CANADA - FINALLY!!!!!!
7th of October 2011
SO the day finally arrived that we made it across the border into Canada. And we finally go to meet mummy’s best friend Monika and her lovely family.
Our time with Zaba (Polish for ‘Frog,’ as mummy calls her) was filled with a lot of happy memories full of fun, laughter, food, drinks and partying. One day so easily blurred into another probably because we all hardly slept – we just so enjoyed each other’s company.
One day we did a day trip to Whistler where the 2010 Winter Olympics were held. It was fantastic! Such a lovely place, a real ‘happening’ village, which in doubt is a fun magnet for the snow buffs in winter. Even without the snow it was fabulous!
We did a bit of window shopping and watched how boys were using ski slopes to jump in the air on mountain bikes. We think they had some competition going on…. or something.
We then went to dinner in the Westin Hotel where we had a delicious meal.
We forgot to mention that on the way to Whistler we stopped in a lovely town called Horse Shoe Bay where we had some yummy ice creams and enjoyed the mighty fine views.
As our friends had to work during the week we did a few day trips on our own during business hours (then partied with them for the rest of the night). One of those trips was to the Vancouver Aquarium which we heard so much about.
We saw some amazing fish, birds, butterflies and other amazing creatures.
We saw a most magnificent collection of jellyfish, starfish and frogs.
We also met a few whales called Beluga Whales, which are completely white and come from the Arctic Circle (way up north,up on top of the world) and are very, very intelligent. We even watched them splash some people during their performance – it was fun to watch them getting soaked whilst we tried to stay warm and dry, LOL
But our favorite part was meeting Daisy, the dolphin. She only recently learned a new trick (which no one has taught her) and that is to come up to the window when people are taking pictures and pose with the group. It was incredible how she would always pop into the picture in just the right spot.
She was just beautiful! She even posed for a few photos of her own.
Kids corner was also a major hit! We got to play marine biologists and rescue some toy seals and dolphins.
On another day we went for a day trip to the Vancouver Island. We spent a whole day enjoying the old English architecture.
We also met somebody who was creating interesting art on the road. It looked OK on the ground but once you click a photo - WOW the picture turns 3D. Cool, hey?
On a way back we met a lovely lady with her daughter who lives on the island and while we were teaching her daughter how to do cartwheels the lady was telling our parents about all the places we missed. I guess it’s hard to see it all….
Another day we went to an American Indian museum where we learned about Totem Poles, which are magnificent timber carvings representing each family’s heritage. They use them at the entries to their homes. We think we might carve one like that when we get home.
We also saw these incredible masks from all over the world. They were cool!
On another one of our ‘excursions’ we went on a suspension bridge in the rainforest. It was fun and we got to learn lots about different trees.
We even measured ourselves against different trees and checked how far our ‘wings spread’ against different birds. Daddy’s spread was a goose, mummy’s an own and we were as large as ravens. They have some big birds in Canada!
We even got to do an educational scavenger hunt where we got to learn different things, answer lots of questions and…. you guessed it – get a new badge!
We also got to catch up with our Super Js friends we met at the Redwoods in California. It was a total blast! It just happened that it was Josie’s birthday so we bought her some lovely presents and went to spent a wonderful day with them.
We had so much fun! We swung from trees
We made some bracelets
And we got to dress up in lots of lovely outfits. Oh it was so much fun for us to play together again. We really love the Super Js!
And to top it all off, the Super J's mum, Christine, allowed us to have a couple of costumes to take with us so we have something to dress in for Halloween. That was so kind of her!
We caught up with the Super Js one more time, one Friday when they had a day off from school – and we went to an indoor pool with a huge water slide and diving boards. We had so much fun there!
One Sunday afternoon we went for a drive with Monika and her family to the Golden Ears National Park where we got a decent dose of hiking.
