Kelly Bear, Bergrheinfeld, Germany

Lucy156 Posted Jan 15, 2009, 9:58 pm	Well, this is my first day on ToyVoyagers! Yippee! Tomorrow I will visit my mentor's workplace so I can have my photograph taken. So, I must get my beauty sleep! Night, night!
Lucy156 Posted Jan 16, 2009, 8:26 am	Well, I am in my Mentor's office today and am sitting in her slippers. I hope that I will be able to sit in other people's slippers too when I start my first ToyVoyage. Will you host me?
Lucy156 Posted Jan 20, 2009, 9:38 pm	Yippie! I am going on a trip to Germany! I am so excited as I travel tomorrow. I am looking forward to travelling the world and although my mentor will miss me, she is pleased to see me taking my first paw prints out into the big wide world. If you would like to host me in the future, please let my mentor know.
olgamaus Posted Jan 28, 2009, 12:23 pm	Hi Mummy, I arrived at my first host's home today. Katja picked me up at the post office because I took up so much space in my envelope that I did not fit into the mail slot. I was welcomed by Fluffytail the squirrel, Theodore the chipmunk and Elston the edchina. They all seem to be very nice. Katja will take me with her when she has to back to work after her lunch break. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Jan 28, 2009, 7:05 pm	Hi Mummy, I went with Katja to her working place. She is working in a law firm as a secretary. We had to walk for only 10 minutes to reach the town centre. This is the local court, only two minutes to walk from my current home. The following two photos are showing pretty old houses which are typical for this region. They are covered with slate and they have green shutters. We reached the shopping street than. Here you can see the entrance of the Allee-Center, a mall. This is the town hall. The town centre of Remscheid is located on a hill and the  town hall is located on the highest point of tis hill. It's tower is 48 m high, so you can see the typical silhouette of the town with the town hall, a water tower and two large churches from the neighbour towns. From the windows of Katja's working place you can see the mall and the space in front of the town hall. The farmer's market is taking place here on Wednesday and Saturday. The last cars are leaving the market now. I helped Katja to answer the phone when she cooked tea. When Katja finished work it was already dark outside. We took a last photo opposite of the local court. Fluffytail must have climbed into Katja's bag when we left home. Now he wanted to sit next to me. In the evening I will have a look at the slippers. Three people are living here: Katja, her daughter and her son. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Jan 29, 2009, 7:19 pm	Hi Mummy, today we visited a friend of Katja. Her friend has to stay at home for weeks because of an injury at one of her feet. Katja and her friends were knitting socks and drinking tea. On our way to her friend she showed me a church which is close to my current home. I can see it from the living room windows. Here we visited Katja's friend. Fluffytail and I were "wearing" the knitted socks. We helped Katja to take sugar into her tea. Now we are watching "Tatort" on TV, a famous German TV crime series. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Jan 31, 2009, 10:21 am	Hi Mummy, today we visited Düsseldorf, the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The city is situated on the River Rhine and is renowned for its many events and also for its fashion and trade fairs. We went there by train and walked to the town centre. We saw this interesting pyramide, a fountain which is put out of service in winter, this is a church, Johannekirche. This is an equestrian sculture showing Emperor Wilhelm I, one of the former German Emperors, who lived from 1797 until 1888 A.D. We reached Königsalle, the most famous shopping street here. They have stores of the world famous designers here. Königsallee is called "KÖ" here. The small river Duessel is running through the town. From here we walked to Altstadt (old town). Here you can see the town hall. From here it is not far to river Rhine. This is the Landtag of the state North Rhine-Westphalia, the provincial government, also situated at the river Rhine. Here you can see an information board regarding to Rhine tower. In Germany they definitely have too many traffic signs, even on footways. Now you can see Rhine Tower. It was already getting dark than. The river lookes so beautiful with the sun going down that we made more pictures. Sunset in the haven. We walked along the backside of the Landtag, here a library is situated. When we returned to Altstadt all the pubs at the waterfront were illuminated. We went back into Altstadt. Katja and her friend hat a few delicious beers later and an even more delicious mojito. