Maple Ridge, BC, Canada - 4th October 2009
By: AbbyB
Today I saw a little piece of Beautiful British Columbia (they even have that on their license plates). Part of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, which is the next city over, are farmland and there are a lot of dikes that the public is allowed to walk on. This particular area is near the Allouette River.
This is the river.
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Posted Oct 8, 2009, 8:14 pm
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Maple Ridge, BC, Canada - 8th October 2009
By: AbbyB
Today I went to the local recycle depot. They recycle pretty much everything.
Abby was only able to get this one photo of the other side before she was yelled at by an employee for taking photos.
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Posted Oct 8, 2009, 11:23 pm
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Maple Ridge, BC, Canada - 11th October 2009
By: AbbyB
Happy Thanksgiving!
Every year Abby and her family have a big meal. This year there was a turkey roast, stuffing, brussel sprouts and candied yams, with sparkling apple juice to drink. Yum!
For dessert everyone got a homemade pumpkin tart.
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Posted Oct 12, 2009, 7:06 am
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Maple Ridge, BC, Canada - 31st October 2009
By: AbbyB
Happy Halloween! This year I'm a cowboy!
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Posted Nov 1, 2009, 6:22 am
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Okinawa, Japan - 15th December 2009
By: JaymeC
Dear Mommy,
We also got to go to a place called Murasaki Mura. Jayme was excited to go. Here we are at the entrance. The dog/lions next to us are called Shisas. Shisas are the traditional protectors on Okinawa, and culturally are taken from the Chinese. Okinawa was not owned by the Japanese until recently and it has a rather unique blended culture since it used to be a very common trade stop because of its location. Culturally they have picked up many things from the Chinese and Japanese, but because the Americans have been here since World War II there are also some odd American traditions interspersed with it all. But the Shisa are the protectors all over Okinawa. They are lion/dogs and are found in pairs, one to let the good spirits through and the other to catch the bad spirits. Almost all homes and businesses have them and you can make your own here at Murasaki Mura. Jayme says she assumes there are ones people made and either couldn't or wouldn't pay for so they added them to the many decorations.
We got to walk around Murasaki Mura, but unfortunately we did not get to do any of the crafts there as it began to rain! Boo. Here are the pictures before the rain.
Maybe we'll get to go again one day, it sure looked pretty and some of the crafts they did there looked very neat.
More soon,
Roots Bear
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Posted Dec 15, 2009, 8:31 am
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Okinawa, Japan - 15th December 2009
By: JaymeC
Mommy,
Today we went to a very special place on Okinawa. It is the Peace Memorial Park. The Peace Park here on Okinawa has taken many years to build. It is to memorialize all that were killed on Okinawa during World War II and also a reminder of the cost of war, and the value of peace. The Peace Park consists of different sections. There is a museum there that has maps and a history of the battle on Okinawa as well as exhibits to see and stories of those who survived are told. There is also a Memorial that you can walk through outside that lists the names of all those killed during the Battle of Okinawa on the edge of a cliff. Finally there is an area with many memorials you can walk through, most of which are stones with the information carved into them in Japanese, which unfortunately Jayme can not read. Today we only saw a small portion of the park, the last area where there are memorials and nice walking paths. Here we are at the beginning of the walk, below us you can see the black stone with engraved names and the museum.
Here you can see the water at the base of the cliffs, isn't it beautiful?
Next to some of the memorials are paper cranes like these. Many of them are donated by local school children who come to visit. Isn't this an amazing amount of cranes? And these are the ones displayed outside where they must be replaced often. There are many in various locations and inside the museum.
Here is an example of one of the memorials up here.
Finally here is the view of the stones again as we were walking back to the car to go home.
It is a very beautiful and sad place to visit. But it is time to celebrate peace as well, and Jayme says we have a few plans for Christmas upcoming, I hope I'll be able to tell you about them soon,
Roots Bear
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Posted Dec 15, 2009, 8:45 am
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