Travelog for: Travis

Today I was welcomed to the family, complete with a cake that looks just like me!  My family said I'm going to be their international field scout! I'm so excited to see the world and share it with my family through lots of pictures and messages on my Travelog! Before I travel on my own I have some traveling to do with my family. After that I might be going to visit some family friends in Norway.  Then I plan to be back home for the Christmas holiday and our fifth annual ice cream social in January 2012.  After that I'll be off to see the world! 

Mr. Henry, Mr. Christopher, Uncle John and Cousin Jacob are going camping near Flagstaff, Arizona. They thought I should see more of Arizona before I see the world, so they brought me along. Here I am at Oak Creek Canyon. It's really pretty here! 

We're on our way to the Grand Canyon! How exciting! After I see the Grand Canyon I'll only have 57 more National Parks to visit to complete one of my life missions! We saw this sign along the road and stopped to take a picture in honor of Miss Jo! She loves to ride her bicycle and even road her bicycle all the way from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon!

We made it!  I'm visiting my very first National Park! I'm at the beautiful Grand Canyon and all I can say is, it's amazing! When you look at it, it almost doesn't look real, it looks like a beautiful painted picture! Wow, if all of the National Parks are this beautiful and I get to see them all, I'm one lucky Toy Voyager!

Here I am at our campsite, sitting in a very comfortable chair near Mr. Christopher's little house (that's what Bart & I call it). There are lots of big trees here, probably lots of big animals, too. I'm so glad we don't have to sleep on the ground in a tent, that would be too scary! 

I'm on my way to Las Vegas with my brother, Bart, Miss Dottie, Miss Jo, Miss Dory, Miss Aunt Carol and Miss Cousin Jennifer. Mr. Christopher is flying to Las Vegas tomorrow for work, so he'll get to spend time with us after work.  One of the most famous roads in the U.S., historic Route 66, runs through Kingman, Arizona.  Bart said that since we're in Kingman we should have our picture taken at a sign that commemorates the historic highway.   

Driving for 5 hours to go somewhere isn't so bad when you have fun things to do! We sure have been having fun! We've played two games (with gift bags and prizes for everyone!), we ate cupcakes and about every 20 minutes we've been giving Miss Dory fun Flip Flop gifts! We say, "It's Flip Flop Time!", and then she gets to open a gift! Why? Because this trip is to celebrate her birthday (it was earlier in July) and she loves Flip Flips and Sandals! Who knew there were so many fun Flip Flop things! Miss Dory got 5 pairs of Flip Flops, plus a bunch of other cute things! She even received Flip Flop wine! What's really special about Flip Flop wine is that for every bottle sold they give a pair of Flip Flops to someone in need. 

We're here, in fabulous Las Vegas! I'm so excited to be here, what a fun city! We stopped at the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign so that Bart and I could have our picture taken together.

As we were about to leave, Miss Jo saw a man with a little stuffed toy and a camera.  She asked him if that was a Toy Voyager.  The nice man said it was (but we're not sure if he's an "official", registered Toy Voyager!) and that his name was, "Patate". They were from France and he said Patate has traveled all over the world with him.  He said they have been to far away places like India and South Africa! Miss Jo asked if I could have my picture with Patate. Aren't his suspenders cute?     

After seeing the world famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign and meeting Patate, we got back in the car, drove down "the strip" and checked into our hotel. 

We were hungry, so we decided to have lunch at The Rainforest Cafe, which is located at the MGM Grand Hotel. It's a really fun place to eat! The food is really delicious and they have fish in huge aquariums (Bart liked that!). I got a little scared when all of a sudden it started thundering, lightning and raining. Imagine that, in a restaurant! My family told me not to be afraid, that it rains a lot in the rainforests, and that these restaurant rainstorms were just for fun.  They said we wouldn't even get wet! Whew, that made me feel better!

After lunch we decided to go see the lions at the MGM Hotel's Lion Habitat. They were really pretty and very playful. I wanted to have my picture near one of the lions, but it was too crowded and I couldn't get close enough. We did get a few nice pictures using the telephoto lens, so I decided to include a picture of one of the lions anyway, since they're so beautiful. Sorry I'm not in the picture, I tried! 

After spending some time at the MGM Grand we decided to walk over to the New York New York Hotel and Casino. It's almost like being in New York City! They have a big replica of the Statue of Liberty and a roller coaster like the one at Coney Island. Since I've never been to New York City I decided to have my picture with this Statue of Liberty.  It will have to do until I see the real one! 

As soon as we went inside the New York New York, we saw something really spectacular! A giant Statue of Liberty made of jelly beans! I look really small, but I'm next to it, near the bottom. There's probably about a million jelly beans on it! I bet I would get a ton of cavities if I ate all of those jelly beans!

We were walking through the casino, and look what Miss Aunt Carol spotted! A Flip Flop slot machine! A lady was at the machine so we couldn't play it, but at least I got my picture taken with it!

The Venetian is a very beautiful hotel.  Miss Dottie said it looks just like Venice looked when she and Mr. Henry were there.  Bart and I had our picture taken in a beautiful hallway.  It was very ornate and the ceilings had beautiful paintings on them.

We went outside to see the gondolas and were very disappointed to see it was closed for refurbishing. Oh well, maybe I'll get to see a real gondola if I make it to Venice, Italy during my travels!
 

We went over to the Flamingo Hotel & Casino to pick up our tickets for the Donny & Marie show. We're so excited to see the show tonight! We saw this poster at the Flamingo.  It sure looks like Marie is happy to see me and is reaching her hand out to me!

On our way to the box office we ran into a life-size Donny and a life-size Marie! I really wish it was the real Donny & Marie, then I could complete one of my life missions. Maybe one day I'll meet a real television or movie star.  In the meantime, at least I have these pictures with "Donny" and "Marie"! 

We saw the Donny & Marie show tonight at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino.  We had such a good time! Our seats were so close to the stage, we could almost touch it! Donny walked onto our table and right past us.  On the way back he gave us a high five! That almost counts as meeting him, but not really, so I guess that life mission is still incomplete.  They did lots of their old songs, some new songs and some songs made popular by other people.  Marie even sang opera and did an amazing job.  They sure have a lot of energy and did lots of dancing! If you ever have the chance to see them in Las Vegas, I say do it, you won't be disappointed! It's too bad we couldn't take pictures during the show, we would've had some really good ones!

We met another "unofficial" Toy Voyager, this time at the Flamingo Hotel.  Boy, Miss Jo sure can spot Toy Voyagers! The couple we met was from England and their Toy Voyager is Dave the Lifeguard.  They said they didn't know about ToyVoyagers.com, but now that they do, they might register Dave.  They said they could never let Dave go out on his own though, he's too special to them.  They said they got Dave in Devonshire, England and he's a reminder to them of their dream to live in Devonshire, by the sea.  They said they would look for Travis on ToyVoyagers.com.  So if you're reading this, Hello, it was very nice meeting you! Happy travels, Dave, and we'll watch for you on ToyVoyagers.com! 

I've had fun playing slot machines like Sex and the City, Dirty Dancing and American Idol, but I'm not winning much.  Bart and I decided to team up and get serious about winning.  We played this Millionaire Sevens machine together, but we still didn't win millions. We're here Lady Luck, where are you?