, 2008, 8:39 pm	Goodbye Mommy! Today I said goodbye to mommy, we had a fun little goodbye breakfast while she warned me about all the evil things out there in the world.  She said to mind my hosts and keep my fur clean. I'm off to Australia to visit sararingham!  I'm so excited.  I hope I get to see some native animals!  Roar.  I'm ready to scare ... I mean greet them already! Here are my travel plans so far.  Would you like to host me? Australia: sararingham -> HERE NOW! Costa Rica: shirleycr Canada: starbursidereus Russia: Kristl Miss_Nadine United Kingdom: Ocean_Soul13 Germany: blackcat Holland: panienka
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 22, 2008, 3:19 am	Hey mommy! I arrived in Australia! Thankfully it wasn't too long of a trip but it was a bit cramped so I'm glad to get out and see what Australia can bring me... Sara says we won't be here much longer, we have a holiday on the 26th called Australia Day and maybe we'll go out and do something, but normally it's very busy and it's not as nice in Orange as it would be in Sydney for the holiday, it's Australia's Independence Day. Then I'm off to South Korea for 24 hours on the 1st of February. Then the 2nd of February flying back to America for 5 weeks... so she's told me to relax a bit while I'm here because it'll be a bit busy... but she decided to show me the other toyvoyagers that she has with her at the moment... This is Leo Lion who will be traveling with me, Benni who will also be traveling with us, Super Grover who is on his way to Austria and France at the end of this week, and last but not least ME! Aren't I handsome? Although I think I scared little Benni and Super Grover a bit with my size, and the fact that I'm a wild cougar! But I'm friendly aren't I? :-) Although I did decide to hide a little bit since Sara's husband Daniel left a mess of catalogs on the couch, I decided to hide from them and see how long it took to notice me... I was found pretty quickly, so I need to work on my stalking skills I think, it'd be great for playing hide & seek. :-P Sara showed me the pets, as she's a huge animal lover...  we started with the birds... they we're a bit scared of me when I decided to face them to have a look at them, but I'm not interested in eating them, they look really nice! I wouldn't do something like that! ...and then she showed me the fish... another thing I can eat... except there's only one in there that's even big enough to think about - he's called a "sucker fish" or a plecostamous he's around 23cms but he's spiny and he looks like he could hurt me. Theres another one called a bristle nose pleco that's around 3 cms so it's smaller so it can't hurt me, but he's too cute... here I am with the large one and a few other sword tails, platys, and guppies... ...and last but not least she showed me the new addition to the family... the mice... do you notice all her pets are ones I can eat? Oh well, I'm too nice to do something like that... but I was interested in seeing them... Although Sara told me I couldn't see them until night as they didn't come out much during the day, but they love to run in the wheel and she's getting them used to her hand so they're not so scared, so I should be very quiet around them as they're very small... I can't wait to see them tonight maybe? Well I've had a long journey mom, and already a big day... we'll be going to Cook Park tomorrow or Thursday and maybe we can see some kangaroos if we go and look hard enough in some parts of the outskirts of Orange... we'll see how we go! I'll update again soon when I can! Love, Cronus
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 22, 2008, 6:53 am	Today I spent sometime in the backyard with Sara and Benni it wasn't too hot, and wasn't too cold so it was a pretty nice day to spend playing outside. Andrew was also there - but most of the time he was messing with the cockatiels so he let Benni and I play most of the time... Andrew was really excited when he saw me and started laughing like crazy and chasing me around, thankfully I had Sara come and save me from him, although I doubt he could have hurt me, I was glad to be back in Sara's hands... ...outside Andrew still chased us around a bit until we got to the backyard but Sara put us out of reach but Andrew loved looking up at us and couldn't stop laughing... :-) When we finally got into the backyard I ran off and hid in some of the flowers in the backyard... can you find me? ...here I am! ...I'm still working on my hiding skills mom, but I'll do my best not to get lost, I always keep in sight of my hosts so they don't loose me because that would be so sad for everyone! Look at these flowers, these ones are pink, even though they're the same species of flower, they're called hydrangea, for some reason some are blue and some are pink, and some are both - depends on the soil type Sara said. But she also said that they rarely do much with them, they're very hardy flowers. After playing a bit of hide and seek with Benni we decided to play with one of Andrew's balls while he wasn't paying any attention to us... We played for a few minutes until Andrew noticed.. he loves to hold me, and he grabbed on only to be quickly snatched back up by Sara... maybe he was going to show me the cockatiels? Before we finally went inside for the rest of the day I had a bit of rest on the clothes line... I was tired from all the playing outside, I'm still quite jet lagged, it's strange being up when I'd normally be asleep! Well I'm off again for the night, tomorrow should be another good day, well see what happens. I'll update again soon mom! I miss you!