Travelog for: Benni

Hi folks,

I cant wait to start travelling .... wow I am so excited. I just heard that my first stop will be *gasp* Australia!!! I mean like ... wow ... its not round the corner though, is it?!
I am staying there with Sara  and guess what I will be travelling to America with her.
Its one small step for a teddy .... you get the idea!!! 

And in case you were wondering what I look like ... here is a lil photo session my owner did. Germanys next top teddy - Im telling ya 






this is me and my friends! I KNOW I am the smallest - but you know what they say about small teddys eh? big heeeearts

Hey! Guess where I am? I arrived in Orange today, and with quite a bit of jet lag, and you know what, we're even a day ahead of you, when I'd normally be sleeping I'm now awake and it's only 2pm! How strange! It's also quite warm here, but thankfully it's a bit cloudy so it's easier to get used to, Sara said... she said it's been extremely hot here lately so I'm glad it's not that hot today. I don't know what I'd do coming from Germany in Winter to extremely hot. I'm sure I'll get used it it, even if it is a couple more days...



Here's a picture of me straight after I got here - man am I glad to get out of that box, got a bit cramped in there thankfully it was only a week, I might have started getting sick otherwise.

Sara says we won't be going anywhere until Thursday, which is fine by me. I need that time to rest, but in the mean time I get to see what our travel itinerary looks like, did you know I'm going to be in South Korea for 24 hours? Wow, how exciting! Even though Sara says it might get a bit boring that's why she's glad to be bringing me with a few others along with her in her carry bag. Then off to Seattle for 5 weeks!



Maybe when I come back from Seattle on the 10th of March, Sara said there might be a chance of actually seeing a beach on the way back home, it wouldn't be a really nice beach, but a beach none the less if she can on the way home... we'll see how hat goes. :-)

Well bye for now! I'll update again soon!

Hey again! Sara decided she'd show me around the house and decided to take some photos while she was at it... I even got to visit with Leo Lion and Super Grover. :-) They're both toyvoyagers too, Leo Lion will be traveling with me and two other stuffed animals that aren't toyvoyagers but travel everywhere with Sara... as well as the other little toyvoyagers that are coming that haven't arrived yet. Super Grover told he's going to be traveling to Austria and France with someone and he'll be leaving later in the week. How exciting, he's going to Europe, and I just came from there... how strange!


Aren't we all cute together? Super Grover is even a bit smaller than me!

...and here are some photos of me around the house, we'll start with the birds... I visited Sara's aviary that she has in her kitchen and there are a lot of colorful birds in there, and some noisy ones too (the quails at the bottom).. but they're all so nice!



...and as you can see at the end of our little photo session, one of the Gouldian finches actually checked me out. He looks kind of angry, but he's really nice. His name is Grimey. Sara said. She told me all the names of the birds, but I don't remember them all, there are too many. ;-) But there are star finches, zebra finches, gouldian finches, diamond doves, spice finches and button quails at the bottom. They're all very small like me!


I also visited with the fish! They're all live bearing fish, well most of them anyways, they're colorful and Sara told me that a lot of them are actually pregnant as well, so we're just waiting to have babies now to have lots of baby fish. They move really fast don't they?


...and last of all, the mice... they're names are Moo, Charlotte, and Little Foot. They are all sisters and one of them is a long-haired mouse, I've never seen them before, and when this picture was taken I hadn't seen them either, they were sleeping in a tube instead of in their house. How silly! But the moment the photo session was done they all came out for a play!

All these animals are so cool! Sara told me she will probably take me to Cook Park before Thursday so I can see this wonderful little park in the middle of Orange. I'm excited!

I'll update again sometime soon!

Today another toyvoyager came to visit! This is the second of the five other toyvoyagers coming along with us! His name is Cronus he's a wild cougar, but he's very friendly and him and I have become very good friends even in only one day!]



Sara took us outside with Andrew today into the backyard. It wasn't too bad outside, wasn't too cold and wasn't too hot, so I sure enjoyed it! I saw my first glimpse of Andrew but I was in Sara's hands so Andrew didn't squish me...




The moment we got outside we jumped on the car and Andrew tried to get both Cronus and me, but we we're just out of reach, it was fun to see him try to get us! :-)




...once we finally made it to the backyard Andrew started messing with the cockatiels and Cronus and I had a bit of time together, we played hide and seek in the hydrangeas outside... can you find me?



