Travelog for: Mocha

Today we go to visit Quebec City.  It's the oldest walled city still to exist in North America!

This is part of the city wall.



The houses are really European.



We first visit the Parc de l'Artillerie.  Here are remains of structures built to guard the St. Charles River and the Old Port.

This is where they made cannons.





This is the oven used for baking for the soldier.  I bet the breads were really good!


Afterwards we stroll the streets.







We found this bicycle in a shop window.  It's all made with candies!



Unfortunately mommy can't figure out which statue this is.  She keeps looking at the map and first say it's this certain fountain but then realize there is no water.  So she thinks it's this certain statue but then when we walk on we find another statue that seems to fit the guidebook description even better.  But anyway, it's a nice statue.





Now this is Le Chateau Frontenac, a very famous hotel/landmark.



The houses look like toys.



We continue on to Lower Town after dark.  This is a famous 4,665 sq ft trompe-l'oeil mural at Place Royal, depicting 400 years of Quebec history.



The Normandy style houses at the cobblestone square are very quiant and romantic.



You can see the funicular in the background.  It transports people from the Chateau to Lower Town.



We find a shop selling Native American crafts.  A lot of dream
catchers to guarantee a sweet dream tonight.

This morning we go to a place called Chez Cora for breakfast.  The decoration is very cute.





The crepes and waffles all come in huge portion with colorful pile of fresh fruit.  Mommy wishes we have something like this where we live, instead of Denny's and IHOP. 



Loaded with food, we head to Montmorency Fall.  It's even taller than the Niagara.



It's amazing how calm the water is at the head of the fall.  You can even see the reflection of the trees.



I couldn't believe we walked across the suspension bridge and walk all the way down the height of the fall.  But the view is really nice.  We do not go all the way down because mommy doesn't want us to get wet, and it's getting really misty.  The noise is also thundering.  Very cool!

Today is the last day of our trip.  We go to the Biodome, which is located at the Olympic Stadium.



This is a very scary looking catfish.  Muki and I couldn't decide if it's called that because it has whiskers like a cat or if the fish eats cat?  It sure looks like it can eat a cat.



It's amazing how the birds do not live inside a cage.  We can stand really close to it.



I didn't know that porcupine can climb trees but this one sure can!



We see some starfish.



And many puffins.



This one is swimming.



These are really big penguins.



We can see how they swim.



I wonder what they are lining up for?



I was hoping to see some real moose at this place but alas what disappointment.  I can only find some toy ones like me.

Today we went to the Dragon Boat Festival at Haulover Park.  We walk around the park a bit. 

There is a booth selling kites.





With the nice breeze the kites are flying very high.



I spot CHOCOLATE!!  This looks 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.

Today we go to Krispy Kreme, a doughnut place where mummy 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! Mmmm I love them, they are pillow soft and melt in my mouth!!

Wow!  Today we go to Haulover Beach.  It is a clothing-optional beach... which, *blush*, is nude beach!!  Floppers want to take off my clothes too but Fllama is too shy a lady and won't hear of it.  I honestly don't like the idea either so I am glad he just takes his top off in the end.

Here's the little walkway to the beach.



The water looks a bit rough.



Wow this is a wide beach w lots of sand.



We all sit and sun bathe together.  Mmm nice sun. 

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 mommy 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.  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!

Today we visit Fort Myers, a town on the west coast of Florida, where they are hosting the American Sandsculpting Festival.



When we arrive, some of the contestants are still working on their sculptures.





This is a scary snake!



This one is my favorite.  I give it my vote. (we are given tickets to put in the can in front of our favorite sculpture.  It's a really nice sculpture of wolves and eagles around a forest mountain. I am happy to learn that it is the second place winner. 



This is the third place winner:



Though I like this moon better, a sleeping moon enjoying a sweet dream.



This one is Old MacDonald and his farm:



This is a beautiful one of a mermaid with a lot of sea creatures.  It's my mommy's favorite and it has won the Committee Choice Award.



Wow this is the grandest sand castle I've ever seen!



This is a pretty one too.



Here's Santa w a funny face!



Phew, all the sun is making me tired.  I am getting an iced mocha with ice cream!  Yummy!

Today is the first time I am visiting Disney.  We are not going to the park, but rather Downtown Disney.

First we check into Disney's All Stars Resort. 



Look what we find on the bed!  Floppers thinks it's rabbit ear but of course I know better, though I don't want to disappoint him.



This is the nice 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.



And really hungry too?  We find this dinosaur, or what remains of it, outside a restaurant in Downtown Disney.  Boy, people here have good appetite.



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.



Otherwise his friend Buzz Lightyear will not be so nice to us. 



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 magic brooms are around to keep the place clean!



We rest a bit at the Pooh Corner, and share some honey before heading home.

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.  I think Florida is too hot for a moose, but Tibipanda wants to see a panda and Fllama wonders if there is any a llama from Peru.

Look at all the 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!



And there is a camel, happily chewing hay.