We even stopped at a playground by the river and we got to watch the poor Salmon try to make it up the stream. Apparently Salmon has to get back up the stream to the exactly same spot as it was born before they lay their eggs. Not only do they have to make this difficult journey – they often die after laying their eggs – either from being eaten by a bear or simply from exhaustion! What a life!
Our time in Vancouver was full of happy days, especially when we spent them with Monika, Mirek, Olivia and Adrian (who we nicknames Adrigen, you know: Oxygen, Hydrogen, Adrigen?). They are such nice people!
Olivia even allowed us to decorate her face!
Monika runs a day care center in her home during the day so we got to play with some children as well. As we were a little older than them we ran the whole ‘show’. We even read them some books, which they really liked.
Monika has this beautiful doggy called Mellow, which we fell in love with. He is a toy poodle and he’s absolutely adorable. We took him out for walks around the block a few times. We think he really liked us too.
One night Monika threw an 'olden days' 80s party at home and we danced with the grown ups till the next day!
With all the parties, restaurant outings, invitations to friend’s places and the excursions - our time in Vancouver went past so quickly! It was so hard to say good bye to Monika and her lovely family! We truly had an amazingly fun time (not too mention getting totally spoilt). We met their wonderful friends and we partied till the wee hours of the morning(s)
The only ‘ray of sunshine’ is that we might see them one day in South America as our parents will try to synchronize something together early next year. We’ll ‘boogie’ together again! Yeeha!
25 October 2011
And so it was time to say goodbye to Zaba’a family. Lots of hugs, lots of tears. Monika and Mummy promised themselves that it will not be another 22 years before they see each other again.
We really wanted to see the Canadian Rockies and being the end of October with only a caravan to live in, we really needed to get going.
Kick starting our adventure again on a cold, rainy morning (away from the warmth of home and gourmet food we were being spoilt with over the last two weeks), was very difficult, but the thought of traveling north into the mountains was just…exhilarating!
What started as a rainy morning ended up being a beautiful day once we climbed up ‘above the clouds’. It was so beautiful that we even stopped for two hours at a great playground so that we could run around.
It took us another day to get to Jasper, Alberta and the further north we climbed the more snow we started to encounter. The road to Jasper was very picturesque.
As it got dark, we pulled up to a roadside rest area where we experienced our first night of below freezing temperatures. Lucky our heater works on gas (propane) rather than electricity so we managed to stay warm at night.
Jasper was a cute little town however it seemed like most people were preparing for winter and going into hibernation. The tourist season was truly over, even some lakes have dried out.
A man in the information center informed us that we’ll be experiencing -11C/12F at night. Brrrr!
We woke up early to a beautiful sunrise.
Mummy and Daddy packed us up quick and smart and we drove 50 km north to Moraine Lake where unfortunately by the time we arrived there the conditions deteriorated. Not that it bothered us at all, -7C/19F and snow – yeeha, here we come! We had a ball while mummy was trying to snap some photos of Lake Moraine.
Another area called Medicine Lake was named by Indians for its magical ability to somehow drain/disappear in late fall (autumn) and by the time we got there, it was up to its magic tricks and almost non-existent. It was a pity we didn’t see it at its glory when its full and brilliant turquoise in colour.
Once we got back to pick up our caravan, we headed south towards Lake Louise, a 4hr drive. What started as a beautiful scenic drive started turning into a scary descending ride. The road was quite beautiful but the temperature started dropping quite a bit and it started snowing. With a 3-ton caravan behind us and icy wind blowing, mummy and daddy were getting quite concerned.
We got to Lake Louise in the late afternoon. The snow stopped blowing and so after dropping off our rig at a RV Park, we went for a little hike around the Lake. It was quite beautiful although mummy told us that when the sun is out (which it wasn’t) the lake turns the most beautiful blue colour.
That night we treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner at the famous, luxurious Chateau Lake Louise Hotel.
The town was quite beautiful. After dropping our caravan off at the RV park we wet on a scenic drive, looking at lakes and mountains and taking a few small hikes. We saw a few beautiful animals roaming around including this beautiful owl, just sitting on a street sign like a statute. It then moved across onto some branches where mummy snapped this picture.
