Bill's adventure so far...(2004652)

 Here I am with my friend Lauren.  She works for Congress.  Senators and Representatives ask her when they need to know something.  Her area of expertise is Africa.  You can see lots of different artifacts that she has brought back from her many trips.  Lauren was a great tour guide and source of information.  We got to walk through the tunnels underneath the Capitol Building and I was able to actually go inside the Library of Congress instead of just looking through the glass.  Unfortunately they don't allow photography inside the Library.

 After visiting the Capitol I walked over to the Supreme Court building.  The Supreme Court is the highest judicial body in the United States and is made up of one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices.  The Supreme Court first met in 1790 in New York.  It then moved to Philadelphia and finally Washington D.C. in 1800.  However, the building I am in front of that we all know as the Supreme Court Building was not built until 1935.  The four-story building was designed in a classical style sympathetic to the surrounding buildings of the Capitol complex and Library of Congress

 I recently went to Washington D.C.  That is the capital city of the United States.  Here I am in front of the Capitol building.  The Capitol is among the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world. The Senate and the House of Representatives have met here for more than two centuries. Begun in 1793, the Capitol has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored. 

The final stop of our vacation was at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The Badlands are made up of deep canyons, towering spires and flat-topped buttes.  Lots of geologists come to this area because of the interesting land formations.  This is also an area where lots of fossils are preserved showing signs of ancient plants and animals.  An Indian tribe called the Lakota has always lived in this part of the United States and this park has special meaning to that tribe.

There is so much more I could tell you about my travels, but I think I have already written enough. Looking forward to my next adventure. Sending lots of hugs your way!

Bet you can’t guess where this photo was taken.  Here I am in Keystone, South Dakota in front of Mt. Rushmore. This monument is a tribute to four American presidents who brought the nation from colonial times to the 20^th century.  The four presidents on the monument are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.  Just to give you an idea of how really big this carving is: the heads are about 60 feet tall- the average size of a six-story building.  Washington’s nose is 21 feet high and the rest approximately 21 feet high. Quite impressive!

I am now visiting Yellowstone National Park.  Yellowstone is the oldest national park in the world. I think it is also the largest national park in the US.  We only had one day to visit the park, so we chose to see the area of the park where all the geysers are. This is a photo of me in front of Old Faithful. Old Faithful erupts more frequently than any of the other big geysers.  On average it erupts about every 90 minutes.  The eruption lasts between 1 and 5 minutes. The majority of the world’s active geysers are here in the Upper Geyser Basin. Only three other locations in the world—Iceland, New Zealand, and Siberia have large concentrations of hydrothermal (big word) features. There sure is lots to learn here.

This is a photo of me with the Teton Mountains in the background. You can’t see the tops of the mountains because of all the clouds. That made me sad, but even with all the rain and clouds, it was really pretty. In the winter this is a ski resort. Bet that would be fun.

Onward and upward are the words for our next stop.  This is a photo of me by Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.  It was sort of rainy, so it wasn’t quite as beautiful as it could have been. But it was still amazing.  The water in Jenny Lake is crystal clear and will reflect the mountains on a clear day.  There is lots of wildlife in the park so we had to be really cautious as we drove around.  We actually saw some bison crossing the highway right in front of our car.  We also saw some really cute little animals called pika.  It was totally normal to see deer walking along the highway too. We never did see an elk, but everyone said there are lots of them in the park  There sure is a lot to see in Wyoming.

Everyone who comes to Salt Lake needs to visit the Great Salt Lake, and I am no different. However, I realize you can’t even see the water in this photo, but to get to the water required a long walk over some pretty messy sand. So, we decided to forgo the walk.  The lake is so salty that you can’t sink.  Guess that would be great for people who can’t swim.

I am now in Salt Lake City, Utah.  My first stop was at Temple Square, which is where the national headquarters for the Mormon Church is located.  This photo was taken from the top floor of the headquarters building.  You can see how beautiful the Salt Lake Temple is from up here. I got to walk all around the grounds and see inside the tabernacle and the big conference center. The tabernacle is where the Mormon Tabernacle choir performs.  On special occasions they sing in the conference center, which has a seating capacity for 21,000 people.  It really is huge!

This is a photo of me in front of Owachomo Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument, a national park in Utah. I wish I could have had my picture taken in front of all the beautiful arches and bridges, but I think you might get bored with too many photos. 

Just so you know, there is a difference between an arch and a bridge even if they do look very similar.  Natural bridges are formed by the erosive action of moving water. Arches are formed by other erosional forces, mainly frost action and seeping moisture.

