Moral the Traveling Wombat

The next trip came just a few weeks later. I headed back to Japan for another fun filled business trip.
Here is the view from one of the hotels we stayed in. This was a nice little town.












The next day I met my new friend. Low and behold another person on the trip also has a friend that travels around. He is an octopus names Taco (That is Japanese for octopus). He was very nice, but didn't talk much and when he did it was kind of muffled. Here we are in front of a big flower display.






Later that day I got to have a very nice dessert and tea and coffee. I must say that I really enjoy chocolate.










Then I met back up with Taco and we went to an ATM machine to get some money, Japan is really expensive. And we got a train ticket as well to head back to Tokyo.









The last day I went to the fish market. It was really big and they had LOTS of fish. I couldn't believe they actually were cutting fish up with band saws. I had heard of that before but never believed it.

Well, another fun trip down. I am getting closer to being up to date, but who knows when I will get around to getting my BIG trip of the year up.
ARF!

Arf All! It has been WAY too long since my last posting and I hope I haven't lost all my viewers. I have been to quite a few places in the last year. I will start with the oldest and work my way forward.

Here I am in the Chiricahua Mountains. We went there last May and it was a lot of fun.










The weather was quite pleasant in the in mountains for the long weekend and I got to do some hiking.









Here I am with the infamous "duck on a rock" formation. There is only one actual "duck on a rock" but my owners had a disagreement about which was the duck on the rock. So, they sent out an email to some friends and had them vote as to which was the better "duck on a rock." And the winner, by only a couple votes was the correct duck on the rock. I happened to pick the correct one.

Back in June or July, I don't remember it has been so long, I went on a trip to Albuquerque. On the way there we stopped at the Very Large Array (the VLA). There isn't just one REALLY large dish, but lots and lots of smaller dishes that are arranged so that people can collect radio waves from space and turn them into information. Below are a few more pictures from around that area. Like I said Big Dishes.







Here I am in one of the dishes. It was quite roomy.












After that we went to Albuquerque, but no pictures were taken there. On the way back we went to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park in northern AZ. There was a lot of red, and kind of reminded me of the color in the bush in Australia.

Here I am with one of my owners acting silly.












Finally, here I am sitting on a piece of petrified wood. So, this is supposed to be a piece of real wood that sometime long ago fell over, and then over time turned into wood. It is supposed to take a LONG time for that to happen, I think it is more likely God made some really cool rocks that look like wood. But only God knows for sure.



Overall another great trip. I will write more later! ARF!

ARF!!!!!!!!!!!

Very sorry that I haven't written in a LONG time. My owners have been non-fun and therefore not allowing me to blog. But now there is some time, and they have allowed some blog time so I thought I would try to finish the Germany trip, just in case I don't have the opportunity to blog again for a long while.

So, here is am at a piece of the Berlin Wall. It has had some graffiti added since it was apart of the wall, but it was cool to see. And apparently it is located along the same line that the wall was originally at.


While in Berlin we also went to Checkpoint Charlie. This was one of the locations where people could cross between East and West Berlin. You can just see me off on the right side on the sandbags. There was a lot of historical stuff there as well to describe what the checkpoint was like.

Here I am at Sharlotesburg Castle, which is also in Berlin. Very expansive gardens, but it was rainy and not a lot of fun to be out in. The inside was also pretty nice, from what I remember. Very classical looking and very big.

Here I am a Norshweinstien castle. This is down south in Bavaria. Also a rainy day, but I got out briefly to get this great picture from above and the side. Not a lot of people get this shot, because you have to hike up a trail, and then across a narrow part where there is a sign that said someone died there in the 60's, and therefore be very careful. We were, hence you getting to read this wonderful blog of mine. This is also called the fairy tale castle. It was built by crazy king Luis, and only something like 10 rooms were ever completed. The rest are just empty shells. He ran out of money and was killed before it was finished.

Well, Munich is the area for beer and pretzels, and as you can see I had my fill while I was there. The pretzel was pretty good, but I got stuck in the beer stein as you can see. It just wasn't quite big enough for me. Oh well, it was an adventure none the less.









Below you can see me on a boat along the Rhein. That was a long day, and hot day. But there were a lot of castles to look at, and that was neat. But truthfully, now that I have done it once I don't think I ever want to do it again. Hot and Sunny and Humid and ARF!
To the left I am at the Dome in Koln (that's Cologne for those English speakers). This building was pretty much destroyed during the war, as were most building, and ever since the war ended it has been under reconstruction. this place was big and grand. Lots of intricate design work that you can't even see.

To the right I am in Bruel, which is a town near Koln and Bonn (where we stayed in this part of Germany). This was the summer (or maybe it was the winter) estate for some very well to-do people. This outside had another immense garden that was very nice, and the inside was also very nice. You can just see me on the left side of the picture. This was a nice day outside, nice weather and all.

Above was a picture taken in Bonn along the Rhein. There is this walking/biking path that goes along the Rhein, and so we ventured along it. Well, there was this thing in a wall along the way, and my owners thought it was a funny picture to take with me in it. I am there kind to the right of the middle.

Finally, I am almost done with the trip. Well, you can't go to Germany and not eat the chocolate. Well, my owners and I went a little overboard. And here is what happened. Here I am both before and after I ate chocolate. I collapsed after all that chocolate. It was WAY too much. And look how much was left to eat. I understand that my owners are still working their way through it all.












It was a fun trip, and I am glad that I can finally share it with all of you. I hope I get to go somewhere else soon, and write about it in a more timely fashion than I did with this trip.
Anyways, have am ARF day!