There were many big horn sheep wondering around, some even came for a snack – the salt they spread on the roads was obviously very yummy.
We also saw this beautiful boy wondering through town. We thought it was an elk but after consulting Jordi’s animal book we discovered it was a Caribou (a different version of an elk). He was very handsome!
During our drives we discovered these groovy overpasses they have built here. They are bridges for animals! Since they want to protect the animals from cars they have built bridges over the freeways for the animals to walk across. They are all grassed and inviting but apparently it still took some animals up to 5 years to start trusting it. Daddy said they could’ve sped up the process by putting signs up for them telling them where to cross.
The next day we went on a gondola. No idea why they call it that as it didn’t float on the river but instead took us up all the way to the top of the mountain. Sky rail is what we call it back home. It was fun!
And look what they had at the base of the gondola! This is a special truck that can take you onto the glaciers.
We drove past glaciers on the way from Jasper to Banff but we didn't stop for too long because it was so cold that even the waterfalls along the way were frozen, lol
Up we went to the top. They warned us to be careful if we wanted to track back on foot as they had seen a cougar. Don’t know why anyone would want to hike that far in snow when they built this perfectly good gondola!
It was freezing cold up on the top. We walked up all the way to the weather station where in the early 1900's somebody actually dragged bricks and water and furniture all the way to the top to build a house so that he could hike up there every two weeks to see what the weather is doing. He had no gondola to take him up there, just a packing horse to take up the bricks.
We think it would’ve been so much easier to set up a weather station like they had in the Redwoods, California.
They hang a rock off a few sticks and said: if this rock is wet- it’s raining, if it’s moving – it’s windy, if it’s white- it’s snowy and if it’s dry and warm – it’s a sunny, beautiful day! So much simpler!
But it sure was spectacular up there!
The rest of the afternoon we spent in the hot springs. Oh what a bliss! With -11C/12F outside the pools were at incredible +39C/102F. It was soooo nice!
We met some Germans there and so after saying ‘Guten Tag’ to them we caught up on our German (well they spoke to us and we pretended we understood). We learned some fun expressions. We stayed in the pool for good 4 hours, which would probably explain why we got so wrinkly!
Calgary
We left Banff early in the morning planning to spend a day Calgary where the 1988 Winter Olympics were held. When we got there however we discovered that most of the Olympic facilities were being renovated for the upcoming new winter season in a few weeks. We wandered around a bit and had a look at the bobsled runs, which were unreal. Mummy and Daddy were a bit upset that we couldn’t be there few weeks later, especially when they discovered that you can actually go on a ride of your life with a professional bobsled driver. It was advertised as ‘the 60 seconds you will spend the rest of your life talking about’. Bugger!
As there was not much more to do in Calgary we decided to cross the border back into the USA. After driving for another few hours south we got a stamp in our passports and were wished a ‘safe journey’.
Stop! Have you read our previous posts? This is Volume 4 of our adventure. Click above if you want to read from the beginning.
So here we are - back in the USA! Right on time for the Halloween!
Our initial plan was to head to the Glacier National Park mummy and daddy heard so much about but because it was Halloween coming up and we really wanted to experience it we asked our ‘friend’ Google where the best place would be to experience it and the computer ‘spat out’ Helena (the capital city of Montana) so….off we went.We arrived in Helena after quite a few hours of driving. We stopped at a RV park, which unfortunately didn’t have any water or bathroom facilities because all their pipes had frozen. Oh boy, we are up for a chilly night.
Somehow we survived the freezing night (our heater was not working for some unknown reason) but when we woke up it was a celebration day. Being Sunday (Halloween wasn’t till tomorrow night) the towns Exploration Centre had organised an indoor festival for kids with lots of Halloween activities.
We played games
Made (and ate) Halloween Cookies
Painted Pumpkins
Had our faces painted
And just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the whole day.
