Travelog for: Sweetie

Today we visit the Gulfstream Park.  First opened on Wednesday February 1, 1939, it held the first Florida Derby in 1952 and today continue to be an important horse racetrack, and has a casino and shopping area. 

There is no horse racing today, and we cannot go in to see the race track.  But we explore around the place a bit.





We go around to visit the shops.  There are quite a few shops and restaurants in the complex. 





The architecture is again very typical Florida style, with the tropical palm trees and Mediterranean influence buildings.



Look who we bump into!

Today we learn to make Vietnamese style spring roll.  I don't get to visit Asia yet but at least I get to try an Asian dish!

First, we chop up the ingredients.  As Charles is the biggest and strongest, he gets to do all the chopping.



We cut up the carrot, then the mushrooms and wood ears (it is a type of fungi that grows on wood).



Next we cook the ingredients in the wok.  I am so small Orange helps me hold the spatula.



I have to stir fry them so they cook evenly and won't get burnt.



We continue to add more ingredients as we cook.  Now I add the bamboo and rice vermicilli noodles too.  We also season with soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar.



Now we prepare the wrapper.  We add a little water to the rice paper to soften it, and place a bit of cooked ingredients on it.



We roll them up nicely. 



Now we fry them in the pan.  Usually it's deep fried, but as we do not want to use too much oil, we have to fry one side then the other. 



Next we prepare the sauce.  We chop up the garlic, then add vinegar, chili sauce and sugar to it.



Now lunch is ready!!  We put a spring roll on a leaf of lettuce, add a little sauce and enjoy!  It's very delicious!

Today it's cloudy but at least it stop raining.  We decide to go visit a park.

I almost thought we went to the zoo!



There is some fitness equipment for people to work out.





This one you can sit or stand and twist, to strengthen your ab and improve your flexibility.



We try to do chin up, but I am too small!!



Look, there is a bench.  Let's rest a bit.  We are all tired after the work out!



Let's go to the dock and take a look!



There is a boat which can take you around the bay, for a day or evening cruise. 



A lot of boats are anchored in the bay.  I wish one day I can get on one of them and sail the world! 

Today we go to try out some food trucks.  It is really popular now. 



Let's check them out!  This one sells burgers.



This one has tacos.



This one has arepa (corn pancakes) with cheeses.



Ah we find what we are looking for, Ben and Jerry ice cream!!  Their truck goes around different cities to give out free ice cream.  Today is its last day in Miami, so we make sure to seek it out and find out where it goes today.



Oh I am feeling hungry already!!



Hmm what flavor should I pick?



We get a cup of raspberry frozen yogurt.



Yumm!



There are some tables under the shade there!



We enjoy our fish taco at the table.  The tacos are made with corn tortilla.  We squeeze on a little lime juice and hot sauce. 

Today we decide to go visit the zoo.

Look at the pretty bird!



This is a different kind of pretty bird! A very colorful peacock.



There are some pelicans by the pond.



They are kind of far away, but can you see a patch of pink back there?  They are a flock of flamingos.  They are very beautiful birds.



Look at the beautiful lotuses!



These ibises are around the picnic area trying to find food.  Sorry but we don't have anything to share.



It gets a bit rainy, let's check out the gift shop instead.



Let's doing a little drumming and dancing to pray for the rain to stop!



Hi mom can you find me?



Wow I meet a lot of friends.  Hopefully they will find a new owner soon and maybe get to travel like we do!



Sadly the rain gets heavier, so we cannot continue our visit.  Hopefully we can return another day.

Today we visit the Miami History Museum.



The first exhibit we visit is about Guayabera.  It's a style of shirt that is popular in South and Central America, and has become ubiquitous in Miami as a popular clothing style of the Cuban Americans.

It explains the defining styles of a Guayabera.  It has plaits and four pockets, among other features.





We find out how the shirt comes to be called a guayabera.  They think that the many pockets are used to store guava.  Hmm.  Wonder if they develop a shirt for oranges and bananas too?





Over time, the styles evolve somewhat.



They also make guayabera for women, children and dogs too!!  I wonder what they carry in their pockets?





Next we go upstairs for a historic tour of South Florida.  AT the stairs, is a flamingo statue dedicated to the Heat Basketball team.

We start from around 8000 BC.  These are fossilized bones of mammoth, mastodon and bison.



The top one here is the fossilized jaw of a wolf.  The left one is of a jaguar!  I am glad I wasn't here 10000 years ago!



These are tortoise shells.



These are arrow heads made by hunters, from the Paleo-Indian age, from (15,000 BC to 7,500 BC).



They also unearthed a canoe along with a paddle.



These are different types of tools made from shells.



