Famous (kind of) from a long long time ago!

Way back in the days before we were blogging, when we were just little little kids, we went to the United States to live.  Well we didn't end up living there for long, but we did have an awesome holiday.  One day we will even sit down and write the stories about all of the crazy adventures when we were there but in the meantime, I thought I would show you a photo of where we lived that is being used on tourist link, a tourist website.

Look how little and cute we were!

Beden's Brook, the creek in the photo, was just down the hill from the cottage where we were living.  We would go for a walk down to the creek to look for bugs and frogs whenever we had the chance.  It was great living by a creek, even when a flash flood went through and washed away all the sticks and rocks that we used to build with.  I loved seeing how far I could throw rocks and to see if I could make a huge splash.

We had a great time living in New Jersey and visiting so many really amazing places.  Hopefully one day we will get a chance to go back and revisit all of the fun places.  If you want to see any other photos from our time in America, you can see them on our Flickr pages.
Love AJ Pickle

PS - If you look really closely at the photo, you can see Skanky Bear - Milla's favourite teddy that travelled all the way to New Jersey with us.  Skanky visited Philadelphia and New York with us but who didn't come back to Australia.  I think Milla still misses Skanky Bear :-(

Sundays in my City #18 - Don't Change

Sunday morning our quiet house was invaded by a group of girls who couldn't possibly survive the weekend without spending time together.  Seeing that they had no soccer, they decided to 'relax' in the hot tub.   (Yes I do have photos but they aren't ones I can share without their permission.)

As the girls splashed away and squealed so loudly I thought that the neighbours would start to complain, I spent a few minutes inside enjoying the relative quiet.  I contemplated transferring photos and files from the old laptop and I thought I would share a few of the pictures I came across in the process to show just how much the noisy girl in the hot tub has changed.

Walking away

You are not listening!

My Cherub!

hmmm... looking at these old photos makes me see that some things really haven't changed at all...  The determination to just get her doll and go when she didn't want to be indoors...  The loud, well that hasn't changed at all...  What about the pig headed stubborn 'whatever!' look of this last one!

I do love that she still has a desire to get out and try new things, to go exploring and to know what she wants, even if that is far from what I want for her.   

Squirmy drop-tail

And yes, that would be the tail of a drop-tail gecko she is holding, it was still wriggling yet she wanted to pick it up.

Dear Milla,
Please remain the wonderful, independent, insightful and brave girl that you are for ever and ever.  Love a very proud Mama

If you want to join in the fun of Sundays in my City too, click on over to Unknown Mami.

Sundays in my City #14 - the people of Kokoda

The cold of the Melbourne winter where everyone seems to be struggling with cold and flu has finally hit here.  Instead of spending the day outside, exploring and having fun, we spent the day inside, resting and napping on the couch.  Milla was unwell and I was in need of a day of rest too.  That means that we don't have any new photos for this week, but I have plenty of photos and great memories that I haven't had a chance to share.

The people of the Kokoda Track
The gorgeous kids we met in every village we visited.

The wonderful porters who helped us, every step of the way.

 The fantastic young people that I trekked with, who came alive when playing with the local kids.

Paying respect to someone who supported Australian diggers during WWII.

An amazing journey that I was lucky enough to share with some dynamic young people who I am sure will change the world.

If you want to join in the fun of Sundays in my City too, click on over to Unknown Mami.

Sundays in my City #12 - Last Sunday at Kokoda

I didn't get a chance to play along with Sundays in my City last week.  I had a really good excuse, I was in Kokoda and completely out of range for any wifi.  In fact, there was no phone coverage, no electricity and not that it has any impact upon my ability to blog, there was no plumbing either!  Even if I did work out how to connect via the emergency sat phone, I really didn't have any room in my backpack to carry a laptop (not even my tiny little macbook air!) as my pack was already 20kg and jam packed with essentials like sleeping gear, a tent, food and water.