So, I got to go with both my owners to Germany in May. It was a lot of fun.


The first day we went to the chocolate museum. I remember the chocolate fountain from the last time I was here. This time I got to see a purple cow. Look, I mean a purple cow!

This was only the first day and then the next morning it was off to another city - Berlin.

As you can see Hover, my best friend, went with to Japan. We slept pretty well in the bed when own owner wasn't there.












We also ordered room service a few times that she was away. We figured the company she was working for would pay for it. The food was good, and the people were very nice to us.











Finally, the really weird thing about Japan, the toilets! ARF! were they out there. I mean look at those things. They have this thing that looks like a remote control on the side that I didn't want to know what all it did, but of course Hover wanted to push all the buttons. so he did. Water started flying all over the place, and a wet wombat is not a happy wombat very often, and boy did I let Hover know it. You could adjust the water pressure. I am not sure why you need that, and I am not sure I want to know (ARF!)

Anyways that was Japan, and it was fun. I will gladly go back at any time, but will avoid the tea and the toilets.

Sionara

The last weekend I got to see more of Tokyo. Here you can see the dichotomy of new and old in Japan. I am in a old shrine (Arf! surprise surprise), and in the background you can see a new sky rise building. Tokyo was a BIG city, but a clean city. They can't smoke on a lot of street, and there was no litter that I saw.








I also got to go to a kabuki show. That was weird. I can say I went, but I will never go again. I cannot even explain what it was or what it meant. It was so out there.

The next weekend we got into a big train that went REALLY fast. I mean REALLY REALLY fast. I heard it is called the bullet train and I understand why that is now. Anyways, We went to Kyoto for the weekend, and I got to see and do a few different things. As you can see I got to see more shrines (left). I think the architecture was really neat.







I also got to participate in a tea ceremony. I thought the tea was rather bitter, and won't do that again probably, but it was a great experience. I heard that my owner really enjoyed it.










Arf, another shrine. I am not sure the Japanese do much else than build shrines and go to them. Oh well, you can also see some peach blossoms in the picture. We missed the cherry blossoms by a couple weeks (too bad), but these blossoms we great to see in their place. Maybe next time I go I will get a picture of the more famous blossoms. Stay tuned for that...







Finally in Kyoto I got to see a giant gold building. It is a very important place, so important that regular people aren't allowed in at all. Even when the president of the USA came he was only allowed in the bottom floor. If they can let the president in I would have thought they would want Moral the traveling wombat to come in, but they said no. Their loss. ARF!

Hello again! I got to go to Japan with one of my owners. She had to do some kind of work thing over there and so I got to go and relax. Above you can see a couple views of Tokyo. At first I didn't know what to think because I didn't speak the language, but I found out quickly that there are no other wombats in Japan (At least that I saw) so there was no problem there.

Below is me at one of the many shines throughout Japan. I am here with a stone carved dog. I don't think I would have wanted to mess around with the dog that had to pose for that sculpture. He doesn't look very nice.

So, my owners have been pretty bad recently about updating the blog. I am very sorry for all of you who have been coming and reading about my adventures. I do have updates though. I will start them in the next post here shortly. I just wanted to let you all know that it wasn't my fault. ARF!

ARF! Right now I am in Japan with one of my owners. It is really interesting, but I miss home. I am doing my job of being moral support (hence my name). Hoover and I are having fun during the day playing with things around the room. The toilet is very interesting. I will tell more later.

Anyways - ARF!

On the way home we stopped along the side of the road in an area near the painted desert in Arizona. You can kind of see it in the mountain behind me. BUT the key here was that I got to walk on the road. I mean look at me. I am walking ON a major road. And I am HUGE! I am as big as the cars that were passing. You never knew I was that big did you?

OK, I am not telling the truth. I am really not that big. It is all about perspective. I am a lot closer to the camera then the road is. It is like what they did in the Lord of the Rings trilogy to make the hobbits to look smaller than the other people.

All in all a GREAT trip. I just recently heard that I may get to go to Japan in the near future as well. I am really looking forward to that as well. ARF!

The next day we went to a place called Bryce Canyon. It was COLD and WEIRD looking. I thought that Zion was cold, but here it was cold and the wind was blowing hard at times. I think there were times I was growing icicles in my fur. Those things behind me are called hoodoos. Apparently they are men that were changed into stone by a wolf that was really mad at them. I knew a kangaroo that could turn koalas into bushes when I was growing up so I can understand how that can happen. You don't want to get on the wrong side of an animal that can change you into other things. I like being a wombat so I never made the kangaroo mad. I watched for that wolf all day, and never saw it. I am glad. I don't know if wolves like wombats or not.

It may not look cold in the picture, but trust me it was. Anyways, I really enjoyed Bryce, except for the cold. Maybe I will get to go back one day.

As I was saying before, I was surprised to find out that we were not just staying in Arizona. We headed into Utah. We went to a place called Zion. It was quite pretty. It was this canyon with red rock walls.

It was cold though. Here you can see me at the river that runs along the bottom of the canyon with the red rock walls lining the side. The wind was blowing a little and I thought I would freeze. Thankfully I was held close and warm by one of my owners whenever a picture wasn't being taken.

On the way out there was snow on the side of the road, and I wanted a picture with my santa hat on with the snow. You know, maybe make it look like I was more like Santa. It was getting really dark, so we had to use the flash. I think the picture turned out well.

I liked Zion. It was different from other places I had been. BUT the last day was the most different, and interesting.