Winnie the Pooh, Essen, Germany

BlackCat Posted Jan 23, 2008, 2:42 pm	So, at the moment I am at home and I want to introduce myself, so that you know who is travelling around there ! So, this is me in a tree of my mummy ! I am happy living in Essen, that's in the West of Germany. But now it turns boring and my mummy found this site here. So we talked with my big brother and my twin brother and decided to send me on the way around the world. Me in the front of my big and my twin brother ! I have my little notebook on my side where the people, who will give me a home, can write little things in and maybe paste inside photos and little postcards ! Me and my notebook, so you can imagine how big it is (15 cm) ! I am a funny and a nice bear. I love playing hide and seek, having fun and seeing all the nice buildings and places in the world. That's me riding a wild cat ^^! I'm good in playing hide and seek. So now I'm looking for somebody who will show me his places and things all around the world. That's me waiting for somebody to show me something nice ! There are some important things you should know before giving me a home: 1. I want to be at your house around a month, not longer please! 2. My mummy wants to get a postcard from me everytime I visit something special. But at least once I visit someone (so host #1 send her one, host #2 send her one and so on). 3. I have a little notebook at my side (it is 15 cm high) and I really would like to write in it as much as possible! If it is full, please tell my mummy and she will send another one out ! 4. Please make much photos of me ! My mummy, my brothers and my daddy will miss me and I think I can make some happy moments, when I send them a photo ! 5. Please update my Travelog at least 2 times a week! It would be nice when you want to host me. Just PM my mummy please. She will send me to you or bring you on the list ! My travelling list: Amerika 1. Hancock, MI - USA - masucci 2. Rome, NY - USA - Michele_one_L 3. Colorado - USA - wourpet 4. Miami, FL - USA - carlissa Australia 1. sararingham 2. Sydney - becka_kate !!!NOT UNTIL SEPTEMBER!!! Asia 1. Novosibirsk - Russia - Oksana 2. Japan - yumi *searching* Europe 1. Arras - France - Fleurdunord 2. London - England - Deborah 3. Munich - Germany - Pandamao 4. Wittshire - United Kingdom - Steve /+/ Helly *searching for more* Africa *searching* more to come !
BlackCat Posted Jan 23, 2008, 9:41 pm	That’s me with in front of the tin with the Big Ben on it! I love this picture and maybe I will visit it on my tour around! Me with the statue of Liberty on a tin! Maybe I will meet her, too! So, my mummy and me talked about starting my travel soon. We decided that I will go on my first travel tomorrow. I have called all my friends to visit me for a goodbye party ! I didn't know if anybody would come, but then my friends came ! They brought me a big honey bottle ! It was really nice to eat it all alone ! Then it was time to say goodbye. My brother took me and told me some good advice. We kissed each other and said goodbye. I think he even cries, but I didn't want to see it... With my brothers. Goodbye Kiss to my twin brother. Goodbye kiss to my big brother. And tomorrow right after waking up I will went in my home for sending me and then I will fly to my first host ! I am really excited but a little bit scared, too. I don't know what will come, but we will see ! Here is the card my mummy made for me so that I don’t get lost: So, tomorrow I will show me going away ^^!
BlackCat Posted Jan 24, 2008, 6:40 pm	So, today was my last day at home. My mummy decided that I should have a meal before going away and she told me, that I won't get something to eat for around 1 week now. I get scared, but I hope masucci will have something to eat for me! I helped mummy cooking: I waited for the meal being ready. After eating I decided to go in my envelope. So mummy gave me a goodbye kiss and I was photographed by packing in: backside of my envelope Frontside of my envelope I'm lying on the bubble wrap where I get packed in. Looks funny, or? Goodbye mummy, goodbye brothers. I allready miss you! So, now I am on my travel to my first host...hopefully I will arrive there soon and in a good condition! I love you mummy, Winnie the Pooh
masucci Posted Feb 11, 2008, 6:28 pm	Hi Mom! I made it to the USA today - my new host Melissa was very excited to greet me! It's very cold here, Melissa says the temperatures have been in the single digits or below zero degrees Fahrenheit for over a week now.  It sure looks pretty outside, but boy is it deceiving: Melissa lives in a small, old town, most of the buildings are older and the people of the town like to keep up that image when 'new' buildings come in. I was greeted by a lot of furry friends at Melissa's apartment.  I got to meet Stitch!  He's Melissa's buddy, and guards the TV and DVD player in the living room: And her apartment-mate, Bill, loves Penguins.  I got to meet them all for a while: And I got introduced to all the visiting TVs that were here already. There's Little Teddy, Weasley, Sully Monster, and me! We're heading out to look at the snow statues today.  The deadline for having them done was 8am this morning - I arrived just in time!
masucci Posted Feb 11, 2008, 7:45 pm	Wow! The snow statues we went to go see are part of the larger celebration at Michigan Technological University called "Winter Carnival".  This is the history about it, from the Winter Carnival website: Michigan Tech often registers more than 200 inches of snow in a season. Not content to let this abundant natural resource go to waste, students band together in an annual celebration of our beautiful, tough, exhilarating, and character-building climate. Winter Carnival began in 1922, with a one-day Ice Carnival. It was so popular that students made it an annual event, and Winter Carnival as we know it began to take shape. It was suspended in 1930, in the aftermath of the stock market crash, but in 1934, Blue Key Honor Fraternity resurrected the event. Then, 1936 brought the biggest change, one that would become Carnival's best known tradition: snow statues. Since then, the statues have become famous for their size, detail, and design as building methods (and secrets) have been passed from year to year. During World War II, Winter Carnival was again suspended. It took off again in 1946, when the Stage Revue was added, with fraternities, sororities, and other campus organizations presenting skits for the enjoyment of the crowd and the performers alike. Winter Carnival events start at the beginning of the Spring term, with the construction of the month-long statues (the bigger ones I'll show you in a minute!).  Then two or three weeks before the actual event, there are a lot of competitions, like broomball, skiing, human dogsled races, snowboarding, etc.  Then there's a big ta-da at the end on a Wednesday night.  On that night a lot of other groups get together and while the people making month-long statues are finishing theirs, they make one-nighter statues that are a lot smaller.  There is activity on campus all night until the wee hours of the morning, and the deadline to be finished is 8am on Thursday.  Then Thursday morning everyone walks around the area taking photos of them all before they melt/fall apart.  All the minute details usually don't last more than a couple days (it warms up and melts, or it'll snow more on top of them, etc.) but the big structures will be up most of the rest of the winter until they melt. There are so many people around that it was too hard to get a photo with me in it, but I hope you like them anyway!  They look  so awesome in person, the detail on some of them is amazing. First the big month-long ones: King Kong fighting a monster! Oh yeah, the theme was Frightful Creatures with Chilling Features... The Abominable Snowman! The Ghostbusters fighting the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! More coming in the next post!
masucci Posted Feb 11, 2008, 8:05 pm	Melissa really liked this one.  It's a bunch of different monsters wreaking havoc on models of all the campus buildings.  Like there's Godzilla in something called the "Chem Sci". One of the Sororities made a monster out of a can of Monster energy drink!  The gay pride group paid homage to Sully Monster! This is the monster from "Tremors".  The description says something about not eating Kevin Bacon - lol! This is of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster.  This was the winner in the "Women's Groups/Sororities" category. More coming soon!
masucci Posted Feb 11, 2008, 8:32 pm	This is the Kracken destroying a ship like in Pirates of the Caribbean! T-Rex from Jurassic Park This is one of Melissa's favorites.  It's of demons haunting a child's bedroom.  Look in the last photo at the ice rocking horse!  Wow! Godzilla! From the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" This one was the winner in the "Men's Groups/Fraternities" category.  It's of Van Helsing killing vampires.  It's so amazingly detailed that even all the photos Melissa took can't even begin to show it all. That's all of the month-long ones.  We'll post later about the one-nighters.  It's dinner time now!
masucci Posted Feb 11, 2008, 11:14 pm	Come to find out, Melissa just realized she didn't take many photos of the one-night statues.  They're not as nice as the month-long ones, as a whole, as you can imagine.  But here are a few of the ones we liked: Trogdor from Homestarrunner.com Melissa squealed when she saw this and her mom, who was with us, looked at her like she was nuts.  She doesn't get the reference. They won first place in their group (on-campus residents). The Grim Reaper, made by a group of Lutheran students.  Ironic? A smaller version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Beowulf This is a monster rock band, made by a music fraternity that Melissa is a member of.  They won first place in their group (campus organizations). This is a couple teams playing broomball, so you can see what that's like.  It's a BIG deal here, almost a third of the student body participates. That's all for now!  We're going to go see some of the town tonight and tomorrow.  More history lessons before I leave the area!
masucci Posted Feb 16, 2008, 1:42 am	Happy Valentine's Day, mommy! I hope you had a wonderful day back home! Miss you, Pooh PS.  We're going camping!  Photos coming soon!
masucci Posted Feb 21, 2008, 1:20 pm	There is this small little tea room in Houghton (Hancock's "sister town") that Melissa goes to at least once a week and writes postcards and letters.  Everyone there knows her, knows what she orders, and they're all very nice. You can order an endless pot of tea, soup and sandwiches, cookies, and cake.  There are also lots of older/silly hats to wear while you're there.  Melissa brought the others with her last time she went - before I got here.  This time she brought just me.  We had some yummy Mocha Nut cake and "Buckingham Palace" tea. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to have something warm to drink to get rid of the chills.  The weather has been -way- below zero for several weeks now.  Brr!
