Thursday, December 14, 2017

Algarrobo, Chile

The Incredible Adventures in Algarrobo with KT and Sharon


My Mom and I set off for a long walk to get crepes today (December 10). We started walking and we heard a bird in the bushes and my Mom freaked out. Then a couple minutes later I saw a dog and thought it was a wolf and so my Mom totally freaked out and grabbed my back and arm. My Mom is afraid of things but she's not in a way. She is not afraid of traveling which is very scary for a lot of people. Not knowing the languages is a big reason why people don't travel. Also feeling weird about the people around you because they're different. My Mom and Dad and I are not afraid to travel and we look forward to meeting different people. Anyway, as we continued our walk my Mom and I started playing a rhyming game. It helped to pass the time. After that, our adventurous walk went on.




We encountered a Santa Claus in front of a restaurant, so we waved to him. Then we saw an exercise  park, so we tried out all the machines.



We walked into town and found some shops. We were looking for souvenirs made by local artists, but we only found stuff that was probably made in China We were also looking for Christmas decorations, but we didn't find any.



After walking through the shops there was a churro stand making fresh, hot churros. We got some and they were so good.






Then we found Hello Crepes (the crepe place). We walked up to the crepe stand and smelled the amazing aroma of freshly made crepes. I ordered strawberries and Nutella on my crepe and my Mom had dulce du leche with banana in hers. Man were the crepes sweet, they had a ton of powdered sugar on them, but I just scrapped it off.



After all those sweets we were still determined to find Christmas decorations. We looked and looked but none could be found.  Up hill and down we continued our adventure. Finally, we saw a convenience store that was starting to put up Christmas things to sell.  We went in and bought some little reindeer,­ a Feliz Navidad sign with 3 snowman representing our family, plus some bells to go with it to put on our door for the next cruise we go on. Then, after that Christmas treasure trove, we found yet another store. It was not nearly as big as the one we had found before, but we walked in and right in front of me is.... WRAPPING PAPER!!!! My Mom and I decided to make chains out of paper and snowflakes so we needed paper. We got an assortment of colors. But only really needed red and green aka rojo and verde. Then we walked some more but we lost hope that we would find any other stores. We had passed a grocery store, so we went back, but they didn't have any interesting Christmas decorations either. But we did have a couple things that we needed, so we did a little grocery shopping. After leaving the store we got a taxi and went back to our apartment. It was a good adventure. The End

Panama Canal

Panama Canal
November 27, 2017

I was awakened very early that morning so that I could go up on the highest floor on the ship. Why? Because that day we were going through the Panama Canal! We stayed up in the Constellation Lounge for 8 hours, including bathroom stops and going to get food. My butt hurt so much after that day. Anyway, getting back to the Panama Canal. We got up there at 8 am the lounge was packed with a ton a people. Most of the people were in the bow to get the best view.


My dad had found a table on the starboard side where we could see a little bit.  Then, eventually, as people left, we got up to the very front where we had a spectacular view of the locks for the Panama Canal opening. For a kid, 8 hours of just sitting is not exactly fun, even if you are seeing something amazing. So, we brought a cross stitch so I would have something to do. I finished the cross stitch that day and it was my first one too!

My Dad let me use his big high lens camera and I took full advantage of it. Let’s just say I used it like binoculars. I took pictures of cars and the drivers in them.  I also took pictures of No Smoking signs on boats, people that worked for the Panama Canal walking to work. Very random things like a rusty hose, a rope, the names on container ships, my Dad, my Mom and cars etc. While we were crossing the Panama Canal there was a lot of frigate birds fly around. The difference between a male frigate bird and a female frigate is that the female has a white chest and the male has a red chest. The reason the male has a red chest is so that when its mating it can puff up the red on his chest to attract the females.I also saw 2 men getting in a row boat to row the cable out to our ship. The other end of the cable is connected to a train and the train pulled the ship to the end of the lock. The speaker who was narrating our trip through the canal told us that the canal has tried a bunch of different high tech ways to get the cable to the ship, but this is the only one that works consistently.

Just after we passed through our last lock, the narrator told us that a salt water crocodile could be seen on the starboard side. I had been sitting long enough (too much, really), so my Mom and I headed down to the helipad. Sure enough we were able to see the crocodile and also a deer a couple hundred feet away. We also were informed that there were capybaras on the port side, so we rushed over to get a glimpse of them and I got some okay pictures of them too. If you don't know what capybaras are, they are the largest rodents around. I really enjoyed going through the Panama Canal even though it was not very exciting at times.

