Travelog for: Emil

The storm cleared up just in time for RiverFest here in Wilmington. We didn't stay long because it was VERY crowded, but here you can see a picture of the crowds and booths as well as the water front with a coast guard ship.


More soon,
Emil

It's Halloween! We didn't have time to make costumes this year, but we did have fun. The children picked out designs and we helped them carve their pumpkins.

Here it is when it's dark, though you can't see us too well.

Then we went out to go to trunk-or-treat instead of trick-or-treating! It was lots of fun. Here you can see some of the decorations on the cars for the people that participated. The dog-truck was a local veterinary hospital.




When we got home Jayme said it was a time honored tradition to put the children to bed and then sit back and relax with a drink for the evening. She even had some small bottles for us, and our new friend we found along the way. We're trying to talk her into becoming a new toyvoyager, she said she may try to travel somewhere new for next Halloween.

More soon,
Emil

Jayme's grandfather and his wife invited us to do something very special this weekend! So knowing that we decided to skip out on the unpacking here, all of Jayme's items finally arrived! Looks like time for a good weekend trip.

We took the long drive across the state to their house to see the local hot air balloon festival! Over 50 balloons come to this festival, so we knew it'd be fun to see! We paid for our tickets, and set our lawn chairs out to get a good seat.

After eating a picnic lunch and relaxing for a bit, it was time for the balloons to start! Here are the first ones being blown up!




By the time that one was up and going, there were so many more!


Goodbye balloons!



Hope you enjoyed seeing them!
Emil

There were a few new things to see walking around Balboa Park. The Globe Theatre had just geared up for their Christmas special of the Grinch before Christmas so they had some new decorations up as well as the Christmas tree!




More soon,
Emil

After spending some time with Jayme's family we headed back to Disneyland again... you'd think we spent enough time there the first time, but we had fun the second too! This time we got to go to both parks, Disneyland and California Adventure. I'll start with telling you about Disneyland. Here we are at the entrance!

We had already seen a lot of Disneyland so we didn't take as many pictures, but we did take some. Here you can see the Mickey and Walt Disney statue at the front of the park with the castle in the background.

And here's a better photo of the castle, doesn't it look so pretty decorated with all that snow?

Jayme's sons went on their first roller coaster ride on the Matterhorn! We got to ride along too of course.

And we went onto Small World again, this time it was also decorated for the holidays.



Finally that evening we got to see the Christmas parade. I'm sorry the photos aren't better, I tried to take some with me but in the low light they didn't come out well.



The next morning we got up bright and early to head over to California Adventure, which is another Disney park here in Disneyland Resort. The picture many months ago of me in front of the California sign is the entrance. Here I am inside, you can see the small Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

After we got in we made a mad dash to the Toy Story ride, because it is still really new so it has long lines unless you're one of the first ones there. On the way we stopped to take a quick picture of paradise pier, where the ride is located at. You may even be able to see the Toy Story Carnival ride in the middle at the bottom.

We didn't get any good photos on the ride, but it was lots of fun. You shoot out various things from your guns, like hoops for  ring toss or pies depending on the 'game' you're at at the time. The kids really liked it.

After that we headed on up the ferris wheel since we were there already.


Finally we headed back towards another area, but we had to stop along the way because we found some real celebrities! Lightning McQueen and Mater. Jayme's sons are big cars fans, so we had to stop to say hello.

We went to a kid's play area with lots of tunnels and such to run through for a bit.

Then we went on the Soarin' Over California ride. A very neat ride where you sit in special pretend hang glider seats that take you way high up in the air to a special screen so that you pretend to hangglide over different areas of California. It's one of the more popular rides here.


Finally we were all worn out and it was time to head back one. We did take one more picture of Paradise Pier as the lights turned on for the evening.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this adventure! More soon,
Tiger Lilly

Our trip to California was actually pretty unplanned. It was decided at the last moment. However, a few months before hand, Jayme had bought tickets for a thing called Disney on Ice. It's a big show put on in an ice rink. They travel around the country and put on lots of shows, some with different themes. This one was a Toy Story 3 show. Here I am waiting for the show to start, they were putting different pictures on the ice in the mean time with the lights.

And here's a few photos from the show.





When we left to our surprise it was snowing! Quite a bit actually, you can see how much was on Jayme's car. We decided it was time for the 2 hour drive home before the snow got worse. Thankfully there wasn't any in Wilmington.


