samsmith621 Posted Aug 13, 2008, 11:26 pm |
I am at my owner's house, she told me she is sending me on a journey soon! I can't wait to go. I hope I get to travel all over the world! Look, I am practicing to fit in your mailbox! |
samsmith621 Posted Aug 14, 2008, 2:40 am |
Sadly, I say goodbye to my bunny friend Kirby. She lives with my owner.
I leave tomorrow for Virginia, I hope I make more animal friends there! |
samsmith621 Posted Aug 15, 2008, 2:42 am |
My owner told me I am departing today. Here's me in the car getting ready to go to the post office so I can begin my journey! |
samsmith621 Posted Aug 16, 2008, 8:06 pm |
I am currently in an envelope on my way to Virginia! Surprisingly it has been a smooth ride thus far. I can't wait to get to Virginia... I wonder where I will be visiting! |
wmphimu Posted Aug 18, 2008, 3:15 am |
Hello from Virginia! I had a quick flight, and arrived here yesterday, with Plaid Moose being the first to greet me!
Everyone here is really excited about the Olympics, so I joined them all to watch. The best part was last night, when Michael Phelps set a record by winning his 8th gold medal! |
wmphimu Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:31 pm |
I am having so much fun so far! My host is a huge sports fan, so I've been watching the Olympics and baseball. And Tuesday, Plaid Moose and I hopped in her bag and went with her to the Baltimore Orioles-Boston Red Sox game! Here I am in Camden Yards (the stadium), watching batting practice:
Before the game started, we walked along Eutaw Street, where there are markers to show where players hit balls onto the street. We found a marker for David Ortiz, one of Mara's favorite players! Can you imagine hitting a baseball 430 feet?? Wow! Then we watched the game. Here I am during the game (you can see Eutaw street where we walked earlier behind the scoreboard/bleachers in front of the Warehouse): What a wonderful trip! |
wmphimu Posted Aug 25, 2008, 12:35 am |
Friday night Plaid Moose and I got to go to our first ever rock concert! We went to Wolf Trap, which is the only National Park for the Performing Arts. It is a beautiful pavillion with a lawn that people picnic on and watch the show! Here I am with Plaid Moose before we went to our seats:
It's hard to tell how big it is...here is a picture we found online! Here I am before the show at our seats: And here I am during the first band: We saw two bands - Great Big Sea (that's who is in the picture) and Eddie from Ohio. They were both FANTASTIC! |
wmphimu Posted Aug 31, 2008, 2:04 am |
What a busy week I've had! Not only did I help Mara run some errands, I went with her into Washington DC not once but twice! My first trip was a quick one - Mara went to meet an old friend for lunch, so not too much sightseeing, but we did get to ride on the metro! Here I am with Plaid Moose at the station (you can see one of the trains behind us!):
And here we are on the train checking out the metro map! After our metro trip, we had a yummy lunch outside at a cafe in Dupont Circle (one of the neighborhoods in DC). Plaid Moose and I shared a sandwich - doesn't it look good? And on the metro ride home we switched trains in Alexandria, so I got to see the George Washington Masonic Temple! |
wmphimu Posted Aug 31, 2008, 2:14 am |
Today we took the second trip of the week to Washington DC. This time we went in to do some sightseeing. It's a holiday weekend here, and Mara and her husband wanted to see a special exhibit at the Smithsonian about Jim Henson. Since it's the weekend (so there's not as much traffic), we drove in this time. Here we are in the car - it's a sort of blurry picture, but the huge building behind us is the Pentagon!
After we parked, we walked to The Mall. That's the area of Washington DC with the Smithsonian Museums and a lot of the monuments. Here we are on The Mall - that's the Washington Monument behind us! Further down, we stopped by this cool sculpture outside of the Air and Space Museum: Then we went to the National Museum of the American Indian. We couldn't take pictures inside, but here we are outside. Mara says it's the newest Smithsonian museum, and she thinks it's the prettiest! After that, I got to see the Capitol building! We couldn't take any pictures at the Jim Henson exhibit (but it was AMAZING!), but here we are outside of the Smithsonian Castle... ...and here we are INSIDE the castle! One last picture of the Castle and the gardens as we walked back to the car! |
wmphimu Posted Sep 7, 2008, 9:23 pm |
Well, it has certainly been an exciting few days here! On Friday, a package arrived for Mara. Since it sounded like it was snoring, she let me and Plaid Moose open it!