Barton G, Miami

Barton G, the restaurant
November 20, 2017

We went to Barton G last night and had a great time. Barton G is known for its outrageous presentations. My Mom and Dad ordered drinks first. My dad ordered a Moscow Mule, kind of. When it came to the table it came with a punching glove and the drink was in a little boxing ring. When my Mom's drink came to the table it had a red bridge and buddha was sitting on it and in the background was a gong and you could hit the gong and it made quite a bit of noise.

Since I order dessert first and Barton G is known for their desserts, I got the carnival funnel cakes. When it came there was a shooting gallery and 3 huge funnel cakes. The great thing about the shooting gallery was that you could play it over and over again, so I did.

Next we ordered the popcorn shrimp. When it came  there was a popcorn machine with a lot of popcorn and a little bit of shrimp that was really good.

Our friend, Jay, joined us for dinner and it was great to see him. For our entrée’s we ordered the Lobster pop tarts, a disco meatball, a bucket of bones, and the bird’s eye view. When the lobster pop tarts came to the table, they were in a pink toaster . I did not try them, but my Mom and Dad really liked them. I ordered the disco meatball. It came with a disco ball and there were disco lights and even the BeeGee's singing “Stayin’ Alive” in the background. It came with the best meatball I have ever had in my life the meatball included veal and 16 hour roasted brisket with really good spaghetti.
My Dad had the bucket of bones for dinner which had a bunch of pork ribs and potato chips but he was to full to eat any of it so it got to-go boxed.

Jay had the birds eye view which had chicken and sweet potato mash and he thought it was great.

When the restaurant started to get really busy you could look around and see all these amazing dishes. For example, there was the Samurai steak which actually came with a Samurai sword the you could take out and take a picture with. Or Dolla’ Dolla’ Bills Y’all! Which has a huge hundred dollar bill, probably 2 feet tall. It is a dulce du leche cake with a graham cracker crust and a painted white chocolate shell on top. They then use a creme brulee torch and make the cake melt but it looks like the gold block is melting. We also saw the Sabrina Sundae which included 2 huge brownies and a half a pound of ice cream with a ton of whipped cream and a big sparkler on top that went 1 foot in the air for about 5 minutes! Then the damage came (that’s what Barton G calls the bill) and we all said goodbye and left Barton G.  

London

London
November 2-4

Today we took a flight from Singapore to London. The flight was 14 hours and we were upgraded to 1st class! When we got off the plane we took a train to the South Terminal.It turns out that the hotel we were staying at was only 30 feet away. After we got all checked in to the hotel we turned on the TV and tried to stay awake by watching Dress to impress. At 8pm we went to bed. The next day my Mom and I had breakfast at the hotel (I was free!). At the buffet they had marmite, so I had to try some (since I like vegemite). I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. When we looked out the window that morning we could barely see anything because it was so foggy outside. Then we headed to the Airport to take the train to the North Terminal then the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station. An incredibly helpful man helped us buy a tube ticket that was good for the whole day. From Victoria Station we caught the tube to Leichester Square so we could get tickets for a show. There were tons of different shows like Matilda and Wicked etc. There were a lot of shows that were there the last time we were in London, including the one that my Dad wants to see, The Book of Mormon.  We decided to see 42nd Street. We waited in a really long line to get the tickets, but finally we got them. As we were walking away, I saw this man that looked very English (almost everything that he was wearing had the British flag on it). We decided to go to a Michelin  starred Indian restaurant, so we headed toward Picadilly Circle. On our way, we saw a really small market that had jewelry and clothes. One of the shops that was there had the same exact shirt I bought the last time we were in London. After that we went to Gymkhana, the Indian Michelin  starred restaurant. We ordered butter chicken, Sag paneer and a dish that I cannot remember the name of that had spicy duck under a very thin dome of bread. The food was very spicy so the restaurant manager also gave us some sauce (which was honey greek yogurt) to cut the spiciness. After lunch, we went to Covent gardens. We went to Hotel Chocolate and we were greeted with a treacle chocolate as their sample. We went down stairs and found a Rare and Vintage chocolate box that my Dad is getting for Christmas. My favorite chocolate is 72% dark chocolate. It is a little bitter, but I love it. They added a new part to Hotel Chocolate since we were there in the Spring -- a cafe! So, my Mother just had to have a Christmas hot chocolate and I’m glad she did! It was a clementine hot chocolate with chocolate whipped cream and little chunks of dried orange on top with 2 chocolate snowflakes with it. It was AMAZING!
Because we were so jet-lagged, it was really hard to stay awake for the show, but 42nd Street was really good and I am glad we went to see it.