At the festival we met a lady who was originally from Brisbane and has lived in the US for the last 10 years. Her two daughters, Rebecca and Jessica (who were our age) became our friends and invited us over to trick and treat with them on Monday. A lot of shops on the streets were allowing kids to come trick and treating during the day.
Monday, the 1st of November 2011
We both decided that Halloween was the best day of our lives! In the morning we put on our costumes (thank you Super Js for donating them!) and mummy added some scary touches on our faces.
Then we attacked our parents with face paints (daddy was more willing) and created two more scary faces. This is what we came up with
At 11am we went onto the streets where many dressed up children were already starting to walk the streets. All of the shops had lots of different treats: chocolates, lollies (candy), stickers, pencils, hot chocolates, ice creams – oh, boy, did we get spoilt!
We met up with our friends Rebecca and Jessica and we spent hours collecting yummy sweets. It was incredible! Even lawyers (who mummy says are not always that friendly) welcomed us with bowls of treats. We even got a Police sticker from this nice policeman.
When our bags got so full we couldn’t carry them we decided to go back to Rebecca and Jess’ place and have some healthy lunch. We even got to watch a movie with them.
After we left their place (around 4pm) we were told by our friends’ dad that the Governor’s house (the boss of town) is up the road and the whole street is closed off for kids to come and share the celebrations.
His house was all decorated up for the occasion and he was dressed up as Batman. He even gave us some treats as well. Nice boss!
We walked the boss’ street which started the Halloween celebration earlier and after almost totally freezing we hopped into our car and went to another neighbourhood that someone recommended yesterday. It was an affluent neighborhood, which obviously really enjoyed the celebrations as most houses had awesome decorations. We joined hundreds of other kids going from house to house trick or treating. It was a total blast!
Our bags got so heavy from the treats that mummy and daddy ended up carrying them for us. They were mortified at the amount of sweets we collected (and they thought Easter was bad).
By the end of the night we were so exhilarated (we didn’t even notice the temperature dropped below freezing). After hopping into a warm car when we finished we both decided we really LOVE Halloween!
We left Helena, Montana in the mid morning on Tuesday. We heard the temperatures were going to start dropping and so the quicker we got out the better. We had a long drive ahead of us. Our parents decided to drive through the evening but once it started snowing and we started to slip and slide on the bridges, we quickly decided to find some shelter in a truck rest area. We discovered in the morning was in a neat little town called Sheridan (yes, like the towels)
Sheridan is a western looking town with a great, country feel to it.
And being a western town what else do you buy there but western gear? Since we were heading now towards the south - line dancing was in order and so was the need for decent cowgirl boots. Yeeha!
We went to a western museum there belonging to the famous (apparently) saddle maker – Don King. He had hundreds beautiful saddles, stuffed animals, old tools and vintage carts on display. Apparently the dome wagon (which looks like something from the previous century) is still being used by shepherds today.
There we met a wonderful artist who showed us how he carves the leather to make it so pretty. He said he spends all his life carving flowers and has orders from all over the world and cannot take anymore for another 10 months. Busy man!
Wyoming – Devil’s Tower 4th of November 2011
Ok we’ve heard so much about this tower (well our parents have – seen it on many western movies) but nothing had prepared us for this monster sticking out of the ground. 1.5km in height, looked like something you’d find on Mars, a launching tube for UFOs perhaps? With reasonably flat land around it - it certainly has a wow factor!
On the way to the Tower we stopped to see these cute oversized squirrels sticking their heads out of the ground. There were hundreds of them. After consulting Jordi’s smart book of animals we discovered they are called ‘Prairie Dogs’. They were about rabbit’s size and they actually looked a bit like rabbits – minus the ears. They bark a little bit like dogs (Chihuahua’s) hence this is where they got their name from.
While there (at the Tower) we met a bunch of friendly but interesting looking folk. Daddy told us they were called Amish people. They spoke German, wore all black uniforms and serious looking hats. We stopped and chatted with them for a while. We told them all about Australia and explained that no, unfortunately we do not have elephants in there and they told us about their interesting culture.
