Travelog for: Baby Lican

Wow we are travelling again!  Today we are flying in the airplane.  First, we arrive at the Miami airport.



Look!  A giraffe in the airport!  Oh, it's about the Miami Metro Zoo.  Geez, I was wondering how a giraffe can fit into an airport.



Okay, all buckle up and ready to take off!



We arrive at the Chicago O'Hare airport.





The weather looks rainy and gloomy.



We are not staying in Chicago but decide to check out the information anyway.  Maybe one day I will be really visiting for a few days.



Wow, a lot of apples!!  Dipped in caramel, chocolate and more...  They sure look delicious!



I wonder where we are heading to?

We arrive at our destination.  It's Kansas City!



We ride to the hotel.  Our host tells us that Kansas City is in two states.  The airport is in Missouri but our hotel is in Kansas.  Ebba and Bally are especially excited as they both want to visit many states.  Unfortunately Bally gets so tired from all the travelling and doses off when we cross the state line. 

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,;everybody is excited that he is here. 



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 Ebba 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.  I think The Pelican Brief would be perfect, but all we see are four copies of The Firm.  While we get busy looking for books, someone took Ebba's Bunnicular so she is not too happy in this picture. 



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.

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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. Poor Ebba is almost scared out of their wits but I find it quite a thrill to be in an eagle's nest! 



Wow I didn't know that wild releasing can be so wild, so dangerous!  We decide to do some tamer releases to calm our nerves a bit.  We find this guy by a McDonald's.  Ebba is more curious in the guy's burger though, being a rabbit and always hungry.



Kansas City sure looks very different from Miami.



We leave a dog book, Why We Love The Dogs We Do, at Three Dogs Bakery. 



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.



Everything is so colorful!!





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.  Kansas City is famous for its BBQ.  American BBQ is different from Hong Kong BBQ.  Over here, BBQ means that the meat is slowly cooked and smoked in a pit for 10 hours or so, and the Hong Kong style BBQ of grilling food over fire is called grilling.



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 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.

Today we are going to Key West to celebrate Halloween.  Its Fantasy Fest is a ten-day celebration that includes street fair, costume contests, parades, and lots of parties, and is the biggest Halloween celebration in the U.S. with over 100,000 visitors.

The word "Key" comes from the Spanish word Cayo meaning island.  The Florida Keys are a long chain of islands south of Miami, connected by over 40 bridges like a necklace of pearls that runs 127 miles.  Some of them have funny names like Duck Key, Fat Deer Key, Knockemdown Key, Fiesta Key and even a No Name Key.



We pass by this Dolphin Research Center at Marathon Key.



This is Pigeon Key.  When they were building a railroad to connect Key West to the mainland between 1908 and 1912, there were at times as many as 400 workers housed on the island.  Today there is a museum.



We are now on the Seven Mile Bridge.





This is part of the old bridge that used to connect the islands but was destroyed by a hurricane in 1935.  In the movie True Lies by Arnold Schwarzenegger, near the end there was a scene in which a bridge was blown up.  The movie was shot on this old bridge.



After almost three hours we finally arrived at Key West, the largest of the keys.





The houses are typical Old Florida style.





This is a conch trolley.



Look Mommy, I am at the southernmost point of the United States!!  My host wants to take me here because I have been to the southeastern point of Europe so it's only fitting I take a picture here as well.  Are you impressed?



Nearby is the Southernmost House.



As well as the southernmost hotel.



Key West is also called The Conch Republic.  In 1982, when the U.S. border patrol set up road blocks south of Miami to control illegal immigrants and drugs, the citizens of the Keys complained.  The mayor complained that if the U.S. government is treating them like foreigners, they may as well declare themselves an independent nation.  Hence, the mayor was proclaimed Prime Minister of the Conch Republic and declared war against the U.S. 

This is their city hall, ahem, Office of the Secretary General.



Unfortunately the office is closed so we cannot get a passport...

We find some chicken living at the house next to where we stay.  There are a lot of free roaming chicken in Key West.



We go on to Duval Street, the main street in Key West.  The street is closed off to traffic and many people are walking around in costumes, even though it's still early. 











A lot of people walk around with no clothes , or very very little clothes, on.  It makes me blush!!

Here is a man weaving baskets from palm leaves.



This Conch Republic souvenir shop looks interesting.





Wow, look!  Lots of pelicans!!





This church is a famous landmark.