It was Jimbo Elephant - the snoring was him taking a nap! Here we all are - it's fun to meet an elephant! Yesterday we all watched Tropical Storm Hanna from the dining room window. You might have seen Fairfax (where I'm staying) on the news - Fairfax got hit really hard by the storm, and the lake by Mara's house flooded. So the bottom part of her neighborhood was evacuated and her street was on the news! We're all ok - don't worry Mommy! - our house is nice and dry, and it was fun to watch all the rain with my new friends! |
wmphimu Posted Sep 10, 2008, 3:45 am |
After all the excitement of the tropical storm, we have been taking it easy here. But today, a package arrived. Mara let us open it...
...and out popped Ebba! What fun to have a new visitor! |
wmphimu Posted Sep 11, 2008, 4:38 pm |
Well, I have had a wonderful visit, but it's time to move on to my next host. I said goodbye to my new friends yesterday, and hopped on a flight to Miami!
So you know, I am on USPS #04799941765005066435 |
tarepanda Posted Sep 19, 2008, 8:57 pm |
Wow I am here in Miami, Florida the Sunshine state!!
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tarepanda Posted Sep 19, 2008, 9:07 pm |
Today we go to the beach.
Here is the street of Miami on US1. It looks very different from where I come from. Ah, I can tell we are getting close to the beach. What a nice day to just sit and relax. There are lots of palm trees. And as it's weekend, a lot of jetskiers too. I think it must be very exciting to go on one? But I am afraid of falling into water because I don't know how to swim! You can see the Miami skyline. Oh look the paddlers are back on their dragon boat. That means lunch time! There is rice with nuts and parsley. And oh look, Chupe De Camarones! That's the Peruvian shrimp chowder!! I am so happy to find Peruvian food. I get myself a big bowl. After a spicy soup on a warm day, some watermelon is perfect! |
tarepanda Posted Oct 12, 2008, 3:38 am |
Today we go to Krispy Kreme, a doughnut place where our host says has the best doughnut. We can watch the doughnuts being made. They travel around on the belt, go into the fryer, then into the sugar for a coat, and fresh and warm into the boxes.
We try some and it's yummy indeed! We have to hurry to take the pictures or else the doughnuts are all gone! |
tarepanda Posted Oct 14, 2008, 4:03 am |
Today we visit a friend's house. He has something called Wii, it's for playing games.
You play the games with a console. We are playing a game of tennis. I try my best but I don't think I am very atheletic! Afterall, I have very short arms and can't really swing. Floppers wins the game! |
tarepanda Posted Oct 16, 2008, 12:13 am |
Today we went to the Dragon Boat Festival at Haulover Park.
We sit down on the shore to watch the races. When we look closely, the rocks have shells in it. Very interesting! We wonder if we can spot any fish in the water. The boats are lining up at the start line, though you can barely see them. Look here are the boats racing towards the finish line! We cheer for our host's team. Hmm, this is a serious camera used to take close up of the races. We walk around the park a bit. There is a booth selling kites. This booth sells a lot of dancing puppets. I try to do the dance too but my legs are too short. Oh this look delicious! Argh we got ensnarled by a big spider web! Actually this is part of a boy scout camp gateway. We have a lot of thing climbing it, though I am not very good at this sort of things. They have an eggroll eating contest. It is fun to watch as the contestants try to shove the eggrolls as fast as possible into their mouths. Then we watch a bit of the taiko drumming performance. |
tarepanda Posted Oct 31, 2008, 7:59 pm |
Today we go to Haulover Beach. Which is a clothing-optional beach... which, in simple terms, is nude beach!! Well, part of the beach is, and as our host told us it's rude to go taking pictures there, we decide to just stay on the other side.
Here's the little walkway to the beach. Wow this is a wide beach w lots of sand. A bit windy. We all sit and sun bathe together. Floppers wants to take off his clothes but we stop him. I don't care for a nude bunny. |
tarepanda Posted Nov 26, 2008, 2:19 pm |
Today we visit a shopping mall called The Village of Merrick Park. It is an upscale place with famous names like Jimmy Cho, Tiffany, Neiman Marcus and the like. I don't know who they are but our tour guide (ahem, our host) said they are famous so I suppose they are. I think they make shoes and diamonds and things like that?