One of them told us that if we ever go to Wisconsin, we should drop in for cuppa. We might just do that!
We left mid morning after doing a bit of homework and playing in the playground. We were planning to go straight to Mt Rushmore in South Dakota to see the ‘faces in the rocks’ monument but someone mentioned a town to us, which was nearby called Sturgis also in South Dakota.
This is our campground at the Devils Tower. We say 'our' as we were the only ones there. The campground was apparently closed for the season. Well we were the only ones, except for somebody who told us to give him $10 so he'll let us stay the night anyway...No idea who he was! LOL
Sturgis is a town known for being the Bikie Capital of the West. Yes, Harley Davidson Bikes! Can’t drive past and not drop in to say ‘G’day’!
So we dropped in and enjoyed the most delicious lunch in a tough looking saloon called the Knuckles. Apparently it is a well-known saloon, which appeared in many rough n tough not-for-kids movies. Everyone seemed pretty friendly though – another misconception busted!
And as the saying goes ‘when in Rome do as Romans do’ we got ourselves geared up in Harley outfits to blend in with the locals. I don’t think they noticed that we were from out of town. Well maybe the big Rig outside the pub (saloon), cameras in each hand and Aussie accents gave us away a bit…
Hot Springs, South Dakota 5th of November 2011
After spending a cold night in a quite street next to a park, we wondered off to an information center to find out what this area has to offer. It was closed of course (who in their right mind would be touring this time of the year?) but we met some lovey people (who were also travelling) and they told us abut all the places they have already visited. They also gave us some maps of the area (who need information centers?) and invited us over to Texas where they will be spending their winter. Since we are heading that way anyway, we might drop in….
Through our conversations with our new friends, Bill and Jill, we discovered there is a Mammoth discovery site near by. We HAD to see that!
Apparently in 1974 a developer was clearing the land to build houses and the bulldozer’s son discovered some bones. The site was immediately closed off and since then the remains of 58 Columbian Mammoths (as well as some other extinct animals) were found.
Everyone was excited at the thought, only mummy whistled quietly and whispered to daddy ‘poor developer’.
The story goes that this site was a ‘sink hole’ 26,000 years ago. As it was in the ice age and a Hot Springs area has hot springs in the ground, it created a small billabong (lake), which melted all snow around it and grew some nice vegetation. Mammoths were attracted to the vegetation tried reaching it but because it was very steep and slippery they ended up falling into the ‘sink hole’ and unfortunately could not get out. This is where they all died.
People from all over the world fly in here every June and try their luck as paleontologists. They get training on the ground and they carefully dig the soil with tools like a dentist would use to find more remains.
At the end of three months they finish digging and then they spend the rest of the year cataloging, marking and preserving what they have found.
So this was not an ordinary museum, it was a working discovery site. And they don’t even think the covered even third of the depth of the ‘sink hole’.
We even had a go at finding some replicas of bones ourselves. If we were here in August (which we are not) we could’ve done a paleontologists course ourselves, which is designed especially for kids. Oh well, maybe next time…
We also made a trip to the Library, which had fantastic kids’ books selection. We read a few great books before we hit the road again.
In the late afternoon we got to Mt Rushmore, an important American Monument. In 1927 an artist decided to take 35 people, hang them off a cliff and for 14 years straight (with sleep breaks of course) they sculpted faces of 4 American bosses (presidents) on a side of a granite mountain. The faces of the sculptures (from eyebrow to chin) are 60 ft. big! That is 18 meters high (or six story building high)! Wow! Those bosses (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln & Roosevelt, ) sure must’ve been important!
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Hot Springs – Wild Mustang Sanctuary
One of the reasons why we came to this area was because we really wanted to see the wild mustangs and what better area to see them then in the wild sanctuary where they have over 500 of them running wild?
