Fuzzy Goes to Denmark's Disneyland

Hi Kids,
     No, this isn't Disneyland, it's Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens. Like Disneyland, it is a beautiful place with lots of flowers and pretty buildings, rides, and entertainment. But the first Disney park is only 64 years old. Tivoli Gardens opened 176 years ago.

     There are exciting rides like these and relaxing rides like boat rides. 

     The merry-go-round is my favorite ride. This one is two stories. Can you see the stairs in the picture?

     Isn't this pretty? A lot of Danish people just go to the park to enjoy the flowers, to have a picnic, or eat in one of the restaurants.

     This pirate ship is really a restaurant. That's where we ate dinner. It was very good. 

     We didn't see any pirates but it was still a little scary. I wasn't too sure about sitting by this skull, but they told me it wasn't real.

     Isn't this building colorful? It has a Chinese design. Do you see the peacock's tail? That's actually the curtain in front of the stage. But it's not made of cloth and it doesn't go up and down.

                        

     They put on plays here. This play was a pantomime -- no talking, just acting. It was a very old kind of play from Italy. It was funny. These two characters were very clumsy. Also in the play were a beautiful girl and her boyfriend and a clown who played tricks on everyone.

     This was the end of the play. You can see how the curtain closes. After it was over, I got to meet one of the actors -- the clown.

     He was very friendly. This is just one thing I like about traveling. There are nice people all over the world!

Love,

Fuzzy

P.S. The End!

Fuzzy Visits Cherokee Country

Hi Kids,
     The building in the picture is 150 years old. It once served as the capitol of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees are one of many Indian tribes moved to Oklahoma long ago. Today the building  serves as the Cherokee National History Museum. 
     Exhibits here tell stories of how the Indians used to live, how and why they were moved to Oklahoma, and about their customs and crafts.
     Here's a picture of some special Cherokee clothing -- worn by important members of the tribe. Today Cherokees only wear special clothes at celebrations and ceremonies. Most of the time, they dress just like you, your parents and your teachers dress.

     There are many interesting things in the museum. I liked this exhibit because kids can try to make a basket like the Cherokees can.

     You can even see some school books that Cherokee children used over a hundred years ago. And you can see them up close because everyone who visits gets to borrow an iPad to show more information.  Can you see the small pictures of things? They have the names written in the Cherokee language under each picture.
All the Cherokees can speak English; many can also speak Cherokee.

     After we went to the history museum, we went to the Cherokee Cultural Heritage Center. They have a museum there, too. And they have two outside exhibit areas which are open during the nicer months of the year.
     This is Leon Grayson holding me. He is a Cherokee who knows all about Cherokee history and customs. We are in a re-created Cherokee village like the ones Cherokees lived in in Tennessee 200 years ago. 

     He showed me many of the skills the Cherokees used to hunt and live. He is very good at using a blowgun made from a hollow reed. If you look closely, you can see that his dart hit the target turkey.

     Of course, you know they also hunted with bows and arrows. They made the arrowheads out of rocks. They would chip out the shape by tapping a rock with another rock. It took a long time to learn to do it correctly. Learning to make arrowheads taught young Indians to be patient -- that to do something correctly often took a lot of time. 

     A Cherokee lady named Shyla Diver showed us how she weaves belts with yarn and her fingers.

     After we toured the Indian Village, we went to Adams Corner. This shows what an Indian village in early day Oklahoma would have looked like. It had a school and a church and a blacksmith shop and a general store.   

     Many Native Americans from many tribes live in Oklahoma. It is interesting to learn about their histories and customs. I'm glad Miss Elaine took me to Tahlequah so I could learn more about the Cherokee Nation.
     Before we left, we saw one last exhibit -- a really big one!
Cherokees are famous for weaving beautiful baskets. Two Cherokee ladies made this giant basket -- as tall as a regular ceiling. They used flat reeds (tall, thin marsh plants). They used dyed reeds to create designs on the basket. It took them a long time to make it this big. 

I think it is pretty, don't you?
Your friend,
Fuzzy



   

Fuzzy in Space

Hi Kids,
    I've been out of this world on a planet far, far away. Well, actually, I've been to Disney World but they have a whole new section called Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. It's all pretend, but it's really like being on a strange planet. In this case, the planet is called Batuu. They don't have teddy bears there -- but they do have porgs -- that's me with one of them.
     Even the toys are strange -- here are shelves of Kowakian monkey-lizards. I can't imagine cuddling one of these!

     
      Batuu is a very hot planet -- they have three suns. And Batuuans don't say "hello," they say "bright suns."
     A lot of work on the planet is done by robots called Droids.

     Maybe you have seen a Star Wars movie -- R2-D2 is a Droid. At the cantina -- a place where Batuuans go to get something to drink -- the DJ is a Droid -- R-3X.

     They have different kinds of foods, too. They drink blue or green milk. Miss Elaine drank some and said it was really good. She also had a vegetable meatball and a yummy dessert.

     In the Star Wars story, the good guys -- the Resistance -- have been defeated by the bad guys -- the First Order. Members of the Resistance are hiding out on Batuu. Their equipment is all old and rusty and they are trying to rebuild their force to combat the First Order.
     Their most important piece of equipment is the Millennium Falcon -- a space ship described as "a piece of junk."

     This is me by the Millennium Falcon.

     Some members of the First Order have come to Batuu to look for the members of the Resistance. They have an army of Storm Troopers who question the Batuuans about the Resistance.

     This is the TIE Echelon, the space ship of the leader of the First Order.