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Jan 31, 2009, 5:58 pm	Hi Mummy, I met Katja's pets today. Can you imagine that she is keeping rats? Of course not those who are living in the sewage system underneath the town. They are pet rats, really friendly, playful, cuddly and hoggish pets. I was a little bit afraid at first but when I saw that they really were friendly I was brave enough to feed them. This is rat girl Bella. I think she was interested in me because I have the same colour like her. This is Jordan. She is not afraid of me so there is no need for me to be afraid. The rats have two cardboard boxes on top of their large cage for playing and climbing through. Karla said hello to me from one of the boxes. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Feb 6, 2009, 4:09 pm	Hi Mummy, we went to the town centre today because we had to pick up a letter at the post office. This is the shopping street. Today's cinema program. A farmers market is taking place here on Fridays. In this pretty house a music school is located. Here you can see the central bus station. This is the corporate building of the local newspaper. Now I'll show you the public library. This is one of the entrances of the shopping mall. In front of the shopping mall you can see sixteen pillars showing the crests of all sixteen German states. This one is the crest of Northrhine Westpahlia. Here we are inside the shopping mall. When we came back home an envelope with a ToyVoyager was waiting for us. Luis the rat arrived. Katja brought some delicious cookies for us, they are called Nuss-Schiffchen (nut boats). Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 11, 2009, 2:02 pm	Hi Mummy, yesterday it started snowing in the evening. Unfortunately it is not cold enough so most of it already melted away. We went to the muncipal park in the afternoon. We have to walk only a few minutes to get there. This is the observatory, situated in the muncipal park. We rested in front of the memorial for victims of several wars before World War I. This is one of the walking paths in the park. This is a pond where lots of ducks and turtles are living. It is still frozen. The weather is not very good, but we had fun anyway. Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 11, 2009, 8:01 pm	Hi Mummy, Katja knitted a hooded sweater for me because it's cold outside. Have a look: The first try-on. Look, it's the same yarn like Katja's socks. Ready! Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 12, 2009, 12:45 pm	Hi Mummy, of course I wanted to go out with my new sweater so I went with Katja and Louis to the law firm. When we went home in our lunch break we had to buy a few things. Thís is the main entrance of the shopping mall. Katja says that my sweater is as chic as if we had bought it here. Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 12, 2009, 1:04 pm	Hi Mummy, we are home now. We bought a lot of healthy food: Healthy chocolate, tomatoes, apples with cute stickers, potatoes and cheese. Look, chocolate with nuts, raisins and rum. Delicious! We found a better usage for those apple stickers. Louis was interested in neither apples nor chocolate. He had only eyes for the cheese. It is camembert. He unpacked one piece immediately and devoured it at once. Afterwards we took a look out of the window of the living room. It looks really nice outside. This is the view to the other side, across a valley. Katja is back to work now. I think I'm going to dig into the chocolate now. Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 14, 2009, 9:55 am	Hi Mummy, today another teddy bear arrived with Harold from Australia. Little bear Peti is from Hungary. Elston will leave tomorrow so he had planned to bake lamingtons, the "Australian national cake" for us as his farewell dinner. The other two ToyVoyagers from Australia helped hin. The kitchen was a mess afterwards, but they represented delicious lamingtons. Lamingtons are squares of sponge cake, dipped into chocolate icing and covered with dessicated coconut. While the sponge cake had to cool down for further treatment Katja offered us a glass of sparkling wine, also very delicious. Have a look! Bye
