Travelog for: Nathalie

Today I went to see a beautiful park in Newland, North Carolina and I went hiking in the woods!

Here's a cute little bridge that crosses the creek:


and the waterfalls:


There is a hiking path that goes up the falls and into the woods where I saw several rhododendron flowers:




The hiking path follows this pretty little creek:


Love,
  Nathalie

I'm back in Miami, Florida!  I left Newland, North Carolina yesterday and stopped in Gainesville, Florida for the night.  I was very tired after the long drive (it took 9 hours!), so I didn't get any pictures.

Love,
  Nathalie

Hi Mommy!

The weather has been very hot and humid here in Miami, so I've just been hanging out with my friends in the house where it's cool.  We all had stories to tell of the places we've been and the things we've done.  But now it's time for me to move onward to California!  I will miss all my new friends that I've met here in Miami, but maybe I will see them again one day.

My friends have gathered around to say goodbye:


Goodbye, Theodore and Fairchild and Westgate and Chris, and Minerva and Prince Charming and Frankenstein!

Hi mommy!
I made it safely to California this past monday.  Here I am!




I got to meet the other voyagers Sara is hosting...Snuttig and Moony

They gave me a warm welcome to Sara's home...
I also got to meet all the Eeyores in Sara's Eeyore collection...they told me one of thier own was made into a voyager and they want to know what its like to roam around the world.



I then got to meet Sara's dog Kika...it was a nice day and Sara hasn't had time to walk Kika in a while so we decided to take a nice long walk today.  Sara's brother said they fixed up the riverbed where she used to run races and it looks really nice with a pond and everything so we are going to go check it out.
Here I am meeting Kika


and away we go!

Sara thought this was a nice picture of her neighborhood

we came across this funny pair on the way to a near by park...sphinx! in California?


Here we are at the park



the park is across the street from an elementary school...also in the background in this picture are the tracks for the Metro train that runs by and behind that is a driving range for golfers...can you see? its a bit hard to in this picture


Here is the school...


it has an old school bell that they used to ring way back in the day




Now we start on our way to the riverbed...we have to walk along side the train tracks...but there are trees and bushes and a wall that separates the street from the tracks...Sara found this little path she never noticed before...


We then reach the entrance to the riverbed...hmm...dogs have to be on a leash...but what about ducklings?

we reach the river bed and Sara was astonished at how pretty it is...she remembers it being all dry and ugly when she used to run down here around 8 yrs ago



Look! ducklings like me!



along the path were some signs telling about the LA river/wetland project





Sara remembers it looking like this...the other side of the river seems to have been dammed up and that's why its dry while the other side is a wetland



We much enjoy the way it looks now


it was a hot day so we decided to rest in the shade for a bit before we headed back home


hmm...people go left...but horses go right...where do TVs go?


We had to get going back home because Sara had work...I think I will be joining her at work tomorrow.  Today was a big first day for me.  I tell you about my later adventures. 
Bye for now!

Hi Mom!
So today Sara took us to Signal Hill to see the great view of Long Beach. Enjoy!

At Hilltop park...




You can see everything from up here!!








And so many other wonderful things up here! like statues...





Flowers...




a post truck...


a plane fly by...


Sara thought it was interesting to see an FCC tower in a neighborhood...



We even saw some monks walking around!


We played around a little bit on the exercise equipment...




This neighborhood is called Panorama Promenade...



there was once a fire up here...


you can see the Long Beach airport from here (its the brown field in the background)


another park

Here I am with the American flag, the California flag...and an unknown third flag...

another neighborhood


it was another hot day so we headed on back home to cool off.
I will keep you updated on my travels.
Bye for now!

Hi Mom!
Sorry I haven't written in a while...Sara has been quite busy with work lately and she was sick for a little while.  She hasn't had too much time to take us anywhere special but in about a week we'll be going to Catalina Island! Can't wait!!
I'll just run through whats happened in the past few days.
We said goodbye to Snuttig...he went on to Canada.



Then later on in the week Sara went to the mall to go shopping for a new dress for her Birthday...

Saw a funny window there...

and I found some ducklings like me!


Then we met her new voyager...Marty.


It's been a bit quiet here...but I'll let you know when I've had some more adventures.
Bye for now!!

Hi Mom!
So on saturday Sara's dad got tickets for a concert at the Hollywood Bowl to celebrate Sara's birthday that passed last week.  Sara decided to take us along and show us the famous outdoor concert hall!!  (towards the end you may notice the quality of pictures is reduced...Sara's camera died yet again so she had to use her phone...she will get that fixed soon!)