Australia - Part 2

Australia
October 26

We started the day off by getting in a taxi to go to the Wild Life Zoo. The first thing we saw when we walked in were 2 adorable Tasmanian devils hopping around and having fun. Then we learned all about them when we went to a about talk about a half hour later. The reasons they are called devils is because when people would go out in the woods at night they would hear this weird noise (that they thought sounded like the devil) and when they would shine a light on the T-devils their ears would glow red. So, people thought that they were actually the devil, so they started killing them and the people that would find them and kill them would get rewards! What people didn't know was that they weren't the devil and they are, in fact, like vacuum cleaners. For example, when dead carcasses are just laying around the T-devils eat the bones and all the things that may be left behind.



After the talk we went upstairs to look at the Koalas and on the way, we saw the lady who did the T-devil talk. She had a small wooden box and pulled out of it, with a bit of persistence.... A sugar gilder! I got to pet the sugar glider and it was so soft and very hungry.


After another amazing experience we went to see the Koalas and get lunch. There was about 10 mama Koalas with thier babies all sitting up on trees. I had a vegemite sandwich that was super good. We heard this lady talking about Kangaroos and Wallabies, so my Mom and I rushed down stairs and it was Kangaroo petting time. I got to pet a Kangaroo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



We went back up to where the koalas were and watched them be koalas. Then, my Dad and I went on this bird’s eye view thing that was like a zip line except you pulled yourself with a rope to get around.







After that, it was our time to take a picture with the koalas! We took lots of pictures and got to see the koala’s up close, but we couldn’t pet them.




It was only a couple minutes till the park closed so we went to see the crocodile (dun dun dunnnn!!!!). He was huge, he came out of the water exactly where we were standing and just looked at us (It was really creepy).



Then we headed down to the gift shop and I bought koala ears that were fake of course.   It was an amazing day.

When my Dad asks me my favorite place on the trip, I say -- Australia!

Australia - Part 1

Australia 
October 24-25

The ship docked in Sydney today and we sadly had to leave our cruise ship - Holland America's Maasdam.  We checked into our Apartment in Woolloomooloo. We wanted a snack, so we headed to the gas station. We wound up getting Tim-Tams, which are very yummy chocolate cookies that are dipped in chocolate. We also got Vegemite, which is a product of Australia. It is a yeast extract that is very salty. A couple hours later we met my Dads friend, James and his wife Kay (He had not seen him in nearly 20 years). We walked up 3 flights of stairs in order to get to Millie’s Food Lab, where we had lunch with James and Kay. I had mushroom risotto that had too much pepper on it. Since I couldn’t eat my lunch, I ordered the cheese sandwich with vegemite. It was delish! After a great lunch, we were walking back to the apartment and a saw something white and yellow fly by me. I looked up in the tree and saw a cockatoo and then I saw another one. When we back to the apartment, my Mom took a nap and I wrote blog posts and my Dad did stuff on Facebook. When it came time to eat Dinner we went to Henry's Cafe de Wheels and we had a mushroom & chicken mince pie and beef &  mushroom mince pie and they were good but very peppery. I guess people in Australia like things more peppery than I do. After dinner we walked to a  cinema and watched Princess Bride. The movie was great! I had already watched it a couple times, but it was still really good. Then we headed back to the apartment and went to bed.

The next morning I was awakened by somebody saying " wakey wakey" (that was my Dad trying to get me up).  We started the day off by going to a mall with a great dim sum restaurant. As we left the mall we passed an H&M and a Zara (2 of my favorite shops).

Then, at 3pm, we went to the place where my Dad and I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge. My dad and I learned all about the bridge and that only 16 men died in the making. We were stopped partway up our climb because it was raining. We thought our bridge climb would be cancelled, but after a 30 minute wait we were allowed to continue.


Once we reached the top of the bridge, we were allowed to do a 10 second video, which turned into a 12 second video. My Dad and I did the Can Can on the top of the Sidney Harbour Bridge!

After 3 hours of walking, we had finished the bridge climb. We met my Mom at this amazing seafood restaurant called Manta and heard all about her day and how she got caught in the rain and went shopping. We had lobster lasagna that was heavenly, the best smoked salmon I have ever had in my whole entire life. It had just enough smoke. We also had incredible scallops and Lobster sliders that were meh to me, but my Mom and Dad loved them. I also had oysters with a drop of wine (with my parents’ permission) and hot sauce for the 1st time and it was interesting in a good way.