...you probably can, I'm not hiding too much, I'm so small I don't want to get lost... here I am! Aren't I cute?



And here I am resting on some blue flowers of the same species - Sara told me that because they're the same flower the reason some are pink and some are blue is because the soil will make them change color depending on what type it has. She also says they don't do much with them, but they're very pretty to have in the backyard every Summer. :-) They smell really pretty!



After playing hide and seek for a while we sat down with one of Andrew's balls and played with it. That was really fun but was cut short when Andrew noticed and grabbed Cronus in the middle of a roll... oh well, I'm tired anyways...



It was almost time to go in, but I was exhausted so Sara put me on the clothes line, Cronus went on too but he was too heavy so he stayed on one of the metal bars instead... the wind blowing me felt so good after all the activity today!



Well I had a busy day! Hopefully tomorrow we'll go to the park! We'll see, either way I'm going into town! How exciting! Well goodnight and I'll update again soon!

Hey again! I didn't do much today, it was a pretty lazy day at home - Daniel and Sara went off to the shops all alone but they made up for it by making me and Cronus a butterscotch sponge pudding later on that night, it was quite good! We even got to help make it!



Here we are starting it, it's a powder just like a cake but kinda different - and then we added some brown sugar, because well it makes it taste just that much better!



We added an egg, the egg was almost as big as me so I let Cronus break it, and we had Daniel put the egg in so we didn't spill it all over ourselves, our fur is too nice to be messed up with egg, that wouldn't be any fun! We had fun watching...



But then the spoon was turned to us, it was time for us to mix, because I'm so small, Cronus helped me mix it and we took some turns but it was fun, eventually it was all stirred in good... of course Sara helped out a little bit to get the last little bits, but I'm proud of it!



Then there was nothing much we could do because boiling water had to be poured over the top of the mixture, and that's just way too hot, I felt the steam of it on top of the pudding mixture and I couldn't believe how hot it was! I'm glad Daniel and Sara helped me with that!




Ooop! All ready to go in the oven now! We only have to wait 15 minutes to see what we helped create and I'll get my first taste, it smells really yummy!



Oh look it's done! How pretty is that? I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to help as I'm so much smaller than everyone, so that was pretty exciting for me!




Oh, and did it EVER taste good!

Sara told me they're just waiting on the other two to arrive, which should be tomorrow then we're taking a trip to Cook Park. The day was started late for Sara today so it delayed everything... I've heard there are a lot of Australian birds at Cook Park, I wonder what I'll see!

Guess what? We took a trip to Cook Park today - it was pretty warm outside but I got some see some native birds and some very pretty and very unusual trees! Oh, and of course some ducks! Ducks are really cool, but really really big! They don't look that big in pictures, but man am I tiny as compared...


Here I am getting ready for our trip to the shops before we went to Cook Park... I was actually pretty comfy here!


When we got to the shops it was quite busy, Sara said she thinks it's because it's 'Australia Day' weekend, so everyone was at the shops, it was hard to find a park so we just found the first one and parked there... me and Cronus stayed in the car while Daniel and Sara got some errands done.

When I first got to Cook Park there we're a lot of huge trees, so of course I wanted to climb one...




Granted I never got up very high, but it was a very huge tree as I'm sure you can tell. I've never seen a tree this big before!


I laid out in the sun a little bit - it was very warm so it was pretty enjoyable! Then I got a little visit from a local duck...


The ducks in the background here Sara calls "fancy" ducks because they have a dark brown head and are so different from the other ducks... although they make scary noises for their "quack" I've never heard of a quack period, let alone one that sounded so strange, but it was cool too! They're very pretty aren't they?






On the way to the huge bird aviary they have in the middle of the park we had an encounter with a Magpie, they're Australia's crows, they're very noisy, but very smart Sara says. They're funny looking aren't they?



We finally got to the huge bird aviary and we saw an Umbrella Cockatoo, these are HUGE birds. Their beak is almost as big as me... how scary! The other bird Sara says is an 'Eastern Rosella' - she also says you can see these sometimes in the tree right outside her house... how pretty!


This is a fountain the middle of Cook Park, it's really a pretty fountain! Then I noticed something kind of strange...


