Travelog for: Mocha

We walk across the street to visit the Venetian.  It's by the same owner of the one in Las Vegas.



It is so beautiful inside! 





They have a huge food court, with a large variety of food: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Macanese, sandwiches, burgers, pastas, dessert and more...

Today we go to visit Casas-Museu da Taipa.  They are the restored buildings which were once the residences of Portuguese officials and Macanese families (Portuguese who were born and grew up in Macau) in the early 20th century. 

On the way to the houses, we walk along a small street.  We see a small temple.



This used to be a firecracker factory, but not anymore.



Further down the road, there is another temple.  This one is for the bodhisattva Kwan Yin, who is often portrayed as motherly figure like Maria. 



Inside we see a lot of large coils hanging there.  What are they?



They are incense.  By making them this shape they can burn for a long time.



We take the stairs up.  The trees lining the steps are over a hundred years old.



On top of the stairs is a small church, Our lady of Carmel Church.



Next to the church is a small park, where there is a statue of Luis Vaz De Camoes, the National poet of Portugal. 



There are some exercise equipment in the park.  It looks like gym equipment but it's for outdoors, and it's free!  Since we have been eating so much, it's time to do some exercise!



Oh, I think I spot the houses we are looking for!



They are very European looking.  It must be very nice living here.







On the other side of the lake, we can see the casinos that we visited yesterday.



This is the typical style of street signs in Macau.  Very elegant and stylish, isn't it?



Nearby there is a garden.



It's a beautiful pond with koi fishes and lotus.

We are back in Hong Kong. 

We go to a department store, and happen to see a man from the Dragon Well village in China talk about tea. 

Here you can see the bags of tea as well as a bamboo tray of harvested leaves that are being dried.



He is demostrating how they pan fry the tea leaves after they are harvested.  There is a fire under te circular wok, and he keeps stirring and rolling the leaves with his hands.



Then mommy takes us to try a new dessert, because she knows I like them!! Yay!!



This is Taiwanese shaved ice.  It has become popular in Hong Kong recently.  As you can see it is very pretty, with very thin sheets layered one on top of the other, looks like layers of cream, and is different from the regular shaved ice.  Instead of granular ice crystals, this one is smooth almost like ice cream.  This one is the mango flavor.  It is topped with syrup with cubes of dragon fruit and mango.





Mmmmm.... it's so good.



I want another one, this one is sesame flavor, with red beans.  Delicious but I like mango better.  I wish I can eat this every day!

While we had a really good time in Hong Kong, sadly it's time to leave. 

We are at the airport now.  Good bye Hong Kong!!  I hope I will be back soon.  I sure miss those natas and shaved ice!!

We are now back in Miami!  Today we take Thiele to visit Miami Beach.

First, we go to Lincoln Road.  It's a Pedestrian walkway with shops, restaurants and even performers and street vendors on weekends.



We have a bit of lunch sitting outdoors.



Then we go and visit the Botanical Garden.





This man looks like he has a bad hair day!



It is a beautiful garden with some interesting statues.



We help mommy release a BookCrossing book at the garden.  Hope someone will pick it up!





One part is arranged as a Japanese garden. 











I listen to the whisper of the bamboo trees and enjoy a bit of Zen meditation.



Not far from the Botanical Garden is the Holocaust Memorial. 



As we walk around the pond, there are displays with photos about the Holocaust. 



The photos make me feel very heavy in my heart. 



We then walk through this tunnel.  The slits on the wall allow sunlight to enter in an interesting pattern.



At the end of the tunnel we see this monument.



The figures all look like they are suffering in great pain.  It makes us all very emotional. 



This is a quotation from Anne Frank: "Then in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."  When I learn from our host that Anne was a young girl who was killed in the war, I am so sad I want to cry.  I hope there will be no more war like this!

Today we visit to the Knaus Berry Farm.  It's opened by some Quarkers and the place is only open during winter.  In the summer they return to Pennslyvania.  They are famous for their cinnamon buns and people will drive an hour to come get them. 



There are strawberries grown from their farm.  Usually strawberry season here is February but because of the cold winter we have them now:



Red and juicy looking!

Here are the cinnamon buns.  It's still early so there is not a line, but later it will extend outside the store.



Cinnamon buns, strawberry shake, and some veggies for dinner.  Yummy!  There is no table or chair so we eat in the trunk.

Today we go down to "The Keys"!!  Florida keys are a chain-like cluster of about 1700 islands in the southeast United States, beginning from 15 miles (24 km)south of Miami.  At the nearest point, the southern tip of Key West is just 94 miles (151 km) from Cuba.  The word "key" comes from the Spanish "Cayo", meaning small island.





Marathon is located among the "Middle Keys", about 2 hours from Miami.    We arrive at the beach.



We go there for the dragon boat festival.  Here are the atheletes getting ready!



Here they are loading up the boat.  The dragon boat is a long boat that seats two paddlers in 10 rows.  The watersport originated in China but is now held in over 50 countries.



We wave them off with a good luck!



The beach is really beautiful!!



It's kind of far out there but can you see the boats racing out on the water?



On the shore there are some vendors for food as well as arts and crafts.



After each heat, the racers come to check out their time at the score board.



What a beautiful day to be out on the Florida beach!! 

Today we go to a hospital!  Don't worry, nobody got hurt.  But we are going to visit some sick sea turtles!  This is a very special hospital in the Florida Keys.  They take care of turtles that are sick.  Thy have a website http://www.turtlehospital.org/


Look, they even have a turtle ambulance!