I didn't think Australia could get any better, but it did. Read Australia - Part 2 for more.

Noumea, New Caledonia

Noumea, New Caledonia
October 18


Today we went to Noumea, New Caledonia. It is a French colony and the people speak French. We went to the fruit and vegetable market and I got some fresh sugarcane. We asked if we could buy some and the man just gave it to me for free. It was delicious.  After walking through the whole market, we went to the non-food section and  found a stall selling pearls. My Mom wound up getting 2 long pearl necklaces - one black and one white, 5 pairs of white pearl earrings and 1 pair of black pearl earrings. I got a beautiful ring with two pearls on it. Then we walked through town. While we were walking, we heard some people singing. Then we stopped by a cafe and had lunch. I had a panini with pesto, tomato, mozzarella and emmental cheese. I also had a raspberry smoothie that tasted like chilled strawberry yogurt. After lunch we walked to Le Maison de la Perle. We learned all about pearls. We also discovered that the pearls at Le Maison de la Perle are really expensive. It made us really appreciate the pearls that we bought earlier. Thanks to my Mom we found a Mango clothing store (my favorite store from France) which had an amazing top that was black and white and made with chiffon, but I didn’t get it. To top off the day we did more shopping at the handy craft market and my mom bought a Christmas ornament and 2 dangle pearl earrings. Then headed back to the ship for trivia. We won trivia and got a pin for winning.

Dravuni Island


Dravuni, Fiji
October 14


Today we went to Dravuni, Fiji which we learned is 1 of the 7,010 islands. Our ship could not pull up to the island because the water was so shallow, so we tendered over. Tendering is where they take the life boats and use them as transportation to the place where it is too shallow. When we got on the Island it was just sand and water as far as the eye can see.  We found a shady tree and laid down our towels and sat down. As soon as we sat down, an adorable and friendly dog came and sat down on my Dad’s towel. I decided that I wanted to go snorkeling, so my mom went with me (my mom has never been snorkeling before). We weren’t that far  out when I felt a tap on my head and my Mom told me that she felt like she was suffocating, so we went back. After we had sat on the beach for what felt like a really long time, I decided that I wanted to see what was out there. So, I started complaining; and thanks to my complaining a lady that was sitting nearby said that she would be happy to be my snorkel buddy. I saw amazing coral and fishies. Plus, I took my underwater camera, for the 2nd time, so I got some good videos, but they are really shaky. Dravuni was a really relaxing and enjoyable place.   

Suva, Fiji

Suva, Fiji
October 13

Today we went to Suva, Fiji. Now, where the driver sits in Fiji is on the other side than in the USA. So, when you cross the street you have to be super careful and look at the other lane because that is where the drivers are coming from.

We started the day off by walking to a nearby fruit market. There was tons of fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, eggs and weaved baskets. We bought 3 different types of Fijian breads one had cassava flour, coconut and sugar in it and was barbequed, the second one had bananas and cassava flour. The third bread had just cassava flour in it and had the consistency of a gummy bear. Cassava is a yuca root. It is also used to make tapioca While we were walking down the market my Dad noticed a huge fat, yellow banana that looked as though it was ripe. My Dad bought 2 of the big bananas. They tasted like green bananas that were sweet (which I love) but  the guy that we bought them from said that they were ripe. After that we walked around the market some more and bought more bananas, but these were really tiny bananas that were extremely sweet. When we were done shopping we headed back to the ship to eat all our yummy food. We shared it with one of our friends on board the ship named Bill! At the end of the day we made little goodie bags for our favorite crew that make our breakfast , lunch and dinner and gave it to them. After our snack, we decided to get back off the ship and walk around some more. We walked around town and came across this guy who kept telling us to go to the Fijian market. We also saw a movie theater in town. They were playing Chef, which is one of my favorite movies. But it was a Bollywood version that came out a couple days ago. Then we went shopping in this really cool dress shop that had a skirt that my Mom really wanted to get and a dress that I wanted, but I was too short for it . We also saw a grocery store. We went in and my Dad bought a bunch of Fijian junk food. When we were heading back to the ship we saw a bakery that did not use casaba root. When we walked in I could smell a delightful aroma of fresh baked bread. So we wound up getting a lamb sausage roll that was amazing and then walked back to the ship.

We got back on the ship and went to the highest floor on the ship and looked at the pretty view.