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 23, 2008, 2:38 pm	Hey Mom! We didn't do much today, it was another pretty relaxing day for Benni and I, we rested on the lounge most of the day while Sara and Daniel went off and did grocery shopping. They told us that pictures aren't really looked greatly on in the grocery store as they don't like competitors taking photos of anything. So we we're just happy lounging out today. It was really nice outside, and quite warm as well, so it was nice inside - I think I might get sick because of the drastic changes in weather, but Sara's taking good care of me, so I should be fine! Tonight we made a butterscotch sponge pudding together. Benni and I helped, but of course some parts of it we're out of our control as boiling water and an egg was involved but we helped out however we could! The mixture and the brown sugar we're put together, we looked on drooling a bit, it looked so yummy already! Once the egg was in, we got to mix it up. I broke the egg for Sara and Daniel but of course I didn't put it in because I didn't want any of it getting on my fur, that wouldn't be good! I was happy watching it go in, but mixing it up was quite fun. Me and Benni took turns mixing it! Then Sara stepped in and helped out a bit more to get the stuff we couldn't get - so it all got mixed in really well... ...it was around 10 minutes later before the oven was totally heated so both Benni and I we're wanting a taste, but we we're told it would ruin our appetite and possibly make us feel sick, so we we're good! Then it was time for Daniel to pour in the boiling water, I obviously just was happy to sit back and watch for this - I felt the steam on my face and it was SO hot! So I'm glad I let them take care of that for me! All of it's ready now to go in the oven! In around 15 minutes we'll get to try what we helped make! How exciting! Doesn't it look SO good Mom? Because it was so much bigger than us, both me and Benni shared it - but of course he didn't eat as much as I am... I've never tried anything like this before, but it tastes really yummy! Well now that my tummy is full and it's getting late it's time to tuck back under the sheets and sleep! Tomorrow might be Cook Park, Sara says she's waiting for the other two toyvoyagers coming from another part of Australia. But if they don't come tomorrow Friday we'll go, Sara said there are native Australian birds at the park, so hopefully I can get some close encounters with some birds.. I hope I don't scare them too much! :-) Goodnight Mom!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 26, 2008, 3:12 am	Hey Mom! I meant to update yesterday but since Sara got sick she couldn't type up the journal for me, but now that she's feeling a bit better she's finally able to do it! Yesterday we went to Cook Park! It was quite a lot of fun! First off though we had to go to the shops to get some errands done... I was all tucked in ready for my first car ride... yay! When we finally got to the car park it was extremely busy, Sara said she thinks it's because it's Australia Day weekend, which is Australia's Independence Day... how strange it's on the 26th of January instead of the 4th of July! Of course the moment we finally got to the park I noticed this huge tree, and I had to climb it, but because I'm so small I didn't climb as far as I would have liked but I was happy with this height! Look how huge it is mom! Then the next thing I saw we're ducks!!!! I had to sit down with my back facing the ducks because the ducks seemed to be quite scared of me otherwise! They've never seen something like me before... Sara calls this duck a "fancy" duck because it's got more of a dark brown head and just looks more "fancy" than the other ones, although when it made a quacking noise it didn't sound like a quack, it was really strange! When we we're done at the duck pond we we're on our way to the bird aviary when we saw another common bird down here that I've never seen before... a magpie! They're strange looking birds, kind of like crows, but way more common down here! He was running away from us when we tried to get closer! Then we finally got to the bird aviaries, they're HUGE! This was the first bird that was willing to have his picture taken! He's huge! It's an Umbrella Cockatoo, Sara says... it's almost as big as me! She says that you can see them quite a bit in the wild around her house and I should keep a watch out for them, if you can't see them, you can always hear them at night! ...and this little guy is called an 'Eastern Rosella'... another one of the birds that you can see outside the house, although these are much less common to see than Cockatoos and other big birds... aren't they pretty? Other birds you could see in the aviary we're Budgies, Cockatiel's, Diamond Doves, Umbrella Cockatoos, Major Mitchell's Cockatoos, Rosella's (of all sorts), Lorikeet's, and small finches from Zebra Finches to Star Finches to little Button Quails at the bottom... of course they're all separated by a wall so the big parrots don't pick on the little finches... Next to the aviaries we're these flowers, they we're all over the park, how pretty! ...and while walking to another part of the park I saw another strange tree, which was MUCH easier to climb, so of course, being a cat... I had to climb it! Then Daniel and Sara showed me this really cool fountain, I stopped and took a drink, when I saw... ...these really strange bugs! Look at the colors and patterns on their backs! Sara said they're harmless and they're only little beetles... but we just left them alone... Then Sara had us pose with this famous thing in the middle of the park where bands play a lot on days like 'Australia Day' and other holidays... it's pretty awesome and really old! ...the flowers next to it we're very gorgeous, so I hid in them, they we're almost as tall as me! At the end of it all... Benni and I we're SO tired! We stopped and had a rest for a little bit before we left the park... On the way out of the park we noticed a few more things we didn't see in the park before... We saw lots and lots of fish in the duck ponds! Sara said they hadn't been there before so it's probably a new addition to the park, she also said they looked like huge goldfish, but that probably meant they we're Koi... look how many there are! ...and then we saw a "Bronzewing" Sara says they have these in their front yard all the time because she throws out the seed to them a few times a week when she's cleaning her bird cages... she also says they're a type of "pigeon" only local to Australia, what a strange looking pigeon isn't it mom? Well as you can tell it was a very busy day for me yesterday and I'm still quite tired from all the excitement so today is just another rest day for me! I'll post again when I can! Only 6 more days until I'm going to South Korea and America! How exciting!