Travelog for: Ebba

Today we attend the BookCrossing UnConvention.  BookCrossing is an online community of readers who send books to travel around (like us toys) to see where the books end up. 

At the beginning of the UnConvention, we enjoy a delicious cake to celebrate.



We take a picture with Ballycumber, the BookCrossing mascot.



This morning we sit very still to listen to some speeches.



First are two speakers who are authors.  They talk about the books they write and how they get them published. 



Next comes a presentation of BC in DC for 2011.  It will be the 10th anniversary of BookCrossing so it will be a big gathering with lots of fun.  It sounds very interesting.



He is a Very Very Important Person.  Bruce is the co-founder and CEO of BookCrossing and has made a surprise visit. 



We get some tickets for the raffle drawing.  I get to put a ticket in.  Hmmm, there are so many good prizes I don't quite know which one to choose!



This is a mobile OBCZ by crrcookie.  She goes around in it to give away books!!



We also have a book buffet table where there are lots of books, and people can take and leave any book they like.  We have fun looking at the books.



Bally finds a monkey book, and I find a Bunnicular book.  My host is very impressed.  She says that she has heard of a lot of themed released but this is the first themed catch she knows of. 



Mocha try to look for a moose book too but the closest we can find is a reindeer book.  We also try to help Baby Lican finds Pelican Brief, but all we see are four copies of The Firm.  When I turn around to look for books, someone took my Bunnicular!! 



Lunch is, of course, the famous Kansas City BBQ. 



Mocha is very excited to see the Tim Tams.  He says that it is a famous cookie from Australia and one of the members from Australia, Skyring, brings them to the BC conventions whenever he attends, so it becomes sort of a tradition.  I try it it's quite delicious and I am told that now Pepperidge Farm imports them during the winter time.



Discoverylover is from New Zealand, and she makes sure everybody wears a pretty New Zealand tattoo.  I want one too but I couldn't get it on...



We also stop by the BookCrossing store to get supplies like book labels, bags and stickies. 



At night we visit a place called The Legends.  One of the BookCrossers gives a book to this Indian chief.



Look, here is another T Rex restaurant.  We just went to one last Saturday in Orlando, so it's hard to believe that there are only two of them in the whole country!



We release a book by Rex Stout in front of this T Rex.



Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road...
We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

We are very excited because we are going on a Reverse Scavenger Hunt!!!  We have never play this game before and it sounds like a lot of fun.  We have a list of places we have to find and release books at.

The most important thing of course is to have the books for release.  No worry we have lots of books.



We are ready to set off!!


Hmm... I think this is the unofficial Bally car?



We arrive at the Country Club Plaza.



Behind us is the Cheesecake Factory.



The BookCrossers are all gathered together for the game.  Everybody is carrying a lot of books.  We can feel the excitement in the air!



The first book we release is by the J.C. Nichols Fountain.  It's called Hole in the Water.



We find a horse statue in front of PF Chang and put a book with a unicorn statue by it.



Then we drop off Nickel and Dimed at the bank.



I try to help put a book by this statue.  But kyaaa!  I almost get stabbed!



Next we climb into the eagle nest to release Like Water for Chocolate in front of this chocolate shop. It's really scary to be so close to a big eagle but it's quite a thrill too. 



Baby Lican insists that we are taking wild releasing too literally, so we decide to do some tamer releases to calm our nerves a bit.  We find this guy by a McDonald's.  Hmm, is that lettuce and tomato in his burger?



Kansas City sure looks very different from Miami.



We leave a dog book, Why We Love The Dogs We Do, at Three Dogs Bakery.  I wish I have a book to leave for a dog to read too.



It's a bit tiring so we rest a bit.  We put in another book here, Three for the Chair. Hmm, they should title the book Four for the Chair.



We also leave a book at the clock tower of Fogo de Chao.  It's a Brazilian restaurant.  We have a matching theme book called Zero Hours.  This book actually gets picked up by someone from Alabama!  Isn't that cool?



We have been so busy running around the plaza we barely have time to notice the beautiful scenery.





After a very fun and exciting morning running around the Plaza, we go on to the Hallmark City Center.



Unfortunately, the Hallmark Visitor Center is closed.



But we get to shop around a bit.  Here are some arts done by local children.



We also find a nice tea shop.



