Travelog for: Captain Caramel

Today, we went for a walk along the beach at Dinas Dinlle. It was a pleasant afternoon and there were other people around walking too.

The green hill was the site of an Iron Age fort mentioned in the Welsh legends, the Mabinogi.

This is a view from the top of the hill.

And another view from the top inland.

We caught a sunset.

Today, we welcomed a new guest, Regit Brown

Today, we've come to Ryton Gardens, headquarters of Garden Organic, an organisation founded to promote organic gardening, education and research.
It is Potato Day. Gardeners come here to buy seed potatoes of many different varieties to grow at home and/or the allotment.

Look at all these spuds.

There's over a hundred varieties here.

Some of them are old varieties.

After buying the seed potatoes, we went on a tour of the Heritage Seed Library. We went inside this room, where things are drying.
This is a display in the Vegetable Kingdom section, showing us the importance of various things.

Afterwards, we went for a walk in the gardens. This is the Children's Garden, with a totem pole!

After the fresh air at Ryton Gardens, we went to a hands-on science museum near Ironbridge.

A water play thing.

There are a lot of things under this roof!

Look at all these inventions on display.

This teddy bear's x-rays show metal bits for joints inside.

A closer look.

The metal bits of part of a guitar.

There's the guitar, and now for a radio.

This is a 1901 Lifu Steam Car. The car has a paraffin fired boiler.

Ooo, my brother has K'Nex.

Ooo, transport display.

The importance of design.

This is a tessellation jigsaw.

I think I am doing it right.

How about building earthquake-proof buildings? Somehow, I don't think this will survive the shakes. A young girl was fascinated with us ToyVoyagers and assisted us with our photographs!

A big parcel arrived at my mum's house.
Shall we take a look inside?

Wow, look at all that K'Nex!

My big brother likes building things with K'Nex.

We said farewell to Charlie B. today.

We had some apple pies.

Have a safe journey little mouse.

It's party time! It is my birthday.

There's a candle on the cake. How thoughtful of Mummy and my ToyVoyager friends

I also have some chocolate for a present.

On our way home, we went via Magna, an industrial science museum set in an old steelworks near Rotherham/Sheffield.
There were 4 zones. The first zone we went to was Water.

There's a  few fun water exhibits to play with.

A whirlpool exhibit.
Next, we went to Fire.

Some crystals seen under a microscope.

A temperature line. Chips fry at 180 degrees Celsius, wood catches fire at 400 degrees C.

This is a fire tornado.

Lighting isn't that good for photographs with the fire tornado.

Next stop was Air. This is a musical exhibit with tubes and things.

The exhibit can be quite noisy.

We then went for a game of Air hockey.

The air blows through holes in the table and lifts up the puck ever so slightly.

This is a frequency exhibit with little polystyrene balls bouncing.

This is a different frequency.

Before going on to the final area, we caught some of the Big Melt show, a reconstruction of how they made steel. This is the arc furnace.

We went to the final area, Earth. The set up is quarrying "rocks" and these get picked up by the children and taken somewhere by wheelbarrow before going on conveyor belts and distributed either back to the "quarry" or to a chute.

Can you see the "rocks" on the conveyor belt?

I'm excited to be travelling again. I will leave tomorrow. I will miss you Mummy and all my brothers and sisters.

Bye Mummy, I will write to you! Love you Mummy!

Hi Mum!
Just letting you know that I have arrived safe and sound in San Diego, California! My host will post pictures this weekend

Hello! My host wanted to post some pictures of my arrival! 




When my package was opened I was greeted by several fellow toyvoyagers, Dorothy,
Michel and Boo!

My host loved the postcard!






Michel took a liking to me immediately and likes to give me hugs!





I miss you mum, but I can't wait to have some fun here in California!  My host has been sick the last couple days, but she is feeling better so we should be able to have some fun in the sun!

Hi Mum!
Today my host took me to a "home improvement" store called Home Depot.







We looked at various plants and pots.










My host wants to make a container garden for vegetables on her patio.  Which seeds should we get?






After purchasing our seeds we needed to gather more info!










Next we wrapped the seeds in wet towel and placed them in a covered cup to germinate.






Well, that's all we can do for now!

Hi Mum!  Today we went to Lake Miramar. 













Some of the inhabitants of the lake!









Not everyone is welcome at the lake...






What is this creature? Oh nevermind... it is just an abandoned dirty baby sock! 






Visitors can rent fishing boats to go fishing out on the lake.  Don't forget your fishing permit!





My host wonders what this building is next door to the lake... it is very super secret and mysterious...  is it a water treatment plant?  Who knows!

Hi Mum!

Today my host took me to go hiking in the San Jacinto Mountains in Palm Springs!





A quick pic as we are passing by the wind turbines along the road.







To get up into the mountains we had to take the aerial tram.  Here are one of the cars.






View outside the tram.
















Pine cones!
















My host thought most of the snow had melted...








But as we hiked further up into the mountains, the snow was about five feet deep!  I told my host all about the snow we get in England!







And that's all the pictures!  My host picked up a walking stick in the snow to maneuver and got sap all over her hand.  She figured it was best not to handle us anymore until she got cleaned up!