More soon,
Emil

With the start of the Christmas season, Jayme and her family had a new visitor. He wasn't much larger than us, but he definitely wasn't a toy. He was an elf and it was his job to report back to Santa on how well the boys behaved. Every evening he'd fly to the North Pole and every morning he'd come back and when we (and the children) woke we'd find him in the oddest locations. His name was Cookie the elf. The first day after Cookie arrived we awoke to find him taking a cotton ball bath... apparently he thought they were snowballs.

The next evening we decided to stay up and see him fly out, but he said he couldn't fly until everyone in the house was asleep, little toys included. So instead we spent some time helping him decorate the Christmas tree, but we fell asleep afterward and he was off again.




Another morning we woke up to find him playing with the stickers. The silly elf had wanted to put them on the children that night, but they were too big for him so he ended up covered instead

A few days later the boys had been very, very good so Cookie arrived with a gift for them! Some yummy popcorn and a copy of Elf the movie. We had a fun movie night that night!

A different day we woke up to find Cookie going fishing... in a bowl of goldfish crackers. Amazingly none of them were biting...

Sometimes the other toys got into it. Apparently he and Mr. Potatohead decided to have some fun one night.

Another day we helped the children make some yummy gingerbread houses. The children left some for Cookie and apparently he took some to Santa who decided the boys needed another small toy and sent them Bullseye the Horse with Cookie that night!


On another day we couldn't find Cookie anywhere! Finally Jayme looked out the window and noticed the car was parked all funny. We went out to investigate and discovered that Cookie had apparently taken a car ride that night.

A few nights later was Christmas Eve... time for Cookie to go back to Santa until the next year. We helped put the cookies and Cookie out for Santa, then we went to bed.

The next morning Cookie was gone, and Santa had clearly come! He even left a bone for Max.

We had a great amount of Christmas fun! More soon,
Emil

The weather was pretty decent, so we decided to take a little walk near a local beach. There's a small hiking trail here that Jayme hadn't been to yet, so we all decided to go explore it. It starts out closer to the beach.

Then we veer away for awhile among the marshlands.


There's a small WWII bunker you can see here as well.

Finally at the end is supposed to be a nice view of the local marshlands, but it's still a bit cold for all the animals, so there weren't any animals to see.


More soon,
Emil

Today was Jayme's son's birthday, so we went out to Chuck E. Cheese to give him a chance for some play time. First we had to get lots of tokens to use.

Then we let the kids go at the games.

They also had a show with Chuck E. Cheese as a star.

Finally we went home for some yummy icecream cake. Delicious!

More soon,
Emil

We're about to head out on another trip to San Diego, but before we go I wanted to show you the pretty leaves here since by the time we get back they'll sadly all be gone. San Diego won't have many leaves that are changed yet. We didn't get to go anywhere special, but these are a few pictures on Jayme's drive to work.



Lots more soon,
Emil

After our airplane trip to San Diego we decided to go to Balboa Park again. You've already seen a lot of it, but we went to a new museum this time. Here are some photos at the Model Railroad Museum. The children really liked it here, as you got to watch all the trains going around and there was room after room of them.






More soon,
Emil

We decided to take a trip to the Natural History Museum in Raleigh this weekend.  It had lots of neat exhibits, all based around the state of North Carolina and it's history. Here you can see the state map.

They had many examples of animals found here in North Carolina like mountain lions, pelicans, and wood peckers



They also had a section on the ocean and the animals in it. Some were bones like this whale skeleton

While others were exhibits like this sea turtle

One section was dedicated to the rocks and earth and gem stones, where you could learn how dirt was made and what the different type of rocks are.

And the last section we saw was dedicated to dinosaurs that used to live here many years ago, this was the boys favorite section.



Hope you liked the museum,

After a logn trip around the world I've decided to go home and relax a bit in Germany before my next trip.

With Knopf I am taking a small trip to Paris. We had to get up really early (4:30 am) to catch a bus to the main station and then a train. Luckily it goes directly to Paris and we were served breakfast!

We took the metro to go and see the Sacré-Coeur Basilica. In the metro station lots of people were waiting in front of the elevator, I wondered why because it's not like I can't walk a few steps. Well, they probably knew that station well because "a few steps" turned into a lot. At some point they said 97 more to go (I think) and some tourists in front of us turned back to the elevators. But we went all the way up. We decided to sacrifce a metro ticket for the funiculaire after that,  because we didn't want to climb even more steps.
The weather wasn't that good but we were able to identify many buildings by their location and rooftops. We zigzagged our way down and passed by the Moulin Rouge. Our reward for all the walking were 3 little macarons. Yummy!