olgamaus Posted Feb 14, 2009, 11:33 pm	Hi Mummy, today the weather was sunny and of course we wanted to go outside. Katja wanted to meet a friend who is living in one of the other districts of Remscheid, in Luettringhausen. Luettringhausen is a really old district, with a lot of woodland around. We went there by bus.  We went to the bus station in front of the central train station. On the next photo we already reached it. This is the bus station, in the background you can see the building site of the new central station. The next photo is showing the town hall of Luettringhausen. Katja's friend was already outside with the family dog, Pepe. Pepe is a four month old puppy. We took a walk in the forrest. When we came home we played in the garden. They have a hanging basket-chair here! Sweetsy and Louis built a snow man. Katja got a piece of carrot from the kitchen and soon the snow man was ready. We were chilled to the bone than and went inside. Katja and her friend already made coffee. They also had sweets for us. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Feb 16, 2009, 1:39 pm	Hi Mummy, we took a walk today to the district Hasten and to the outskirts of Remscheid. Hasten is one of the oldest districts of the town, dwellings and mostly old factories close together. This district was not destroyed in World War II, so most of the old houses remained. Katja told me that she lived in this large, grey painted house when she was a toddler. Hasten is surrounded by woodland. We saw a hedge of holly, covered with snow. I liked it very much. Isn't this house pretty? We than went to pick up Katja's friend who wanted to walk with us. She is living in a district close to Hasten, it is called Rath, a housing area with mostly one-family-homes and terraced houses. From here you can see Hasten again, in the background. From here we went into the forrest. First we had to cross a road in the valley, than we had to walk uphill again. Katja told us that in summer many horses are grazing on these pastures. In the background you can see the hill with the town centre, unmistable the silhouette with the water tower and the tower of the town hall. We were walking along the border of the neighbour town Wuppertal. Hidden in the forrest are a few more small hamlets like this. We had so much fun in the snow! On the way back it started to snow again. Can you see it? Back home we all had to sit on the heating because our bums were wet Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Feb 20, 2009, 1:54 pm	Hi Mummy, we had a party tonight! Do you know why? Theodore is Voyager of the week, so he had a reason to celebrate. Fluffytail and Louis even made a medal for him. We had delicious food: cheese, olives,  tiny tomatoes, sweet pepper and nachos with cheese dip. We were even allowed to taste Katja's beer. Maybe I will also become VOTW one day. Than I'll throw a party, too. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Feb 22, 2009, 6:10 pm	Hi Mummy, I had a closer look at Katja's slippers today. It was a little bit disappointing, they were not as cosy as yours. No plush inside, only leather and a cork sole. It seems I wasn't the only one who was interested in those slippers! Rat girl Karla also showed interest. The rats were really curious. Finally they went anway and I could sit in the slippers. Not very convenient, I like your's more. Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Feb 24, 2009, 8:16 pm	Hi Mummy, we visited the carnival procession in Lennep today. Lennep is one of the oldest districts of Remscheid. Katja's partens are living here and it's the only carnival processioin in town. It is helt for about 30 years on Carnival Monday. There were about 25 floats and marching bands. First we went to Katja's parents. They are living in the seventh floor, the top floor, of a multi-storey building in Lennep. From here you can overlook the whole old town. Many of those old houses are older than 250 years. The carnival procession started on a fairground and made its way through the town. It came around the street where Katja's parents are living, so we only had to go down to the street to see it. It was a rather small procession. In other regions of Germany, in Cologne, Duesseldorf and many parts more in the south of Germany, hell is breaking loose at carnival time, from  Thursday, called „Altweiber“ (insuffiently translated to Woman's Carnival Day) until Tuesday. Almost nobody is working than, schools are closed and almost the complete population is celebrating and drinking gallons of beer (that's the part Katja also loves ) We were waiting for the procession to come. The procession was coming than. In front of it they usually have police men, shooing everybody fron the pavement. They were throwing sweets into the crowd. We also collected some sweets and had lots of fun. Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 24, 2009, 8:30 pm	Hi Mummy, Katja showed me the front side of the town hall today. Actually we planned to wait until the weather is fine again, but Katja said that maybe I'd already be on my way when the sun will shine again. There is a pillar in front of the town hall, showing a lion, the heraldic animal of Remscheid. The next picture was taken on our way back to work, after Katja's lunch break. Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 25, 2009, 6:47 pm	Hi Mummy, we went to the post office today to buy stamps. Katja showed us a fountain close to the post office. She told us that mostly children love this fountain because  there are many funny things integrated. Some parts are rotating than with the flowing water, some parts are salivating water into different directions and there are sounds caused by the water. From here we walked into the direction of the central train station to walk along the route of tools. But where is the train station? Oh dear, this building site is the central train station, or better, it will be there in about half a year. Here we are at the entrance to the route of tools, which is a lane for pedestrians and cyclists through the town, made on a closed railway route. It was financed by many local industrial firms, most of them they produce tools. Along the lane you can find signs of those producers, also artwork made of tools or parts of them. The closer you are to the central station the more industrial areas you have, some still working, other only ruins. Katja forgot to change the camera settings from "close" to the normal setting, so the backdrops of the following photos are a little bit blurred (while I am looking especially sharp and pretty ). In summer you can sit here to rest for a while. Here you can see some of the signs of the sponsoring companies. This bench is made of the axis of an old water wheel and an original sleeper. This is part of the former slaughterhouse. This complex is under preservation order. Nowadays these buildings are used by different companies. Here we are close to our home again. I already showed you this church, I believe. Opposite of the church you can find a playground. Nobody is playing outside, maybe because it's lunch time. Enough for today! Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Feb 27, 2009, 7:52 pm	Hi Mummy, the weather is horrible, no more snow and sunshine. Have a look! This is the space in front of the town hall with the lion on its pillar. To cheer us up Katja decided to take us to the public library and later bake a chocolate cake. I think chocolate cake is the perfect thing when the weather is so bad. Here you can see us in the library. Back home we made a chocolate cake. For this cake you need 300 g dark chocolate 140 g butter 4 eggs 200 g sugar pith of 1 vanilla bean 100 g flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 4 tablespoons cocoa powder 50 g sour cream First we had to melt 227 g chocolate with butter. The rest of the chocolate had to be chopped. Than we had to stirr the eggs with sugar and vanilla to a tight foam, for at least 5 minutes. The melted chocolate and butter had to be mixed into eggs and sugar, than flour, baking powder and cocoa powder, than sour cream.  Finally we had to stir the hacked chocolate into the dough. The cake had to bake for 20 minutes, 175 °C. Ready! It's really delicious Bye Kelly Bear
olgamaus Posted Mar 1, 2009, 6:45 pm	Hi Mummy, today it was much warmer than this week and the sun was shining. So Katja took me, Louis, Womat, Fluffytail and Sweetsy out for a walk. When the weather is good Katja seems to be unstoppable She decided to show us Germany's highest railway bridge, Muengsten Bridge. Of course we walked there through the forrest. Here you can see allotment gardens in a district called "Gueldenwerth". We walked through a really pastoral area, here are snowdrops on a pasture. Doesn't it look nice here? Only a few kilometres apart from the town centre. We went into the forrest than. On the next photo you can see how steep it's going downhill here. We saw a collection of nest boxes for several sorts of birds. This is an information board which is showing local plants, mostly herbs. We reached a viewpoint and saw Muengsten Bridge for the first time, at least a little piece of it. We rested here on a bench, enjoying the sun. At the next viewpoint we could see the bridge. Muengsten Bridge is made of steel. It is 107 m high and  spans the valley of river Wupper, which is marking the border between Remscheid and the neighbour town Solingen. The bridge is 465 m long and was completed in 1897 A.D. Katja knows a not very common path which is leading through the bricked pillars . From here you have an fantastic view. ... and here the other side. Just above my heads were the railway tracks. We walked