masucci Posted Feb 21, 2008, 2:17 pm	The town of Hancock, MI has a very strong Finnish Heritage.  We found a little information about it on Hancock's website, if you would like to see it, here: http://www.cityofhancock.com/cityinfo.html Hancock has an official "sister city" relationship with a town in Finland, called Porvoo.  Melissa doesn't know much about it, and had a hard time finding much information (beyond the fact that the relationship exists). There's a small park on the waterfront called "Porvoo Park" in honor of this sister city relationship.  It overlooks the city of Houghton, across the Portage Canal, and gives a good place to take a photo of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge. You can't see much due to the snow, but in the summer there's a boardwalk along the water, lots of picnic tables, and there's a set of condos to the right. To the left is the bridge: This is a pretty unique bridge.  It opens to let water traffic through by lifting up the middle part.  There are lots of videos about bridges that talk about this unique design.  Melissa said she watched one while she was in high school and the people pronounced the name "Houghton" wrong, for Houghton, MI.  There's a little information about it, if you're interested, here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_Lake_Lift_Bridge Melissa loves giving us these "history lessons" about the area.  More coming soon.  Hope you like it!
masucci Posted Feb 26, 2008, 11:57 am	This is a kind of funny place that we went to. In a nearby town (Mohawk, MI) there is a giant 'snow thermometer' on the side of the highway!  It's huge! It 'measures' the current and previous year's snowfalls against the record snowfall for this area.  I'll show you... Here I am being held up against it, because the snow banks on the side of the road were too deep to get much closer.  Melissa hoped she could put me next to it so you could see how big it is.  Let's just say when it says "390.4 inches", it means it! Here are a few close-ups of the wording on it: Last year's snowfall for the whole season - something like October to April - was "barely above average" according to Melissa. This year so far they've already had more snow than they did all of last year.  There has been about 11" more snowfall so far (and a big storm a-brewing, says Melissa).  It's been a very cold and snowy year.  Makes for  a long and depressing winter - but we're sure enjoying it while we're here! There is currently about 3 feet of snow on the ground at any given point.  The snow banks are HUGE in comparison to us little ToyVoyagers.  Melissa keeps us safe from any avalanches, though!
masucci Posted Feb 28, 2008, 1:09 pm	We went camping! Well, since it's so cold outside (it's still be pretty consistently below 0 degrees F everyday) we went camping indoors.  But we still had a lot of fun. This is me and Little Teddy.  Look at our tent, perfect size for us TVs! Here are all of us posing outside.  There was also another tent that we could put a picnic table under to have lunch.  Unfortunately, Melissa couldn't find a TV-sized picnic table.  That's okay though, we sat underneath the tent and ate lunch and enjoyed ourselves anyway. I call this shot "Happy Campers"! Yay!  It was so fun.  We (me, Little Teddy, Sully Monster and Weasley) sat in the little tent and told ghost stories after Melissa turned out the lights, and none of us got much sleep.  We had some good bonding time, though, and I wish you'd been here! Miss you!
masucci Posted Feb 29, 2008, 7:55 pm	Today is Sully Monster's last day with Melissa.  He is going to another part of Michigan to visit a new host. We visited Melissa's mom today, who has a new St. Bernard Puppy, named "Moose". Don't worry, he snuffed us a little bit to make sure we weren't dangerous and then Melissa made sure we were safe.  He sure is big, and he's just a puppy! We all had a little pow-wow and said our goodbyes.  I'm going to miss my friend, but I'm excited that he gets to see more of the world. A couple final group shots.  *tear* And off he goes.  He's going to have a blast.  Melissa was his very first host.
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:48 pm	Yesterday Sully Monster left us and today we got a new visitor, Archibald. Today we made Broccoli-Cheese soup with Melissa.  Usually she makes everything from scratch but today we just made it from a "kit" because she's been so busy she doesn't have a lot of time. But we tweaked the kit to make it taste really awesome so it's okay. Melissa says not to worry, that none of us got close enough to the heat to get burned or anything.  It was yummy, and a great way to meet our new friend!
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:49 pm	Today we were in Marquette for the day with Melissa.  This is about a 2-hour drive from Hancock. She says we will probably be here again sometime before we all leave her. Today we saw the Children's Museum.  Melissa wasn't sure if she could take pictures while inside, so all we have is me outside.  It was a lot of fun, though!  All the kids loved us!
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:50 pm	Today is Melissa's 25th birthday.  She has to work tonight, so there's no big party or anything going on. Melissa works midnight shift at the local Wal*Mart retail store, so a lot of the time we are awake at night with her and sleep during the day. We thought we would make a few photo posts showing you some landmarks of her town the way we normally see them - at night. This restaurant is called the Library and they make their own variety of beers.  The college students love the place.  The joke is that you could tell your parents you're going to the "library" and they think you're going to study... This is the Dee Statium.  This was built on the site of the Amphidrome, which burned down in 1927.  The hockey team at Melissa's university used to play here before they got their new stadium closer to campus.  The lower level is an ice rink, and the upper level is a skate park (for skateboarders, trick bike riders, etc.).
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:50 pm	More sites continuing from last night's "night tour"... today is a tour around the campus. This is the administration building.  There are offices in here for the Dean, Admissions, Financial Aide, the President and Board of Control and other important people. Here we are on the west end of campus looking east.  To the left is the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics building.  It's the tallest building on campus.  Not just on campus, but the tallest building in the county!  On the right, the lights that you can see in the windows are from the Library, which is open 24 hours a day for people who need to get away to study or something. The white and brown building in the background is the ROTC building, which houses the Army and Air Force ROTC programs.  In front of it, the monument-looking thing and the lit-up American flag, is a memorial that the University built after the events of September 11, 2001.  Every year they do speeches and things from that site. Here we are on the east end of campus looking west.  The only other part of campus that is more east than this is the Fine Arts building, which is quite a way behind Melissa at this point and hard to get a photo of in the dark (the building is black).  On the right, with the lights on, is the Civil Engineering building.  On the left (hard to see) is the Math/Computer Sciences building.  Way behind in the background is our friend the Mechanical Engineering building (the biggest one). This little house is the home of MTU's Counseling Services, where the mental health people are.  Like if a student wants to talk to a counselor.  The funny thing about this building is that it is surrounded by two parking lots.  The other buildings on campus have sidewalks and such all around them, except for this one.  It's like the university expanded around it.  The VIPs keep threatening to tear it down (for more parking space) and moving the counselors to s different building and everyone protests. Finally, this is one of the dormitories, called "Wadsworth Hall".  This is actually a photo of about HALF of the building.  The whole thing is about a quarter of a mile long from one end to the other.  It houses more than half of the on-campus students.  The hallways inside are "riot-proof", which means instead of just going straight, there are lots of zig-zags and turns.  Melissa explained that the building was built around the 1960's and 70's, when hippie "protestors" were pretty popular and this discouraged protestors from "sit-ins". Hope you liked our little night tour!
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:52 pm	Today we went to a small historic town called Calumet.  Melissa explained that a long time ago, when this whole area used to be largely populated because of the copper mining industry, Calumet was once the capitol city of Michigan. Since then the copper mines have closed, the population has dropped, and most of what remains are abandoned ruins, mine tours and a lot of beautiful old buildings.  Melissa says Calumet also maintains a beautiful cobblestone road that is older than most of the buildings in town but because of the snow you can't see it. What we drove to Calumet to see, however, was the theatre... This is the Calumet Theatre.  Here's a little information about it that Melissa found/taught us: Quote: The Calumet Theatre is a theater and opera house which was constructed in 1900. In 1898, the copper mining industry was booming, and the town had an enormous surplus in its treasury. The town council decided to spend some of the surplus on a theater. The theater hosted a large number of famous actors, musicians, and opera singers. [7] With the close of the mines, the theater became a movie theater and fell into general disrepair for many years. In 1975, the town began a large project to repair and restore the theater, which is now used for many local and touring productions. The theatre is a National Historic Landmark. Melissa says her co-ed fraternity hosts an international dinner-and-a-movie night at this theatre once a month for the local community, and a lot of older people go to it.
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:55 pm	We are spending the weekend in Marquette again before me, Weasley, and Teddy all leave for our next hosts.  We did a lot of sight-seeing and got a few pictures. This is a shot of the ore dock from a park on one end of town... And here it is from the park/marina in the other side of town.  The ore dock is no longer used but railroads used to bring iron ore to these docks where it would get put on ships and sent to other parts of the country.  Like copper mining in Melissa's town, iiron ore mining was a big contributor to the former wealth of the Marquette area. Here's images from another park.  Melissa forgot the name of it.  She talked to someone while we were there and they said that in the summer time high school kids swim out to that big rock on the right and spraypaint it, usually with something like "Class of..." or "Yay Seniors!" And lastly... This is the Superior Dome.  This is the indoor football field/etc. at Marquette's local university, Northern Michigan Univ.  Here's some information about it: Quote: The Superior Dome opened as the world’s largest wooden dome on September 14, 1991, is a domed stadium on the campus of Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. It is home to the Northern Michigan Wildcats football team, as well as a variety of campus and community events. The Dome stands 14 stories high and encompasses 5.1 acres (21,000 m²) under its roof. Constructed as a geodesic dome with 781 Douglas Fir Beams and 108.5 miles (175 km) of fir decking, the Dome has a permanent seating capacity of 8,000, though the building can hold as many as 16,000 people. The facility features a diameter of 163.4 m (536 feet), and has the ability to withstand 60 pounds force per square foot (2.87 kPa) of snow and 80 mile per hour (130 km/h) winds. The Dome’s features include a retractable artificial turf carpet, the largest of its kind in the world. When extended, the turf has the ability to accommodate football, soccer, and field hockey. Underneath the carpet is a synthetic playing surface that features three basketball/volleyball courts, two tennis courts and a 200 meter track. Twelve computerized winches extend the carpet over a cushion of air. It takes 30 minutes to retract the artificial turf carpet and approximately two hours for full setup to be completed. We also saw a Maritime Museum, a really cute coffee shop called the "Coffee Cup" where Melissa saw (and then forgot to buy) postcards she wanted to send you - oops!  We also had lunch at an Eastern/vegan-inspired restaurant called "Sweet Water Cafe", and then met up with Melissa's friend Amanda, who we spent the weekend visiting.