These bugs we're near the fountain, what a strange pattern they have on their backs, I've never seen anything like this before!



Then me and Cronus took a bit of a rest on this thing in the middle of the park...


I took another rest in another strange tree in the park, there was SO much to see here!


...and here I am in some pretty flowers!...


...and more pretty flowers!...


It was nearing the end of our time at Cook Park and both Cronus and I were very tired, so we took a little nap on this bench until Sara and Daniel woke us up and took us to the car...

On the way to the car we spotted some fish in the pond...


...and even a Bronzewing that Sara says commonly come in her yard to eat seed that she leaves out for them from her inside birds... they're so cool looking!...


Wow it was a big day for me! I'll update again soon!

Hello! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, first Sara was sick - yuck! Then she got a letter saying that she had a house inspection the day before we leave! So she's spending her time cleaning the house when she wanted to be resting before our long trip. So Cronus and I have been lazy, lounging around and eating these yummy candies...



...Sara says they're German, so when I get home, you'll have to buy me some of these! They're so yummy! But this pack isn't to be opened as it's something to snack on while we're in Korea for the 24-hour layover. Oh well. :-) I think I'm getting a little buddha belly anyways from eating too many, better lay off them. :-)



...so while Sara and Daniel have been cleaning their house up and down, Cronus and I have also been writing out postcards for her, as she wants to send out her maximum so when she's gone they'll arrive and she'll get mail when she's gone, coming home to nice postcards is always a great way to come home, much better than bills she says. I say I'd agree!



We've also been watching the mice run in their wheel in the night, and the birds singing during the day! There is never a dull moment in this house. :-) This is one of the first times that Charlotte has actually started running in the wheel, Sara says she's the chubby one that's got long hair, she's very pretty... the other two are a bit smaller but both have such cool personalities. The birds of course are awesome too, I've really started to love them, and I think I'm going to miss them when I'm up in America for 5 weeks, Sara says she knows she's going to during that time too!

Well tomorrow is going to be a bit more of an exciting day. We're going up to Mount Canobolas, which is an extinct volcano around 20 minutes drive from Sara's house, and probably come home via Lake Canobolas so I can see a bit more of Orange. Hopefully it won't be too hot, it's been scorching the last few days!

Well I'll update again soon! I hope your doing well!

Hey! It was a really hot day today, like, very hot, it was 31'C in the house today and sadly, it still is! :-( It's too humid and ugh, I can't wait to get back to cool weather, but cool weather is forecast for the day we leave... awww!

Well today we went up to Mount Canobolas, it was a bit windy up there but it felt better than being on the ground, and it was really high up!... but we'll start from the beginning...



This is just going towards Canobolas in the houses in Orange, it shows how bright it was, although I don't think the picture really gives it justice...



Around half way there now, you can see the gum trees starting to come up a lot more, and man were there a lot!



Sara took this as we we're driving by, but we we're going pretty fast, I'm suprised it came out so clear... finally we got to the top!



Here I am at the top! Look how far up we are! To put it into perspective the little town below us is Orange... so we we're quite a ways up... here are some more pictures from the top of the mountain...









As you can see, you can see quite a distance! I went up and looked at the map which showed all the directions of each town...



But because I'm so light the wind actually blew me a little bit to the side, oh well, at least I didn't get blown too far. :-)

Sara and Daniel also showed me the map which shows the points of the mountain range, and which parts actually had eruptions, I think they said the last eruption on Mount Canobolas was around 50 million years ago...



I don't know if you can read what the sign says as it's a small picture, but I'll have Sara type it out for you...

"Within a 30 kilometre radius of Mount Canobolas, approximately 30 vents are known to have erupted. These eruptions commenced about 50 million years ago and halted approximately 10-15 million years ago. The Mount Canobolas vents erupted over that entire period, while others within the 30 kilometre radius we're active for shorter periods. The basalt capping has largely weathered away, producing fertile soils as far away as West Wyalong."

So you know how far away that really is I just had Sara do a search for you, and it says West Wyalong is around 2 hours and 40 minutes drive towards the Bush from Orange. :-) That's a long long way!



