Travelog for: Bamboo Panda

Hello!

My name is Bamboo.  I was made by a wonderful little girl.

My Uncle Spac is going to take me on his adventures. I am very excited!

The first thing I did was go to a restaurant for dinner. I met Uncle Spac's friends there.

From left to right, that is Heather the Hedgehog, Uncle Spac, Beau Bear, and Zoe the Zebra.





We are going to have so much fun together!

Tomorrow we will go to a town called New Hope in Pennsylvania.

Hi, Julie!


Today we went to a town called New Hope. It is in the state of Pennsylvania. Do you know where that is?

If you look at a map, it is just to the left of New Jersey.  New Hope is at the border of the two states.


It was a beautiful sunny day, so we spent the afternoon sitting in the sun by the pool.





Here I am with my new friend, Zoe, and my Uncle Spac.





Here I am with Uncle Spac again.





And that's Beau Bear and Heather the Hedgehog in the other chair.





I am getting along great with my new friends. Zoe and Heather are about my size, so we look good in photos together!





In the evening, we went to a restaurant called the Blue Tortilla.





We shared a tortilla salad and it was yummy!





More from New Hope tomorrow!

Today I went to a town called New Hope in Pennsylvania. Do you know where that is?

If you look at a map of New Jersey, you will see that the border on the left side (the west) is a river. That is the Delaware River. It separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania.

New Hope is just over the  river on the Pennsylvania side.


We parked the car in Lambertville, on the New Jersey side and walked over a bridge to get to New Hope.

But first, we enjoyed walking on a trail along the river.





In this picture, you can see the Delware River and some buildings in New Hope across the way.





Aunt Karen and her dog, Bebo, were there with too. They say hi!





We ate dinner at a restaurant in New Hope called Bitter Bob's.





It started to rain, but we stayed outside because it was still warm and there were umbrellas over the tables.





What a fun day. This is only my first adventure and I have already been to a new state!

Hi Julie! 


Today my friends and I started a BIG adventure!

We went across the country to the state of Utah.  Ask Daddy to show you where that is on a map.  It's a long way from New Jersey!


We started by taking the train from Little Falls, where Spac lives with Uncle Dan.





Here we are waiting for the train.  Zoe and Heather say hi!






Here comes the train!





The train did not have a lot of people on it, so we had plenty of room.





The train took us to the city of Newark, New Jersey.





Here I am at Newark Broad Street Station.





From Broad Street, we took a bus to the airport.




Here we are on the bus.  It was very sunny!





Soon, we were at the airport. 





See the airplanes behind us through the window?





We got on one of those airplanes and in a little while, we were in Chicago,  Illinois.  See if you can find that city and state on a map.





In Chicago, we got on another plane...





...and that plane took us to Utah!





Wow, Utah sure looks a lot different from New Jersey.  See that big mountain behind me?  We sure don't see that at home!





The hotel in Sandy, Utah, has a nice big bed!  We each had our own pillow and lots of space!





What a day!  I can't wait to see more of Utah!

Hi again Julie!  Here are some more pictures from our adventure with Uncle Danny and Spac (and our friends Zoe and Heather)!


Today, we went to a big park in Utah called Arches National Park.


National Parks are beautiful places in the United States that the government sets aside for all of us to enjoy.  No one is allowed to build on them or change their landscapes because they have so much natural beauty.  They are usually very large pieces of land.


On the way to the park, we stopped at a rest area on the highway and could not believe how much open space there is in Utah!





Finally, we made it to Arches, which is known for its crazy rock formations.  Look at these huge rocks!  See that one above me?  That's called "Balancing Rock".  How did it get like that?  And how does it stay like that?





These big rocks look pretty in moonlight, don't they?  They are very reddish brown.





And look at these shapes!  It's amazing that this happened naturally, untouched by people.





It was getting late, so we had to go to sleep.  I'm not in this picture, but I wanted you to see it because we are going to take another picture of it in the morning, so you can see how the colors look different at different times of day.  That big hole on the right side is called the Window.





More coming soon!

Love,
Bamboo

Hi Julie!

Remember how I said I would show you a picture of the Window Arches at sunrise?  Well, here it is!





Zoe, Heather and I walked up to the North Window...





Can you see us in this photo?  We're very, very small and the arch is so big!





How about now?






We walked around to the side to see the South Window...






I read this sign to learn how the rocks came to become arches.





We then went to the nearby Double Arch.  Can you see why it is called that?




We could not resist climbing the rocks to get closer.  Can you see us?  Again, we are so tiny compared to these big arches!





After climbing some more, we were able to stand under the back arch of the Double.




We're not in this, but we wanted to show you the view we saw from up inside the arch:






They call this the Cove of Caves.





Then it was time to hike the trail that leads to the most famous of them all - Delicate Arch.  (I think it's on the postcard I sent to you)

We hiked for a long time, up the rock mountain.  There was a path at first.







And then the path turned to steps leading up the mountain.





But the path led to some open spaces on the mountain.




The only way we knew where to go was to look for cairns, like these.







A cairn is a pile of rocks made by hikers to let other hikers know they are going the right way.


Sometimes, the mountain got quite steep.





Then there was a path again, but it was very narrow and a little scary!






Finally, we got there! 

Look at that!  Wow!








We got a little closer for a better picture.  Can you see the man standing next to it?  It is a lot bigger than him!  How does that giant rock stay like that?