Anyway, this is a pretty place. At the entrance we pass through a little bamboo gate and that gets tibipanda very excited. I have to pull him very hard to get him away so we can take some pictures. I like this clock tower. A very pretty mall indeed. Let's do some shopping! ahem, window shopping. They have a garden in the center with lots of sculptures. Like this weird bird. And this lady. We are tired! Let's take a rest. Good, a boat! We can get a ride home! |
tarepanda Posted Dec 20, 2008, 2:46 pm |
Today we visit the Fort Myers beach, where the American Sandsculpting Festival is held.
When we arrive, some of the contestants are still working on their sculptures. This is a scary snake! This is the second place winner. It's a really nice sculpture of wolves and eagles around a mountain. Now this is a serious sand castle! And this is a futuristic castle on the moon. This is the third place winner: Though I like this moon better, with a sweeter face. This is my favorite, I like how the hair looks like it's floating. I give it my vote. This is another of our favorite, a mermaid with a lot of sea creatures. It wins the Committee Choice Award. Here's Santa w a funny face! Phew, all the sun is making me tired. We decide to get a coffee blended drink. |
tarepanda Posted Dec 21, 2008, 3:58 pm |
This weekend we visit Downtown Disney, in Orlando, Florida.
First we check into the hotel. Look what we find on the bed! This is the folder we receive when we check in. We see a picture of Mickey Mouse on the wall. The hotel is decorated with a sports motif. In the courtyard, we see Donald Duck playing tennis and join him for the game, He doesn't look too happy though. So we decide to play baseball with his nephews instead. I guess people can get really thirsty after a game. We take the bus to Downtown Disney. We meet this dinosaur, or what remains of it, outside a restaurant. Boy, I guess the people are really hungry to eat a dinosaur! We see a dragon in the water. Oh, it's only made from Lego bricks! We try our hands at Legotown, but I don't quite know how to build a dragon. Next we try Mr Potato Head, but I can't say we do much better. I am glad someone knows how to fix him right, and I am glad he doesn't know how we mess up his face. We also meet his friend Buzz Lightyear. We see this merry-go-round. We get lost, but Donald and Donna are nice enough to point us the right way. We visit the Disney Art Gallery. Look, the brooms are around to keep the place clean! We rest a bit at the Pooh Corner, and share some honey before heading home. |
tarepanda Posted Jan 2, 2009, 8:15 pm |
Today we participate in a walk to raise money for organ transplants.
The walk takes place in a zoo, so we are all very excited. Mocha is pretty sure that Florida is too hot for a moose, and our host is pretty sure there is no panda here for Tibipanda, as "I would have known if there were one". But maybe they have a llama? I wonder what the birds are lined up for? We see a lot of flamingoes. We see an elephant! And some lions. We get a ride on a kodomo dragon. But it's not real, because we are told that the real dragons are very fierce animals who will finish me in one gulp! A camel! I ask him if he knows where is a llama but he doesn't know what a llama is. Stupid camel! And a camel ride! Again, not the real thing. This is a Gaur, the largest wild cattle and comes from India. The bull has very beautiful horns and can weight over 1500 lbs. We see some gorillas. Since the giraffe is so tall, I ask her if she spots any llama in the zoo. Sadly, she says she hasn't seen any. What a disappointment! While we don't see any panda, we see some bamboo, which Tibipanda attacks immediately. Maybe we can just leave him here as an exhibit? Well, bye bye alligator! We finish the walk in 1 hr, 18 min and 9 sec! Now we will get a press penny for souvenir. |
tarepanda Posted Jan 2, 2009, 8:31 pm |
While I am a bit disappointed that we didn't see any llama at the zoo, my host has a nice surprise for me.
She has sponsored a little girl from Peru! We receive a letter with her picture. Her name is Victoria. We write a letter to her, and also send her a set of finger puppets. |
tarepanda Posted Jan 2, 2009, 8:54 pm |
Well, it's the end of the year, and I will be leaving for Australia soon, but today we go to the Mango Strut Festival in Coconut Grove. It's a parade that put the "nut" in Coconut Grove, as participants plays parody to news events of this year. It is a really fun, silly event.