These are some potteries.



These are a collection of beads, pendants and more made from bones and beads, found in South Florida.



We read about the Miami Circle.



In 1998 when construction work was done in downtown Miami, they excavated the Miami Circle.  It consists of a perfect circle measuring 38 feet (11.5m) that contain 24 holes or basins cut into the limestone bedrock, on a coastal spit of land, surrounded by a large number of other 'minor' holes.

It is the only known evidence of a prehistoric permanent structure cut into the bedrock in the United States. Estimated to be between 1700 and 2000 years old, it considerably predates other known permanent settlements on the East Coast. It is believed to have been the location of a structure, built by the Tequesta Indians, in what was possibly their capital, at the mouth of Miami River.  Archeaologists do not know for sure what the purpose of the building was, but believe it to be of religious purpose.



The developer was anxious not to lose this prime real estate, and suggested to relocate the stones, which was faced with much opposition.  He then offered to sell the land to the government for $50 Million, which the latter said they could not afford. Some suggested the Indians to purchase the land for perservation, which was met with sneers: You killed our people and took our land, and now you want us to pay you to buy it back?  Fortunately after many emergency hearings and lawsuits, the site is now preserved as a National Historic Landmark.

These are some artifacts found at the Miami Circle, which ranged from shell-tools and stone axe-heads to human teeth and charcoal from fires. 



Here's a model of what we imagine life to be like in those days.



The next part of the exhibit talks about the demise of the Native American culture with the arrival of the Europeans.





These artifacts were found on Spanish ships wrecked in the 1700s.





This pistol was made in England around 1715 and recovered from San Jose, wrecked in 1733.





This beautiful sword is from a Spanish Galleon that was wrecked in a hurricane in 1622, when sailing from Havana to Spain.



The Spanish also shipped back many of the gold and silver products they found in the new world.



They are still very beautiful after so many years.





More sadness to the history, as slaves from Africans were sent to work in America.



This section is about the Native American culture in South Florida.

This is a typical Seminole dress from the 1890s.



With the availability of sewing machines in the 1920s, the dress became an increasingly colorful patchwork.



Picture of the huts they lived in, called a chickee.



These are some items they traded.  Alligator skins, egret feathers and more.





Now we find out about the lives of the white pioneers in South Florida.

This is a typical style of house built by them.



A group picture of the pioneers.



We read the descriptions about lives back then.

"Will has to stand over me with a brush when I cooked to keep the  mosquitos out of the food."

"Charlie Moore invited us to his place for our first Christmas dinner on Lake Worth.  The piece de resistance of course, was the roasted possum... for all its tastiness, Mother said she preferred turkey."
 


Guess what this is?  It's a laundry beater.



And look what kids found when they went fishing in the pioneer days...  I am happy I live in this day and age!



The pioneer days are too scary!  Let's move on to more modern times.  This is a trolley.



In the 20s and 30s, there was a trolley line in Miami. 





Ah, the beach was popular as it is now!



Here's a picture of a diner in its 60s.



Pan Am was a big airline that was based in Miami.



A model of SS Norway, the largest cruise ship in 1980.



A more modest vessel:  Cubans arriving in Miami on rafts. The five men were the first to arrive in 1979.  In the next year, close to 125,000 Cubans will arrive in South Florida in the Mariel boatlift.



This is a wooden boat used by Haitians to seek better life in Miami.  Unfortunately, the immigration policy mandates that they be sent back to Haiti.



Now I learn quite a bit more about the history of South Florida!

Today we receive a package.  It doesn't look like books, which is what we get most of the time.  Hello?  Is anybody there?  We hear some noise! 



Oh wow!  A toyvoyager!  And he is a rat too!  From Germany! Hallo Guten Tag!



He introduces himself.  His name is Big Foot.  He sure has very big feet, and hands too... And hey why is Genoveva acting so shy and demure all of a sudden?  The two are talking in German.  I wonder what they are up to? 

Today we get another visitor arriving!  Wow!  Looks like this one can't wait to get out.



Let's give him a hand.



One... Two... Three!



I am so small, so I decide to be the director.  Okay okay, pull now!  To the left, a little bit...  yay we get a leg out!



Oh our new friend is a giraffe!  His name is Fidibus and he is from Germany too!  Looks like I have to learn some German.  Guten Tag mein neuer Freund!



Fidibus tells us that because his package was broken, he had to stay somewhere while they fix it and tape it up so he can continue his journey.  So he takes a long time to arrive.  He surely looks tired.  To cheer him up, Genoveva takes out some German candies to celebrate.  Yay!!

I am so excited!  We are travelling again!  We arrive at the airport.  Let's check our flight info.