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:56 pm	Happy Easter! Today we visited Melissa's mom and we got to play with the puppy Moose again.  Boy is he getting big! On the way home we got to see a few more local attractions before I leave tomorrow morning. This is the Quincy Mine (No 2 Shaft House)... Quote: The Quincy Mine is an extensive set of copper mines located near Hancock, Michigan. The mine was owned by the Quincy Mining Company and operated between 1846 and 1945, although some activities continued through the 1970s. The Quincy Mine was founded in 1846 with significant investment from Massachusetts (the town of Quincy, Massachusetts lent the mine its name). While many other copper mines were founded at the same time, the Quincy Mine quickly became the most successful, and was the country's leading copper producing mine from 1862-1882. The Quincy Mine is now a popular Keweenaw tourist attraction. The Quincy Mine Hoist Association maintains the buildings and grounds, and provides guided tours of the Number 2 Shaft House and several of the mine tunnels during the summer. There are museum-style exhibits within many buildings. The mine and surrounding areas are part of the Keweenaw National Historical Park. Due to it being winter, this is about a close to it as we could get (the parking lot isn't plowed or anything).  Melissa says she's always wanted to go on the underground tour and never has - maybe now that she has ToyVoyagers to host she'll go this summer after they reopen! Behind and to the left of the No 2 Shaft House you can see other buildings (some used, some abandoned, some lost to disrepair) from the same time period. This is Mont Ripley (some abandoned buildings in front of it), the ski hill owned by the university.  It's been warm enough (and when it does snow, there's not much of it anymore) that the hill is closed for Spring now.  But it's a pretty busy place when it's open! Here are a couple photos of what Melissa's pretty sure is an abandoned refinery (where you take mined copper and "refine" all the other things out of it so that you have pure copper without rock/etc.).  You can see Mont Ripley behind it in the background.
masucci Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:58 pm	Today I'm leaving for my next host! I can't wait to see you again - it's been fun but it'll be nice to get away from the snow and warm up a bit! See you soon, world!
Michele_one_L Posted Mar 30, 2008, 6:15 pm	I arrived in cold New York today! It was a cold and bumpy ride but I made it. I'll update again soon with some pictures. I need to warm up and get some rest.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 3, 2008, 12:41 am	I was surprised to find out that I wasn't the only TV who arrived at Michele's house this afternoon. It seems that I had secretly been traveling with Nicki Bear. I wish I would have known as it was lonely traveling alone. There were a few TV's waiting for our arrival! I was greeted by Honey Bear, Wolletje and Hazle. I'm looking forward getting to know everyone.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 3, 2008, 12:45 am	This evening we went with Michele and her husband to take their dog Riley for a walk. On our walk we saw a cool tree that we wanted to climb. Michele helped us up and we posed for a picture. The neighborhood was boring and we didn't see much else.  Michele said we will see some interesting things later in the week.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 3, 2008, 12:50 am	After our walk we decided to rest on the steps in front of Michele's apartment building. It was nice because the sun was starting to set.  As it got darker we were told to come inside. First we needed to check the mailbox to see if Michele forgot to pick up the mail. It was empty!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 3, 2008, 12:56 am	A new TV arrived today! It's a little puppy named Little Billy. He told us that he was just on vacation in South Africa. We were anxious to learn more about his trip.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 6, 2008, 6:54 pm	This afternoon we were looking for something to do when we saw there was a puzzle on the table. We got the box open and decided to put it together. It was harder then you would think! Hazle, Little Billy and I decided to dig for pieces while Nicki Bear and Wolletje put it together. After hours of work all we were able to put together was the border. Michele was so happy with our hard work! She said that she will help us put the rest of the puzzle together.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 6, 2008, 7:46 pm	Michele was so happy that we put the border to her puzzle together, she decided to reward us with some ice cream!  It's called Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough by Ben & Jerry's. Too bad we have to share!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 11, 2008, 5:22 pm	Tonight for dinner we are making calzones! Michele cheated and bought premade dough. She says it's easier and not so messy. First we had to cut the dough ball in half, then we had to flatten it out. It's not as easy as you would think it is. We got some holes in our dough but Michele said she could make it work.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 11, 2008, 5:37 pm	Next we put a layer of ricotta cheese on half of the dough. On top of the ricotta cheese we put cooked bacon. Michele told us that you can use whatever kind of toppings you want. She said some people like veggies, pineapple, ham, olives and lots of other stuff. After we put the bacon on we put a good layer of shredded mozzarella cheese. Michele said you can never have enough cheese.  The last step is to fold the dough over and "close" the seams. Daryl put the calzones on the baking pan then brushed them with a little olive oil and in the oven they went!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 11, 2008, 5:42 pm	About 30-40 minutes later the calzones are ready! We got a big plate for us to share. Be careful, it's HOT!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 11, 2008, 5:46 pm	Boy was that good!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 11, 2008, 5:53 pm	For dessert we all shared a mini watermelon. It was a little over ripe but it was still sweet and juicy.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 13, 2008, 7:35 pm	Today Michele took us on a drive through Rome so we could see some of it's history. Our first stop was to the Sears Service Station. Michele didn't know too much about the station so she looked it up online. She told us "The Sears Oil Company was founded in 1913 and the newly restored station was originally constructed in 1930. The gas station stopped operating and has been vacant since 1974.  In 2002, restoration began and its conversion into a museum of Sears' history began. The museum will include on display restored antique pumps and a variety of artifacts inside the building. The pumps feature glass globes on top and the reproduction of side billboards were installed to complete the project. The museum, with free admission, may appear small in size, but will highlight vast memories of a much simpler, by gone era."
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 13, 2008, 7:53 pm	Next we saw a War Memorial in the center of town. The memorial says "In loving memory of all Romans who served our country in the cause of freedom." Michele said that it was built to thank all of the men and woman from Rome who have served in the military.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 13, 2008, 8:06 pm	Across the street was a beautiful gothic church. And a sign about Rome.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 13, 2008, 8:18 pm	We visited one last monumnet before returning to Michele's house. Sadly Michele can't remember what the monument is for so she said she'll research it and tell us about it later.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 18, 2008, 10:42 pm	Today Hazle and Mister P Tom left for Germany. We said our goodbyes and wished them luck. It was great meeting both of them. Maybe we will meet again someday! Good Luck and Best Wishes!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 20, 2008, 9:11 pm	Today a new TV arrived! We were all so happy to see someone new. It just happened to be Little Billy's half brother Dirkie.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 20, 2008, 9:29 pm	Today we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. It was so busy there! Michele said we had to stay in her bag because she didn't want us to get lost. We helped her look for a BBQ grill but we didn't find one today. We paid for our items then headed home for lunch.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 20, 2008, 9:40 pm	For lunch we shared a turkey sandwich with Honey BBQ flavored potato chips. It was yummy but made me thirsty.  So Michele gave me an Arizona Iced Tea box to drink. Ahhh....that hit the spot!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 20, 2008, 10:00 pm	After lunch we helped make cookies for Michele's dog Riley. You take 3 jars of meat baby food (we used Ham), 1/4 cup of dry milk and 1/4 cup of cream of wheat. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Then use a small scoop to put the mix on a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let them cool and feed to your dog. Riley went crazy when we were making them, Michele says he loves these cookies!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 21, 2008, 11:38 pm	Today we had to say goodbye to Wolletje! We were sad to see her go, but she said that she was looking forward to going somewhere new. We said our goodbyes and wished her well. She said that she hopes to see us again someday. Bye Wolletje! Have a safe trip!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 26, 2008, 1:42 am	We haven't done much over the last few days because our host has been really sick. So we have been entertaining our selfs in her home. We found out that her home is good for playing hide and go seek. For dinner tonight Michele made spaghetti, buttermilk biscuits and green beans. It was a delicious dinner! We are promised that over the next few days we will get out of the house and have some fun. YAY!!! We can't wait.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 26, 2008, 1:50 am	Our host was feeling much better today so we were able to go out and run errands. Our first stop was to Hallmark. Mother's day is coming (May 11th) so my host and her husband needed to pick up some cards. We wanted to take pictures inside but the lady asked that we not. Oh well!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 26, 2008, 8:25 pm	After Hallmark we headed to Panera Bread for dinner. We shared a smokehouse turkey panini, a cup of tomato soup, an iced tea and for dessert a big chocolate chip cookie.  It was delicious! We were all ready for a nap once we got done eating. Michele told us that we still weren't done running errands.  She said we didn't have to walk that she would carry us.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 26, 2008, 8:36 pm	Petsmart was our third stop! We were looking for treats and pooper scooper bags for Michele's dog Riley. This store was interesting!  You can bring your dog with you and they can pick out their own toys, food, treats, etc. Michele told us that Riley loves going to Petsmart. It's too bad that he wasn't able to come.  Michele told us that we had one more stop then we would be going home.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 26, 2008, 8:40 pm	Our last stop for the evening was at Target. We posed for a picture outside then fell asleep in Michele's bag.
