Turkey

It's summer again and I am getting ready to travel! Next stop... Ankara, Turkey. I am going with my wonderful friend Emily. We will be going the end of next month. I am super excited to go to a new continent, let alone a new country. I will be sharing and posting all that I can from the wonderful place of Ankara, Turkey!

Paul Bunyan

The whole theme of the park was about Paul Bunyan, there were several carvings and stories about how Paul Bunyan and his friends hung out in the redwoods.

Dad under his foot:)

Jeffry having fun in the redwoods:)

It took some convincing to have him sit up there, but he seems to be enjoying himself. He was the only one of us who could hoist themselves up:).

Sky Trail

Inside the park, at the end of the trail was a gondola called sky trail. The view was breathtaking and even being so high in there air we were traveling among the tops of these giant trees. The pictures do not do the view justice.

Mom Wade at the top of Sky Trail on the viewing deck:).

Trees of Mystery

Trees of Mystery is a park just outside of Klamath, CA that has several interesting and unique tree formations in it. Most are too hard to capture on a camera phone, there were several trees that grew off the backs of other trees in very strange directions. One we saw had three trees growing up from a fallen branch, it was called the candelabra, another was a giant 320 ft tall tree that had fallen, yet two other trees over 8 ft in diameter grew from its' side. We also saw a tree that looked like a lightning rod with a very distinct zig-zag pattern. This was an amazing little tour of the redwoods and all their varieties and mysterious tendencies. Most of the trees we saw ranged between 150 to 300 ft. tall and at least 4 ft. in diameter.

Starfish Findings

Daddy Jeff went hunting for starfish:). There were several and they had a burgundy color to them.

Crescent City California

Our first day in California we went to see one of the Crescent City Lighthouses and several sea lions and seals that we watched for hours:). What a gorgeous little town.

Laura's Tattoo: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Literal translation is loose nothing gain nothing, however it has the meaning of nothing ventured, nothing gained. We had to go on a day when the guys had duty, because tattoo parlors are off limits for the navy in Japan, although, while we were there we ran into a couple navy guys.

Didn't it turn out really well?

Laura got the tattoo in Yokohama at Fanatic Tattoo and the artists name was Sue (soo-eh:).

Getting hit with a cane!!

The subway was so nice, excluding the time that Laura got hit by an elderly man with his cane, lol. We were in a hurry and she tripped over his cane, as she was starting to turn around to apologize he rose his cane in the air and whacked her. So we ran away, fast, not sure what else to do. So we ran:). Funny story though:). Rather odd, considering how nice and proper everyone else was. We probably insulted him in some way, that's all we could figure.

DomDom

The Japanese form of McDonalds and the kids meal I accidentally ordered by pointing at the sign. Turns out the guy actually spoke English really well, and I could have just asked. Darn my assumptions. :)

Discoveries at the mall in Yokosuka

The best crepes I've ever had and Rocky Mountain Marshmallows, mmm.

Temple in Kamakura and samurai sword

After we left Diabutsu we went to a temple that had pond gardens surrounding it.
They were full of Lotus flowers that were just beginning to blossom.




Laura is examining the prayer ties out front of one of the temple buildings.

Jeffry also got the chance to practice with the training sword he bought at the gift shop out front of the Diabutsu.

Dragon Fish

Meet Poseidon, the crazy Japanese fighting fish that Jeffry won, unfortunately he was left behind and donated to a nice family, we hope.

Diabutsu: Giant statue of Buddha

Laura is washing her hands before entering the temple area. This is the famous statue of Buddha, and there is a picture of his giant sandals:)

I don't really have a story about this day, other than the walk was long and in a relative temperature of at least 90 degrees it was even longer and as usual I attracted whatever kind of bugs it was that were biting me all over:-/. However, the statue is breathtaking and was worth the walk.

The statue is hollow and during the days you can go inside of it, we got there an hour too late.

Haw to use chopsticks?

This is one of the many funny attempts at English writing:). Most of the mistakes we saw gave words connotations I should not post online, lol.