First we see some jugglers: Here is Sarah Palin w her First Dude and a moose. She carries a big shopping bag and a sign for 2012. This is the Mangobama band. The theme music is in the video and at the end of the parade everybody dances to the tune. Here are the Somalian pirates who go around hijacking other floats. They kidnapped Sarah Palin too. Here comes the float with the Little Miss Mango contestants. Unfortunately we don't have pictures, but there is a guy wearing a mask of George Bush, and people offering shoes for the audience to throw at him. The lady next to us must really hate him, as she throws the shoes three times. They all miss though. There are also executives with a mug and sign "Brother, can you spare a billion dollars?" and an Uncle Sam giving out bailout money. There are killer tomatoes running around, a "Mother Earth" with IV, a "economy" crippled in a wheel chair.The Illinois Govenor is here trying to sell a chair; Joe the plumber, along with Josephine, Joanne and all the plumbers marching with a toilet plug. As our camera runs out of battery so we don't get as many shots as we like, but here is a Youtube video that captures the event really well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10EZkaBLcyo |
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 15, 2009, 4:31 am |
Hey mom! I have arrived in Australia... well I arrived late last night but Sara was too tired and hot to come on and update me... they had just gotten back from a huge trip to Sydney... which I heard Brunswick got to see... but this one was bigger... hopefully we'll all be going back next month around this time...
Until then it's over 100'f here right now and I think I'm going to lay down with Sportie and try to cool down before another hot day tomorrow... write again soon mom! :-) |
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 18, 2009, 4:16 am |
Remember when I said it was really hot? Well a couple hours later Sara heard one boom of thunder and that was it... it was POURING down rain... I cannot believe how quickly the weather can change here...
It was actually flooding down the street because of how much rain and wind was happening. Sara forgot to close some of the windows in her house - particularly the kitchen window and the floor looked like it had a small pond in it. Pretty insane... ...but just as quickly as it ended it was done and there was a very bright rainbow greeting us... very pretty! I'm just glad it was able to cool down a little bit... ...sadly it didn't last and the next day was even hotter than the day before. Not good the drastic changes in the weather, I'm feeling a bit stuffy because of it... hopefully we don't get a cold from all that... that wouldn't be a good way to start my vacation would it? |
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 31, 2009, 12:16 pm |
Today we stayed up really really really late. It was around 530am before Sara went to bed and we went to bed around 430am thankfully we were all so very tired... but we stayed up because at 4am, Mr. Obama was turning into the first African American president. President Obama now... a pretty awesome thing actually. Three of the five tv stations were showing it live from Washington DC... a lot of it I found to be pretty boring but when it finally ticked over to 4am, it got a lot more interesting... :-)
Around 3 or 330am they had a whole bunch of people walk out and then they had president elect Obama walk out... After a lot of talking and speeches, and singing they inaugurated vice president Biden... ...and then it was finally the time... even 5 minutes late... the inauguration of President Obama... ...after the inauguration we watched his speech. He's such a lovely speaker isn't he? Well you might ask why Sara stayed up that late just to watch that... well, I didn't know this before but Sara was born and raised in America and is an American citizen... so she's very proud of her country for electing such a fine man and watching history itself... it's an amazing thing isn't it? :-) She's very proud to be American sometimes. :-) Well I'm off to bed it's been a long night... :-P |
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Jan 31, 2009, 12:27 pm |
Sorry I've been away for a while... it's been VERY hot here in Australia. We've been hitting some record temperatures almost every day the last few weeks. Kind of crazy... it even got up to 47'C in some areas (around 114'F in South Australia) there have been lots of black outs and the air conditioners don't seem to make much difference. Were kind of hoping for some rain soon... but Sara got a notice that she's got a house inspection coming up... so she's been cleaning the house - one room each day for the last few days. She spent around 3 hours on the kitchen last night, and today she worked on her room... it was a bit crazy..