This is another landmark, though I forget what it is...




We find people with body painting around the street.



A lot of shops are advertising body painting.



Here is another shop.  The two ladies in the front just have their bodies painted.  Can you tell?



This man has his suspenders painted on.



Here is another pair of artists at work.  They do a very beautiful job.



These guys are wearing some funny pants.



The Hard Rock Cafe is all decked up for Halloween.





We see these colorful beads and want to get some, but our host says don't worry, when the floats parade begin, we will get lots of them.



I think these paintings are very beautiful.



We see this on the street.  It will be one of the floats tonight!!



Look there is a huge octopus!! I think it has eaten the green parrot!



We see this sign.  It's the beginning of United States Highway 1.  If you take this road, it will take you all the way up north to Maine, although what was a highway is now a very slow scenic route.



We cross the street and what do we get?  The end of US1!!



This restaurant is very nicely decorated too.





Sloppy Joe's is an old restaurant/bar that opened on the first day the Prohibition was lifted.  The name was suggested by one of its regular customers, Ernest Hemingway.  He was, I am told, a very famous writer who wrote the book Old Man and The Sea.



The old man visited here too!



We pass by the art museum.



Looks like there are many interesting shops but they are all closed because of the parade tonight.



This shop has won the award for the best Key Lime Pie.  It's a dessert that is famous here, made using Key Lime, which is only the size of a golf ball and yellow in color, unlike regular lime.  As Key West is so far away from mainland, in the olden days condensed milk in cans were the only milk available, and this dessert is made with adding lime juice to condensed milk.



This year's Fantasy Fest theme is vampires, so there are lots of them around.



Help!! Mommy, Help!!



Another spooky place!



We then go on to check out the floats, as it will be difficult to take pictures of them in the dark.

Hmm, looks like the vampires are really thirsty for some donated blood...









They all look very nice indeed.

Finally it's time for the parade! 



Just as our host has promised, people on the floats throw a lot of beads at us.  We get so many in different colors. 

That's quite a halloween celebration!!

Hi Mommy!  Today I meet a very famous person. Guess who it is?



Can you recognize him??  It's the ex-vice president of United States, and Nobel Laurette, Al Gore!!  He appears at the Miami Book Fair to talk about his new book on global warming.  I am so excited to meet such a celebrity!!!  I didn't get to shake hands with him but still I feel very proud, I don't think many toys get to take pictures with such celebrity.

Hi mummy!!

Today I arrived in NSW, Australia. I'm staying on a beef cattle farm in the Hunter Valley, where there are lots and lots of cows, aswell as some horsies and dogs. It was very hot on the way home from the Post Office, 45 degrees Celcius infact...so it was nice to get home and into the air conditioning!!

Here's a photo of me at my new home for the next couple of weeks, I'm really looking forward to getting out and seeing some more of the sights around the area!

-Baby Lican

Hi Mummy!


Today I got a tour of where I'm staying in Australia. There certainly are lots of cows!! I even got to ride a horse! I've got plenty of photos to show you!

Today we went for a drive in the new car!!! The road around here is very windy!!

Hi Mummy!!

Today I visited what used to be the World's Biggest Sundial, located in Singleton, NSW Australia. It's recently been over-taken by another sundial somewhere, but it still remains the largest sundial in the Southern Hemisphere!

Baby Lican is ready to move onto his next host now. He will be flying out to Pennsylvania this afternoon!

It was a pleasure showing you around!

Hello!

I have arrived safely in Pennsylvania. I can't wait to go out and do a bit of sight seeing. The weather here is cold, and there is a lot of snow, but it was a beautiful day today! Here is a view out the window of my current host's home. I will be posting more soon!

Hello moooomm!!!
I just arrived at Camila's place!
We already took some pictures so you can see that I am ok!
This is when I arrived...

I met the other 2 TV's that Camila is hosting Dodger and Droopy

We really became friends

Droopy and Dodger did show to me where we are supposed to stay when Camila is working.

And I was introduced to Kittie, her dog. At first she ignored me...

But then we become good friends

Camila served me some Brazil nuts, they are really good!!!

And she has a native american adorn at her wall

And this is her bedroom door, she really likes Hello Kitty


So that's all for today.
She hopes to upload this travelog at least once a week!
Well, I am getting used with Brazil's weather, it's warm down here!! Nicer than Pennsylvania's weather!
Bye bye