     The Star Wars stories are exciting and it's fun to pretend to be in one. Here was the most exciting thing. Miss Elaine got to pilot the Millennium Falcon. 

     They weren't going to let me go because I am not tall enough -- but they let me ride in Miss Elaine's purse. You can see through the front of the ship -- it looks like you are really flying around buildings and over mountains and are ducking asteroids. Miss Elaine was a really bad driver and we had several crashes. Since it was just make-believe, we didn't get hurt.
     This was a really great trip but I'm glad I don't live on Batuu. I hope you enjoyed our visit!

Love,
Fuzzy 

Hi Kids,
     I hope you had a great summer. Mine was super. Miss Elaine and I went traveling. You can tell from the picture -- I went to Norway. And that's a troll holding me. If you've seen the movie Frozen, you know about trolls.
     We went to Norway on a ship. Here's a picture of the Captain showing us a picture of the ship.

     We sailed up the coast of Norway, stopping several times along the way. 

      This is a picture of Elsa and Anna's home from the movie. I was told that the Disney artists used Akershus Fortress as a model for the castle. When we docked in Oslo, the capital of Norway, we could see the Fortress from our ship. I didn't think it looked very much like Arendale -- not enough towers. But it was still pretty impressive.

     We took a bus to the Norwegian Folk Museum. One hundred and fifty old buildings from all over Norway have been brought here so people can see the way Norwegians used to live -- and dress.

     These girls are dressed in traditional Norwegian costumes. They sang and danced for us -- and posed for a picture with me!

     These buildings are over 300 years old. Do you notice something funny about the roofs? They have grass growing on them. Today some modern buildings are going back to that tradition. The sod provides good insulation -- it keeps heat in in the winter and out in the summer!

     This church is called a stave church. It's over 800 years old. It's made completely of wood. Once there were over 1000 stave churches in Norway. Now there are only 28. What do you think could have happened to them?
     Now churches in Norway look like churches in America. Some of them are very modern. Others, like this one in Kristiansand are more traditional. It's only 133 years old.

     Many parts of the Norwegian coast are very mountainous with the sea filling up valleys close to the shore. These watery inlets are called fjords -- fee-ords. 
     We sailed into one of the fjords and docked so we could go up into the mountains. Norway has many impressive waterfalls. How many waterfalls do you see in this picture?

     Back on the ship, I found a friend. His boy was from Belgium and didn't speak English so Miss Elaine couldn't talk to him. But he liked me and so did his lion!

     We had fun on the ship. We loved the music and movies and great food. And every night when we went back to our room, our beds were turned down and a piece of chocolate was on each pillow. But, most fun of all, the room stewards made animals out of the towels. Every night we had a different one. One night it was a swan. Another night it was an elephant. But the last night on the ship was the best!

     Everyone was very friendly. The Captain let me come up to the bridge -- where all the ship's controls are. What a great trip! His name is Captain Sybe de Boer and he did a very good job. Piloting a ship as big as a hotel can't be easy!

     I'm glad I went to Norway. I can't wait to see Frozen II. I'm just glad I went when Norway wasn't frozen. 
Your friend,
Fuzzy

Fuzzy Visits Wonders of Wildlife

Hi Kids,
If you look carefully at the picture, you can find me. I'm on a rock in front of the giant deer. This sculpture is monumental -- a word used for statues that are larger than life. It was really, really big. And I was in for a really, really big treat. 

Miss Elaine took me to Wonders of Wildlife in Springfield, Missouri. It's a combination of a museum and an aquarium --  and it's all about animals. 

First we went through the museum part. It's full of dioramas - full-sized animals placed in front of painted backgrounds. They really look real. 

A lot of them showed scenes in national parks and animals you might see if you visited them. This first picture is shows a family of American black bears in Yosemite (Yo-SIM-uh-tee) National Park. We even have black bears in Oklahoma. Not all black bears are black. Some are brown and there are even white black bears sometimes.

Not all the animals in Wonders of Wildlife are stuffed. Here's a picture of me with a real black bear.

This bighorn sheep is pictured in Glacier National Park in Montana.

Roosevelt elk live in low valleys and rain forests in Olympic National Park in Washington state.

Mountain lions live in one of my favorite parks -- Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Did you get to read my post about my trip to the Grand Canyon? If you scroll back through the posts, you will see it.

There are lots of different kinds of habitats in the museum. When we went into the part of the museum with animals who live in cold climates, the rooms got colder. I was glad I had fur! In this area we got to see gentoo penguins -- real ones -- who live in Antarctica where there is a lot of ice and snow.

It got warmer when we got to the Africa section. It had zebras, giraffes, even elephants. All the rooms had small video screens where we could read more about each animal.

When we finished looking at this part of the building, we went into the aquarium. The first area has a HUGE tank with lots and lots of fish. If you look at the size of the people, you can tell that the tank is really tall.

There were so many colorful fish to look at. I really liked the pattern on this fish. It's called a honeycomb cowfish. Isn't that a strange name?

Some of the tanks had tunnels under them. When you crawled into them, you could stand up in a glass tube and pretend you were inside the aquarium.

I don't know what kind of fish this is, but I loved the yellow color!

The giant moray eels like to hide in holes.

I really like the jelly fish. These are western sea nettles.

There are sharks in the aquarium, but none this big. Did you know these sharks have two rows of teeth? I wouldn't want to meet a real one.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures. I hope you get to see some animals during your summer vacation. 
Love,
Fuzzy