My next stop is Moab, UT, which is the location of many canyons.  You can see how different things look here.  It was sort of amazing that this morning I was in snow, and now I am in 85°F temperatures.  This is a photo of me in front of Delicate Arch located in Arches National Park.  People used to be allowed to walk across this arch but some years back a huge portion of the inside of the arch fell, so now no one is allowed to walk over or under the arch. Because of weathering, the arches do collapse from time to time, so someday this arch will be gone.  I am so glad I got the opportunity to see it. Oh, on the hike to the arch some people from Holland invited me to join them on their trip home. After some thought I decided to continue on my tour of the US and hope for another opportunity to visit Holland.

I am in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado at an elevation of 12,183 feet.  Talk about cold!  The wind was blowing so hard, that even though we had expended a lot of energy hiking to this point, I was still really cold.  It was worth the hike because the view was amazing.  I will share my secret with you.  I made the trip in a backpack so I totally just got to enjoy the view, no hard hiking for me. This is definitely the way to travel!

When you ride in a car it is sort of amazing to watch the scenery change from state to state.  I am now in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.  Talk about some beautiful scenery.  You will notice some snow, which is sort of unusual for this time of year.  The temperatures were quite cold, so having a nice fur coat really worked for me.  This is a picture of me at Bear Lake within the Rocky Mountain National Park, only one of many nationally designated parklands.  I really wanted this photo because I thought it was neat to have a lake sort of named after me.

Here's me again with a statue of a canon in front of Jackson Square.  The weather was so beautiful when I was there, as it usually is because it is so temperate and on the Gulf Coast.

April 2009

I travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana in the United States in April.

Here I am in Jackson Square which is located in the famous and historic French Quarter. That blurry statue of a man riding a horse behind me is of General Andrew Jackson, for whom the square is named. He was the 7th President of the US and was the commander of forces at the Battle of New Orleans, one of the final battles against the British in the War of 1812.

Louisiana was formerly part of the French territory in the US, so much of the flavor of the area has French roots, including the people the food and the names of places. Even the way they say New Orleans doesn't sound English, as they just say "N'awlins."

March 2009

It was still chilly in Leipzig, Germany when I left there to head back to the US in March with a friend. One of the last things I did was visit the Coffe Baum, the oldest coffee house in Europe. The food is delicious, and tastes just as good as this apfel struedel looks!

There is a museum upstairs, and everyone says Johann Sebastian Bach, who lived and worked in Leipzig, used to have his coffee there regularly.

Here's another photo of me with the Neuschwanstein Schloss (castle) from Mary's Bridge. You can see there is a lot of construction being done on the castle now for renovations, but it's still beautiful. The footpaths were closed because of ice, so this was the best view I could get.

In March I visited Füssen, Bavaria (Bayern) in the southern part of Germany. Here I am at Hohenschwanngau castle (yellow wall), where one King Ludwig II spent his youth. It was from here, that he watched and oversaw the construction of his dream, fairytale castle being constructed. You can see the white castle, Neuschwanstein in the background on top of the hill. It took me 30 minutes to hike there on foot.

Poor King Ludwig. It took 17 years for his castle to be finished enough to move into it. And even then, it still really wasn't done. He only lived in the castle for 172 days before he died, very young, at the age of only 40.

Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Here is the view from my hotel in Neustift, Austria in the Stubai valley of the Tirol region. There are a lot of small ski areas locally, and a large glacier to ski as well. My favorite activity was tobbagonning!

We saw a lot of sites in Paris, but my favorite was Notre Dame de Paris, (the church of our lady)  -- a gothic cathedral started in 1160 but not completed until around 1345!

Here I am sitting on a park bench on the south side of the church.

I visited Paris, France, in January. I decided to take a tour of Versailles, the former hunting residence of the French royal family.

Even though the garden statues were covered up for the winter, the gardens behind the palace were still spectacular to see. 

I visited Berlin in December. Here I am with both the Fersehturm (tv tower) and the Bode Museum on Museum Island behind me. This area is in the eastern part of the city, in what used to be part of the former GDR (German Democratic Republic). In 1990 the two German countries were reunited again. Today you can still see a lot of differences between the two sides of the city.

On the southside of Leipzig, Germany, the small lake near Lake Cospuden was frozen over. Everyone was outside ice skating, so I joined in.

Lake Cospuden is one of several lakes formed as part of an environmental program to re-beautify the former open-cast brown coal mine.

Here's me again on the slopes of Oberwiesenthal.

There was so much snow in December in the mountains along the German and Czech Republic border! I knew it meant that the skiing would be great.

Here I am on Mount Fichtelberg on the German side of this ski area. It was such a beautiful day! Fichtelberg is the tallest mountain in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), and it is the tallest mountain in the state of Saxony in Germany.

I took a trip to Amsterdam to wander around this great city, try out the cheeses and the beer, and I walked along many of the canals. There are over 2,500 houseboats on the canals throughout the city. You can see a few behind me in this photo.