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 26, 2008, 9:05 pm	Today was my last day in New York. I had a fun time here but it's time to see another part of the USA. I said my goodbyes to the friends I've met here. They wished me well and told me good luck. Maybe some of us will meet again someday. Good Bye New York!
Michele_one_L Posted Apr 26, 2008, 9:08 pm	I'm headed to Colorado via First Class on the USPS flight # 0403 7689 1270 1004 3751. See you in Colorado!
wourpet Posted May 1, 2008, 4:30 am	Today was a BLUSTERY day!  I arrived yesterday and today I met some new friends and we went outside to play.  We did not get far because the wind had blown leaves and flowers all over the ground.  It was raining flower petals. I am with Snuggles and TibiPanda
wourpet Posted May 3, 2008, 8:34 am	Today we got to travel.  We got a nice comfiy spot on the dash of the truck where we could see out the window. Soon after we started on our voyage it started to storm.  We were worried it would be a very stormy trip. We drove right through the storm and soon it was nice and clear again. We drove into some very steep mountains and wourpet told us we would be climbing right up over top of them. and we did and there was snow up on top of the mountains too! The first town we came to was Rangely, Colorado.
wourpet Posted May 5, 2008, 5:51 am	The next town after Rangley was Dinosaur.  Wourpet siad there were lots of dinosaur around and we saw 2 of them.  It was very strange because the dinosaur we saw were in corrals. Dinosaur is a very small town with only about 300 people and almost that many dinosaurs.  It's funny, though, because on the fences where the dinosaurs are there is a sign that says 'No Pets'
wourpet Posted May 5, 2008, 6:28 am	We arrived at Vernal Utah not long after we were in Dinosaur.  They are close together and the Dinosaur National Monument is in between. The first thing we saw as we came into town was another Dinosaur.  This was a very big pink one!
wourpet Posted May 5, 2008, 7:10 am	Whew! Today was a fun exciting day.  We all went boating on the river and I got to drive a speed boat all by myself.
wourpet Posted May 14, 2008, 5:49 am	Today was spring clean-up day and we helped pull an old hedge up and pile it on the street.  Then a big truck came along and a loader loaded it up and hauled it away.
wourpet Posted May 19, 2008, 8:01 am	Today we went ino the mountains -- they are called the Bookcliffs -- to Highline Lake and Mack Mesa Lake.  We had a picnic there and it was very cold and windy.
wourpet Posted May 19, 2008, 8:18 am	Today we went for a long drive up on top of Grand Mesa to a little town called Colbran and up to Vega Lake State Park.  Grand Mesa is the largest flat top mountain in the world and we drove along the top of it for many miles.  I was traveling with my buddies so we are sharing pictures so you can see everything we saw.  There was still snow on top of the mountain at the lake.
wourpet Posted May 20, 2008, 4:15 am	We went to Murdochs today to get some plants for the garden.  There were so many to choose from. Wourpet seemed to know what she wanted though and she left me and the other TVs to wander around and smell the flowers. Once she had her plants picked out we got to ride in the cart. But she sure didn't leave us much room.
wourpet Posted May 20, 2008, 4:27 am	After we unloaded the plants out of the truck Wourpet said she had a surprise to show us. She showed us a picture on her camera of some little baby Robins that have just hatched. She said if we were very quick and very quiet and didn't touch anything she would let us have a peek into the nest to see the babies. They were so cute.  After I got down from the tree I saw some ducks that also have a nest in the garden.
wourpet Posted Jun 5, 2008, 2:38 am	We had a birthday party for JamaBanaDukLuv and played a game with a crystal ball. Then we gave JamaBana the Royal Bumps -- well just one bump -- it was his first birthday. All of us got to go outside and roast marchmallows over the fire. We stayed out very late telling travel stories around the fire. And the marshmallows were yummy too!
wourpet Posted Jun 7, 2008, 7:07 am	Today I got to help in the shop and I worked with the laser.  I even got to go right inside while it was working but I only stayed in there a little while because of the invisble laser radiation. I watched it cut the shapes and it was really quite interesting.
wourpet Posted Jun 7, 2008, 7:13 am	Today is my last day in Colorado.  I went for a walk around the yard to remember some of the attractions I saw, the TVs I met and the things I did while I was here. I stopped to smell the roses, (really I did) and thought it quite lovely that you could see the flat mountain in the distance.  I was on top of that mountain when we went up to the lake. I finished up my book and asked wourpet for a stamp to put on the page with all my pictures.  She gave me a Forever stamp.  I said its a strange name for a stamp but she said its because there is no price on them.  So they are good 'forever'. I'm going to get some sleep now because in the morning I leave for Miami, Florida.  I'll be flying USPS and my ticket number is 0103 8555 7494 0778 6092
carlissa Posted Jun 13, 2008, 11:58 am	I have arrived in Miami, Florida!  It's been raining all day here, so I haven't gotten any pictures yet.  There are lots of Toy Voyagers here and I've made some friends already!
carlissa Posted Jun 15, 2008, 2:55 am	Today Dilbert, HitchaRideDooey, Strider, Leo Lion, Decker, and I went to see Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida.  Coral Castle was built by a Latvian immigrant named Ed Leedskalnin.  He built it to impress his bride-to-be who jilted him 2 days before their wedding!  It's really an amazing place as he built everything by himself out of coral rock and no one knows how he carved and moved the rock all by himself! Here we are at the entrance: we saw a pretty fountain: Can you see us under the crescent moon? Here's the barbecue pit.  he used car parts to cook his food in! inside living quarters of Ed Leedskalnin: the well: Ed's bathtub: Ed's bed: Here we all are on top of Ed's desk with some pretty bougainvillea:
carlissa Posted Jun 22, 2008, 2:50 am	It has been raining all week!  Finally, it cleared up enough so we could go out for a little while.  We went to see some giant shoes in the middle of Cartagena Circle in Coral Gables.  The shoe statue is a replica of a statue made by Tito Lambrano in Cartagena, Colombia. We had lots of fun playing on the shoes!
carlissa Posted Jul 5, 2008, 10:41 pm	Today is Independence Day in the United States!  Our host told us that there would be a fireworks show tonight and she had gotten us some sparklers! After the sparklers, it started to rain, so we had to go inside.  We were able to see some of the fireworks show from the window though and it was a spectacular show!  I wish we could have gotten some pictures of it. Our host also showed us a webpage that has fireworks that we can do with Lady Liberty
carlissa Posted Jul 8, 2008, 7:29 pm	Tonight Nicki Bear and I went out to dinner at The Melting Pot.  We had Swiss cheese fondue for dinner and chocolate fondue with Irish Creme for dessert.  The meal was absolutely delicious! When we got home, my host helped me find a recipe for fondue so I can make it myself sometime and here are the links for what we found:  cheese     chocolate
carlissa Posted Jul 15, 2008, 4:34 pm	I have enjoyed my stay in Miami, but it's time to travel onward!  I am now on my way to Australia!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jul 24, 2008, 7:44 am	I've finally arrived down in Australia. It's quite a rainy and dark day outside so Sara decided to introduce me to all the inhabitants of my little temporary home... :-) First things first, when I got taken out of the bag I noticed a little... well, not so little dog approach me and sniff me. I wonder what she was thinking. Sara said it's her 14 week old puppy they called Anni. She's a beagle and she's quite noisy sometimes Sara says... ...then I got to see the mice... the cage really needs a clean but the mice are all sleeping right now so I didn't see much but their food dish which looked really destroyed at the moment. Whoops... hehe, I'm sure I'll see them later on, there are 5 of them. :-) ...moving on, I then got introduced to the fish... Sara breeds a few types of fish, mainly live bearing fish like guppies, platties and sword tails. Some of them are really small, Sara says they must have been stunted a bit because of being in the "baby net" for probably longer than they were supposed to. But it was mostly fear of having them being eaten still by the bigger fish in the tank. They have a huge suckerfish that is at minimum probably 6 inches long! Crazy! ...and then last but not least I got to visit the birds. Sara has more than 30 or so birds in her kitchen, it includes mostly types of Australian finches, but she also has a few diamond doves (smallest dove in the world - which isn't much bigger than a finch) and a few button quails at the bottom... on the swing near me is a gouldian finch, they live in the rainforests of Queensland (at the top of Australia). They're pretty endangered because of how colorful they are, as well as their habitat is disappearing. Sara also has star finches, zebra finches, spice finches, owl finches, obviously more gouldian finches... they're quite fun to listen to, the different songs. Very pretty aren't they? ...and just as I was going to lay down on the lounge for a bit of a rest after my long journey I got introduced to the current TV's that are visiting with Sara... from left to right it's Hermies which is actually one of Sara's TV's about to travel around the people in her community, he's new to toyvoyagers... then there's Misko from Slovenia, 87518 from Illinois, KattieMill from Hong Kong and SebastienLGreen from Pennsylvania. Sadly I'm not going to get too much of an introduction with 87518 and SebastienLGreen as they're going to Queensland tomorrow.... and KattieMill will soon be on her way to Victoria. But I've heard a few more TV's are coming Sara's way soon, I wonder who I'll get to meet and what I'll get to see. Quite exciting isn't it? Write again soon mommy! <3
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jul 30, 2008, 9:10 am	Today it's pretty sunny outside so Sara decided to take us along to something "historical" in Orange... there's a lot of historical buildings but nothing too very interesting anyways... so, we took a short drive, and before we knew it we were there... Banjo Pattersons Birth Place... Here's the memorial of Banjo before you enter the park... :-) ...so who is Banjo Patterson? He's the famous guy that wrote a famous poem called 'Waltzing Matilda'... and he's on the back of the $10.00 Australian bank note... so he must be really quite famous... here's the famous poem that he wrote... Waltzing Matilda Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong, Under the shade of a coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled "Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?" Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me" And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled, "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me". Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong, Up got the swagman and grabbed him with glee, And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag, "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me". Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me" And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag, "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me". Down came the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred, Up came the troopers, one, two, three, "Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?" "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me". Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me" "Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?", "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me". Up got the swagman and jumped into the billabong, "You'll never catch me alive", said he, And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong, "Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?" Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong, "Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?" Anyways, his house is no longer here, but the Templer's Mill is, that was right near where he was born and raised and in 1971 sadly the Templer's Mill was demolished since it was deemed unsafe for people to go near or in... Here we are sitting on the bricks and remains of the Templer's Mill... can you see us? ...see here we are... :-) Here's a bit of information about the Templer's Mill... Well it was time to move on... this is me with the landscape around the area where I'm currently visiting... ...as you can plainly see it's very dry, even though it very occassionally rains it surely doesn't rain very often... and there are LOTS of cows and sheep! I'll write again soon! <3