Did you know that your daddy went here a long time ago?  You should ask him about it!



It was so beautiful to see, we had to take some time and just look at the arch.  But after a while, we knew it was time to head back down and leave beautiful Arches National Park.


I took one last look before we got to the exit. 





If you look really closely, you can see Balancing Rock and the Windows in the distance.




Bye-bye Arches National Park!  I had a fantastic time!









But that wasn't the end of our day!

Canyonlands National Park was not too far away, and even though we didn't have a lot of time, we knew we had to take a quick drive through it!





Look at that!! Those canyons are extremely large and deep!





We walked the nearby path for just a little while....








...and once again, it was time to go.  We had one more very, very special place to see today.

After a few hours in the car, we went over the border to Colorado!  Another new state for me!





And then made it to our destination - the Four Corners!  (Sorry I'm not in this photo!)






What makes the Four Corners so special is that it is the only place in the whole United States that the borders of four states meet. Those states are Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Daddy can show you on a map.



And here we are - four of us in four states, yet only a few feet apart!  Heather is in Colorado, Zoe is in New Mexico, Uncle Spac is in Arizona and I am in Utah!





We thought it would be fun to switch places for a photo in each state, at the exact point where they come together.


I'm in New Mexico...





Now I'm in Arizona!





Now I'm in Utah!





And now I'm in Colorado!





Our day was now complete - two National Parks and three new states.  It was time to get on the road and drive through the night to our next destination...

...but not before taking these photo at the border of our Arizona.





Our friends Zoe and Heather live in Arizona, so it was funny that they came with us from New Jersey all the way to their home state!


So this was the last picture of the day before driving through part of Arizona for another adventure tomorrow!





Love,
Bamboo

Hi Julie!  We spent another day at another National Park!

After leaving the Four Corners, we drove through the night to get to Zion National Park  on the other side of Utah.  We got there at about 2 a.m., so we took this photo and went right to sleep!





We woke up at sunrise ready for a new adventure!





To get to the hiking trails, we had to take a bus.  That way the road does not get all jammed with cars.




The first trail we did was the easy Riverside Walk, which had some beautiful views of the giant canyon walls.

Look how red the mountains are!













Here we are at the trail's end.  Some people continue beyond the trail to where the canyon gets very narrow, but turned around here.  We didn't feel like walking through the water and getting our feet all wet!






On the next trail, we had to hike upward a bit, but we enjoyed the view of the river below.




The trail includes some little natural pools up in the mountain, like this one.  Can you see the water behind me?





And there were some more beautiful mountain views.








When we went back down to the bottom of the mountain we saw a horse stable, and we took a horseback ride along the river.





Did Daddy show you the picture of Uncle Dan riding the horse?  What fun!



Before we left for the day, we went to the Canyon Overlook.

It was a long, steep climb but we made it to the top.  Look how high I am!








We sure had a great time at Zion.  I wish we could have stayed longer!





The next place to go was Salt Lake City, but on our way, we made a quick stop at Bryce Canyon, another National Park.  That makes four National Parks in our trip!





We also took a look at Fairyland Canyon. 





Look at these pictures and see if you can guess why they call it that.






Those huge rocks look like castles, don't they?  And the tops look like castle turrets, don't they?  Like on Cinderella's castle!  I guess that's why they named it Fairyland canyon!



That was the end of our day.  We have one more day in Utah before going home!

Hi, Julie! 

This is our last big day in Utah before coming back home.

Today's adventure was in and around the state capital - Salt Lake City. Here we are at the Capitol Building - this is where the state's government does its work.




Salt Lake City is named that because it is near a big lake called the Great Salt Lake.  So we visited an island that sits in the lake called Antelope Island.


We had to take a long road that leads from the mainland the island.








Here we are!




The island doesn't have much on it.  It is actually one big park, with open spaces, trees, trails, campgrounds, and the lake's beaches.


There were lots and lots of buffalo (also called bison) roaming the fields.  See them back there?








Did you know that you can eat bison?  Maybe someday Daddy will let you try some bison burgers!  They're yummy!




We took the road to the end, where it became a dirt path that led to a ranch.  But we didn't go all the way to the ranch.  We stopped here. 






What lovely views of the lake.










We went down to the beach to take a dip in the Great Salt Lake!







We didn't like the lake very much.  There were lots of bugs on the beach and the salty water felt weird.

Anyway, it was time to go and visit Salt Lake City.  Bye-bye Antelope Island!





Salt Lake City is best known as being the home of a religion called Mormonism.  Their biggest church (they call it a temple) is here in this city and I wanted to see it! 


Here we are in "Temple Square". 








This building is called the Tabernacle. A very famous choir called the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings during services.  See all those pipes back there - those are what make the church's organ very loud. A large pipe organ like that makes a big, beautiful sound.





Here is the front of the Temple, which was built more than 100 years ago!  It's so big!






This is the back of the big temple.





Later, in a different part of town, we went to a big outdoor shopping mall that takes up many city blocks.






If you look closely, you can see that there is water shooting from the ground, just like at the park in Hoboken.  The children had a lot of fun with this!






It was getting dark, so we had to go back to the hotel.  We had take an airplane back to New Jersey the next day!

Well, Julie, I hope you enjoyed seeing all the pictures from my big Utah adventure with Spac and Zoe and Heather!

Maybe someday you and I can go on some adventures together!