Before we we're ready to go on our next trek for the day Sara showed me some "Patterson's Curse" which is a nasty weed that got brought into the country a long time ago by someone from England who thought it was pretty. It's spread all over the country, and causes massive hay fever and it can get so bad it can kill life stock in some areas of Australia... thankfully most of it has died out... but it was still quite rampant up at the top of Mount Canobolas....

On the way down the mountain Sara got out and took some photos at a lookout point...





Next stop Lake Canobolas...



When we got out of the car this is the first thing we saw when we walked into the park... Sara says this area was dry as a bone before but now they've put water back into it... and it had a few ducks to come with it...



Here's a view of the area around Lake Canobolas...





...and then we noticed the seagulls... must get closer...



...not close enough...



...still not close enough...



...whoops there he goes!... I wish I could have gone swimming though, the water looked so good on that hot day! Sara said there was one last stop before we got home...



Look familiar? :-)

Well I'm probably not going to be doing much more as we're leaving very early Friday morning and I'll update again probably when I'm in America next! How strange is that!

Oh, and we said goodbye to our dear friend Super Grover he'll be on his way to Austria tomorrow! Isn't he just adorable?

As I know you know now, I'm in South Korea. It was a long flight but I was nice and tidy packed with the other toys coming along for the ride, wasn't too bad, but I know Sara was extremely tired and kept falling asleep throughout the entire flight. Now isn't much better, I can tell she's been having problems sleeping. Guess it's not easy to sleep across 3 chairs in the terminal, they were kinda hard!

I landed when it was dark so I don't have many pictures as of yet, but I have a picture of me with a Korean payphone, some korean signs, and an asiana airlines plane in the background. I'll have Sara get some better photos later, and hopefully this time I"ll get a window seat. While I saw out the window, it was cloudy most of the way... this time it'll be dark most of the time, but I've done it - I just need a photo of what I saw out the window... I'm a bit nervous to be sitting on the window and it's a bit ackward, but we'll do our best!

I'll update again when the jet lag wears off enough to have Sara get up and do the photos for you! Only 14 more hours until we leave the airport! Wish us luck!

Hey! Guess where I am? I'm back in a cold climate after visiting South Korea, so now I've been to four out of 6 possible continents to visit. Antartica isn't really that accessible people have told me! :-) Sadly though on the plane to America I wasn't able to see out the window as I was on the exit door, and there wasn't a window next to me! :-( I'm hoping to get some pictures on the way back to South Korea before going back to Australia. As Sara told me that going to South Korea will be daytime, it will be night time on route to Australia... :-)

But here are some photos Sara took for me!...


This is on the way to Bathurst, we were just about there when this photo was taken and it was a very bumpy road, it was probably like 1 in the morning at this point, so I was VERY tired like Sara and Daniel were.


When we were at the airport we sat in a lounge and watched some planes take off, look how icky it was outside, it was really raining hard. Even the night before we left we had a blackout for a few hours!


...and this is the exact plane I rode on to South Korea! See how big it is? It was amazing!


Now I'm in South Korea... uhhh I'm SO tired! It's like 2 in the morning in this photo... I was quite bored too! Thankfully I had Cronus and Leo Lion to keep me company. :-)


Here's a Korean pay phone, how weird is that? I saw Sara getting very confused instead she used a different one that wasn't so scary and intimidating... haha...


Here was a sign outside of the internet cafe... not quite sure what it says... :-)


They had these signs all over the airport, it says 'Happy New Year' as you can see one in english in the background...

Here are just some random photos from around the airport.. :-)





That's the Korean money too, it was so weird to have someone say to Sara that she owed them 27,000 won at one point! :-P


It was time to sit down and rest for a while - but of course, we had a pepsi for all of us to share... :-)


I had one last view outside...


Now it was time to take a bit of a rest...

Now here are some random photos from Korea during the day. :-)









Almost time to go!...




...now I'm off to Washington! Now we have a 9 hour flight that was full of scary turbulence, I didn't like it! :-( But we got there okay! We arrived at 1130am. :-)


When I arrived I met up with Charity Bear for the first time, she's from Russia! We just relaxed the first day because of all the jet lag we barely slept for 3 days straight it was nice to get some sleep finally!