The shopkeeper (who came from Fujian, China) invites us to sit down for some tea.  He keeps pouring cup after cup we drink so much we need the restroom!



We visit the Crayola store.







Oh look!  We catch a BookCrossing book!  It's lying on the bench in front of the Crayola store.  Amazing!! 



Hallmark is headquartered in Kansas City.



We couldn't find a pay phone at the hunt (which is a bonus point), but finally here's one.  We leave Superman Returns here for Superman to pick up.



Wow this is a huge cinnamon bun.



And a huge ice cream!  Hey are we in Texas?



We are tired so we sit down and watch the fountain a bit as it dances along with the music.



The trees here are gorgeous in their colors indeed.



Look, we are leaving Kansas!



Missouri welcomes us!!



After this we have some time before dinner, so we visit a coffee shop called Latteland.  There is an OBCZ (Official BookCrossing Zone) here, where bookcrossers bring free books and leave here for people to take.  We leave some books and take a few.



Then at night, we go to eat... you guess it, BBQ!  It is very delicious.



We also get to know Ringbear.  She has traveled around a lot with Skyring, and tells us of all the great BC gatherings she has been to.  We tell her she must join ToyVoyagers so we can stay in touch.  It's like Facebook for toys!  I hope we will see her soon on TV.

It's time to go home.  We are heading to the airport.



We arrive at Dallas Fort Worth airport, that is in Texas.



We have a very short time to change planes, when we arrive at the gate it's boarding already, so we could not find better places to pose for our very short visit to Texas...



It is very rainy here.  We are lucky that it only rains in places we are just stopping for transist, and are able to enjoy nice weather in Kansas.



Wow we have taken off!



Now above the cloud we can see the sun again.



It's night time when we arrive back in Miami. 

Hi Mom!

Yesterday I arrived safely in Pennsylvania. Guess what else arrived? My host Sam and her husband Greg bought a new TV, and it was delivered shortly after I arrived. Its huge! To give you an idea of how big it is, here I am with the old TV :



And here I am with the new one:



Its great for playing video games, so that is how we all spent the evening.



So far I've mostly just been relaxing here, but Sam tells me that we will be doing more sight seeing soon. I've also heard rumors that Sam and Greg will be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner here. I hope I get to help cook! Well, I think I'm going to get back to playing some more video games. More updates to come soon! I just wanted to let you know that I arrived safely.

Hi Mom!

A couple days ago, my host and her husband needed to go into town to buy a few things. The weather wasn't very nice at all, but we did take a couple pictures from inside the Jeep.

The church behind me is the one where Sam (my host) and her husband got married a little over two years ago. I've really tiny and very old!



This is Fraley Street in the town of Kane. It is the main street that goes through the town, and most of the businesses are located here. Its kind of hard to tell from the photo, but this is a really small town. I hope we can go out again soon and get more photos to show you better.



Sam has been talking a lot about Thanksgiving plans. Since the big day is tomorrow, we're going to be doing some cooking today. I'll be sure to update very, very soon to let you see what we're making!

Love,
Ebba

Hello again!

My host and I have started cooking for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner. We just got done making a very yummy smelling pumpkin cheesecake. I really enjoyed helping, but I really can't wait to be able to taste it!



First we had to make the graham cracker crust.



Next, we started mixing up the ingredients for the filling.



Then we separated out part of the filling. We added pumpkin to what was remaining and mixed it all up.



We started putting the filling in a little bit at a time, alternating between colors. Then we used a knife to carefully swirl the two together.





After letting it bake for about an hour, here is the finished result. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow when I will get to try some!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, its a little bit belated now. My host has just been so busy with Thanksgiving dinner and spending time with family that she hasn't been able to help me upload photos until today.

I got to meet a brand new friend the day before Thanksgiving. Big Bird arrived just as Sam and I were doing some cooking. Since Thanksgiving is all about being thankful for things, I would like to say that I'm thankful to have a new friend! It was nice having another toy my size to spend the holiday with.



Before it was time to eat, my host's Mom and Step-Father came down to visit and play Nintendo Wii.



Sam and her husband had the Thanksgiving turkey cooking in a smoker for most of the day. It smelled so good! When it was done it almost looked burned, but thankfully the skin just darkened because of the smoke. It was really moist and tasty!



When it was time for dinner, we had TONS of food even though there were only four people and two toys at the meal.





My favorite part... Dessert! The pumpkin cheesecake was delicious!