So here we are in the back of the truck all ready for the picnic before we go watch the concert.


on the way there we could see the LA skyline...






haha...some local "street art"


look! we're here! can you see the exit sign?


parking was a hassel...more of that when we're trying to leave



after having a nice tasty picnic with all these goodies...


we decided to explore the surrounding area.
someone wrote a cute message on this tree...well if you think about it a certain way its cute






OH! look what we found! a museum! and it looks like its a historic landmark.




turns out that this building was the first major motion picture studio in Hollywood and was used by Cecil B Demille for the first feature length movie "The Squaw Man".  Pretty cool huh?

so we finished dinner and packed up and are now heading to the bowl...oh but whats this...can u see the lovely fountain in the back? it is of "the Muse of Music"


and look...a souvenir shop haha



and finally! ME in front of the Bowl!!!

[IMG]




it was a nice night...but time to go!
but wow! sooooooo many people had the same idea as us...it was packed!


we had to take an tunnel underground to get across the street...wow so many people we moved so slowly!




and then...here's us stuck in the parking lot haha...but finally on our way home.



bye bye Hollywood Bowl!

Hi mom!
So on tuesday Sara took a day vacation to near by Catalina Island.  She hadn't been there in 5 years! Not since her senior year of High School...because she used to have summer cross country camp there every school year.

So here I am at the landing.




Here's our boat...


And here we go!!


In the background to the right you can kind of see the Queen Mary...Sara took a close up shot but the boat was moving around a bit so the picture is kind of cut in half...sorry about that :/




Here's a lighthouse...



And here's Parker's Lighthouse which is a restaurant.  Sara had her 22nd birthday dinner there about a week ago.



Here is the Long Beach Arena painted by the famous seascape artist Wyland


Here's a big boat... it was a Cheveron oil tanker boat.



It was going to be a sunny day so we had to make sure we had sun glasses...


We finally made it to the island! and it looks like this is a stop for a cruise ship as well.






We woke up early so we could take the early boat to Catalina and have breakfast there. And what a breakfast! Sara was eager to have some chocolate chip pancakes that she used to have every summer she went to the island.  You can see them smothered with melted chocolate chips heehee.



Now that we were all fed it was time to explore the island.
There are two major ways to get around this tiny place...either you walk or...you take a golf cart!! It's such a small town (Avalon that is...it's the ONLY town on Catalina) that cars are much too big to have on the island so everyone drives a golf cart!

You see them back there?







We found a whole army of carts for tourists to rent!



We had fun playing around with the carts...now back to exploring!






The building in the background to the right is the island casino.  Not sure if there is a real casino in there but they do have a movie theater in there. (It only plays one movie though haha)



Palm trees galore on the island



 
A pretty fountain...Sara used to run from the school down to the fountain every morning during camp and stretch by it before her big runs.  The longest run of the camp that she only did one year was 11 miles long! (and amongst those crazy hills no less!!) Needless to say...once was enough for her haha.



We found this silly guy by the best ice cream shop on the island...Big Olafs.  Back when Sara used to come there used to be tons of these Buffalo statues all over the place painted all different patterns and colors...seems this one is the last of its kind :[




The day went by too quickly! Sara had alot of fun swimming and paddleboarding and eating. But we had to make sure we caught the last boat of the day or else we'd be stuck on the island over night! So here are some last pictures of the day...

A seal statue...



That house on top with the conical roof is Holly Hill house...the story is that a man had it built for a woman he loved...but he took too long to build it so she married another man. Sad right? it is currently a private home.


some beach volleyball players


And here we are at the dock!


People fish right off it...


Now to wait in line for the boat


Such a lovely day...glad to be back home :]

Had a fun time mom! Write again soon!!

Today we went to Universal Studios Hollywood.  We got lucky that it wasn't as hot as it has been the past few weeks.

here we are in the line to get to the parking. A lot of people had the same idea as us to come here for the holiday!


Whoo! We made it in...here is the famous universal globe at the enterance of the park.


And here is a statue in the park ...you see that statue to the far right? That's an actual person!! He looked just like the other statues there haha


Here is the first attraction we went to...I was too scared to look so i stayed in the backpack for this part.


When we got out we met Vin Diesel!!


Just kidding...but we did get to see the cars from the movies "The Fast and The Furious" here is the one Vin drove.


Oh but look Matt Damon!

oh no...just a fake...haha...he was there to show props for "The Bourne" series.

Here we are at "The Simpsons Ride"
The Simpsons are a big cartoon here in the States.





I'm afraid we were much too short to ride the ride :[

Next we went on the Studio tour of the backlot

This is a building in a part of the lot called "Old Mexico" they have rain effects here and a fake flood...but i didn't want to get wet so we didn't take a picture

This is a famous courtyard that has been used in many old horror films.

This is a fake subway set that we were in...we got trapped and there was a big earthquake in there! It was all fake of course but it was scary!!