My Mom and I got back off and got henna tattoos and I got four very tight braids in my hair. The lady that did my henna tattoo really wanted me to do henna and she said that after doing it for a year your hand just flows and totally knows what it's doing. When my Mom and I were done getting our henna tattoos and my hair braided we had made 2 new friends. We said goodbye to Suva and headed back to the ship for the 3rd time.

Pago Pago, American Samoa

Pago Pago, American Samoa
October 10, 2017

We started off the day by getting off the ship and going shopping. There were tons of different types of dresses, weapons, art, purses, etc.

We wound up buying 2 pearl necklaces for me and my Mom. One was cultured pearls that were a lot of different colors like grey, green, pink, and cream. The other one was a white fresh water pearl necklace. At one of the other shops my Dad bought a t-shirt that says American Samoa and has palm trees on it. After our shopping extravaganza we walked down to Sadies by the Sea. 


On our way we saw a coffee shop that was called Starstruck instead of Starbucks.

When we got to Sadies by the Sea my Mom and Dad went to the restaurant for drinks and I went to enjoy their company. Afterwards, my Dad decided to buy 30 minutes of internet and my Mom and I went to the beach (that is connected to Sadies by the Sea).

When we arrived at the beach we were greeted by a bunch of trash in the Ocean, like chip bags and plastic bags. So, I decided to help the place out by cleaning most of it up. Then my Mom and I went out further on the beach, to where the sand was wet, and made a sandcastle (more like a mountain actually). I figured out how to make trees on our sandcastle/mountain.

After my Mom and I made the sandcastle/mountain my Dad came with the backpack that had my underwater camera, goggles and my boat shoes. I headed out into the Ocean to find cool things to take pictures of!


I met a girl who was travelling with her family for Spring Break. She was trying to catch fish. Her family rented a canoe and they had a boat load of fun (get it boat load of fun because a canoe is  a kind of boat). When her family told her that she had to go back to the pool she was not very happy, because was dirt in the pool. I was confused until she explained that there were plants by the pool and they had blown over and gone into the pool.



After she left I decided to try snorkeling for the first time! I did it a little bit but I did not go out very far. Then my Dad went with me, so I could go in the deeper section and I saw a bunch of rocks. I only saw 3 fish, but they were very pretty.


After a half an hour of snorkeling I went back to the place where I was picking up trash earlier. When I was there earlier I had seen a lady picking up 16 coconuts from the ground. I went back to that spot and I found 2 coconuts, but all the others were gone. I grabbed those 2 and brought them to the restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately the restaurant did not have a machete, so I spent a half an hour peeling the husk off. Once I got about half the husk off, my Dad was able to take a dinner knife and cut a hole in the coconut. He put a straw in the coconut and we drank the juice. It was delicious!


We decided to head back to the ship after a wonderful day in American Samoa!

Garbage Patch

Garbage Patch
September 2017

Today we went to a lecture about the Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean between San Diego, California and Hawaii. My Dad has never told me about the Garbage Patches because, quote Dad, “I wanted it to have a huge impact on you”. The lecture was about 45 minutes long and was very good. Judson Croft was the speaker. He is from New Zealand and is very interested in the ocean. If you are one of the people who don’t know what Garbage Patches are (like I was before the lecture), then let me tell you what I found out.

There are many parts in the world’s ocean’s where there is tons of trash like the little plastic things that hold your six packs of soda or the to-go coffee cups that get thrown in. There was even a container ship that lost a container full of plastic toys.

Those plastic soda things can look like something different to a seal or a whale. They can accidentally get stuck around the seal’s neck and it can suffocate. Or the whale could think the plastic was food and eat it. The plastic goes into the whale’s stomach and if he kept eating plastic things then he would be so full that he would not be hungry and eventually he would starve to death.

Another danger to animals in the ocean are the fishing nets that the fishermen lose. The fishing net that the fishermen use is practically invisible to fish and so if the net gets lost it doesn’t mean that it’s gone, it’s still in the ocean killing lots of sea life. The fish’s gills get stuck in the “invisible net” and it’ s body is bigger than the fish’s head so it can’t just swim straight out and the fish can’t back out because it’s gills are caught in the net so the fish dies. And it is not just one fish that dies. Since the “invisible” net is miles long and miles wide hundreds of fish die. The net to slowly sinks down from all the fish that are weighing it down.  Some sharks come by and they’re like “yay, free food”. The sharks slowly eat the fish and the “invisible” net slowly floats back to the top. Then more fish get caught and then it goes down and then it goes back up and more fish get caught, etc. This happens for years and years because if the fishermen are looking for their net when the net is below the ocean then they cannot find it. Thousands of fish lose their lives in this cycle. And that is just one fishing net; there are thousands out there.