I wanted to try going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but apparently you can't do that anymore. It's really dangerous anyway.

Niagara Falls is only an hour drive from Toronto, and it was well worth it. What an amazing sight. The Falls sit on the border between the American city of Niagara Falls in New York state, AND the Canadian city of Niagara Falls, Ontario.

I visited Toronto, Canada, in the Fall and had some delicious Candian maple syrup and pancakes for breakfast. Yum.

I visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. 

Currently artists or musicians qualify for induction 25 years after release of their first record.  

I had to do some driving while in the United States. Here I am posing on the dashboard of the car so that you can see the "Welcome to Pennsylvania" sign on the highway.

You can see the large Hancock tower (black building) of the Chicago skyline behind me.

I visited the Pritzker Pavillion bandshell in Chicago. What a great place to hear concerts.

I made it to Chicago, Illinois, and am very excited to try out some deep-dish Chicago-style pizza and maybe check out a Bears football game. One of the first things I've done while here is visit "Cloud Gate" a relatively new sculpture that was officially dedicated in 2006. The sculpture, which everyone has nicknamed "The Bean" (because it looks like a giant shiny kidney bean) was designed by Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor and is located in the city's Millenium Park.

After a long day of adventures in the desert, Bill spent the evening relaxing at home with his new friend, Chloe the kitty!

Ouch!  Bill got a little too close to a Saguaro cactus and got stuck!  Fortunately, it was just his clothes and he didn't get hurt!  Lots of prickly things in the desert!

Bill wanted to experience some of the local "wildlife" so we went over to feed the donkeys some carrots.  Bill had to watch his ears, because the donkeys wanted to eat those, too!

Bill insisted on driving home!

When Bill got to Phoenix, Arizona, he was very excited to go for a hike in South Mountain Park.  South Mountain Park is the largest municipal park in the world!  It was very warm on the hike, as it usually is in the desert in September, so Bill didn't last long.  But he enjoyed the adventure!!

 After all of my travels I was needing a little rest and relaxation.  My guide, Katie Bear, was kind enough to arrange for us to spend some leisure time at the beach.  Here is a photo of us enjoying a day of fun in the sun.  I can't wait for my next trip!  :-)

Santa Monica is a fun beach town right by Los Angeles.  I got to go to the Santa Monica Pier (SM Pier) where they have a roller coaster, bumper cars and other carnival games.  There are also restaurants located on the pier.  In less than a year, the SM Pier will be celebrating its 100th birthday!  All of the locals know where it is, and it has been featured in many television shows and movies over the years.  The most famous scene featuring the pier is probably in Forrest Gump when he runs across the country and gets to the end of the pier only to turn around. 

Here is a picture of me with the SM Pier, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), and the Pacific Ocean all in the background. The PCH runs up and down the coast of California and includes some of the most beautiful coastlines in the world!  

 I have now arrived in Los Angeles!  I am very excited about being in Hollywood and seeing where movies are made!  I had a lovely tour guide named Katie Bear.  Here I am in front of the famous Hollywood sign!  The sign originally said "Hollywoodland" when it was built in 1923 and was basically a giant ad for real estate development.  Who knew it would become one of the most recognized symbols in the USA!  The sign went through many different phases including when vandals arranged to have it spell out Holywood and other plays on the word.  Finally in the 1970's money was raised and the sign was restored to its former glory.  There is no way to get up close to the sign but you can see it from all over the city!  

Paris has the Eiffel Tower, London has Big Ben, Rome has the Colosseum, and Marietta has the Big Chicken.  Its been the main landmark of the small Atlanta suburb since it was built in 1963 for Johnny Rebs Chick Chuck & Shake.  You could not get anywhere in the town without knowing where a place was in relation to The Big Chicken.  The store was later bought by Kentucky Fried Chicken. 

But, believe it or not, the chicken almost bought the farm in 1993 when KFC decided to rebuild the old store without the chicken on its roof.  The community who had depended upon the chicken for navigation for over 30 years was afraid that if the chicken was gone no one in Georgia would be able to find their way around the state.  Air Force Pilots and Commercial Pilots agreed they could not find the major airports without the help of The Big Chicken on the Horizon in Marietta. The community insisted that KFC was to save the Chicken and restore her to her original glory.

Now with Bill's compass set correctly from the center of the universe, he is on his way again with a clear set of directions starting from the Big Chicken leading to his next destination

Bill began getting low on cash from his many days on the road.  Mr. Pemberton had told him of the one place that sold more Coca Cola than anyplace on Earth - The Varsity.  So Bill Flagged down a cab and headed to The Varsity seeking employment. 