Instead I made the most of the beautiful surroundings, got to know the wonderful people that I was sharing the journey with and we walked.  Over 8 days we walked from Kokoda to Owers Corner - 96km of back breaking trekking, through tropical jungles and over a mountain ranges.  It was stunning.

Walking along the airfield as our plane takes off.

Being welcomed to Kokokda.

Remembering where I injured myself last year! (Who needs ankle ligaments anyway?)

The view from lunch at Deniki

There are so many more photos to add and memories to share in the coming weeks, in the meantime, there are a few pics and articles over here if you want to know more.

If you want to join in the fun of Sundays in my City too, click on over to Unknown Mami.

Treasure Hunting in Boston

After the Duck Tour we had seen some pretty cool places that we wanted to visit properly but since we had 'seen' heaps of the typical touristy places we decided to explore and geocache at the same time.

Armed with the iPad for directions and co-ordinates, we head out on our treasure hunt.


There were muggles everywhere so we had to be pretty careful to find treasures without everyone else finding them.  Some we sat by for ages and ages before we had a chance to sneak in and grab the cache.

We managed to find a cache hidden in a church...

There was another one in the middle of Boston Common, right near this big monument...





But by far the nicest location for cache we found was by the banks of the Charles River...

If you haven't tried geocaching, you really should, it is the perfect way to explore a city!
Love AJ and Milla

Boston Ducks

So after the saga of finding a place to stay in Boston, we decided to sleep in a little before heading out to explore yet another new city.

When we did go out exploring we realised just how cold it was.  You can bet that mum reminded us a million times that 'it was a good thing we went shopping in Niagara!'

Yep, it's as cold as it looks!

OK, so she was right but that is not the point.  We were glad that we were rugged up and we continued our time exploring Boston, looking for some ducks.  Just up the road from where we were staying was Boston Public Garden.  It was a great place to wander but a few too many signs telling you too keep off the grass!  Luckily there were plenty of paths to follow.

Chilling with the Mallards!

Eventually we saw some ducks.  They weren't the kind of ducks we were expecting but they were pretty cute - statues of Mrs Mallard and their ducklings Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack.  They were the characters from the book Make Way for Ducklings that was apparently written about a family of ducklings who lived in Boston.  We haven't read the book yet.  In fact we hadn't heard about it until now but having seen the statues, finding the book is something we need to do.

Once we said goodbye to the ducklings we kept on exploring, looking for more ducks.  Finally we found the ducks we were actually looking for - the Boston Ducks.  We had read about the Boston Ducks on the internet and it sounded like a fun way to see a new city without having to walk everywhere for a change.

Look, it is our Duck :-)

The Ducks were funny little amphibious vehicles that drove us around the city streets to see the sights and then, can you believe it, straight into the river!

Once we were in the river, the driver decided that he needed a break so he let me drive.  It was pretty cool driving down the Duck down the river.  Eventually we convinced Milla to take the Duck for a drive too.

Duck Driver AJ

Duck Driver Milla

Us and our duck

  
The Boston Duck Tour was a great way to get around.  It showed us some pretty cool places that we can wander back to and explore some more.

It looks like Boston will be a great place to stay.
Love AJ Pickle

Dramas

We have been in the States for more than a week and have had an awesome time.  Everything we have done has been so much fun and surprisingly hassle free, even the delays, the really long flights, transit times and overnight train rides (well except for losing a diary on the Amtrak!) that it was inevitable that something would go wrong.  Well go wrong it did.  First there was the arrival at Buffalo airport only to find that our flight had been delayed for a billion hours.  OK, so it was probably only 3 hours, but 3 hours feels like forever when you are in a tiny little airport and there isn't much to do.  The best part of being trapped in Buffalo was eating Buffalo Wings - who knew buffalo had wings?

Anyway, eventually our flight was scheduled, the very last flight of the night in the airport, so it was already way past our bedtime and we were starting to get really tired.  Luckily the flight to Boston was short, it took as long to get our stuff from baggage collection at the airport to the hotel as it did to fly from Buffalo!