downhill than, heading for the valley. We walked under the bridge, this time clearly lower than before. Here you can see the River Wupper, running underneath the bridge, which is almost invisible because of back light. We reached the valley than and took the following photo on a small bridge. Half an hour ago we walked along the cute pavilion you can see in the background. Underneath the bridge a leisure park was established. You can find restaurants here, lawns for relaxing, playgrounds for the kids and more. After more than two and a half hour walking we decided to go home by bus. Otherwise we would have had to walk uphill for rmore than an hour. The bus stop is really close to Katja's home. We saw more snowdrops just in front of the house. I'll travel to Japan tomorrow! Bye Kelly
olgamaus Posted Mar 3, 2009, 9:24 am	Hi Mummy, I'm on my way to Japan now! Bye Kelly
JaymeC Posted Mar 23, 2009, 10:00 am	Dear Mommy, I have arrived safe and sound! And just in time it seems. As soon as I arrived I said hello to Etwas, cerise, and Bobbie. They told me we were on our way out on our first trip! Here we are at the gate of Shurijo (or Shuri) Castle. Shuri Castle is the main seat of the King of the Ryukyan Islands. Of course, there hasn't been a king for many years so now it is preserved as a part of history. It has been destroyed and rebuilt 5 times, most recently during World War II. It is very beautiful and one of the biggest tourist spots on the island. Jayme went today to take some friends to see  who hadn't been there before. Here is a view from the top looking down, you can see the city of Naha in the background a bit. That's the capital city. Here is the entrance to the castle itself. And this is the palace. Jayme didn't have time for individual pictures (it was VERY crowded!) but this is the throne. We also got to walk around the grounds a bit and found this shrine. Hope we'll have more to tell you about soon! Its so good to be out of my envelope. Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Mar 23, 2009, 11:21 am	Everyone needs some fun time! Today it was rainy again so we stopped by a children's play area. Jayme says these areas keep her sane since they let the children play for a half hour or so for just a few hundred yen (a few dollars). Here is the structure. We toys got in on the fun a bit. We found a fire truck to drive. And we played some in the climbing area. Finally we rested with Jayme, this playing is hard business. Isn't it nice they include these massage chairs in the play area where you can still keep an eye on the kids? Just perfect. After play time we stopped to get some McDonald's on the way home. The kids love their chicken nuggets and fries, but Jayme says they're a rare treat. Yum! More soon, Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Mar 31, 2009, 6:26 am	Dear Mommy, It has been rainy rainy rainy! Today we tried to go for a walk on the beach, but two things went wrong. First, do you see how bad the sky looks? It started sprinkling...then down pouring! Second, there was a festival of some sort going on the beach! They had a band there playing and all. Jayme says she didn't know what it was for, but it sure looked fun. So we gave up and instead went for some more indoor exercise. We arrived in this parking garage type area. Hmm. Here's the entrance sign. Jayme says we're going to the playground.... Oh wow what fun! Its an indoor play area. First we chilled out on this thing, it spins around and around. It hard hard to get a photo. Then we took a ride in the car. They also had a small area that was netted all around with fans blowing balloons around. Jayme said the kids really love it. And they had ball pits! How fun! More updates to come soon, I promise! Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 1, 2009, 9:33 pm	Dear Mommy, The weather outside is still rather icky, so today we went to a place that is kind of indoors. Its the Okinawa aquarium. I say kind of indoors because while the aquarium itself is inside, most of it is lit by natural light and it has a large park to walk around outside. Unfortunately we didn't get to do the park today, but we had fun at the aquarium. On the way to the aquarium we stopped for a quick lunch near a bridge. Here's the bridge. And here's the lunch. Yum! Jayme said these boxes are called bento boxes. Some of them can get very artistic, and usually they have some rice in them but Jayme says she doesn't like cold rice so she improvises. Finally we arrived at the aquarium. Here I am at the entrance. Jayme says that statue is of a whale shark (full size) and I'll get to see one soon! We went down into the aquarium entrance hall and could