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 7, 2008, 8:34 am	Well today was a big day, we got some mystery shops done with Sara - which wasn't really picture worthy, but when we came home we helped Sara make a cake... I wonder why? Well Sara wasn't thinking and didn't remember to take photos, but instead we got to decorate the cake... although we didn't have much we used some gummy worms and spelled out "Dan" which is her husbands name... So we finally figured it out - it must be Daniel's birthday! Happy Birthday Daniel! The cake was SO yummy!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 7, 2008, 8:47 am	Wow, today was quite a surprising day... it all started with Sara cleaning as they had a house inspection today - so it just seemed like a day of just watching what was going on, nothing really happening other than that. Oh well... and then... the unbelievable happened... it SNOWED! Who knew it snows in Australia? Well, apparently it does... just Sara told me not this much. Also, it's more likely to snow here - than in Sydney as were a lot higher than snow level. Sara expects that Mount Canobolas will be covered in snow... Sara decided to let us all play out in the snow, since it was so cold we all huddled together... ...then after a bit of time we all started to get covered in snow... um, can we go inside?... ...after only a few more minutes we were even more so covered in snow... Sara said she has never seen snowflakes as huge as these ones were... they were probably at least 2 inches in size... HUGE! Finally... it's time to go in... ...we all sat on top of the heater to dry off after that - I was happy to be back in a warm house after that... sadly it didn't stick around it got a bit warmer and started to rain and we said goodbye to all the snow... maybe we'll get some tonight? *fingers crossed* ...this photo shows you how much it was really snowing... it was pouring down for around 45 minutes to an hour, and Sara went picture crazy!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 7, 2008, 9:28 am	Today was a very busy day... we got woken up very early and got in the car - we were on our way to Bathurst. We had four mystery shops to do, again, not really picture worthy so no photos were taken of that... but for us waiting in the car to not get lost we got a bit of a treat. We got to visit the famous Mount Panorama... a very famous race track that is used throughout the year, but you can drive on it and many people do drive on it to get to their homes (as a shortcut). During October it's EXTREMELY busy as the races are in the beginning of October. They're already preparing for the races, and it's only August... ...here I am standing at the famous sign that's on the side of the 'mountain'... ...and here's a close up of the famous sign... ...here is some information about the track, a sign showing what the track looks like - and then a bit of information about the race track... ...and now it's time to get on the track, we drove around it counter-clockwise which is the same direction as the v8 cars that drive around it... now here's a whole bunch of photos as we are going around the track. :-) ...and as were coming back around here's the starting gate... ...and here's what you see as you're leaving the race track. :-) As you can probably tell there is a lot of people that drive around the track, it seems like a big reason to come to the Central West... anytime but race time... race time it's extremely busy, even in Orange - which is around 55kms drive from Bathurst... and even farther than that... ...now it's time to get all the stuff done... here's William Street the main street of Bathurst as were about to go down it, as you can see it looks like a small town but it's actually got around 40,000 or so people in it - so definitely not a city but a nice little "country town". ...after we were done doing all the mystery shops we pulled over quite suddenly, I wonder why? Well... of course Sara decided to pull over and show us a famous Australian sight... kangaroos... ...as you can see them in the background we had to keep our distance but Sara got a lot closer and got some better shots of them for us... :-) Well I hope you enjoyed our trip to Bathurst! It was quite exciting - we're going back next Friday - and were going to visit the fossil museum, Sara's been itching to visit it for quite some time... I'll write again soon... :-)
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 14, 2008, 11:55 am	Today was a big day, Sara didn't tell us where we were going but it was sure cold outside so we were so glad to get into the car... even Toothy Walrus came with us today, so that was pretty exciting for us! First stop was Wellington, which is around an hour West from Orange... it's a small town around the size of a lot of the smaller towns that surround Orange and Bathurst, and it's got the famous Wellington Caves. Sara's been in there once before, she said that it was sure pretty... here's us in the main street of Wellington... Back onto the road... watch for a big update soon!...
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 14, 2008, 1:45 pm	Next stop was Dubbo... We all were sure happy to stand up for the first time in 2-1/2 hours our legs were sure tired from sitting that long. We stopped, did two mystery shops, and then was off to do the thing we were set off to doing. We first stopped at Red Rooster and got something to eat and headed off. A very short drive later we were there... the entry looked like the entrance to Jurassic Park and then Sara told us it's Taronga's Western Plains Zoo. She told us that this zoo has a climate very similar to the African climate so they breed endangered animals... this zoo is so big that you drive through most of it, park get out an see the animals, walk on trails and everything. Sara said the zoo is over a 6 kilometre radius, so there's LOTS of room for the animals to walk around... First thing we see when we get into the main part of the zoo are the African Wild Dogs there was only two in the exhibit as the sign said that they were currently introducing a female to the pack. They were quite active and running around at the back of the exhibit so it was hard to get myself in a photo with them. You'll find most of the animals in the zoo aren't close it doesn't look good for me to be in the photo as I'll be just a blurred mess but it was still an amazing adventure... before we moved onto the next animal we decided to have a look around one of the huge ponds they had throughout the zoo... there was some Australian white ibises there, Sara took a photo as there were masses of them - they weren't part of the zoo, but they obviously liked their living quarters... It's common to find these guys all over the place including the dump, all over Sydney... they're known like pigeons are known throughout the world... but much bigger... The next animals were the Arabian Camel and the Barbary Sheep. They were both in the same enclosure. You could see the camels straight away, but there was no Barbary Sheep, hmmm... I wonder where they could be...G] ...then we had a closer look at the other side of the enclosure and we noticed they were in the rocky area... how strange, they blended in SO well I could barely notice them... Sara had to zoom all the way in on her camera to get this photo... as we went back to the car they all stood up and were walking around... Sara got some more photos, but there's so much to get to already we moved on... Sara took a few photos of some of the signs for you to read if you wanted to... the Arabian Camel sign says: Life In The Desert... Camels are well suited to life in the desert. By producing dry faeces and very little urine or sweat, they can survive for a long time without water. When good food is available camels store fat in their hump. When food is scarce, they use this as an energy supply. They will also eat thorns, dry vegetation and saltbush that other animals avoid. Life In Australia... Camels were introduced to Australia in the 1840's to carry heavy loads and passengers into the dry heat of the country. Many survived and are now in higher numbers in the Australian desert than in the wilds of Arabia. There are no known wild Arabian Camels left. The Arabian Camel's wild ancestor is unknown - it is presumed to be extinct. The sign for the Barbary Sheep reads: Barbary Sheep are the only wild sheep that live in Africa. They are an important source of meat which is valuable to the desert economy. In some areas, their numbers have dropped so low that they are now considered vulnerable. Rocky hills, mountains and stony plains don't offer much protection from predators so Barbary Sheep rely on camouflage. If threatened they stand still and their sandy colour coat blends with the desert habitat. Their hooves have soft centre pads with hard-rimmed edges that can grip any ledge - great for scampering up sheer cliffs. Whilst we were watching the animals we saw some Australian birds, Sara got a photo of some of them as some of them are very pretty unique birds known to Australia... first we saw the Grass Parrot, they're very pretty... ...and then near the parrot we saw two Crested Brozewing's which are Australia's native pigeon... Sara has some she feeds in her yard all the time... they're quite pretty for pigeons I think. :-) Onto the next animal, this animal was something that is unique to Australia, the only Australian zoo known to have them and breeds them... the critically endangered Black Rhino... ...the next animal it was quite exciting as you see when we were driving up they were all quite close as they were eating so Sara was able to get some really nice close up shots... here are the Giraffes. Once we watched the giraffes for a while and they all moved on we went to the next stop, the African Elephants... they also were eating, some branches... how strange is that? There was one there that was HUGE... Daniel was saying how the one closest to us, and in most of the photos was one of the oldest in Australia. He was lucky enough to be able to feed him a few years back... We next stopped at the White Rhinos which are almost threatened, but no where near extinction like the Black Rhino... there were quite a few there, and even a baby, in the way back lying down... so cute!... Here's what the sign for the white rhino says... When white isn't white... White Rhinos are not white in color. Their name comes from their 'wide' upper lip, which in Africaans, is 'weit'. Family Values... Unlike the solitary Black Rhino, White Rhinos form complex families made up of females and calves. 