When we got to the hotel was when the next catastrophe occurred.  We found out that somehow when we cancelled one of the nights at the hotel they cancelled the entire booking!  So here we are, stuck in a fancy-schmancy hotel in Boston with no booking and no rooms available.  Luckily the concierge was really nice and he called another hotel just up the road, found us a vacancy (in a place that was really nice and had a swimming pool) and then helped to take all our bags over there.

So there you go, a few minor dramas but now we get to sleep in a great hotel and wake up ready to explore another new city.
Love AJ and Milla

Slipping

Everyone knows that we like to follow the signs that give us advice about what is happening around us.  I didn't think that meant that AJ would follow all of the signs that he saw!

AJ is Slippery on the walkway

In fact, it looked like AJ was having so much fun slipping just like the stick figure on the sign that we decided to join him.

Look we are ALL slipping!

There are fun things to do everywhere we go!
Love Princess George

A family in shadows

Who knew that we could have a family photo taken in Niagara.

Look, there we are!

This is one of my favourite photos from Canada!
Love Princess George

A Day for a Stroll... To Canada

Yep that's right, we went for a walk today TO ANOTHER COUNTRY!  I never really thought that you could just walk over a bridge and be in another country.  Sure it was a pretty huge bridge to cross the Niagara River from the United States to Canada.  I don't really know if the river is in Canada or the United States, if they share it or if it is no-man's land but we did stop to get a photo taken half way across.

Where are we? USA or Canada, or somewhere in between!

We had to stop at the other side of the bridge and answer questions about why we were going there before they would stamp our passports for us.  Once the passport was stamped and we walked out the door we were in Canada.

Now I guess when you go to another country there are all sorts of things that you can do, but do you know what we decided to do?  Find somewhere to rest!

Resting and trying to work out what to do next!

Mum and dad surprised us and we bought a pass for us all to visit some of the crazy fun things that were around...  First stop was to play mini-golf with some dinosaurs.

After my first hole-in-one in Canada!

Next we wandered through a wax museum.  It was terrifying but exciting.  Luckily it was too dark to get photos of us screaming!  Then we went for a ride on a giant ferris wheel to get a good view of the falls and all that was around it.

Riding high

Oh and of course we went treasure hunting (geocaching) and our treasure hunt took us to a cemetery!

Found the spooky treasure!

We wandered around until it got dark so that we could see the coloured lights of Niagara Falls.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for dark

Red mist over Niagara

After walking all day long we were pretty tired but we had to walk all the way back to the United States!  Of course that meant stopping for photos on the way back, half way across the bridge.

Back in the middle of no-where on the bridge

The view of Canada from the bridge

It was pretty amazing spending a day in Canada and doing all the fun things there but I am really looking forward to wandering around the forest areas of New York state as we keep exploring around Niagara.

Oh and it was pretty cold today so I was really glad that we went shopping yesterday and I had a new warm winter jacket to wear.  Don't tell mum and dad, we are still pretending to be annoyed about being tricked into going shopping!
Love AJ Pickle

Manipulative Parents

After starting today in the middle of the night, travelling through a few different states by train and then  spending all day exploring the US side of Niagara Falls, all I really wanted to do was to go for a swim and to relax in the spa and all AJ wanted was to eat dinner in the hotel buffet.  Now seeing that the hotel we were staying in had both a pool and a hot tub, as well as a huge buffet that should have been pretty easy right?  Wrong, it was too early to go to dinner and not everyone even wanted to go swimming.  Mum didn't even pack bathers so she didn't want to go swimming at all, sure she was prepared to sit by the pool if we went swimming but first she needed to find something to read.

I thought that I would be helpful and give mum the magazine that was in our room.  I should have checked to see what the magazine was about before I gave it to her, it was a magazine about all the places to shop around Niagara.  Big mistake.

Before I realised it, mum had convinced us that we should all go shopping instead of doing what we wanted to do.  Sure it involved suggesting to us that we go shopping tonight, for just a few hours and then spending all day tomorrow in Canada.  The other option was to eat dinner at the hotel and hang out at the pool and then go shopping all day tomorrow.

