Travelog for: Mad Max

My mommy is finally ready to let me go, to let me travel and see the world. I am so excited!

Yeah! Leaving for the States this friday! Saying goodbye to all my dear friends over here..... Edje the Cat, I am going to miss you!

Hi Mom,

It's me, Mad Max!

I arrived safely in San Diego, California!



When my envelope was opened, I was greeted by two fellow toyvoyagers, Henry the Adventure Hound and Aku the Lion.




They both gave me big hugs and welcomed me warmly. 


I can't wait to see what adventures await me this weekend!

Hello!  Tonight my host decided to try a new recipe for vegetable soup.



I helped to chop up the vegetables, under supervision of course!




Time to toss it all in a pot!




Yum!




You can find the recipe at: Veggie Soup

Today my host took me up to the city of Escondido to visit the Kit Carson park.






While we were there we visited Queen Califia's Magical Circle!  (http://www.queencalifia.org/) This circle is both a mini maze and a playground made of glass.



Trail up to the circle...










The appearance of the maze walls.




The Queen herself!


















Hmm... what's inside that gap over there?




Bad idea! HELP!




I was shaken by the incident, but luckily we left the area soon after!  I was fine until we saw... another snake, but this time, giant!




Luckily the sun was blinding him so we escaped unscathed.




On our way out we visited an orange grove on the park grounds.  Visitors were free to take the fruit if they wanted to.

Today I went to Grape Day Park, also in Escondido.




A giant grape slide!




A train one could go inside and explore, but alas it was closed that day.











A statue in remembrance of Veterans.












And the neatest thing of the day! We got to see a "Muffler Man"!  Muffler men are 20 foot tall fiberglass figures that used to be very popular in the U.S. in the 60's and 70's.  They would be placed outside of shops to garner attention.  There are only a handfull left in the U.S. now.

Hi Mom!  It's me, Max!

Today is Valentine's Day and our host decided to make some cookies for a friend.  Unfortunately school has kept her busy so instead of making homemade, we made instant cookies 





Time to roll out the dough... oh wait, we don't have to!  All the cookies are precut with messages already on them, how handy!




We made two kinds, sugar and chocolate chip cookies with pink and red white chocolate chips!




After they cooled we all sat around and shared a chocolate chip cookie, it was surprisingly good for being instant!




Hope you're having a great Valentine's Day!

Hi Hi! Today my host took me to Balboa Park!  Balboa park is composed of over 14 different museums!  Unfortunately, photography isn't allowed in most of the museums, so we had to take pictures outside.








Koi fishes who live in the man made pond.








Various building styles.







An outside auditorium for musical performances.






Museum of Man - a biological and cultural anthropology museum.





Ye Olde Globe Theater - a reproduction of the original 








The "House of Finland".  During the winter festival, all the houses are open and food from different parts of the world are on sale!










Do you remember this artist from one of our previous adventures?

Hi Mom!  Today we took a road trip to Cabazon to see the giant dinosaurs!  My host hasn't seen these dinos since she was a little girl.


It was very cold that day, as you can see snow is covering the mountain, which is impressive for the desert!








Each dino is 45 feet tall!  A gift shop was located in the brontosaurus and one could climb up to the top of the T-Rex's head!








These other dinosaurs were much shorter and some were even robotic!














Eek! Don't eat me!





My host couldn't figure out why there was a knight in armor on a horse amongst the dinosaurs... methinks someone didn't read their history book correctly!

Hi again! My host took me to the annual Date Festival in Indio, California!




Various vendors selling their wares, also you can see the California state bear flag in the background.




Stage for the annual festival beauty pageant.




Artists were creating a gigantic Arabian themed sandcastle!





What's a festival without food? 





Next we visited some livestock!





Gobble! Gobble!

Hello!  It's raining here.  I wonder if it is raining at home too?

Today a new toyvoyager arrived in the mail.  Her name is Dorothy.  Dorothy has come from Oregon, which I hear isn't very far away.

Dorothy came on a bad week though!  My host had to take her car to the shop for repairs and its been raining for days!





Perhaps the rain will stop by next week....

Hi Mom!
Today my host received another toyvoyager from Germany.  His name is Michel.





Michel brought with him a lovely postcard and a chocolate bar from his previous host in Finland.  He told us stories of his travels while we sat around and relaxed.  We asked if we could sample some of the chocolate if we shared some of our candy.





Our host pulled out the candy box so that Michel could pick something out!




After settling in, my host had to do her homework.  Being the helpful bat I am, I decided to help!  Hmm... this is harder than it looks!

Hello!  Today my host took me to one of the colleges she goes to!




There is currently a lot of construction going on of new buildings and parking structures, but the grounds are still very pretty.  Here is one of the dribbling fountains in a study area.





This is the science building - infront of it is a large field with lights.  At night when the lights are turned on it looks like an airplane landing strip.







Around the field is a large compass painted on the sidewalk.  It has degrees and directional headings.





Some different architecture of the buildings.










Someday this will be a library.






Many students drive to school - they parking in the lot under large solar panels.





If you don't drive you can park your bike at the fish!





Look I found a tree to explore!





Now to take a rest,  it's hard work flying around all day!

Hi Mom!  My host had planned on taking me to the beach last week but the day we were going to go there were tsunami warnings for the Pacific Ocean due to a large earthquake across the ocean in Japan.  Maybe another host will get to show me a fun time at the beach!  Well by the time you read this I will already be in the mail to my next host in Canada!  Bye bye!