2 ton males duel with their horns for mating rights over females in the group. On the brink... In 1893 the White Rhino was thought to be extinct due to poaching and settlement by white people. A small group was found in South Africa and an international conservation program is now trying to save this gentle giant. I quickly turned around noticing these birds seemed to be following us all throughout the zoo, they must want some food, sadly I didn't have any food to give them but he was happy to pose for a photo, I thought they were quite nice looking birds... kind of had an eagle appearance with the bone structure... Right across from the White Rhinos we visited some more water animals, although these guys weren't active at all when we were visiting them they were the Common Hippopotamus... ...once we left though they actually became quite active and were swimming around and making growling type noises, sadly Sara wasn't able to get any more photos beyond this one of the hippo... they seemed to dive a lot when Sara went to take a photo... I guess they didn't want their photo taken... oh well... ...as we were about to go to the next animal... we heard this really loud screeching noise, we went to investigate... after a lot longer of a walk than we thought it would be we ended up at the Siamang Primates there was a family of three there and they were making such noise... but they were quite funny, and it grew quite a large crowd as well!... ...we could hear them across the zoo the rest of the time we were visiting the zoo too - pretty fun to watch!... On the way back from visiting the noisy monkeys we saw some more calm monkeys that didn't quite have a crowd, like at all... so we decided to watch them for a little while, they were the White Handed Gibbon... The sign for the white-handed gibbon says: In the early morning the South East Asian rainforest comes alive with the spectacular 'great call' of the white-handed gibbons. Started by the female and ended by the male, this singing reinforces their lifelong bond to each other and alerts others of their location. By day they search for and eat rainforest fruit. As they move about, they expel the seeds of the digested fruit and help more trees to grow in their forest home. Gibbons are well adapted to their life in the trees. Leathery skinned hands provide excellent grip and their small thumb is set back near the wrist, allowing them to swing rapidly through the treetops using their hands as 'hooks'. ...next stop before finally going back to the car we saw some Ruffed Lemur... these guys were quite playful, especially when the zoo keepers came in to feed them and clean out their enclosure, it was pretty cute to watch... As we were coming back to what we originally intended to see next we saw another Australian native bird... it's called a Willy Wagtail they're cute little birds that look like they're wearing a tuxedo... ...finally back on track again, the next animal is known as the largest antelope in the world, it's called the Common Eland... The common eland sign reads: The world's largest antelope! Even though male eland can weight 1000kg (about as much as a car) these antelope are very agile an can easily jump a 1.5m fence from a standing start. Eland have an unusual social life. They come and go, taking advantage of herd life when they need to without forming any close ties. All eland have long, spiral horns though the females horns are shorter than the male's. In Africa, common eland are highly valued for their good quality meat and milk, which has triple the fat an twice the protein of a darily cow's. ...time to move onto the next animal... this just happened to be the fastest land animal in the world... the Cheetah... fast? really? all these guys were doing was lounging around... they looked pretty happy though! We turned around and took another little walk down another trail towards the centre of the zoo when we came upon the strange looking Bongo's... although the animals so far have been pretty good at posing for the photos, these guys wanted nothing of it... it was very hard to get a photo with them looking at us... they must be pretty stubborn little (or not so little) guys! Here's what the bongo sign reads: What a lucky guy! Bongos live in 'harem' groups, one dominant male and several females - he gets to mate with them all! Sexually mature, young males form small bachelor groups before starting their own harem. Unknown future... although bongos are still found in 10 countries from west to central Africa, they are now threatened due to habitat destruction and poaching. Their numbers are unknown. Whoops... it was about time to go to the front desk to ask a few questions so we did a quick run through the rest of the zoo before going back through... but on the way through we stopped and visited some more animals... the stay wasn't as long for the rest of the animals for the time being though... So on the way there the first stop we made was for the Fallow Deer it was amazing how small they were... they even had the spots like a baby deer in America has... how cute!... The fallow deer sign says: Unusual breeding behavior... where fallow deer are found in high numbers the males gather during the breeding season and use their antlers to defend a small territory called a 'lek'. They mate with any female they can attract into this area. After the breeding season they lose their antlers but grow them back in time for the following year. Fallow deer range in color from pale fawn to a very dark brown with barely visible spots. The most commonly seen color is rich brown with white spots. These deer were originally only found in the Mediterranean but they have been successfully introduced across Europe, the America's and Australia. ...We seemed to be in the hooved section of the zoo, as the next stop was the strange looking Persian Onager, they just looked like tan colored donkeys to me, but obviously they're quite different... As the Persian Onager sign reads: It's not a donkey... the Persian onager is the fastest member of the horse family. It is able to sustain a 50km/hr pace and is capable of short bursts at 70km/hr. In the flat, Iranian desert, herds of onager feed on grass and succulent plants. They travel long distances to reach feeding grounds in the winter and to find summer watering holes. Modern firearms and competition with life stock for food and water have led to a decline in numbers in the wild. They are now only found in three desert regions where they have been protected for 30 years. ...next was the Asiatic Water Buffalo... Sara said that the last time they came through it was the middle of Summer and they were all crowded into the water, this time they were out of the water but were relaxing together eating... so still not extremely active, but it was amazing how huge they are! This is what the Water Buffalo sign reads: Asiatic Water Buffalo, like the ones you see here, have been domesticated in Asia over many thousands of years and are descended from the new endangered wild Asiatic Water Buffalo. Asiatic Water Buffalo feed on the lush grass and dense foliage that grows besides rivers and lakes. During the day they wallow in shallow, muddy pools to escape the heat and to protect their skin from biting insects. Their large splayed feet and flexible ankle joins help them move easily on swampy ground. ...as we were nearing the end of the hooved animals we had a visit with some Sambar and Banteng. There wasn't many to be seen but I got both of them in the same photo, the one near the front, the larger one is a Banteng and the one towards the back is the Sambar... here's some information about them... Here's what the Sambar sign says: Raising the alarm... when alarmed, Sambar signal to other deer by stamping their front feet and raising their tails to show the white underside and rump. These large, woodland deer also make a 'belling' call when they sense a predator. They are partial to water and are often found bathing and feeding in lakes, rivers and marshes. Male sambar grow and shed their antlers each year. They can grow up to a meter long in less than 5 months! They recognize each others antlers as a signal of strength - bigger antlers signal a stronger individual. Usually, a male sambar won't compete for females with another male whose antlers are larger than his. ...and the Banteng sign says: These wild cattle are rare in the dense forests and bamboo jungles of South East Asia. There are only a few thousand wild banteng left because of hunting, habitat loss and diseases spread by domestic life stock. It is thought that around 1.5 million banteng live in domestic herds, most notably on the island of Bali where they are known as 'Bali Cattle'. Male banteng have a blackish-brown coat and the females are mainly fawn in color. Our banteng are descended from a small herd that was introduced into the Coburg Peninsula in the Northern Territory in 1849. ...next stop was the famous Australian animal, the Emu... we all got a photo with them... ...and here's a better photo of one of the emu's, they're quite big birds... and we actually have them wild in the area where I'm staying with Sara although not very common they have been seen in farmers paddocks... ...whoa it's coming much closer to 2pm than I thought it was... we gotta get off to the information desk... when we got there... there was a peacock... ...kind of startled us all as we weren't expecting it... we then realised that what we were going to the information desk for was canceled for today... which was very sad... ...So instead we took a break and ate something then continued on... where we sat down to eat our lunch were some more crazy animals... some [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_tailed_lemur]Ring-Tailed Lemur's... they were all grouped up and we were pretty close them actually only a bit of water separated us from them... ...well that wasn't all for the day we were only around half way through the zoo, but sadly Sara's memory card needed to be changed to a much larger one... so we didn't get anymore photos able to be uploaded for today... watch for an update in the near future with lots more Australian animals... this was quite a fun day today. I can't wait to tell you all about the rest of it! Write again soon!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 24, 2008, 9:09 am	Today was another big outing... it's been a big week, we were sure tired... sadly Sara couldn't really take photos of us inside the museum as it was pretty dark and it had around 100 students from a school field trip so we couldn't get in the photos sadly... but we were there in Sara's bag peeking out and watching... so we got to visit Australia's famous Somerville Collection in Bathurst... Sara had never been in there so she thought it would be fun to take us all along and go and see what it was all about... there was lots of rocks, fossils and many other things... We first saw a fossilized crab, Sara was listening to what the teacher was telling the kids and they were saying how when a fossil is normally made when something is dead and gets covered in mud or whatever then it suffocates and dies... but this crab wasn't dead when it became covered in mud... as you can see it's very alive and looks like it's trying to defend itself from something... and as such it got frozen in that position... ...We even got to see they very well preserved dragonfly fossil... ...and something was extremely interesting... Sara had to zoom all the way in and it was very dark but this is a gecko that got covered in sap and therefore has been sealed inside a medium sized piece of Amber... the gecko is fully preserved... there's only 3 in the world... how cool is that? ...and the last and best thing we got to see was Australia's t-rex skeleton... there wasn't any t-rex dinosaurs in Australia at the time they existed so it's very uncommon to have a full skeleton... but it was pretty awesome and VERY big... We spent a good 90 minutes going through the museum and we learned a lot and saw a lot of interesting things including a velociraptor skull, trilobytes, and even an egg of an elephant bird! That was very exciting! I hope you enjoyed the photos!