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 28, 2008, 3:44 pm	Hey Mom! Sorry I haven't updated the last few days Sara and Daniel have been very busy so me and Benni have just been spending our days at home lounging around and not doing much... although tomorrow is something more special! I'll get into that more later though... I've been introduced to this new candy, it's a German candy from a store called Aldi that they have down here in Australia too - they're really good mom! ...and since Benni is actually from Germany, it was an even more special treat, I was eating little mini gummy Benni's. He's my friend though, so I wouldn't really hurt him! It was just funny! I've also spent the last couple days writing out postcards for Sara, as Sara has a lot of postcrossing accounts she's totaling them all out for when she goes to America so when she comes back she'll have a lot in the mail in response... mail is always fun, but writing them out was quite fun too! But my paw cramped up a bit... :-) We also spent the time with the birds and the mice, I actually have seen them out, even though they're out when everyone else is usually asleep. They're fun to watch, tonight I actually caught Charlotte in the wheel, the others were hiding though! I think they're a bit afraid of me, being I'm a pretty big cat and all! Well tomorrow the plan is to go up to Mount Canobolas, an extinct volcano that's around 20 minutes away from Sara's home. She says it's the highest point until, well, she doesn't know... but you can see quite a distance, and she believes it's the highest point until you get to Perth... which is on the other side of Australia! That's a long way away, too bad you can't see that far! Hopefully it'll be a nice day, but hopefully not too hot! I hope everything is good with you mom! I'll update again soon!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 29, 2008, 2:49 pm	What a big day we had! We went up to Mount and Lake Canobolas today, and it was extremely hot! Even now at 130 in the morning it's 31'C in the house! :-( Here I am in the car, a nice ride, but it got hot sitting up on the dash so I sat down lower in the car where it was more shady, not really an interesting shot, it gets more interesting though don't worry mom! Once we got about half way up the mountain the road turned really rugged and got really twisty and a heap of turns so I was sliding all over the place but I managed to hang on for a minute to get a photo... weee! This is a photo of what the view was out of the passenger window, watch as all the trees whirred by, it made me a bit dizzy... but I'm all better now! :-) When we first got up there, Sara showed me this weed called "Patterson's Curse" it's very rampant down here in Australia. It all started when a lady from England brought down this pretty purple flower she wanted for her garden, it's now spread all the way across Australia and causes many people to have a nasty hay fever and in large amounts can harm life stock. So it's not good to have around. Sara was surprised it's still blooming because of the heat, it's died off everywhere else but Mount Canobolas it seems... Here I am at the top! If you see that town below me, that's where  we came from, that shows you how far up we really are! Here are some more pictures Sara took of the view that Mount Canobolas gives it's visitors... That last photo Sara says is the radio and TV towers for all of the Central West of New South Wales. They're HUGE! Sara and Daniel showed me the map which pin points which towns your looking at in what direction from the direct middle of the mountain... it was very interesting! Then I got to be read a bit about the mountain. I found out it was an active volcano around 10-15 million years ago. It started erupting from 30 different vents around 50 million years ago, some of the vents didn't erupt for as long while others erupted for the entire duration of the life of the volcano. How scary to have lived even 45 million years ago having this volcano I'm now standing on erupting all the time... wow! We decided it was time to go, so we got back in the car and about half way down the mountain we stopped at another view point... The second picture is one of Mount Canobolas' other "vents". It looks a lot more pointy than the top where we were standing on, but I guess the part we we're standing on was the main part of the volcano! Next stop Lake Canobolas... First thing we see when we enter the park was this little man made creek with a miniature waterfall. Sara said last time she was here it was bone dry, so it was a nice surprise to see it not so dry... there we're even ducks to accommodate it! Here's the view from the Lake Canobolas shore line... As you can see in the last photo we spotted some seagulls, now it's time to investigate!... lets see how close we can get... ...nope, not close enough... ...still not close enough... ...whoops! I guess it was a bit too close for the seagulls comfort, me being a big cougar and all!... There we're a lot of other ducks there too - mostly one's we saw at Cook Park the other day, but there was another black duck that Sara says reminded her of an "American Coot" but it made a really scary loud noise that startled me. But of course being a cougar I couldn't show it too much! :-) I wish I could have jumped in the water today, too bad I don't like water! The rest of the day was very relaxing just trying to cool ourselves down, Sara and Daniel cleaned like crazy to get ready for us leaving to America on Friday! I cannot believe how close that is, I guess I better rest a bit more, it's a 45 hour trip all up, with 20 hours of flying! That's crazy! We did have a goodbye party for Super Grover today though! I hope he has a safe journey to Austria! I'll miss him, he was a good mate, I just hope the best for him in his journeys! Well I think I'm going to rest the next few days, next time I update I'll be in America probably! Take care mom and I'll update again soon!