Travelog for: Horatio

"Hi!  I'm new here...  Uhh..  What do I say?"

"Try introducing yourself."

"Do I have time for that?  Mel said if I wanted to come along I had to pack fast..."

"Just be quick.  She doesn't even have the car loaded yet."

"OKay, umm...  Hi, I'm a dragon.  I'm green with purple wings and my name is Horatio.  I like fantasy things.  Is that good enough?"

"I guess for now.  Do you know were we are going this weekend, by the way?"

"Not really.  I think Raven does."

"Oh really.  Let's go grill him."

"What, like for real??  Wow, you guys are making me feel at home!  Though I usually prefer flame broiled."

"Ack!  No!  No eating people!  I just meant we would ask him questions!"

"Well why didn't you say so?  Now I'm hungry!"

Oh my gosh! Who would have thought that Omaha has so much to do! It helps that Bridget's best friend is visiting too. Today was really exciting because it was my Bridget's dad's birthday so we got to go to Leo's Diner in Benson.

We got to listen to Great Balls of Fire!


There were a bunch of different mugs and old fashioned kitchen appliances.


And here's our delicious breakfast!


Afterwards it was time to go to work at the library where I got to meet Charlie Brown the Bearded Dragon, just like me! But with a little less beard for me.


I got to shelve a cart of books.


And even talked to a librarian! He helped me find the dragon books.


Then I got to meet the other resident dragon in the children's section of books. He was a bit of a quiet soul.


Afterwards it was time to study. This tumblr must be a very informative site.


After work was all done and so was studying we went on a ride down to the river. I got to ride in the front with Abbie the Beagle.


We stopped by St. Cecelia's Catholic Church. It's the seat of the Omaha Archdiocese and is made in Spanish Baroque style. We couldn't go in though because the doors were locked.


This is the bridge that connects Omaha to Iowa. The river was super high and fast from the flooding.


On the bridge I got to sit on the state line of Nebraska and Iowa!


And here's a lovely view of the Omaha skyline.


Next we went to the famous Ted and Wally's downtown.


I got to have a coffee milkshake. It was delicious!


Then we got to go to a really cool antique store that was also a candy store! I wanted to try all the candies there, but was feeling a bit full from my milkshake.


Finally to wrap up the day it was time to go to the theatre. We went to the Omaha Community Playhouse and got to see Guys and Dolls. I was practically dancing in the aisles!


Henry Fonda performed here a long time ago too.


I had so much fun going all over Omaha with Bridget and Martha and I can't wait to do more tomorrow!

Today Bridget, Martha, and I took things a bit slower. We were pretty tired from yesterday's running around, but that didn't stop us from having a great day!

We got to go to Whole Foods. Look at all the tasty gelatos!


Bridget and Martha must really like theatre because tonight we went to Shakespeare on the Green to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It was a lot of fun and hilarious! Next week I might get to go see Hamlet  too.

Today was Bridget's birthday!


First we went to the Farmer's Market where we had mille-feuilles for breakfast. They were super yummy. There were a lot of people with puppies and people playing music too.


Next we went to the Joslyn Art Museum.


I was excited to become a patron of the arts. This is Bridget's favorite painting. It's called "Russian Beauty with Cat." I think a dragon would've been better.

We also got to have dinner at a really cool Japanese restaurant, but the camera died right when we got there so we weren't able to take any pictures. But it was all really tasty food!

Wow, what an exciting day! First we went to the local comic book store and guess what it's named?


That's right it's my kind of lair!

Next we went to the local botanical gardens which had a special area dedicated to trains.


I got to sit on the part of the map where the Transcontinental Railroad met.

Next we looked at the trains. The first was Big Boy.


It was a bit hard to see the inside.


I got to sit on the front. It makes me look like such a tiny dragon.


I also got to sit on the front of the other train called the Continental.


We also got to see a view of the Missouri River from where we were. It's flooded quite a bit.


Now it was time to see the flowers! I got to smell a hibiscus.


And these are balloon flowers.


There were also a lot of sculptures by an artist named Jun Kaneko. This was my favorite one called Velocity.


I got to make a wish in the English Tea Garden. Can't tell you what I wished for though or it won't come true!


It was such a relaxing garden. I wish they really did serve tea there.


This was the pergola in the garden.


They have special wooden models of all the important buildings in Omaha in their outdoor model train exhibit. This is the Rose Blumkin Performing Art Center.


And this is the train passing by.


There was a stegosaurus in the children's garden!


Though I found the hare to be much friendlier.


They have a replica of Mount Fuji here that is 400x smaller then the real Mount Fuji. The gate in the middle was a gift from Omaha's sister city Shizuoka.


Here we are at the top of the mini Mount Fuji. We said our prayers there because it is a real sacred site in Shintoism.


On our way back we saw this stone lantern that had the Twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac on it. I got my picture next to the year of the Dragon picture.


This was the Rose Garden. It smelled so pretty!


There was also wildlife at the Gardens. I got to talk with a very informative snail.


Finally I got to see the koi pond. They were very friendly.