When we contacted them about their tours, we found out that we just missed out on their afternoon tour but they invited us over to come for the morning session. As we had nowhere to stay we asked them if we could stay on their ranch to which they said ‘yes’.
We were thrilled! We spent a whole afternoon and a full day next day with these beautiful animals. In the evening we helped feed some of the horses which were tame.
In the morning, because of the low season, we ended up getting a private tour of the whole place. We met some horses which were a bit tame and some that we practiced horse-whispering on.
Apparently when horses go wild for quite a few generations, some of them start to revert to their zebra markings like this beautiful stallion.
It was so nice to spend time on and near the farm: fresh, crisp air and lots of wonderful wild things!
Badlands, South Dakota 7th November 2011
We were told by some travellers not to miss The Badlands if we get to South Dakota and now seeing them we can understand why. They were just amazing! A sharper, more rugged version of our Australian Bungle Bungles.
There is a lot of history that goes with this land as we discovered in a Junior Ranger Program, which we completed and got awarded a new badge for.
This land was originally occupied by indigenous people who lived off abundant supply of bison (seen ‘Dances with Wolves’? It was filmed here). But then a white man decided to take over the land and put Indians into reservations as well as kill off all the bison (it was eating the grass need for the cows). When Indians retaliated, they were killed off and the land was given away in lottery to Europeans in 150 acre lots, who after arriving here tried to establish their homes. With the scorching summers, lack of water and the horrible, windy, freezing winters they eventually abandoned their homes and left, calling the area ‘The Bad Lands’.
In the prehistoric times, this used to be a sea and many fossils of animals and plants are still being discovered till this day. Daddy even found one – a petrified fossil of a bone but mummy wouldn’t let him take it home. Now he knows how we feel when we are not allowed to take all the lovely treasures we find (mainly rocks and sticks).
Badlands- Tennessee detour
Ok, our initial plan was to go straight south down to Texas to defrost. We were planning to go via Denver, Colorado but we found out that Colorado just had a lot of snowfall the day before so mum and dad’s quick thinking kicked in and they decided that we will detour a bit. Mummy said “Let’s go visit Elvis, then”
It didn’t look like much on a map (a couple of inches) but without any Internet reception for a while (to do research) we found out this little detour was a 1200 mile journey.
So for three days straight we drove and drove and drove. We didn’t see much as it just rained and rained and rained. We drove from Sth Dakota, through Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and finally we got to Tennessee. Half way through our trip our Internet hot – spot got revived and after mummy did a search on Google asking it to come up with things to do, it told her that we are better off going to Nashville first (further east) and then go back to see Elvis. So we did.
We got to Nashville on the 10th of November, just in time for the CMA (Country Music Awards). The town was just buzzing with excitement as ‘who is who in the zoo’ was supposed to be there (not that we would’ve recognized any of the ‘animals’). We were looking out for our Nicole Kidman with hubby Keith Urban but half way through the night we just got swept up by the awesome entertainment in the nearby saloon where we danced and danced and danced. Our cowboy boots sure came in handy!
The manger of the restaurant liked us so much he took pictures of us for the saloons website! Two little chicks – we got everybody dancing. It was easy, all we had to do is pick the best-looking girls from the crowd and get them on the dance floor with us, and the party began! Daddy said all the cowboys were jealous, as the only way they could get close to those girls was turn into little cute girls like us! LOL
There was also plenty of entertainment outside on the sidewalks. People busking hoping to get noticed by the Country Music Moguls. There were these two men who played on the drums. They were fantastic! They initially got in trouble by the police (maybe they didn’t get permission to play?) but when the policeman saw how we danced and enjoyed their music, they just stood back and let them drum.
The next day (after a decent sleep-in) we went back to town in the afternoon for another dose of partying. After a nice walk down the street and finding a decent band to join (we really likes their instruments) we had a ball busking. Our parents stood back and let people think that we were part of the band, which made everybody dig into their pockets for tips. We were famous! The band was very pleased with us and gave us high-5 for helping out.