We all decided we could help a little bit... although not much because some of the chemicals are pretty nasty and she was up on a ladder much of the time... but once it was done we decided to help her put her room back together... ...that's just after the cleaning when she's ready to start putting everything back together. The only things in the room were the wardrobe and the bed frame. Everything else was scattered through the hall and living room. It looked pretty packed... haha Now we've started to put it all back together... the picture above the bed, the bed and the slats under the bed are together now... sadly we couldn't help much more than being on the side lines. That stuff was pretty heavy actually... ...and now everything is complete... how does it look? ...I'll be updating much more soon, more so if it cools down where we can go outside without feeling like we are in an oven... but hopefully we'll see some sights soon. Maybe even a trip to Molong but there will be a Sydney trip coming up soon... maybe even two... :-) We'll see how that goes! :-) Write again soon! |
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Feb 1, 2009, 8:45 am |
Today we found out that we now have a resident spider visiting in Sara's house. Sara is a bit used to it - they're harmless I can assure you. They are good to have around because they kill all the nasty other bugs (like red backs and white tip spiders)... they usually keep to themselves. Sara is always very wary of where they are, as she doesn't really like spiders. But there is always one each Summer, sometimes more... well here I am with the spider... it's pretty big isn't it? It's a Huntsman Spider. ;-)
Welcome to Australia right? :-P Here's a close up of him, its hard to tell by the pictures but he's bigger than me... :-) I'm kind of glad he's keeping to himself... we also have a resident mouse in the house too since Sara's husband Daniel left the door open one day. He's found his way into the mouse mansion (where she has five mice in it)... so it's been interesting this Summer lol. Write again soon! |
sararingham sara.ringham@gmail.com Posted Feb 5, 2009, 3:58 am |
I only had a short journey to Orange because Sara saw an opportunity for me to see more of Australia and after getting confirmation with my mom... I got put in a post bag to Queensland. If me and my new friend Leonard make it in time (the 10th of February) we'll get to see Australia Zoo. ;-) How exciting! I'll write again when I get up there! Miss you mom! <3 |
innocencelost Posted Feb 12, 2009, 8:00 am |
Hi Mom,
Here I am in Queensland, Australia. I'm staying with Bec. Sadly, we arrived just a little too late to visit Australia Zoo, but Bec says that if the weather improves, on the weekend she and her boyfriend Blake will take us up into the mountains to visit Mary Cairncross park, Maleny, Montville and Kondalilla Falls. Next week, Bec and her client Angie are going to visit Redcliffe beach, take a look at the ruins and swim and barbeque at Settlement Cove lagoon and I've been invited. And maybe Bec and Blake will get to Brisbane city to visit the botanical gardens, Kangaroo Point (Blake promised to take us rockclimbing with him!) and ride a CityCat (a kind of giant ferry). Plus, we're visiting the Gold Coast next weekend - off to a place called Springbrook in the hinterlands and if Bec gets her way we'll be visiting Surfer's Paradise for a dip in the ocean, some swimming and some of the BEST icecreams ever! I'm very excited! Anyway, I'm off...dinner's about to be served and I don't want to miss out! Write again soon, Love Fllama. |
innocencelost Posted Feb 22, 2009, 6:55 am |
Hi Mom!
Sorry I haven't written for awhile but we've been really busy. Last week Bec took Leonard, Monica and I to her uni for orienatation week. It was lots of fun and next week she will take us again so we can do some classes with her. Then we went to Redcliffe Beach for a swim at Settlement Cove lagoon and a barbeque, and we visited an awesome museum which taught us all about the history of Redcliffe. We visited Centenary Lakes for a picnic and this weekend we went with Bec and Blake to the Mouse's House, an amazing eco friendly resort with tiny chalets set into the rainforest (our roof was a giant old tree!) It was lots of fun. Our chalet was called Grumpy (like the dawarf) and we had our own personal waterfall. It was lots of fun, particularly when the bush turkey's, possums and sugar gliders came at night for us to feed them. Bec says next weekend we are definitely going to the city to visit the botanical gardens, ride a city cat and see the museum and parliment house. Bec says to say sorry there are no photos at the moment, but her camera is incompatible with the TV site so she is in the process of setting up a Flickr site to post the photos. Stay tuned. I am happy, safe and well and I love you, Fllama |
innocencelost Posted Mar 14, 2009, 12:06 am |
Hi Mom,
Sorry I haven't written for so long, but it's been a bit of a whirlwind of activity here. Bec unexpectedly got the oppourtunity to do her clinical placement for uni at Cairns base hospital so we just leapt onto a plane and headed North! Cairns is awesome - so far we have visited Paronella park which is a spanish castle with a beautiful story, Hartley's Creek crocodile farm and today we're off to visit Kuranda in the skyrail. Can you please email your address to Bec at habushka@hotmail.com so she can send you some photos and a small gift I have brought you while I was here? Love you lots, Fllama |
samsmith621 Posted May 8, 2009, 11:39 pm |
Fllama arrived home safe & sound today. So glad he's back! |