At the end of his lecture, Judson Croft showed a video of a guy who saved a humpback whale that had fishing nets all over the it’s body. The guy and his crew spent hours cutting off the netting and when they were all done the whale waved it’s tale up and down and jumped up in the air about 40 times because it was so happy that it was free.

Here is a link to the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXU7G6zhjU


If you are wondering after reading this blog how you can help make the garbage patches cleaner please search on Google for ways you can help.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Gardening with Margaret



When we arrived in Michigan (June 2017), I spent a lot of time in Margaret's garden. 


Now, I have what you call a black thumb instead of a green thumb. But after working in the Garden for a couple of hours I have moved up to a brown thumb-yay! 



One of the many things that I learned was that you have to plant asparagus 1 foot deep and keep on covering it with soil also it just grows straight up and it go's to about my thigh. I never knew that it just grew straight out of the ground with no attachments and that it grew so high!





 Margaret said that I was very good at pulling thistles (that were next to her cantaloupes patch). She planted some corn a couple weeks ago and there are little sprouts of corn.  I got to plant a lot of vegetables! Like beets, green beans and carrots. When we were planting the seeds I learned what a hoe was and a Rototiller. A rototiller is like a lawn mower except that it has 2 huge blades on the sides and what it is used for is if you have really dry dirt you push the rototiller around the garden and it refreshes the dirt so that if you're planting a bed you have nice soil. A hoe is used for patting dirt on the seed lines but if you are planting carrots you have to make sure that you don't put to much dirt on top cause then the carrots won't come up out of the ground.


I also didn't know that you had to cover your strawberries with hay so that it does not get a frostbite. When I went to Margret's she had strawberries that were really green but we came back a couple days later and we got to have fresh strawberries!  


When I started gardening with Margaret I knew almost nothing about gardening except that plants need sun and water. But now I know way more all thanks to Margaret.

Friday, June 2, 2017

My 100th Blog Post!

In December I made a deal with my Dad to do 100 blog posts. Because last year we went on a trip and I hardly did any blog posts. So these past few months I have been working really hard on finishing 100 blog posts. It was really hard when we were not traveling to come up with topics. But my Mom and Dad came up with some really cool ideas that I would have never ever thought of. Over the pass few months I have written about taking a taking a 17 hour and 30 minute plane flight to taking an amazing cooking class in Goa, India. Here are some of my favorite blog posts that I have written...


It was very hard to write the blog posts because my Dad got on my nerves a lot by saying don't forget to do this and this and this. My favorite part about writing the blog posts was getting them done at the end of the day and writing about the fun topics .

I like writing much more now than I did a couple of months ago and I think I am much better at it too! There have been a ton of people supporting me on this and I am so happy that I have finally reached the finish line! 

Thursday, June 1, 2017

2nd Day in England

First we started off the day by getting lost.. We had a nice walk, but Google Maps took us into the temple grounds and all the gates were locked so we couldn't get out. We walked back to where we came in and then got a taxi to Chinatown.

 We had Dim-Sum for Breakfast with Clara, Brett, Josh, Jane and Jeff which are friends of Clara, Brett and Josh. My Dad wanted to order Duck Feet and he said they were pretty good. We also had shomi, har gow, soup dumplings and a whole duck it was all really good.


M&M world was next. It was 3 stories tall and had more M&M stuff than I had ever seen.


Josh and I went into a photo booth and took a bunch of funny pictures.



After that, we walked through Chinatown and Josh and I got drinks with Tapioca balls and they were really good. 


Then we walked through Trafalgar Square and Josh and I climbed on the lion.


London is famous for pubs and we had to go and try out another one!


Then, we made sure to go back to the fountains again and this time to take our shoes and socks off, but we winded up getting completely soaked anyway. 


Sadly, it was nearing the time for Brett, Clara, Josh, Jane and Jeff to leave, so we went back to our hotel room and Clara, Brett, Josh, Jane and Jeff had fois gra, truffles and exotic fruits like jackfruit. After all that fun it was time to say goodbye to all of them. 

After they left we walked along the river and the weather was perfect. We came back to our hotel room and watched a movie. We always try to pick a movie based on the place we are visiting, so we watched Royal Wedding which is based in London.