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Feb 1, 2008, 7:43 pm	I just wanted to do a quick update for you mom. I'm safe in South Korea with Benni, Leo Lion and a few other friends Sara is bringing with her. It was a tearful goodbye, but when we landed it was dark, the sun is starting to come up now, so now hopefully I'll be able to see a little bit of Korea from the terminal. I'll bring back a lot of pictures. I'm flying out of here tonight at 6pm and landing on the same day at 1040am, I'm doing time travel mom! Even without a delorian. :-) I hope all is well with you and I'll update again when the jet lag wears off a bit when I'm in America. :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Feb 4, 2008, 10:11 pm	Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, Sara has been updating everyones and sometimes it gets hard to update with such a long update all in the same day... so here I am, ready to tell you about my trip. Although I don't have a lot of pictures of me sadly in South Korea, I do have some from when I finally did get to Washington! This is the road to Bathurst, it was a bit of a bumpy road as you can tell, but Sara says she thinks it turned out good with all the pictures and the road lines, it was around 1 in the morning when this was taken. We left really early for the Sydney flight! When we finally got checked in it was very sad, there were a lot of tears between Daniel and Sara, but it wasn't too bad, I was excited to go on my little journey! This shows you how stormy and gross it was outside the day we left! ...and this is the exact Asiana Airlines plane we traveled to South Korea in, isn't it big? Sara says there are even bigger ones called 747's. Dang! ...and finally we're in South Korea, and the first stop, is to call Daniel. This phone confused Sara, and when I saw it, it confused me a bit too! Crazy! It's even got a keyboard, thankfully she found one that was a bit easier to understand! After that we relaxed a bit with a Pepsi, it had a strange can didn't it? ...it was really yummy! But because it was around 2am then it was time to find a place to curl up and get some sleep! Here are some other random photos that were taken around the airport... it was a HUGE airport! These signs we're all over! They say "Happy New Year" in the background you can see the ones that say it in English. :-) This was a sign in front of the internet cafe... I wonder what it says! There's more around the airport with signs all over the place, and a lot of them had English but not all of them! Here was a huge sign over the "moving walk" as they called it there that showed the times from around the world! How weird is that? We we're 2 hours behind Sydney time... it was strange! These were all over the airport as well, it was way too early to see our flight on it, but it was flashing between English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese languages... Here's the money! It was paper, and the coins were REALLY light! It was strange having someone tell you that you owed them 27,000 won! Here's a sign in the bathroom. It was a bit hard to notice at first, but the translation is a bit funny. :-) ...and here's some shots from the daytime... ...and it's almost time to go!... ...our flight was a little bit delayed by an hour since the other connecting flight hadn't arrived from Seattle yet... but it arrived and we got on, and arrived in Seattle at around 1130am. It was crazy going through customs and immigration but once we did we went home to Monroe and had a long sleep. No proper sleep for almost 3 days we were happy to sleep in a real bed! When we got here... Benni and I met up with Charity Bear who will be visiting and coming back with us to Australia! Here's a picture of us all together! In the picture you can also see Kooka a little Kookaburra Sara got at the airport and her other TV Leo Lion who will be going on the Haunted TV Trail when he comes back from America. :-) We then got to meet up with the resident house cats, aren't they big? The one at the top is Jethro, and the one sniffing us is Ellie. They're very nice for how big they are! Because there was nothing to do and it was just a lazy Sunday we decided we'd make a pavlova for Sara's family! Doesn't it look yummy! It sure was! :-) ...we decided to go onto the back porch but it was SO cold we didn't stay for very long! It was really stormy and grey that day it looks like - there's threats of snow, and there's been avalanches in the mountains! For the rest of the day we just sat down and watched what went on with them and finished the day by watching The Lake House which is a very confusing movie! Well I hope your doing well mom! I've been thinking about you but I'm having heaps of fun!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Feb 9, 2008, 10:10 pm	Hey Mom! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. It's been really rainy here so we haven't been able to do much outside the house. We've just all been lounging around, but hopefully they're are plans to see the San Juan Islands and Leavenworth! Leavenworth I'm told is a German town on the other side of the mountains. It's been snowing like crazy! It's so different from Australia - haha. Just when I started to get used to the heat! On Thursday we took a visit to Sara's sister's house. She has 4 kids, and they LOVED me! I was Alissa's favourite, but she was very careful with me, so don't worry! She loved to give me cuddles, and she didn't want to see me go, but she knows it's my life as a little toyvoyager. :-) Here's me with Alissa. We had a busy busy day that day, we went and saw a little bit of Kirkland, which is a suburb of Seattle. Although not many photos we'll be taking another trip around Kirkland to visit her sister again next week. So hopefully I'll be able to see a bit more! We got to meet up with some cats too - this cat looks big, but he's actually pretty small. He's got a manx tail as Sara says and he's really fluffy, he looks like he's wearing a tuxedo! He's only 9 months old, so not too young, not too old... and although he looks scared, it was because of some big dogs that were visiting only for a short time! Thankfully they were a bit wired up... Now this is a tiny dog! We got to meet up with him - his name is Scooter and he's only 9 weeks old, he's a little "hot dog" dog, and he was a big lover, he always was cuddling up with someone. :-) That was a long day though we woke up at 3am to get to her house! We got home and had a late night watching some TV and then sleeping... We had a big day of grocery shopping the next day and got to eat some Sockeye Salmon, there's was a lot of it but it was REALLY yummy! Sara says it's pretty cheap here, and very good quality since there's a Salmon Run during some months of the year in Woodinville which is right near Kirkland... Then today we went to a hobby show, Sara meant to bring her camera but we still tagged along. We saw go-cart races at the show grounds and lots of model planes flying around, they were pretty cool! Hopefully today or tomorrow we'll take a walk to Lake Tye and get some photos there - it's actually not raining today! I'll update again soon, sorry it's taken so long but I'll be better about it from now on! :-) I hope you're doing well mom!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Feb 11, 2008, 5:19 am	Hey! Straight after I updated yesterday Sara took me, Charity Bear, Benni 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? ... 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. :-) ... 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... ... this is obviously straight facing the lake, now I turn around... and this is what I see... ... 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!... 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! We went on a hike to Wallace Falls today although sadly didn't quite make it up, but I'll post those pictures very soon!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Feb 11, 2008, 7:16 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... 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. :-) 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! Here I am next to the water, isn't it nice looking? Oh but it also looks SO cold! ... and here I am next to another set of falls, much smaller but it sure was nice to look at all the surroundings! 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. :-) 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! :-) 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!... 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, 6:52 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. 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 a pretty sunset! ...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, 5:53 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... 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! :-) ... 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. :-) 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... 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... 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?! ...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... 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... 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... 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? 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! 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! ...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... 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! 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... 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... 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... ...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. :-) Here's some pictures Sara took from the ferry - it was around an hour ride until we arrived at the dock in Orcas Island... ...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... 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... ... 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! 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... ...and here I am at the top, looking out over the islands... 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! 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... 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. 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. :-) 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. 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... ...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, 11:40 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! :-) 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, 12:16 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... First the one cube of butter needed to be chopped up and put in... 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! ...and even more graham cracker crumbs!... Then it was about time to pour the sweet condensed milk over the top... All done... it's starting to look so yummy... but looks even more yummy very soon! :-) Then we sprinkled the chocolate chips, and coconut over the top... mmm! 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... 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... ...not sure if you can see, but under my 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... 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... Here's a picture of me standing near one side of the huge centre piece... here are some other photos.. 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! 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... ... 