It was a super exciting time!

Wow! Minnesota was amazing! I went all sorts of cool places with Bridget and her family. The first place we went was the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN.


This is the Lego store there. All the statues are made entirely out of Legos and are all really tall!


This is the park in the mall. We got to see all sorts of rides, there were a lot of people screaming and laughing.

The next place we went to was the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul.


On the top of the Museum is an old tug boat that looks out over the Mississippi River. It was so cool to be so high up! I felt like a real ship's captain!


This sculpture is actually a device that detects earthquakes all over the world! Whenever it picks up an earthquake's vibrations it plays music that is native to the area where the earthquake is happening. It actually played several times while we were there.






DINOSAURS ARE THE COOLEST! They're like dragons, but they don't breathe fire.


Next it was time to go to Como Zoo and Conservatory.


This bonsai is over 300 years old!


This was my favorite room in the Conservatory. Bridget remembers coming here when she was really little and seeing all the flowers too.


This is the Japanese Tea Garden which was a gift from St. Paul's sister city of Nagasaki. There's even a tea house that we got to see too.


This was the fern room. It was hard to see because of all the mist and was really hot inside too. We had to hang on to Bridget's dad to keep from slipping because the floor was all wet.


This was one of the bear's that Como is hosting for now because their home zoo is in North Dakota and got flooded. We even got to see one of the bears swimming in the water right next to the glass. It was huge!


Look at all the zinnias!


The last thing we got to do was ride a Carousel that was over a 100 years old!


This was the horse I got to ride with Bridget. It's a Philadelphia style horse. Did you know there are three types of Carousel horses?

Over all Minnesota was a lot of fun and we had a great time!

After our awesome time in Minnesota Bridget wanted to make sure that I got to see one of the best attractions in Omaha: the Henry Doorly Zoo!


This is the Desert Dome! It's the largest indoor desert in the world.


This is the statue at the main entrance of the zoo.


Outside of the Desert Dome is this. It's called a Kugel Ball and it weighs 1 ton! But the really cool thing about it is that it's kept afloat on an inch of water and even better, you can move it!


So much sand!


This is a klipspringer. They're tiny little dear that look like they're walking on their tiptoes.


The meerkats were really alert. It was just like watching Meerkat Manor!


This is an Australian Frilled Dragon. We didn't get to see his frill though, he was very relaxed.


Bridget taught me a song about Kukaburas. I'll sing it for you when I get home Mom!


The zoo called this little guy a Dragon Monitor. There are certainly a lot of dragons in the desert!


This was a real Sawaro Cactus. It was huge!


If you sit just right the spines of the cactus can't hurt you, so no worries Mom! I'm just a daring little dragon.


Turtles really are slow moving, but this guy was going to town!


This was just a statue of a gila monster, but it was fun to pretend.


I'm glad the glass was between me and these two snakes!


Downstairs in the Desert Dome is an exhibit called Kingdoms of the Night. It's all nocturnal animals so we weren't able to take many good pictures. We did get a picture of this beaver though.



The aquarium was so cool! There were a ton of sharks!


And rays!


The penguins were making a lot of noise.


The jelly fish were so peaceful and relaxing.


You can just barely see behind the coral, there's a little guy called a Thumb Splitter Shrimp. I don't want to know how he got that name...


Oh my goodness! I didn't know the sea had dragons too! This guy is a Leafy Sea Dragon.


There were lion fish.


All the fish in this tank were super pretty.


These big fish are related to piranhas, but they don't eat meat. That's a really good thing sine they're so big!


We tried to get a picture of Tibideau the White Alligator in Kingdoms of the Night, but it was too dark so instead we took a picture on his plushie!


This bird was so pretty and even neater, he's going to be a daddy soon!


These little rodents were so cute! They were all curled up sleeping together.

The zoo was so cool Mom! I was so happy to meet so many other dragons and see such cool animals!

Today is my last adventure in Omaha before I head off to Canada! Bridget decided to show me some of the history of Omaha by taking me to the Durham Western Heritage Museum.


The Durham used to be a train station from the 30s to the 50's so a lot of the exhibits are about trains.






Upstairs in the lobby there are all these statues that represent the different people who used to use the train station. When you go up close to them they talk!


This is a dress from the 1930s. People were really small back then!


Back when the museum was a train station you could get all sorts of things taken care of back then, even getting a haircut and a shave!


All these old cameras make me think of how far we've come with camera technology. Now we can take pictures with our phones, I wonder what people back then would think of this now...


Look at this old car!


There were a lot of model trains, but this was my favorite one.


This was the huge model train set downstairs. You could press different buttons to make different things happen like lighting up the town or lowering the drawbridge.






This is the inside of the train that's on display. The entire thing is original. It must have been cozy to travel in.


This is more like the cars I'm used to today.


There's a bit map of Omaha on the floor there. We got a picture of the area where Bridget lives.


Oh ho the Wells Fargo Wagon is a comin' down the street! Oh please let it be for me!


This was the engine of the train. It was huge!