After dinner we all just relaxed for a while. There are so many leftovers! I think we have enough turkey left to eat for a week!

*Yawn* Good morning!

My host and her husband work me up very early this morning. In fact, we were awake by 3 am! I was confused, but she explained to me that the day after Thanksgiving is a BIG shopping day known as Black Friday. A lot of stores have really big sales, and they open really early. Lots of shoppers go out today to buy gifts for their loved ones for Christmas. For Sam, its a tradition to go out shopping with her family today.

We managed to leave at about 4 am. Sorry this picture is a bit blurry. The camera didn't want to work very well in the dark.



I think we drove for about an hour to get where we were going. I decided to take a little nap. When we arrived, Sam told me that our first stop was Walmart. Their sale started at 5 AM, and we arrived just moments before. The parking lot was so full we could hardly find a place to park! Once we got inside we ran around and got what we needed to get. There was no time for pictures until we were waiting in line to check out.



We waiting in line for what seemed like an eternity. The lines were so long it was difficult to even walk through the front half of the store. Eventually we got checked out, and we moved on to a few other stores before going out to eat for breakfast.

Hello!

I was out with my host and her husband, and we came upon some beautiful Christmas decorations! They put up TONS of lights outside of a group children's home. It was so pretty.



My host also helped me take a video of all the lights. Check it out!

Tomorrow we're going to go see even more Christmas decorations. I can't wait!

What an exciting day! I got to see a lot of new places with my host and her family. First we went to see The Avenue of 444 Flags. This is the largest display of flags in the world! The flags were originally flown in honor of the Americans who were held hostage for 444 days in Iran from 1979 to 1980. The flags have flown year round ever since. It really is a beautiful and awe-inspiring sight!



These plaques list the names of many American soldiers from Pennsylvania who have passed away.





The plaque and statue in these photos serve to commemorate the Avenue of Flags as a memorial of the 444 days the hostages were held.

Hello Again!

After the Avenue of Flags, we went to a store called Kraynak's. Every year Kraynak's has a HUGE display of Christmas decorations called Santa's Christmasland.

I got to see a lot of trees and other Christmas decorations with my friend Big Bird. There were a lot of people, so we posed for quite a few pictures together.











I even got to meet Santa, Rudolph, and the Grinch!







They even had a very pretty life sized Nativity Scene.



I had never seen so many different decorations in my life! I'm really feeling in the Christmas spirit now! Once I get to see a few more indoor and outdoor decorations, I'll be able to check off one of my life missions!

Our last stop of the day was at Daffin's candy store. It is considered to be one of the world's largest candy stores! They make their own candy right here in Pennsylvania. Their factory is located just a few miles from the store we visited in Sharon. Unfortunately the factory only does large group tours, so we couldn't go see the chocolate being made.



At the candy store, we visited the Chocolate Kingdom. The Chocolate Kingdom features some GIANT animals made entirely of chocolate including a turtle that weighs over 400 pounds! There is also a smaller chocolate village, train, and castle. The room smelled soooo yummy because of all the chocolate! We even got to enjoy a free sample.



And of course... what fun would a trip to the candy store be if we didn't buy lots of goodies???

Hello!

I have been having a wonderful time helping my host family get ready for Christmas. It seems like there is so much to do! I can't do a lot since I'm so small, but I was able to help Sam wrap some Christmas gifts.

Here I am with a lot of gifts before they got wrapped. I know I like cats, but I was a little bit scared of the toy cats! They look scary! They didn't hurt me though as they are just toys for the dogs. Yep - in my host's family even the cats and the dogs get wrapped Christmas gifts!



I'm really good at holding the wrapping paper in place so Sam can tape it!



And lastly, here I am with some of the wrapped gifts. There are still a lot more to wrap, and there is a LOT more to do to get ready for Christmas!

Guess what? I learned that my host family enjoys lots of different holiday cartoons. I got to watch one of the classics a few days ago. We watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Its really fun and relaxing to watch all the holiday specials! I hope I have a chance to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" also. I've heard its really good!

Hello!

My host said to let you know that we are very sorry that this update is being posted so late! We were very busy enjoying Christmas with my host and her husband's families!

Anyway, a few days before the big day we went for a drive into town to look at Christmas lights. We saw all the ones that won prizes and honorable mentions for the town's holiday spirit contest.