The Varsity is the worlds largest drive in restaurant serving Chili Dogs, Naked Dogs (a plain hot dog) and chili cheese burgers. Everyone there was so impressed with Bill and how smart he was.  He made lots of friends and was quickly promoted to managing the fryer department where he learned the secret recipe of the worlds greasiest onion rings.  After a few weeks Bill earned enough money to resume his travels.  Some of the friends he met while staying with Tammy were Troy and Karen who told bill stories of the worlds biggest chicken that lived in Marietta.

Bill left Centennial Park and went across the street to the Coca Cola Museum.  Here he met the inventor of Coca Cola, Mr Pemberton, who shared his famous drink with him before giving him hugs and a fond farewell.

Bill has been staying with Tammy and Quincy (a Boston Terrier) in midtown enjoying all that Atlanta has to offer.  He even went to a Baseball Game to see the Atlanta Braves play the San Francisco Giants at Turner Field. 

Bill made his way to Centennial Olympic Park where he made lots of friends and met many international travelers such as himself. 

One quick visit to McDonalds in Cocoa Beach Florida before I started my next journey and I had to get my picture taken there to share with you.  My happy meal made me sit and think of this "out of this world experience" that I hope will be in my future.

Arriving in Florida was very exciting. I arrived on the 4th of July and heard fireworks all night as I was was waiting for Sue to open the box I was shipped in.  She was so excited to know that someone sent her a bear and gave me lots of hugs. After reading my passport she realized Florida is a stop on my around the world trip.  We visited the beach for a very early morning sunrise and saw the turtle tracks of all the turtles that come to lay their eggs at night on the beaches here.  But my most exciting trip was to the Kennedy Space Center and the Astronaut Hall of Fame.  I was able to see where the rockets launch and learn about the space shuttle that launches from herein Florida. I hope I get to visit again to watch a shuttle launch to the international space station.  If my adventure was a bit longer in Florida I would have gone to see Mickey Mouse at Disney World in Orlando Florida which is only an hour away.  But I need to move on and visit so many other places.  Tomorrow it will be back in the box and off to see more of the world.  To visit the web sites of place I have traveled in florida click on the links below.

www.kennedyspacecenter.com

www.seaturtlesspacecoast.org

I've had a fantastic time in England, last weekend I was invited to a wedding and I got to ride in a Rolls Royce! I've also been playing with my friend David's tortoises, although sometimes they try and nibble on my toes - luckily I'm far too quick for them. I'm leaving tomorrow to do some more exploring around this big wide world. Stay tuned for the next leg of my epic adventure. Love Bill the Bear. xxx.

Daddy's lastest trip was to New York City, which he says is also called the Big Apple. Bill had fun in central park looking at all the people walking dogs. Bill also went to an exhibition about Superheroes at the MET, where he met Spider Man. Here's a picture of Bill in front of the Empire State Building. Dad said that when he got back to London and stayed with his friend David, Bill wanted to stay on, so Bill's in London now and about to set off on an even wilder adventure! I wonder where he will end up? Please look ater him for me!

Alice

Bill and daddy went to Warsaw this week. Here's a picture of Bill at the Hotel Intercontinental. Bill was very impressed by the woman playing the harp at breakfast, and enjoyed watching the chef making omelettes. Bill and dad went for a walk in the park too, where they saw some Peacocks strutting around in the grounds of an old house. Bill borrowed dad's sunglasses on the first day as it was lovely and sunny. On the plane home, Bill was a bit afraid as the airport was being attacked by a lightning storm, so the take-off was very bumpy!

After Prague, Bill trotted off to Kyiv in Ukraine. As it was springtime, and the sun was out, Bill and Daddy went for a walk to Independence Square, which daddy says is the home of the Orange Revolution. I said I would prefer an Apple Revolution, as I don't like oranges. As it was so hot, Bill took a quick nap in the shade.

Bill went to Prague last week with my daddy. Bill liked the Charles Bridge a lot but got a little afraid of some of the gargoyles there. Here's a picture of Bill with Prague Castle in the background.

Bill went to London with my Dad this week. Here he is hanging out with one of the four lions guarding Nelson's Column. Bill thought it was a bit grey and cold in London compared to Vietnam.

Bill went to Vietnam with my Mum. Here he is at the hotel lobby. It was even hotter in Saigon than in Italy.

Bill came with us to Italy last summer. Here he is on the sleeper train with my big brother Samuel. We put Bill by the window so that he could look outside. He liked it a lot. Bill thought it was very hot in Livorno when we arrived. Being a Swedish bear, he has trouble with hot weather.

Here is Bill at the British Embassy, getting his passport stamped. The Vice Consul James Moody had a few questions about Bill’s Visa application, so he had him in for a few questions. All went well, so now Bill can travel anywhere! The nice people at the Embassy didn’t know where he should get a visa for the moon though!

This is a picture of me and Bill at home. Bill is an astronaut bear. He is very adventurous. Bill likes hugs and wants to go to the moon. Please look after him!