We are on the airplane now, getting ready to take off!



Yay we are taking off!



Woosh, up we fly!



Look at all the clouds!!

We are in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina! 

Let's see where we should go today.



We decide not to wander too far.  We start by exploring the neighborhood.





We come to a shopping square called Cameron Village.



The "living wall art" is quite beautiful.



Here's another one.



Let's check out the shops.



Penzey Spices?  A spice shop!  That sounds interesting.



Wow I didn't know there are so many kind of spices!





They have some beautiful gift sets too.



Mmmm this smells really good!



These hats are very interesting!



And what a cute doggie made from crepe paper.



We find a frozen custard shop!  I say it's dessert time!



The posters say that they use real honey, vanilla and good ingredients to make their frozen custard.  Frozen custard is similar to ice cream, but with more egg yolk and less air in it, so it has a richer, creamier texture.



See how thick it is?



Yummy!



Look this shop turns a cooking wok into an UFO!



Very interesting sculptures!



There is an art gallery showcasing local art.



Ooooh.... a cupcake shop!



This one, Ten Thousand Villages, sells fair traded handicrafts made by people in other countries. 



They have a lot of neat things.  We buy a few items.



It's dinner time.  We stop by a place called David's Dumpling and Noodles Bar. 



My host knows that I want to go to Malaysia.  As she cannot take me there, she orders a Malaysian curry noodle so at least I get a taste of Malaysia.  Can you believe they service us extra hot sauce in case the curry is not spicy enough?  No, thank you very much, but I guess I learn a bit about their culture - they like very spicy stuff? 

There are a lot of these monument plaques around town.  During the civil war, a lot of battles were fought around here. 



Today we will visit downtown.  Let's wait for the bus.



Look, the bus is coming!





We arrive at the main station.



The City Square is part of the Moore Square Historic District.



The Moore Square is a park named after Alfred Moore (1755 – 1810), a distinguished North Carolina judge who became a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.



The Big Acorn is a 1,250-pound sculpture honoring Raleigh's title as the "City of Oaks". It is dropped from a crane every New Year's Eve at midnight during the First Night Raleigh celebration.  Hmmm... I better not stand too close to it if I visit then...



We walk around downtown.  It's very beautiful.





Let's see, where should we go first? 

We agree that lunch is first! 



Hmmm everything sounds so good, what should we get?



We order this tofu bánh mì, Vietnamese sub.  It looks so delicious.  Mommy is very excited as she likes bánh mì but she cannot find it in Miami, and most places don't have vegetarian option.  It's a big sandwich and super delicious!! 



Now we are ready for some sight seeing!  Here's the capitol.  The North Carolina State Capitol was completed in 1840



This statue is Zebulon Baird Vance, an important political figure during the Civil War.  He was once a governor of the state and later U.S. Senator.



I know this guy!  He is George Washington!





Worth Bagley was the first American naval officer killed in the Spanish-American War in 1898, hence the engraving on the monument, First Fallen.





This is the WWII monument.



This is Christ Church, established in 1821, the oldest Episcopal congregation in the Raleigh area.



Isn't this a nice house?  It's the Executive Mansion, where the governor of North Caroline lives.



It is designated as a U.S. National Register of Historic Place.



What a pretty home indeed.

Today is another day of sight seeing.  We are going to visit a museum.



This is not a shark.  It's a magatooth shark, a 42 foot long ancestor of the great white shark! 



While we cannot make it to the beach, here's a display of how the North Carolina seashore looks like.



Look, a puffer fish!



They are not real, but here is a sea turtle nest.  You can see some of  babies have hatched and are trying to crawl their way out of the nest and to the beach. 



When they grow up they like to eat jellyfish.



This is the skeleton of a manatee.



And here is a blue whale.



and its tail...



This one looks totally different, and is a sperm whale.  They are very huge animals!!



This is a eel.



We walk through a duplicate of the forest in North Carolina.  Oh the owl is so scary!!! even though I know it's not real.



The beaver is very friendly and invites us to join him for dinner.  But I don' care for chewing wood.







We learn about endangered animals.



The passenger pigeon, once numbering over 5 billion, was wiped out in 50 years due to hunting and lost of habitat.  How sad.



Are they real?  I hope not, but they are!!  Gaaaa!



I don't know if it's trying to come over to say hi or to eat me!!



Next we learn about the gemstone and quartz found in North Carolina.



These are gold nuggets!



Emerald is North Carolina's gemstone.  It produces more emerald than any other state, and in fact the largest North American emerald crystal ever found was from North Carolina.



Quartz can be clear.  If they are purplish, they are called amethyst, pink, rose quartz and yellow ones are citrine.