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 24, 2008, 9:12 am	Today was our last day spent with sararingham... it was time to move onto the next host and go more coastal... I wonder what we're going to see... :-) Bye bye Orange... I had a great time! Write again at my next destination! <3
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Aug 28, 2008, 10:46 am	...continuing on with the last zoo post, I finally got the photos back... here's a better picture of the Ring-Tailed Lemur's they all seemed pretty cold as they all cuddled up together, aren't they cute? ...finally we were back to going through the zoo, we started back off at the beginning and stopped at the animals we hadn't yet visited, revisiting a few as the animals were being fed when we came through the second time... next stop was the African Lion after quite a bit of time of waiting something down the hill got their attention and I got some pretty good shots of the male and one of the two lionesses... Then we got back down the hill and saw some African Plains Zebra's... funny enough when Sara took this photo the person feeding the animals stopped and gave them their food, one of the zebras ran right up to Sara thinking she was the zookeeper feeding her, then moved onto the zookeeper. Pretty cool. :-) ...we saw these in the earlier post... these are the Sambar Deer deer you saw far in the back of the photo, they were coming up to be fed as well, the antlers on the male were HUGE... very pretty!... ...next stop again was the Fallow_Deer... they were also being fed... they also came quite close... a few of them even rammed each other it must have been some kind of dominance thing within the herd... ...back into the car, it was another short drive there was the Spotted Deer (Chital Deer)'s they were so far away... like in the very back of the pen, Sara had to zoom in all the way which was around 12x to get them, and a bit farther again to see them a closely as these photos... they were all in a group, huddled together... :-) Then we got back in the car, time to move onto the next area of the zoo... then we got out and seemed to walk for what seemed like forever in what seemed like circles, then we encountered the rare Greater One-Horned Rhino... This endangered rhino is known as 'Dora', and the breed is known as a great success story, and here's a sign about the success story of this one-horned rhino... ...because it's so small I'll type out what it says... A Great Success Story Greater One-horned Rhino numbers have increased over the last century. However, poaching remains a critical issue and success is dependent on continued and increased support for conservation efforts in India and Nepal. Pre-1600 - Greater One-horned rhino common in the wild. Early 1600's - Early 1900's - Loss of Greater One-horned Rhino's habitat as floodplain grasslands used for agriculture. Late 1800's-Early 1900's - Sport hunting of rhino is popular. 1871-1907 - 207 Rhino's killed by one hunter. Late 1880's-Early 1900's - Government bounty on Rhinos to stop destruction of tea plantations. Early 1900's - Rhino near extinction, 12 left in India, 50 left in Nepal. Late 1900's - Period of intense poaching (Rhino horn in 1972 worth $35.00/kg (USD) and in 1991 it was worth $50,000.00/kg (USD). Late 1900's - Rhino's in Chitwan National Park, Nepal protected by 1,000 troops and rangers. Now - Rhino numbers increased to 2,400. Local support for tourism industry increases funding for Rhino protection officers. Not all eggs in one basket - some Rhinos relocated from large groups to other protected areas, decreasing possible impact of local disasters. That was extremely interesting to read that the one-horned rhino's went down to only 62 individual rhino's at one point, and now have been brought up to 2,400... still a lot more work to do, but still amazing none the less... a few years ago one of the rhino's was actually born within this zoo, it was shown internationally as it was an amazing thing... especially for a zoo to successfully breed this animal. :-) Next stop was the Asian Small Clawed Otter... their were two in the enclosure and didn't seem to be too active at the time... but were very interested in watching us... no swimming for them while we were visiting though... ...Time then to go back to the car and get to the next animal, as the zoo was getting ready to close... whoops! Next stop was the American Bison they seemed happy and well fed, this was the only good shot I got before the moved onto the back of the enclosure... Now finally were in the Australian section of the zoo, first stop was quite exciting for Sara as she hadn't ever seen one, even in the zoo... the Dingo... they're not found in New South Wales as the sign reads below... and this one was actually quite cheeky, he was watching the people watching him and someone went to bring out their camera and the dog leaned forward and licked his lips... when the person said "no mate, I don't have food" and the dog sat back down and whimpered... it was pretty funny and cute... Here's the information about the Dingo, and what it says: Dingoes are regarded as one of the most ancient primitive breeds of dog living today. They are intelligent, good climbers and able to live in different habitats. Unlike domestic dogs, their ears are always erect. Although originally an introduced animal, the dingo has become an integral part of our Australian ecology. The world's longest fence... The dingo fence stretches almost 10,000km from South Australia to Queensland. It is designed to protect sheep and cattle in the rich pastoral areas of south eastern Australia by keeping dingoes out. It is 1.8 metres high and extends below the ground to stop dingoes from digging under it. ...the next stop we all had to get out of the car and walk up a big long boardwalk type thing, we were going up into the trees... I wonder what Australian animal we'll find up here... of course we found a few Koala's... ...here's a bit of information about this little guy, they seemed a bit wobbly an one of them almost fell out of the tree before catching himself... :-) No, they aren't drugged! The common belief that koalas are "high" is just a myth. These animals only eat eucalyptus leaves with are inedible and toxic to most other animals. They are also low in energy and hard to digest, which is why koalas sleep as much as 20 hours a day. When they're not sleeping, they're chewing leaves into green paste to get every bit of energy out of them. A different animal at night. Koalas are much more active at night. They can be seen running along the ground between trees or jumping from one branch with surprising speed. They are also very vocal, 'bellowing' in a kind of snorty growl to chase subordinate males away and advertise themselves during the breeding season. ...next stop was something I've seen in the wild... one not the other... there was the Red Kangaroo and the much more common Grey Kangaroo... there aren't as many red kangaroos in the area I'm staying... they're more common in this area (Dubbo and beyond)... they're also more common in Western Australia than Grey kangaroos are over there... Red kangaroos are the largest species of kangaroo, as you can see this guy is pretty huge! ...kangaroos are very interesting creatures... these animals can be pregnant, and then stop or slow down their pregnancy in the driest of times... and when the land is more fitting for the baby (especially during the wet season) the baby will continue with the pregnancy that way the baby can flourish during this time and not die because of the extreme droughts that Australia goes through... ...time to move onto the next animal... another species of kangaroo, a smaller species called the Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby... there was actually two types of kangaroo in this enclosure but the other wasn't seen, it was called the Wallaroo which is surprisingly more common... ...here's some information about the Rock Wallaby and the Wallaroo... The Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby lives on rocky outcrops in semi-arid Australia.  Hunted for sport and it's beautiful coat this wallaby has become increasingly rare over the past 200 years. Introduced animals like rabbits and goats destroy its habitat and compete with the wallaby for food. Predation by cats and foxes has also reduced wallaby numbers in the wild. Our Yellow-footed Rock-wallabies are part of a regional management program for this species. Wallabies from this program have been successfully reintroduced into an area of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia where their competitors and predators have been removed. How can you tell a wallaroo from a kangaroo? If you look closely you will notice that wallaroos have a large, bare patch around their nose. Their ears are also bigger and rounder than the over-shaped ears of a kangaroo. Although wallaroos live across most of Australia they prefer sheep escarpments and rocky hills. The name 'Wallaroo' is given to the shaggy, dark grey animals which live onthe slopes of the Great Dividing Range. Male wallaroos are extremely muscular, twice the weight of females and are usually more darker in colour. Next stop again was another type of kangaroo... the Red-necked Wallaby... and the other type that's not pictured (because I didn't see it to get a photo of it) the Whiptail Wallaby... both are a bit uncommon, but after a bit of consideration I realised this photo is indeed of a red necked wallaby... ...and here's a bit of information about both species of wallaby... :-) These wallabies are the ones most commonly seen in the south east Australian bush. You may see them in the Western Plains Zoo grounds during your visit, particularly in the early morning and late afternoon when they come out to graze. Red-necked wallabies usually live alone but will eat together. If they are disturbed though, they don't act as a group but scatter in every direction. There are two types of red-necked wallaby, the mainland and Tasmanian. Mainland red-necks breed all year but the Tasmanian wallabies only give birth during late Summer. The wallaby gets its name from it's long whip-like tail. It is also known as the pretty-faced wallaby from the beautiful markings on it's face. Like many wallabies Whiptails are social, living in groups of up to 50 and communicating with a series of soft coughs (fear), growls (anger) and clucking (courtship). When alarmed, these wallabies thump their hind feet on the ground in warning and hop away on a zig-zag course. Whiptails are usually found in open forest on gently rolling hills. During the hotter part of the day, they find shade. Like all other kangaroos, if it gets really hot, they will lick their forearms to help themselves cool down. Next stop wasn't an Australian animal, we're done with the Australian section for the time being and now were visiting the endangered Galapagos Tortoise... ...the tortoise was walking away after she had finished eating, she was a tortoise that actually was born in the wild... she is currently 120 years old and there are two other tortoises... they were both asleep, as you can see in the second photo. Aren't they just amazing animals? They're trying to breed them in this zoo. :-) Nearing the end of the zoo now, there are only a few more animals, and one large enclosure to visit... this enclosure had Brazilian