We are so excited to have a camel ride!  Even if it's 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.  They have a big placeground with ropes and tires.



Giraffes are very tall animals.  We ask if they have seen any moose, panda or llama but they just shake their heads (which is really funny to look at).



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.

As a year-end celebration, 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 relaxing and fun event, typical South Florida style.



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.  I am still humming the music as I type this!



Here are the Somalian pirates who go around hijacking other floats.  They kidnap Sarah Palin, and one of the guys kidnap mommy and us too!  But it happens so sudden we can't take a picture of it.  I think it is lucky we didn't drop the camera.  Quite a hair raising experience!!



Here comes the float with the Little Miss Mango contestants.



Here's a executive panhandling.  There is another one with a mug and sign "Brother, can you spare a billion dollars?"


Even the Hari Krishna come dancing to join in the parade!



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.  Uncle Sam goes around giving out bailout money.  There are killer tomatoes offering poisonouse salsa, a "Mother Earth" with IV, and 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 good time really well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10EZkaBLcyo

Chinese New Year is coming soon so mommy is preparing for it.  She makes special puddings.  There are many varieties of puddings/cakes and traditionally the women make a lot of puddings and give to their friends and relatives.  A good pudding is a source of pride as well as an omen for a good year to come. 

First she takes out the recipe for her favorite, the turnip cake.



She prepares the ingredients: sausage, and dried mushrom and dried shrimp soaking in water to rehydrate.



We chop the sausage into little pieces. 



Next on the chopping board are the shrimps and mushrooms.



We put the cubed ingredients into a bowl and marinate with soy sauce, wine and sugar.



Being a turnip cake, of course it needs lots of turnips.



We peel and cut them in chunks.  Now we set up the food processor to shred it.  Mommy  says that it's great now we have the food processor.  In the olden days we would have to shred it by hands and it's a lot of hard work.



But now we shred all of the turnips in 10 minutes!



Now we stir fry the ingredients.  Hmm, I think it needs some more soy sauce.



Next we cook the turnip shreds.



Everything is mixed together and cook a bit more.



Now the mixture is ready to go into a casserole!



We put the casserole into a steamer.



It will be steamed for 45 minutes.



With the pudding being steamed, we prepare the toasted sesame and cilantro.



Yay, countdown is almost here!



We sprinkle the cilantro and sesame on top.  Now it looks really nice!



We can't wait to try it!  You can add some oyster sauce or hot sauce to it.



This is another flavor, made with coconut milk and sugar.  It is given to us by our host's sister-in-law.



This is another flavor our host made, with water chestnut.  Pieces of water chestnut are added to the pudding to give it a sweet, crunchy flavor.



We slice it and dip it lightly into an egg batter before pan frying it.



Mmmm, everything is so delicious.

Mommy gave us some gold coins for the Chinese New Year.  The weird shaped nugget is how the gold nuggets used to look like in ancient China.  But this one is actually candy inside!



She also gave us a red packet.  In China, adults give children these red packets during new year.  There is cash inside.  So all children love New Year as they get a lot of candies and money to buy whatever toys they want.  That is, when they are too grown up to buy the adult's tale of "give mommy your money and I will save it in the bank for you".



Mmm, I wonder what I should do with the coin I get!

Today I am going with Mommy to Tarpon Springs, a little town on the west coast of Florida.

First we have to drive frm the east coast to the west, through the Everglades National Park.  It may look just like any roadside grass but this is a subtropical marshland designated by UNESCO to be of vital global ecological importance.



This is at the rest area where Mommy has to stop by for a quick visit.



Now we are on the west coast we see the sea again.



We arrive in Tarpon Springs.  This used to be the train station.



The town used to be a sponge fishing village and has the highest percentage of Greek American population in the country.  There is a heavy Greek influence.

This is the St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in downtown.







We also visit this Greek bakery across the street to buy some freshly baked bread for breakfast.  They all look very different from the loaves we usually eat.  They make their own Greek yogurt too.



You can tell you are in Greek territory! Greek Chow Mein anyone?


We sit down for a while ouside a store.  Can you guess what they sell?

Today we visit Craig Park. 



Behind us is a bayou.  During winter time there are manatees but we look and look and can't find any.



This is a cute little palm tree.



And a big palm tree that looks like pineapple on a stick.



Around the bayou there are a lot of old houses like this one.



The trees all have mustache.  Mommy tells us that they are Spanish moss.  Hanging from the trees, I think that it makes the scenery very romantic... but Vicky thinks it is very spooky.







Mommy wants to gather some moss so we help her.



Oh help me I am all tangled up!



We discover that in the park there is the Heritage Museum.  Let's check it out.



Looks like there are people living here from a long, long time ago.



The ancient people used this conch shell to make an axe.  Hmm... looks quite lethal.



This picture show the sponge dock at its heydays.



Wow I didn't know that sponges are animals.  However, nowadays most sponges are synthetic. 



This is a sponge press used to pack sponges into bags like the one on the right.