see there was a dolphin show going on. You can see the weather doesn't look nice at all. Finally we made it inside. We stopped to see the fish. This is the largest live coral reef in the world that's lit only with natural light. We saw some neat fish! And even spotted a sea turtle! Here's another view of the tank, it has about 5 viewing areas. From there we walked down a long dark hallway to see some other small fish exhibits. Unfortunately its dark enough down here that pictures don't come out But we got to see some neat fish. Then we moved on to the show piece item of the aquarium, the whale sharks! This is the 2nd largest tank in the world, and the largest view-screen in the world. Here is me and the whale sharks. They weren't behaving very well today for pictures. Jayme says usually they swim pretty serenly around, but today they were sticking to the top. We think it may've been almost feeding time, but we never saw them get fed. Near the whale sharks is a place to eat and watch the sharks swim. We couldn't get a seat near the windows, but we stopped to have icecream anyway. We went to the gift store then went on out. A dolphin show was about to start so we decided to stop by and see it. Here I am at the show. The dolphins did some neat tricks. After that it was looking really rainy and the kids were getting tired so we decided to head home. But we had lots of fun! Another update soon. Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 2, 2009, 10:22 am	Dear Mommy, Today I got to fulfill a life mission! I got invited to Jayme's birthday party! Here I am at the start of it relaxing with a strawberry daquiri. We helped decorate, does it look nice? We also put the candles on the cake! We sang to Jayme and she blew out the candles and we all got to eat cake. We also played some wii and just hung out. It was a nice relaxing party. Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 10, 2009, 6:49 am	Dear Mommy, We've been very busy! Jayme has been trying to prepare for Easter. We should have lots of pictures of that this weekend! She said we're even dying eggs. hmm, I wonder what that's like? In the mean time we were all dying for some fresh air so we walked to a playground. There are big rocks like this one all over Okinawa, we took a little break on one. We also found a nice statue. And finally the playground! We toys wanted to have fun too so I took a break to ride a whale. And play on the monkey bars. I'll have more updates soon I promise! Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 12, 2009, 10:35 pm	Mommy, We had a great Easter! First we found Jayme's children's Easter Baskets. Then we headed out for the Easter Egg Hunt. And guess who we saw there? Yes! The Easter Bunny! They also had other things like face painting and such to do, and we had lots of fun checking out the fire truck. Finally it was time for the egg hunt. Do you see all the eggs behind me? And they're off! All the kids trying to get the eggs. The parents aren't supposed to help, but they were rather misbehaved at this egg hunt We headed home and decided to make eggs of our own. Here I am dying eggs Then we had to let them dry. Then we put stickers on them! Such fun Whew. It was lots of fun.  I'm very worried Mommy, I haven't heard from you in a long time, and my host says she hasn't heard from her little Rocky either I'm going to be waiting for the next couple weeks safely on Jayme's shelf... if I don't hear from you I'll come home to see if I can find you. I sure hope we hear something soon so I can continue on my journeys! Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 20, 2009, 7:13 am	Dear Mommy, It was so great to hear from you. I hope you're feeling much better very soon. I'm sad to hear you were sick for so long. Today many of the toys are leaving or prepping to go wild, so we decided to go to the playground for a bit so they could get some exercise before getting in their envelopes. We had lots of fun. Hope to hear from you again soon mommy, Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 29, 2009, 11:50 pm	Dear Mommy, I'm sorry I haven't updated the last few days! You see, Jayme's grandfather arrived all the way from the US to visit. She's been quite busy taking him around and when she finally had time to sit down and update all our travel logs photobucket was being a pain and wouldn't let her upload all her photos. She's really quite frustrated, but she's trying to catch up on some of the updates now. The first place we went to was the Nakamura House. This is a very old home on Okinawa of family that lived here in the 1600s that was quite rich. Here I am in the parking lot. And here's the entrance. It was raining quite a bit, but I got some pictures of the outside courtyard in the middle of the house. We sat down to relax for a bit. Here's the kitchen area. I liked some of the small decorations in the house. And on the way out we found all these Shisa on the wall, aren't they neat? Sorry I didn't get my photo on them, but it was raining and Jayme didn't want her camera to get all wet so she took the photo real fast. More updates to follow! Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 29, 2009, 11:59 pm	Dear Mommy, Today we went to a place called Okinawa World. It was quite fun! Here's the entrance where we got our tickets. They had lots of pretty flowers. Then we went down into a cave, it was quite a long tiring walk, but look at how neat it was! We had lots of fun. When we came out we were in a bit of a craft area. Here they were making glass. There was also a nice little waterfall out the entrance. And some typical Okinawan buildings that were selling the crafts being made. In one building we got to see examples of various Shisa's through the centuries. It was a lot of fun! More updates to come soon. I hope you're feeling better soon Mommy! Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 30, 2009, 12:06 am	Dear Mommy, We took another trip to the Peace Memorial on Okinawa. It is a very sad place. Over 200,000 people died on Okinawa during World War II. 76,000 Japanese soldiers, 6,000 American Soldiers, and over 100,000 civilians. This park was built to remember them. In one building they have 1000 cranes in a wish for peace. Here is the Memorial itself. Every one who died during the Battle of Okinawa is remembered here with their name carved into the stone. The park is situated very beautifully on the edge of these cliffs. More soon, Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 30, 2009, 12:10 am	Dear Mommy, We went to the Chinese Gardens. There's not much to learn here, but its a very restful place. I hope you like the photos here. Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted Apr 30, 2009, 12:19 am	Dear Mommy, Our last visit over the last few days was to the Shinike-an gardens. These were the royal gardens before Okinawa was taken over by the Japanese. It used to be an independent island chain country called the Ryukyan Islands. These gardens are where the King would come to relax. Its also an UNESCO location. This is the gate the king used to come in through. Here is a small spring where they would get their fresh water. We walked through a short path in a wooded area And we came out at the royal rest house. Here's what it looked like inside. It was very large. Here's the view outside of it to the pond. They had a neat stone bridge here. Whew! I'm about worn out. Hope to hear from you soon Mommy. Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted May 17, 2009, 11:42 pm	Dear Mommy, Whew! We have been very, very busy. Jayme's grandfather finally left a few days ago and I'm very behind on my journal entries! I hope you enjoy my updates over the next day or two, there are certainly a lot. We'll start with our trip to Shurijo Castle. Here I am at the outside gate to Shuri Castle. Isn't it pretty? This is the inner gate. Inside here is the inner courtyard. Unfortunately we didn't go in because Jayme's didn't have anyone to help with the children and she didn't want them getting out of hand and getting ahold of some artifacts... so we waited outside. After that we headed to Kokusai Dori to do a little shopping. Jayme got a new hat and also some food for dinner that night. Once we got home we saw what food she had purchased. We had some steak, but we also had some purple sweet potatos! They were very neat. They're called Okinawan Sweet Potatoes and they really are that purple. She made them into some sweet mashed potatoes and they were very yummy. We also had some cake. Since Jayme's grandfather was visiting when there were no birthdays or holidays, we had an un-birthday party cake just for fun! Have you ever seen Alice in Wonderland? The next day we headed up north, I'll write more about the northern part of the island soon! Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted May 18, 2009, 12:01 am	Dear Mommy, Today we headed up north! It takes quite awhile to drive there, so we'll be staying over night for a few nights. Our first stop was at the Pineapple Park in Nago. Here we got to go on a ride in a pineapple cart. Here I am sitting in the cart. Here you can see another cart. They took us around the gardens. First we went by some palm trees. Then we got to see some very small pineapples growing! They had lots of plants. And some very funny looking flowers. After the cart ride we got to walk through an area where they had wine tasting. They had lots and lots of pineapple wine. After you got past the wine area there was an area where you could try snacks and candies. They were very good! You could buy the ones you liked. Jayme was very tempted to get us a pineapple friend to take home, but figured she had enough toys to worry about They had lots of stuffed pineapples, shisas, and other things. More soon, Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted May 18, 2009, 12:09 am	Dear Mommy, After our fun at the Pineapple Park we finally made it to our campsite. We were staying at some cabins on one of the US military recreational facilities. Here we are by the cabin. Here's what the inside of the cabin looks like, it also had a pair of bunkbeds. Here's the yard area, the kids had lots of fun simply playing in the dirt. They were very silly. That night we put some small pieces of potatoes, a sausage, and some egg into some aluminum foil and cooked it on the fire. Mmm. It came out very yummy! However, Jayme says she only does roughing it so far (well, we are staying in a cabin afterall) so we had breakfast at the restraunt nearby. We ordered off the menu. The hot chocolate was very yummy. And then oops! We were so hungry we forgot to take a picture of the food! But it was very good. I'll tell you more about our travels up north soon. Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted May 18, 2009, 12:14 am	Dear Mommy, Since we were so far to the north, we decided to go to the far northern point of the island. This area is called Hedo Point, and it is the north tip. It was a very neat area. Here you can see some of the coastline. They also had some nice statues around, I liked this bird one. It was a very beautiful place to go visit, more soon. Kelly Bear
JaymeC Posted May 22, 2009, 9:53 am	Since today is the last day of Jayme's grandfather's visit we went out for a nice dinner at a steak house called Sam's. As you can see, it has a ship theme. We all looked over the menu, and decided on the steak meal, Jayme doesn't like sea food Here I am at the table. The white dish behind me is the sauce dish, and then just beyond that you can see the grill they will cook our food on in front of us. Its very neat! First they served some delicious navy bean soup Then a nice salad Next came the potatoes And then the main dish. Steak and bean sprouts. Yum! This is the woman who cooked our dinner, she did some neat tricks but unfortunately we couldn't get those on camera. Hope to hear from you soon mommy, maybe I should come home to check on you? Kelly Bear
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Jun 9, 2010, 7:07 am	I've arrived at in Finland! I'm staying at the recently founded TV FosterCareHome  I'l be here untill my mentor/owner contacts the FosterCareHome. You can read more about  the FosterCareHome in the forum. The FosterMom seems nice and I have plenty of company here
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Jun 13, 2010, 9:01 am	My Foster Mom took us Foster Toys on a field trip to the Old Town of Porvoo! The Old Porvoo is a small part of the city, the part that was built first. Those red shorehouses are the most wellknown sight of Porvoo. Porvoo got its town rights in 1346. Now it has a bit under 50 000 inhabitants and an area of 654 km2. It's situated only 50km (less than 1h drive) east from the capital, Helsinki. It was a fun trip! Foster Mom promised we'll go see the newer parts of Porvoo too
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Oct 30, 2010, 9:43 am	Happily horrible Halloween!
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Dec 26, 2010, 7:34 am	Iloista joulua! Buorrit Juovllat! Merry Christmas! Nollaig chridheil huibh! God jul! Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan! Fröhliche Weihnachten! Joyeux Noel! Q Ná merye i turuhalmeri! QISmaS DatIvjaj 'ej DIS chu' DatIvjaj!
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Dec 29, 2011, 2:14 pm	Iloista joulua! Merry xmas! God jul! Buorrit juovllat! Fröhliche Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noël! And so on! And have a great new year - 2012!
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Jun 22, 2012, 8:18 am	FosterCareHome Class 2012 group photo by the riverbank of Porvoo
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Nov 3, 2015, 4:16 pm	I'm still here. A few other "long-term tenants" are here too - and we all have made new friends along the years
FosterCareHome FosterCareHome@web.de Posted Dec 15, 2015, 9:09 am	Today I arrived in Germany! I'm so happy that I have a new home!

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