Tapir's and Alpaca's.... Here's a bit of information about both of the animals... Is it a pig? Is it an anteater? No it's a tapir, which is most closely related to horses and rhinos. Tapir have a flexible nose which they use to grab forest plants and fruits and pull them into their mouths. They have a superb sence of smell and hearing and are mainly active at night. Brazilian Tapirs live in lowland rainforest, always near water. They are excellent swimmers and are known to retreat into water if threatened. In the forest they create well trodden 'tapir trails', which connect their water sources, salt licks and feeding and sleeping areas. These well worn trails make them an easy target for hunters. They are also increasingly threatened by forest clearance. The finest wool of any animal... The alpaca's luxurious, fine fleece was reserved for Incan Royalty as a sign of wealth and nobility. Alpaca wool is lighter, cleaner and stronger for its size than sheep's wool and its fibres can grow to 50cms in length. Alpacas are found in South America's alpine grasslands which are almost 4,800m above sea level - twice the height of Australia's highest mountain. They carry more oxygen in their blood than most mammals and do well at high altitudes where the air is thin. Alpacas were domesticated about 5,000 years ago and are still used for food and clothing. This again was an area where you had to walk around a bit to find the area, these were smaller enclosures which fit just the amount of animals per enclosure, we stopped first to visit the Meerkats... they were all quite active... :-) Onto the next enclosure we got to see two other Australian animals... the Common Wombat... Sara said she's seen only a few in the wild, they're common, but not as much in the area where Sara has been... they're quite large, and very solid... Here's a bit of information about the Wombat... Wombats have powerful claws and dig large burrows, up to 20 metres long, in which they stay cool during the heat of the day. They usually live alone except during the mating season. Like other burrowing marupials, the femal's pouch opens to the rear to help keep it clean. Western Plains Zoo's Common Wombats are part of a successful breeding program. Zoo staff are researching wombat reproduction in specially designed 'off exhibit' enclosures. It is hoped this research will help us to learn more about the breeding behaviours of the critically endangered Hairy-Nosed Wombat. Next enclosure was the Short-Beaked Echidna... he was quite friendly and came up to us, and actually let us "pet" him... although as you can imagine their not the type of animal to pet... we did though and we just were sure to pet him the right direction. :-) Sara was actually telling us about the fact that they live in the area where were staying (Orange) and how Daniel (Sara's husband) has actually stopped finding them on the side of the road and helping them cross the road. He also said never to let them in the car because when they're frightened they'll dig and tear up the inside of the car out of fear. ...and here's a bit of information about the short-beaked echidna... Spines or hair? Echidna spines are actually long, hard hairs. Fur growing between the spines keeps an echidna warm. There are no spines on the belly. Frightened echidnas burrow into the ground or roll into a spikey ball. Echidnas rip into ant and termite nests with strong claws and lap up the insects with a long, sticky tongue. Sometimes they lay on an ant-mound with their tongue sticking out and the ants walk onto it! ...last stop was a huge aviary with a whole bunch of Australian native birds... we got one photo while we were in there which was the Diamond Firetail Finch... Well, that was that, the zoo was closed and we were ready to head home... sadly no more photos as the battery had just died (good timing)... the drive home was long but we were all exhausted and ready to lay down at home... I hope you enjoyed my trip to the zoo!
becka_kate Posted Sep 4, 2008, 9:46 am	Hello Sorry for the delay in posting. My host has been having technology issues which are hopefully fixed and she's been a little overwhelmed with stuff since getting home from her own travels.... So, today we got to go into the city. One of the cinemas was having a special screening of Wall*E to raise money for Camp Quality. This is a charity that helps kids with cancer. The movie was great, but we forgot to take a photo at the cinema. Whoops! We caught the train into the city. We got on at Wolli Creek (funny name, almost sounds like the name of the movie, except it's got an I sound at the end!) and got off at Town Hall. After the movie, we got to go for a walk around the city and see some of the sights. We stopped in at a shopping arcade called the Queen Victoria Building (QV to do some window shopping and look at the 10 metre tall Australia Clock, which shows 33 scenes from Australian history, seen from both Aboriginal and European perspectives. After the QVB we wandered through the city doing more window shopping and lunching and eventually found ourselves in The Rocks, helping Queen Elizabeth I work on her mission. The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney as this was where the convict camps were set up in 1788 when the first European settlers arrived in Australia. Overtime it became a busy commercial and maritime centre. And, one of the most brilliant things about The Rocks (according to my host!) is that on the weekends they hold markets here where you can find really interesting jewellery, household items, paintings, food and gifts. While I was wandering around I thought that the shape of the awnings reminded me of something.... then it hit me - the Opera House! Misko really wanted to see the Opera House so we wandered off to find it, and here it is! I'll tell you something, Sydneysiders sure do give buildings funny names. See that gray building in front of the Opera House? For some reason its nickname is "The Toaster"! Another funny nickname is that they call the Harbour Bridge "The Coathanger!" and of course I had to have my photo taken in front of that too. You can't visit the harbour and not have a photo of it! Last stop of the day was a Circular Quay so we could get the train home. Too bad it wasn't a sunny day. I'm told that normally this gives a great view of the city skyline. Oh well, maybe I'll get to see it in better weather another time?
becka_kate Posted Sep 10, 2008, 8:32 am	Hello! I have been very busy today helping my host sort out some of her photos from when she visited the USA, Canada & Europe so she can stick them in a scrapbook. It has been a lot of fun as she went to some of the places I want to go to.
becka_kate Posted Sep 10, 2008, 8:34 am	Hi Today I thought I had better write my mummy a postcard to show her where I am and fill in part of one of my missions. I tried really hard to write in my very best handwriting. The problem came when I realised that being a bear of very small brains, I couldn't remember the address I needed to write on it!  Winnie the Pooh
becka_kate Posted Sep 14, 2008, 1:54 am	I am so sad today because it is raining. Yesterday was  a beautifully sunny warm day, almost like summer was here and today it is gray and miserable. Not fair as we were planning to go to the beach for my host's mum's birthday to have fish and chips.
becka_kate Posted Oct 4, 2008, 5:57 am	You won't believe it, but I got to go to Dubbo again! My host has friends who live in Narromine which is just a little bit past Dubbo and when she went to visit I tagged along for the ride! We went to the zoo again but didn't take any photos because you've already seen what goes on there. On the way home we stopped at Katoomba to see the Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters. Luckily the weather was much, much better than the last time my host took some ToyVoyagers there! We could really see why they call them "The Blue Mountains". There is an Aboriginal tale that explains how the Three Sisters came to be: Quote: Long ago in the Blue Mountains there lived three little Aboriginal sisters. They were Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, whose Witch Doctor father was called Tyawan. Only one creature was feared by all – the Bunyip who lived in a deep hole. When Tyawan had to pass the hole, he would leave his daughters safely on the cliff behind a rocky wall. One day, waving goodbye to his daughters, he descended the cliff steps. On top of the cliff a big centipede suddenly appeared and frightened Meehni, who threw a stone at it. The stone rolled over the cliff and crashed into the valley. Birds, animals and fairies stopped till as the rocks behind the three sisters split open, leaving them on a thin ledge. The Three Sisters The angry Bunyip emerged to see the terrified sisters. In the valley, Tyawan saw the Bunyip close to his daughters, so he pointed his magic bone at the girls and turned them to stone. The Bunyip then chased Tyawan, who found himself trapped, so he changed himself into a Lyre Bird. Everyone was safe, but Tyawan had dropped his magic bone. After the Bunyip had gone, Tyawan searched and searched for his bone – and he is still searching. The Three Sisters stand silently watching him from their ledge, hoping he will find the bone to turn them back to Aboriginal girls. As you look at the Three Sisters, you can hear Tyawan – the Lyre Bird – calling his daughters as his search for the lost bone continues. It was a beautiful afternoon and we were really grateful to be out of the car for a while after driving for 6 hours (with another hour to go!)
becka_kate Posted Oct 4, 2008, 6:01 am	Bec's been working a lot lately and hasn't had a lot of time to do stuff with me so I've been hanging out with some friends from the Hundred Acre Woods.
becka_kate Posted Oct 4, 2008, 6:03 am	Aren't these flowers beautiful? Katoomba is luckier than Sydney - because it is higher in the mountains they get a "real" spring, rather than leaping directly from winter to summer as often happens in Sydney.
BlackCat Posted Oct 21, 2008, 6:56 pm	I AM HOME ! But today we went to Venlo in the Netherlands. My mum wanted to meet olgamaus and they went shopping there. It was really nice there. A group picture of nearly all the TVs (Odette, Titch and Hueso were missing there) A street view We went to the river meuse and wrote a postcard to an other ToyVoyager host: Me at the river meuse It was a nice day in Venlo. I really like it ! And now I am back home <3. I will have to see my brothers and say Hi ! Winnie
BlackCat Posted Nov 24, 2008, 10:07 am	It's snowing here ! What a wonderful day !
BlackCat Posted Nov 26, 2008, 6:24 pm	It was snowing the whole day, but Mummy wanted to go outside. So she put us in a warm bag and we drove to Burgaltendorf. That's a part of Essen, where a castle ruin can be found. We went there and we had a lot of fun making photos in the snow !
BlackCat Posted Feb 28, 2010, 8:00 pm	I am still alive !
BlackCat Posted Feb 28, 2010, 8:02 pm	Today I went into the new shopping centre in the town. Together with mums new friend Jenny. We found some statues of miners ! Nice pics, or?
BlackCat Posted May 3, 2011, 8:47 am	I am on my way to Canada now. With a big package full with sweet stuff. I hope I will arrive soon and in a good condition. Will write more when I arrived ! Love, Winnie

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