We go to the visitor center first.



We read some information about sea turtles. 



These are the shells of the different species of sea turtles.  They are very large animals!!



We watch a slide show telling us more about sea turtles and why they end up at the hospital. 



This is the emergency room.  The lady is using a toy to show us what they do when a turtle is delivered to an emergency room.  Did you know that turtles are conscious breathers?  That means that while they are under anaesthesia an assistant has to stand by and pump oxygen into the turtle's lung at regular intervals so it won't suffocate.



They have equipment to take digital X Rays of the patients.  Digital is useful because the doctors are volunteers so they are not at the hospital all the time.  Now they can view the digital image from where they are and give diagnosis quickly.  These x rays show that the turtle has a fishing hook in the stomach!  Ouch, that must really hurt.



Next we walk over to visit the patients.  First we go to the ICU where each patient has his own room, er, pool.



We meet Kentucky.  She has been biten by a shark but is lucky enough to live to tell the tale!  (you can read more of her story at http://www.turtlehospital.org/blog/?m=201004)



Here you can see clearly the shark bites on her shell.  She is so excited to see us, I guess she never tires of retelling her adventure!



This turtle suffers the bubble butt syndrome.  This happens when a motor boat hits the turtle so hard that the shell is misshapened.  An air bubble forms inside the shell.  This is a problem as the turtle can no longer sink below water, meaning that he cannot find food or shelter from predators.  The doctors have not found a cure yet, but they put a weight on the shell so the turtle can sink below the surface.  However, as the turtle grow, the old plates on the shell fall off, so the weight is not a permanent solution.  The turtles will thus have to spend the rest of their lives in the sanctuary.



Here is another turtle recuperating.  You can see that on her flippers there are some scars.  She has tumor but it has been removed.



This is Romeo.  He's a baby but sadly has lost a flipper already!! 



This is Joe.  He was born without one flipper then got another one bitten off by a predator.  But we are told that Joe seems to swim around pretty well with just two flippers so they may release him into the wild.





Isn't he a beautiful turtle?



Besides the individual Intensive Care Units, there are two big pools.  It used to be a swimming pool of a hotel.  The pool gets water from the sea outside.  Here lives the turtles who are soon to be released back to the wild as well as those permanent residents.



We are given some pellets to feed the turtles.  Unfortunately mommy host cannot manage holding the feed and us and the camera (she needs another flipper -- I mean hand) so there is no picture.  She says she doesn't want to feed us to the turtles by mistake. 

I am really glad to vist the hospital.  It's nice knowing that the injured turtles are well cared for.  We hope that all the sea turtles will recover soon.  We also hope that humans will stop throwing garbage into the sea, respect slow boat zone, so that the turtles will have a easier life. 



We save the band for souvenir. 



Afterwards we have lunch.  We sit outside so we can enjoy the breeze and the view.





We have a fish rueben and a basket of fish and chips.  Delicious!!

Today we go to South Beach to attend the Hands Across The Sand event http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/.  It is an event where world wide people join hands at beaches on June 26 12pm local time to protest off shore oil drilling and to bring awareness to alternative energy sources and conservation. 

As usual in Florida, it's a beautiful day at the beach. 



It will most certainly be tragic if this lovely beach is spoiled by oil spills.

Look someone are playing mahjong on the beach!



This guy is selling coconut.  He cuts it open so people can drink the juice.



Over 2000 people show up today.  Some carry signs.



People are chanting "Drilling means spilling!" "Spilling means killing!"



Some helicopters fly by.  We think they are the news crew so everybody waves at them.



Everybody lines up and hold hands!  The line stretches over 13 blocks.





Yay we are part of the group too!  The people especially welcome Thiele, who is a pelican.  Thiele wants to make sure no oil ruins her pretty feather!

Weather has been very hot lately so we mostly stay in the house.  Today we decide to try our hands in the kitchen again.  This time I learn to make dumplings.

First we gather the ingredients.  We are making vegetarian dumplings, so we have carrot, tofu, mushroom, woodear, ginger and pickled cabbage.



We start by chopping up the ingredients into little pieces.



We mix them all in a bowl and season them with soy sauce, pepper and sugar.



We put a spoonful into the center of a dumpling wrapper sheet, and then seal the sheet into a dumpling.



It's not easy wrapping the dumpling, but I think mine is the prettiest. 



We work hard to get a platetful of dumplings!!



We boil the dumplings with noodles and vegetables to make a nice bowl of noodle soup!  Doesn't it look delicious?

Today we are hosting another cooking class!  This class is Vietnamese summer roll.  Perfect for this hot weather!

First we soak the rice vermicelli to make it soft.
 


Next we cut the carrot into long thin sticks.



We also have some basil leaves.  It's very important as it adds a nice fragrance.



We then chop up some nuts.  Usually peanuts are used but we don't have them so we use cashew instead.



We prepare the sauce using vinegar, sugar, red peppers and garlic.



Now we are ready to make the rolls!  First we put the rice wrapper on a big plate.  It's dry so we have to sprinkle some water on it to soften it.



Next we put some lettuce at the bottom, and put the carrot, vermicelli and basil on top.  Last we sprinkle some nuts on top.



Now we roll it up neatly.



It looks very pretty and taste very delicious too!  And it's so easy to make without any cooking involved, perfect for summer!

Mommy's friend gave her a pineapple which he grew in his own garden! 

It's a small and very cute pineapple!



We chop off the head!  It's a gruesome job but someone has to do it.



Then cut off the rind and cut them into little pieces!!



Oh it's so sweet!