I am pretty sure that mum wouldn't spend all day shopping - she hates shopping.  Even dad, who loves to shop, wouldn't survive an entire day shopping.  It really isn't worth the risk.  So now I am off to do some shopping but look out Canada, we are heading your way tomorrow!
Love Princess George

Science Project Inspiration or A whirlwind tour of Niagara

So after a really long train ride through the early morning hours from Cleveland to Buffalo and then a squishy taxi ride to Niagara with a Japanese backpacker we were all pretty exhausted.  We could have spent the day relaxing at the hotel but we were pretty excited to get out and explore - we could hear the roar of Niagara Falls from our hotel and wanted to check it all out.  We knew that there was going to be heaps to do so we figured we would go straight to an information centre to see what we could find the best things to do.

Before we knew it, we were signed up for a tour of the Niagara Area where we would get so see some really cool places that were too far for us to walk too.

First stop was a whirlpool downstream from the falls.  We made sure we actually stayed behind the fences here - it was a pretty big drop to the water and the water was moving pretty fast.  My swimming is much better than it used to be but I don't think I would be able to swim in a whirlpool, especially in the cold!

I'm staying on this side of the safety rail!

Now the tour guy said that the river wasn't really high today, that heaps of the water must have been diverted through the power plant.

Ready to look through the power plant

That sounded pretty interesting so next stop for us was the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant.  The power plant was pretty interesting.

AJ wants to build a power plant now!

I wanted to learn more about the falls and the power plant but we had to jump back on the bus to see what else we could find.  Next stop - relaxing at the aquarium.  Now the aquarium is tiny compared to the Melbourne Aquarium but it was pretty cool.  The seals were great.  I especially liked that the aquarium rescued animals and looked after them.  They even had a tank full of seals who had to stay together because they were blind.

The busy tour didn't stop there.  Next we headed to the craziest museum ever, it was a museum of Niagara, not just the falls but all the crazy people who went over the falls in barrels!  Really, so many people decided it was a good idea to float in a barrel over a ginormous waterfall... for fun?

There is no way I am going in one of these!

We saw what was in the barrels and the mess they ended up in when they were pulled from the water downstream so I don't think that there will be much chance of me jumping into a barrel to drift over any waterfall, especially Niagara Falls!

All this touring and we still really hadn't seen the actual waterfalls.  Luckily that was the next destination for us.  All I can say is WOW - the waterfalls were amazing, the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Falls too.

There was so much mist from the waterfalls that there were always rainbows but no way to get to the bottom of the rainbow to look for pots of gold.

Under the Rainbow

We did get to go almost to the bottom of the waterfalls but since it was the off-peak season, some of the paths were closed and this was as close as we could get...

Our family under the falls

... It was still close enough that we needed rain ponchos!

Rest Time

We found a few places to rest throughout the day, some were more comfortable than others!

A Leafy Resting Place

We wandered through the parks to different lookouts to see the true beauty of the falls.  There were so many beautiful places to explore.

We finished off the day watching a movie about the history of Niagara Falls.  It told a few different stories, one about the Native American history of the falls, the story of the first crazy person to go over the falls in a barrel as well as the story of a brother and sister who survived the falls.

I am super exhausted and need some rest and relaxation but this place is amazing, I can't wait to explore some more tomorrow.

Love Princess George

Highlight of the day

So of all the cool things we did in Cleveland, do you know what my favourite part of the day was?  It was when we wandered through the gardens on the way to the waterfront.  Now we have walked through about a billion gardens in our time but this one was extra good - it was an edible garden!

Milla wandered through the garden too

 I really wanted to eat a carrot but they weren't big enough to pick.  Instead I picked myself a radish.

Love at first bite?

I have never eaten a radish before.  I am not too sure I actually like eating radish but I loved being able to pick and eat my own food!

Love AJ Pickle