This is the inside of a trolley car that used to run in the Benson area of Omaha.


This is a tepee that Native Americans used to live in.


I got to meet a bison! He was so big!


Can you imagine traveling across the plains in something like this?



These were some cool pictures of how living rooms used to be in the past.


This is a replica of the World's Fair that took place in Omaha at the turn of the century.


These scales were huge! They were used to weigh gold.


Finally we got to go to the old fashioned soda fountain.


And picked up some retro candy. It was so much fun to learn all about Omaha!

I am so happy ToyVoyagers is back!  And also that Mel is done moving for a while, because being packed in a box is really boring!  And now I can travel again!

I am going to England!  I am really excited about that, because I heard they have dragons and knights there.  And if there are no dragons there now, there will be soon! 

Alex_Lion (his mum hasn't written back for a long time, so he lives with us) was from the UK and so he has been getting me ready!  He says I will have tons of fun.  I'm sure I will!   

Hi!

I arrived at Niki's home today, and shared the sweets with her that I took with me on my journey.



The weather was very bad when I arrived, so we didn't get to go out and look around. Niki said that they have not had any snow here for the past four years, but that it rains most of the winter.

Niki took me to a school production of grease that evening, which was exciting. She was not allowed to bring her camera into the theatre so here is a picture of me with the tickets.

Hi!

It's pancake day here.. An entire day dedicated to pancakes! We had pancakes for breakfast, pancakes for lunch and pancakes for dinner! Here's me with my stack. I had golden syrup and whipped cream, yum!

I went for a short walk with Niki and her boyfriend around Portland today. It was raining every now and then so we didn't get to stay out long. Here I am with the daffodils that are already starting to grow! The heart shaped stone infront of me is completely natural. It's made out of Portland stone, and one of Niki's friends found it on the beach.



Look! I found a pink dragon fly in the garden! Niki says it's still too cold to see actual  dragonflies.



We went on a walk to the top of Portland so I could get a picture with the lovely view. Behind me is Portland bay, where the 2012 Olympic sailing events took place. There are also the large cargo ships which bring in trade from Europe , which docked just that morning! Niki says that another day we can go down and walk around the dock.



In this picture you can see the white cliffs behind me. A lot of the Jurassic Coast has cliffs like this, as most of the rock in the area is limestone and chalk.



Here's a picture of me infront of Portland bay and Weymouth. The long stretch of land on the far left connecting Portland (which used to be its own island!) to mainland England is chesil beach and ferry bridge. It was a very pretty view.



Here's a panoramic photo of me with the bay.



We then continued to walk to the top of Portland and visited the prison which is there. Unfortunately we couldn't go in as it wasn't open to visitors at the time, but there is a prisoner run cafe there called "the jailhouse cafe" which serves amazing food, according to Niki.



Can you see that canon right behind me on the wall in the photo, how cool is that!



We then returned home for tea and biscuits as it had started to rain again. I took a dragon sized bite out of my biscuit!



Here's me with Johnny, the wooden statue which has been in the house for as long as Niki can remember. She's not sure where they got it from, but it has always been there. He's my new Bestfriend!

I visited Pennsylvania castle on Portland today. Such an appropriate place for a dragon to be! It was constructed in 1800, but is now used as a hotel. Niki and her friends were there to do a photo shoot so I got to look around the grounds while they worked.



Here I am sat on the original table that Winston Churchill ( the UK's prime minister at the time) sat around with his associates says they planned the d-day invasion during World War Two.



Here's what the plaque says.



Look at this chair! It has a handcrafted dragon on it!



The castle has many secret doors like this one.



I wish I was able to swim, the pool was massive, even big enough to fit a dragon in!



I deserve to be on a pedestal... So I put myself on display!



The dining room was massive. Niki played the piano for me as my fingers couldn't reach the keys. There was also lots of portraits of strange men, and large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.







The grounds had lots to see, but we weren't allowed on the grass! The view was amazing as well!







Here I am sat on the set of the photoshoot. They were having an Alice in wonderland themed tea party.

Hi!

The weather was beautiful today, for the first time in a while so me and Niki went on a walk around the top of Portland.

We took the coastal path which is a safe track for us to walk along, which took us through a wooded area.





We then had to walk through a tunnel. It was dark and scary but Niki kept hold of me.



The path we walked along took us around the bottom of the prison wall. This was once a gate leading into the prison, but many prisoners used it to escape so it was cemented up.



Here I am next to an information sign for tourists like me!



At the end of our walk, we came to the Olympic rings. The rings are made out of local Portland limestone, hand crafted by local people in memory of the event. They were originally positioned in Weymouth outside the train station to welcome visitors during the games in 2012, but were repositioned on the top of Portland, overlooking the bay in which the sailing events were held.

It was raining really hard today, so we got in the car and went on a road trip!



We went to Yeovil retail park to look for a new dining table set. We didn't manage to find a new dining table, but we did buy a new sofa!



Since the weather still wasn't great, we went for lunch and then headed home. I hope to have more of an adventure next time.