The tour was fun...and as we walked around we found the capsule from the movie "Apollo 13"


And look! Tom Hanks!Heehee


We rode the Jurassic Park Ride

and the Mummy Ride

And watched the "Waterworld" show


Bye bye Universal Studios! Sara got a year pass so maybe we'll be back again soon

Hi Mom!
Thursday was my last day here with arasmi and the other voyagers. I am heading off to my next host in Canada.

The other voyagers gave me a big hug.



then we had a little ice cream party because it was hot...I enjoyed the green lime popsicle...yum!



then it was time for me to get all packaged up and off to the post office!
I'll let you know once I've reached my new host.


Bye Mom!

Hi Mum!

I am in Canada ! Wow, today when I travelled from the post office to smaug's post box I thought I was going to freeze,  apparently the temperature was almost down to 0C, brrr  .
Then, when someone picked my envelope out of the post box I had the strange feeling of being at the center of the attention  , and guess what, when I put my head out my friend Snuttig was there to welcome me  . He introduced me to the other TVs who are staying here: Sully Monster comes from Australia, Ronnie is visiting from Spain, Lysander comes from Scotland and sammino is a stay at home TV . There is also a little duck called Paulina who isn’t officially a TV but who is always going around with the TVs, and more "resident" toys. I guess I’ll have a great time here, can’t wait to explore the country  .

Hi Mum!

Wow, it was so hot here today, it went up to 34C  . It is strange to have the hottest day of the year when we are officially already in autumn, but smaug told us not to get use to it: the forecast for next week said that morning temperature could go as low as -5C or less,  . So, when he came back from work he told us that we should make the most of the nice weather and we went out for a walk along the river, so I had my first chance to explore Calgary  .
Here we took a picture from a bridge on the Bow River looking at downtown Calgary.



Then we went walking a bit in the river channel and took another couple of pictures. There were plenty of seagulls around but no ducks  , maybe they were home for supper  .




As you can see it was getting a bit too dark to take more photos but we kept walking a bit longer before coming home. It was nice, pity it soon will be so cold  .

Hi Mum!

today was a lovely sunny day so smaug decided to have a final (for the season) high mountain hike.  Our destination was Mount Allan in the Kananaskis Provincial Park. We spent the first part of the day climbing up a thick forest (where we tried to take some photos without getting anything presentable in an update  ). When we eventually came out of the trees we were on a steep ridge overlooking Kananaskis Valley. From the ridge you could see the valley heading north…



…and south…



…this big mountain called Mt Kidd...



….and the top of the ridge, called Olympic Summit. Just next to it is the Nakiska ski area (that you can't see in the picture) where all the alpine ski races where held during the 1988 Winter Olympics, hence the name…or at least I guess so  .



Once we reached Olympic Summit we were not even half way to our destination  . We had to follow a long and very, very breezy ridge (so breezy, the rucksack was shaking  all the time, wow  ).  From the ridge we got some lovely views over Kananaskis Valley and the surrounding mountains  .




….and we could also see our destination, Mount Allan. Here you can see Mount Allan on the right half in the shadow and the much higher Mount Lougheed on the left.



Halfway through the ridge we came across these funny pinnacles formed by rock that somehow  resisted erosion .



Eventually we reached the top at 2819m  and the view, of course, was great  : we could see the Bow River Valley in the north-west…



…Kananaskis Valley in the south-east…



…endless mountains in the north…



…and Mount Lougheed just in front of us



On the way back smaug decided to enjoy a bit the sun by laying in the grass. So we took the chance to come out of the rucksack, have a bit of fun by ourselves and so we went climbing  . Well, the others went climbing. I am lucky enough to have wings so I didn’t really need to climb , but sammino and I had the task to find out  the best routes and holds from the air and direct and support the climbers .



Climbing must be hard work  !! Here I was helping Snuttig in one of the steepest sections.



While here sammino and I were keeping a watchful eye when the others were going up an angled fissure.



How exciting!! And how great to sit all together watching the landscape  !

Hi Mum!

Today it was Sully Monster’s birthday, so this morning we all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday for him  .



Since smaug was at work and didn’t leave anything special for us, sammino decided that we should raid the kitchen and find some party food. We started with the fridge without any luck  (I kind of noticed that the man didn’t come back home with any shopping bag for quite few days).



The first cupboard we checked wasn’t much better than the fridge, all canned food 



Now this looks interesting, not healthy maybe, but tasty 



So we stuffed ourselves with nutella, cookies and crisps. After that we checked out the latest updates on toyvoyagers



Then, since it was a really cold day, we spent the afternoon wrapped in a fleece blanket chatting and watching TV on the sofa...keeping a few extra cookies nearby, just in case 

Hi Mum!

Today we said goodbye to my friend Snuttig. It was nice to meet him a second time here, I wonder if I’ll meet him again. He is going to California...so lucky  ! He is actually moving with a very good timing as here, in the night, it started snowing  .