Then I met up with the two house cats that live here, they're pretty big, in the first photo is the boy called Jethro, and the second cat that's sniffing at us is Ellie, she's very curious. Sara said they were born the day after each other so they're not brother and sister but they look so alike don't they? I call them "Cow Kitties". :-)


This is a view from Sara's parents back porch, it was pretty grey and dark outside so you couldn't see much, but they're surrounded by the mountains! There's been some avalanches in the mountains lately since it's been snowing so much, hopefully it'll be a bit clearer to get better photos soon!


Here's a pavlova Sara made today for her parents. It's really yummy! It's a very famous Australian desert!


Okay it was time to rest for the day, still very jet lagged but hopefully we'll do something fun once the jet lag wears off a bit. :-)

I hope you're doing well! But I'm having so much fun here!

Hey! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, it's been really rainy here as Sara told me that Shaggy Bear has been taking my place while I'm gone, keeping my bed warm maybe? :-) He looks really nice so I don't mind... but I have been pretty busy here, although sadly not a lot of photos. Sara keeps forgetting her camera or just not in the right place or right time to take photos of all of us, but she tries her best. :-)

On Thursday we got to visit with Sara's sister, Julie. She's got 4 kids, and here's a picture of all of us with Alissa...



Alissa is 6 years old and she absolutely fell in love with all of us... we had an extremely busy day but in the morning I got to visit a bit with Tank a "tuxedo manx cat" which means it's tail is very short... not docked, but just born very short... isn't he cool looking?



Granted, not really the best photo of him... but he was scared of some of the dogs that were over for a few hours. I was a bit scared too though, they were SO much bigger than all of us and they were all very rowdy! But I did meet one nice pup, his name is Scooter...



He's a 9 week old "hot dog" dog, isn't he cute? He loves to cuddle with anyone and everyone and seriously, could not hurt a fly. So I was more than happy to spend some time with him... :-) We we're busy most of the day though so not much else was photographed plus it was really yucky outside, but I'm going back next week so hopefully I'll get some better photos then!



We went shopping on Friday and got some Sockeye Salmon, it was SO yummy! Sara said bears that are a bit bigger than me love to go fishing and catch these when they're running upstream. Thankfully the bears aren't in the area, or at least where I live... although we do get possums and raccoons Sara says... hopefully we'll be able to see some while I'm here maybe. I've seen some squirrels, but they were moving so fast I couldn't get a photo of them...

Then today we went to a hobby show expo thing where I saw a lot of model planes flying and even go-cart racing with really small kids, it's amazing how fast they were going, but it was really cold so we went home... maybe later we'll go to Lake Tye... Sara has been meaning to get some photos and take us down there with her but it's just been so icky outside... but there are hopefully some plans to go to Leavenworth and maybe the San Juan Islands... Leavenworth is a small German tourist town on the other side of the mountains, hopefully we'll go there - it'll be very homey I'm sure. :-)

I'll update again soon! Sorry it took me so long I've just been so tired, all these dark rainy days make it so hard to want to do anything much! Maybe we'll get some snow! :-)

Hey! Straight after I updated yesterday Sara took me, Charity Bear, Cronus and Leo Lion for a little walk. We went down the street and visited Lake Tye since it was actually cloudy but not raining so we took some advantage of it... first stop off we made was to have a bit of fun at the park... but sadly it was all closed off, this shows you how much rain we've been having lately... isn't it shocking?



... but thankfully I was able to swing on the swings a little bit, too bad they're so big for me, but I did my best... you know, it's not the size that counts. :-)



... and then we finally got to Lake Tye... there actually were a few people there, but we did our best we still had a lot of fun but there sure was a big chilly wind that seemed to go straight through you...



... this is obviously straight facing the lake, now I turn around... and this is what I see...



... although it's cloudy isn't it just SO pretty? Who would know I would get much closer to them today!... I'll update that a little bit later though!...



These were some of the ducks at the lake, they were all really close to each other while they were swimming no matter what... maybe they were family, Sara told me it looks like there are three males, but maybe one female? So probably a family of ducks! How cute!



Last but not least... before we went inside to rest and get some dinner at the really yummy taco truck we watched the sunset. This picture doesn't give it justice, but it was really yellow! The first sunset that's actually been seen behind the clouds! It was very pretty!

Well I'll update again soon there are a lot of pictures, we visited Wallace Falls in Gold Bar today! :-)

Hey again! So today we took a hike up to Wallace Falls, in Gold Bar, Washington which is just a neighboring town to Monroe, Washington... maybe a 15 minute drive up to the Wallace Falls State Park. It was very pretty and pretty cold initially but it quickly warmed up once we started walking...