Unfortunately we had to get going as we were planning to spend the rest of the night in the famous “Wild Horse Saloon” where not only one gets fed yummy food but also one can learn how to line dance. Once again, the cowboy boots came in handy. Even Mummy and Daddy danced with us; line danced and all! After a half an hour lesson every couple of hours (different dances), we danced like pros – Yeeha!!!
Our last day in Nashville we spent in the Science museum, which was great! Mummy and daddy love taking us to these places as they call it school ‘on steroids’. Not sure what it means but we think they refer to the amount of stuff we learn while having so much fun.
In the afternoon we took a last stroll on the main Boulevard of Nashville. Our parents decided it was time they invested in good dancing cowboy boots for themselves- after all we are still heading towards Texas! Hi Y’all from Memphis, Tennessee
A few paragraphs earlier we mentioned that our friend, Google told us that we are better off to leave Memphis for later on in the week, which we did. The main reason for that was that there was something we wanted to attend on Sunday. Now, what could be so interesting on Sunday, you ask? A Church, of course!
Now, before you get too confused (we do not normally go to religious establishments unless somebody is getting married) let us tell you, this was not an ordinary Church – it was the one and only Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle Church! Ever seen the movie “Sister Act”? You know, the long gowns, incredible voices of African American singers, lots of music, clapping, celebrating and dancing? Well, that’s the kind of Church we went to and it was un-real!
We had a bit of trouble following everything as they spoke in a fast but drawn southern accent (which our parents really enjoyed) and when they sang the walls could not cope with their incredibly powerful voices (a notch too loud for our little ears). It was like attending an amazing concert; the singing was magnificent and the energy incredible. Mummy said last time she attended something so powerful was before she and daddy walked on fire! Well, lucky we didn’t have to do that this time…
After the mass we went to say ‘G’day to the most famous person who was responsible for introducing gospel music to the ‘white folks’. Yes, Elvis Presley! Did you know that’s what he started with?
Graceland – Elvis’ home was very interesting. Still decorated in the 70’s style (just the way he left it when he died in 1977) it was a mixture of luxury and coziness. He lived there for 20 years and you could feel his presence everywhere – it was incredible!
The tour was a self-guided tour (we had earphones on and were pressing different numbers for different rooms).
We saw his Playrooms
His Living Rooms
His Den with all his awards
His cars
His airplanes
But the saddest part of the tour was his grave, which was on his property next to his parents, brothers and his grandma. The saddest part was that he died first (at the age of 42) then his dad and then his grandma. Sad, huh?
After spending a whole afternoon in ‘the presence’ of The King of Rock and absorbing so many images into our little hearts our mummy is ‘betting’ we will never ask her again “Is this Justin Beiber?” when presented with the image of Elvis. There is no doubt we now KNOW who Elvis was and we are sad he’s has ‘left the building’.
Monday, 13 November 2011- Sweet Home Alabama!
We crossed the border to Alabama today and with an initial plan to just drive through, we stopped for three days in the first town we saw – Decatur. It is a very nice town to start with massive golf course and beautiful homes but what attracted us most was a very nice RV Park right next to…an ice skating rink! And to top it all of, there was free ice skating on Monday and Tuesday night (with free ice skate shoe hire). Woohoo!!!
We had so much fun ice skating! They have given us special ‘skate helpers’ so that we can hold on while we learn (what a good idea!) and in no time we were zooming around!!!
Well, most of the time.
Once we got our balance right we went skating just holding mummy or daddy’s hands.
And then we started to do it on our own.
Had we not got blisters on our little feet (Jordi got one) we would’ve stayed for a whole week. Not too worry, we’ll find ice-skating again… especially now that we know we like it so much.
The place where we stayed had a nice playground where we played and had a huge lake where collected all sort of wonderful things (shells and stuff).
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It is lucky we have our Google as a friend – it very often points out interesting things for us to do which we surely wouldn’t even have though of doing. Things like this next little yummy excursion.