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... Last but not least we got to see a big cat that resembled me, how strange to see what they really look like. Sara said that she wasn't going to count this as seeing a real cougar, since I'm sure you'd like to see one in the zoo or in the wild rather than on a big centre piece... he sure did look quite fierce though didn't he? 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, 7:38 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... :-) 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! :-) ...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! :-) ...and then after a bit more walking we got to the world famous Ye Olde Curiosity Shop... 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... ...and meet Sylvester... the most famous well preserved mummy in the world! ...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... ...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... Here's more information again about both Sylvia and Sylvester... very interesting information really... :-) 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. While we were waiting for our food, we saw some seagulls up close! ...in the background of a second one you see a famous and familiar sight of Washington, the ferries! 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! :-) 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 ...and here I am remembering all my fun times while I've been in Washington... my favourite was the Wallace Falls hike in Gold Bar, there were so many beautiful places to stop and just relax... I loved it! ...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, 11:57 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... 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... We had to check the board to make sure our flight was on time... 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... We got to take a nap, and next pictures we're in Japan... here's what we saw... 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! 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... We then crossed the sea between Japan and South Korea, and we started to come closer to landing, Sara got some photos of Seoul... ...and now we've landed in South Korea... 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... 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... 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, 12:12 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? 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... 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? 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... Here are all of us on the beach... ...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! Here are some seagulls, there we're quite a lot of them really!.. 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... ...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... 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, 12:22 pm	Today we went to Blayney and on the way to Blayney we all got to see an emu, what a famous Australian animal. :-) ...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... From left to right it's Mulalu, Luke, Mel, me, Alpina, Leo Lion, 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, 6:46 am	First things first, we had to all say goodbye to Benni and Charity Bear... it was pretty sad, but we all know they're going to have fun and going to a safe place. I had a few more hours and then I got ready to go to Costa Rica... how exciting!... We went to Blayney, we've been going everyday to feed the animals at Sara's father-in-law's house... no photos with those animals though they're too crazy. But we stopped to see the local emu, we're not sure if he's a wild one, or someone owns him... but we think he just got stuck in the paddock since he was younger, he comes and goes... he's SO big though... Next stop, our destination... something kinda unique about this though is - it's one of four marsden cottages they were built for the workers of the wealthy Marsden family. They're listed on the national trust and heritage as historically important. The house in front of me is the one that's most intact and in best condition of the three of them and has most of the original everything that was originally in the house. The house was built in the mid 1870's. We heard a lot of stories from Sara about some spooky stuff that's happened there, she lived there for 10 months with her father-in-law before moving to Orange in May 2006... Animals are fed... so next stop... Church Hill... Church hill is a large hill in the middle of town, so Sara got some photos of Blayney from a bit higher elevation... it was a nice clear and hot day so we didn't spend too much time there before moving on... I got the okay then to get my journal and get in my travel case to go to Costa Rica... here I am about to go to the post office!... Wish me luck! I'm off to my next destination! I had a great time but I'm ready to see more of the world! :-) Talk to you soon mom!
deleted_member Posted Dec 11, 2008, 4:15 pm	Oh hi there! I've been in Costa Rica for a while now but it's been kinda rainy all this time, also my host wasn't feeling very well but now we're gonna start going to cool places! Anyway, even if she was on bed I've been managing to play and play and play! We were to Puntarenas and there's kinda of a farm there, but without the animals, so the fields were all for me to play... and that's what I did, running in the flowers. I also chose the cutest rose for mommy <3
deleted_member Posted Dec 11, 2008, 4:22 pm	We also went to some other place called Miramar, and Shirley told me that means "ocean view", and I could see the Pacific Ocean from there! It's very nice and also has lots of trees and stuff like Esparza. Shirley said we get to go to the zoo next week, yay!
deleted_member Posted Dec 16, 2008, 9:05 pm	I helped Shirley write some Christmas cards today, and also I got to send a card to Mommy, yay :-)

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