This is a view from the very beginning of the trail, isn't it beautiful? It's so cloudy and gross looking but it's still gorgeous, it's got a lot of snow and had a very cold wind coming down from the mountains... but it wasn't too bad after a bit of uphill walking. :-)



Here's the river that comes off of the many falls that are around where we were walking. We walked the wrong direction for a while, but we finally found our way... it was pretty crazy!


Here I am next to the water, isn't it nice looking? Oh but it also looks SO cold!


... and here I am next to another set of falls, much smaller but it sure was nice to look at all the surroundings!


Now this is the direction we went the wrong way for a while - this hill got extremely steep and very hard to climb. Only at the top was when everyone realised we were going the wrong direction... Oops. :-)





Here are the rest of the photos from the trip up and back down. We didn't fully make it, because of a past injury Sara had we had to turn back early, didn't help she sprained her ankle and bruised the bottom of her feet pretty good... but saying that, we have plans to do it again - and make it to the top this time. It's a 2.7 mile walk up to the top of the falls. We'll be doing it again hopefully before we go back to Australia! :-) So you'll see this all again hopefully soon!...

On the way home we stopped and got some dinner at a BBQ Bus in a Reptile Zoo car park. It was really yummy, and pretty unique! :-)



There was another bus that was right next to it that had tables to actually eat your food in... very cool! I really enjoyed it and the food was awesome!

... Almost home again, we stopped at a river right near where we live for the time being in Monroe, it was very cold and getting dark... the water looks like it was freezing, and again, a cold breeze, but even colder than earlier!...






The last photo is of a railroad track that used to be there a few years ago but they tore it down because people were getting injured on it... cool photos though, we didn't stay long because it was freezing we finally went back home and rested our feet!

No plans as of yet for more, but a bit of rest this week and back off to Kirkland. Expect another post soon! I hope you're doing well! Talk soon!

Hey! Went went again to Kirkland yesterday, although sadly didn't get many photos. We just bought up for Valentines Day, Sara says while she isn't with Daniel she's making light of the situation and got a few presents for him for when she goes back to Australia. How cute! :-)

So all of us ran errands with her around town, here's a picture of me next to the little area where all the shops are in an area of Kirkland called Kingsgate.



Sara says she knows this area very well, because if you look behind all the stores and you could see through the trees she lived in apartments behind there for a few years before moving to Australia. She told a bit about living in this area, and how it's extremely expensive to live there! Thankfully I don't have to pay bills or rent, that doesn't sound like fun at all!

We went and had teriyaki for lunch and it was REALLY yummy! No photos as Sara probably would have gotten some dirty looks taking photos when she was the only one in there with us... but later on we got back home to Monroe and got to see an even better sunset!



...the clouds are pink, Sara always says... "Pink sky at night, sailors delight... pink sky in the morning sailors warning" meaning if there's a pink sky at night - it'll be a nice day tomorrow, and in the morning means storms... so I guess it'll be a nice day tomorrow! It's Valentines Day tomorrow, I wonder what that will bring to us? :-) We shall see!

Hey! It was a pretty busy day today, didn't get too many photos, but none the less it was still fun, more fun ahead for tomorrow I've been told... :-) But we'll go into that a bit later. :-)

You know I told you that we bought a heap of stuff for Daniel? Well here's what's on the list to come back home to Australia with us, not much as of yet, but I'm sure the pile will just keep growing...



There's a lot more kool-aid than what's shown but we all helped pick out what we thought Daniel would like for his very delayed Valentines Day he's going to have... yummy candies! :-)



... and here's me with the candies we all got today, each of us got a little lollypop to suck on, even though it's almost as big as me, I guess that means it'll last longer. :-)

... oh, and I totally talked Sara into buying this - not like it too a lot of effort, but check this out... does this look familiar?



So apparently they have an American version of it - how strange is that? Sara also bought some Haribo Frogs today! Yummy! Well tomorrow we're off to Redmond (Famous for being the home of Microsoft) and Bellevue maybe... :-) Maybe we can see a bit more.. then probably Saturday will be something exciting! Lots more pictures to come! :-)