A large town of Birmingham in Alabama has this ‘Golden Flake’ factory, a place where they manufacture yummy, yummy chips! And what’s more even exciting is that they offer free tours through the actual factory with lots of delicious tastings along the way. Woopee!
Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos there. We had to tie our hair in special hair caps but we sure were able to stuff our little faces with chips and were able to snap some photos outside!
Our next stop was Montgomery, Alabama. We stayed there for a couple of nights so that we could thoroughly explore the Alabama Old Town, which is an interactive museum to show how did people lived here in the 19th Century. We had a look at some old beautiful homes, a cotton gin (where they used to remove spikes from cotton)
We met a lady who taught us how to spin the cotton and how clothes were made in those days. Apparently it used to take so long to make a garment that people usually could only afford two outfits. No, no – not per week – All Together!
We also went to a 19th century school where an actor was pretending to be an olden days schoolmaster. Oh boy, lucky our school principal is sooooo much nicer than this ‘fella’. We got so scared we didn’t even believe him he was an actor (he told us that AFTER his performance). He certainly scared our ‘sox off us’. Check it out, daddy recorded it with his permission.
He did come out of the classroom later on with a cuppa and that’s when we believed him he was quite a nice chap after all.
We left Alabama early morning on the 16th of November and headed South towards the ocean. The weather started to get warmer now. No more below freezing temperatures, short sleeves, here we come.
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Panama City – Florida
You just know when you cross the border to Florida – palms, palms, palms and the mesmerizing smell of the ocean! We just could not wait to get to the beach!
When we got to our new caravan park we found out that apparently Alabama was experiencing some incredible tornado and as luck would have it we missed it by about an hour. Yes it was raining when we were leaving but a tornado? Holy Gwocamole! Just to show you that sometimes ignorance can be a bliss. It certainly didn’t look like it was going to be stormy the night before. We had lovely sunset and all…
Our new RV Park was in the best possible place - we were right opposite the most beautiful beaches we have seen in the USA. Wow!!!
This was probably first the time in our trip that we felt like we were on a real vacation. Stunning white powder beach, sunshine, palm trees and nowhere particular to go – just chill (actually defrost rather than chill, lol).
Our RV Park was very nice and daddy said we sure had the ‘worst house on the best street’ if it came to this RV Park. We were snuggled between many state of the art coaches (busses) which made our humble home look very……humble.
The RV Park was within 5 minutes stroll to the beach and we made sure the path was well worn by the time we finished with it. We played on the beach every day building castles, collecting shells, chasing birds, going for walks or run. It was truly amazing!
In the late afternoons we would join mummy on her sunset -photography walks or jump into the pool where the water was nicely heated.
One day we rented jet- skis and went for a zoom around with dolphins. It was so much fun! We found about a dozen dolphins swimming around and so we joined them before gently taking off on our own chase and fun. Mummy and daddy even let us drive. Oh, did we have fun!
One day, after a really long walk on the beach we came across a Blue Herron Bird with a broken wing. We then met some rangers coming to its rescue so of course, we have joined them. We watched them for a while trying to catch the bird with no luck when daddy (the bird whisperer that he is) decided he’s going to give them a hand. He had the bird in his grip within 5 minutes. What a hero! The poor birdy got to go to a sanctuary where it would hopefully recover.
On our last day in Panama City we went to a couple of cool museums. One was the Ripley’s Believe it or not? It was quite interesting although some of the pirate collections and two headed animal displays surely gave us few nightmares at night.
The other one was the coolest ‘Upside Down’ house called ‘Wonderworks’. It was a science museum and it had lots of interesting and amusing gadgets to keep us occupied for hours.
We climbed a ropes and balance on the beams
Learned about Time
About Art
We played around with some massive bubbles
Bella even laid down on a bed of nails just to see what it feels like.
We also flew some airplanes
And we went out into space.
Wonderworks was awesome!
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