Now we will go back in time to see some dinosaurs!!





This egg will make a lot of breakfasts!



This thescelosaur is special because it is the most complete specimen ever found.  Its skull is uncrushed, and its tendons fossified.  You can also see the heart in this reproduction.  It's the only dinosaur found with the remains of the heart!



Urgh this guy has a really ugly head.  It is believed that the thick skull is used in battles for territories or courtship.



This creature is a giant sloth.



It looks like all prehistoric creatures are very huge. I wonder what my ancestors look like?  Maybe they are 10 meter tall?

This is not a T Rex, but an Acrocanthosaurus.



The scientists found two sets of fossilized footprints, so they recreated this scene of Acro attacking another dinosaur.





As the remains were not found, we will likely never know if the dinosaur survived the attack.

It is a fun day.  We press a penny to keep as souvenir.

Today we visit the North Carolina Museum of History. 

Outside the museum there are a few statues.

This gentleman is Frederick Augustus Olds.  He is the founder of the museum. 



This statue is of a Saura tribe woman.



Does this look familiar?  It is from Renoir's painting.



Outside the museum is grown several crops that are important to the state.  The first one is corn.  Corn was a staple of the Native Americans living in the south, and they are usually ground in meal.  Corn is used to make everything from cornbread, grit to whiskey.



These are sweet sorghum and peanuts.



Sweet potatoes! 



And this one is cotton. 



At the entrance is Judaculla rock. This petroglyph is NC's best known pre-historic rock art, but the meaning is unknown.  Is it a map, a story, a record of events, or just random painting?



This is a canoe from almost 3000 years ago, along with a reproduction of paddle and fishing spear.



This ceramic mug is the earliest surviving complete European style ceramic made in America, made around 1700.



Settlers from different European countries bring in their influence to lives in America.  The British bring along their love of tea.



The German, their craft and trade, such as bread baking and woodwork.



The Africans their farming and maritime skills.



The Scots and Irish, with their hard working spirit, became pioneers for many land.



North Carolina is the 12th state of the U.S.



This is an early version of the American flag, when there were fewer states in the country.



Old money!  The ten dollar bill is from about 1800!  It must be worth a lot then.



This is the army uniform from that era.



This house is the fourth oldest known dwelling in North Carolina, built in 1742.



The house is very well preserved.  Some of the wooden wall panels, flooring and nails are original!



Many farmers would distill part of their corn harvest into whiskey, as it fetched more money.  Here you can see a whiskey bottle.  As the still is so small, historians believe that it is used to make brandy.



Here you can see a loom, and a butter churner, among other items.



This guy is Giorgio Washington... or rather, this is a Roman style statue of George Washington made by an Italian sculptor.



We read about gold mining.



This exhibit is about the American Civil War.



This is a Confederate Flag that was surrendered in 1865.



We learn about the major industries in the state.  The first is furniture, a skill brought in by the Germans.



As there are many cotton plantation here, textile was a big industry.



Tobacco is another very valuable crop.



We learn about the country's involvement in the First World War, "The war to end all wars".



The Great Depression is a very sad time in history. 



Then we move onto WWII.



Today we decide that we should try some dish that NC is famous for: barbecue.



First, they bring us some fried pork skin, and hushpuppies.  Hushpuppies are basically fried dough made from cornmeal.  The funny name comes from the way cooks or fishermen rolled some cornmeal mix into balls, fried them and fed them to the dogs to "hush the puppies".  The pork skin is a little salty, and very crunchy.

We also get some iced tea, in Southern U.S. they make it VERY sweet.



Our food arrives.  It's barbecue ribs, that has been smoked for several hours.  For side dish we have collard greens as well as beans with corn.  Everything is very typical Southern U.S.  Not very healthy food, but delicious!

Today the weather is very nice so we go to the park.  It will be the first time getting outdoors to enjoy the beautiful South Florida weather!



I see people running and exercising.



The palm trees are very beautiful here.



There is a dog park where people can unleash their dogs and let them run around inside the fenced area.



Hello, are you having a great time like me?





We find this little palm tree.



Look there are some palm nuts.



We catch a glimpse of the ocean.



I spy a bridge.  Where does it go?



It is a vista point for the bay. The bay connects to the Atlantic. 



You can see all the boats anchored there.



These are the mangrove tree.  They are very important, ecologically.The roots hold on to the soil, and slowly increases landmass. It also acts as barrier to protect against hurricanes.  Now people know about its importance they no longer cut them down.



Wow looks like the wind is really strong here.  Help!  I am being blown away!



We find a gym playground.



Let's get fit!













Phew we are tired.  Time to sit down for a rest.