Tennessee!

Robert Bear checking in!!

I have been in Middle Tennessee visiting Michael, Terry, Cameron and Braeden Conley.  When I first arrived we traveled to Owensboro, Kentucky for Easter. We colored Easter eggs and then got to help hide the eggs.

 

 

Then the best part….I got to help Cameron and Braeden find them. It was so much fun!! We then went back to where they live in a little place called Rockvale TN which is in Rutherford County. Rutherford County contains the geographic center of Tennessee (as in the very middle). I visited the exact spot!! 

 

It also is home to the largest public university in the state, Middle Tennessee State University. They are called the Blue Raiders. We visited the university and watched the Tennis team practice. We also visited the Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro, which was home to one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.

 

In the matter of 3 days from December 31,1862 to January 2, 1863 almost 25,000 casualties were taken between the Union and Confederate armies. We got to see some of the actual cannons, wagons, and grave markers from the battle.

 

 

 I hope you are having as much fun following my travels as I am in travelling! See you guys soon! The way of life back in the 1860’s was very different from today that is for sure. I will be traveling to visit 1^stLt Evan Weaver of the U.S. Army next but I will tell that story once I get there!

                                                Love, Robert

San Francisco!

Hi All,
 

Well, I have had a busy week traveling from HI to CA. The ride was long but enjoyable. The weather here is fantastic- warm days and cool nights. And more beautiful beaches!

 

California is the most populous US state and the third biggest. It is the home of the giant sequoia tress, some reaching over 300 feet. More turkeys are raised here and more avocados are grown here than any other state. One out of 8 US residents lives here. CA has the largest economy in the states of the union and ranks the 7^th largest economy in the world.

My first stop was Fairfield. Home of the Jelly Belly Factory. They have art made from jelly beans. There are 100’s of flavors to choose from. We went on tour and saw how they are made.

 

 

Then on to Napa Valley (Aunt Gayle’s favorite area) which is considered one of the premiere wine regions in the world. There are over 450 wineries in Napa Valley. The combination of the Mediterranean climate, geography and geology of the region are conducive to growing quality wine grapes. Over 4.5 million people visit Napa every year.

 

 

We then traveled south to San Francisco. The leading financial and cultural center of “Northern CA”. It is 2^nd most densely populated major city in the United States. Today, San Fran is one of the top tourist destinations in the world, and is renowned for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, cable cars, Alcatraz Island, Chinatown, the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf. I visited all except Alcatraz.

 

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay. It is arguably “the most famous bridge in the world”, and is an “iconic” engineering marvel. It has 4 tremendous 746 foot tall towers, expanding 1.7 miles. It was declared one of the “Wonders of the Modern World”.
 

 

Fisherman’s Wharf is also a popular tourist attraction. It is famous for its Dungeness crab, lobsters and Pier 39. Clam chowder is served in the famous “sourdough” bread bowl (Uncle Rick’s favorite).
 

 

 

 

 

 

 Lombard Street, is famous for having step, one block sections that consists of 8 tight hairpin turns and is known as the crookest street in the world.

Coit Tower is a 210 foot tower on Telegraph Hill in San Fran. It has been added to the National Register of Historical Places.

Love to all and on to more interesting places. This has been a great year for me so far. I do miss home but everyone is so good to me I miss each one I have visited with already.

Bear hugs,

Robert

Gung hee fat choy!

Aloha Nick,

Gung hee fat choy! This means "Happy New Year" in Chinese. As I mentioned before, Hawaii has a lot of people with different ethnicities, including Chinese. Instead of following the traditional calendar (January 1 = New Years!), Chinese follow the lunar calendar and on February 10th,  they celebrated New Years. Not only did we get to eat certain types of food, like char siu bao (pronounced "char sue bow" and also known in Hawaiian as manapua, pronounced "mana poo a"), but we also got to serve all our elders tea. The manapua is like steamed bread with meat (pork) inside; Parker, Elle and Brandt say they eat it for snack sometimes and even for lunch. As you can see in my picture, it was a little too much for me to eat by myself but it was really delicious.

 

Serving tea is a cultural tradition that marks the beginning of the first day of Chinese New Year and has been passed on for generations. It is a ritual to show humility, respect, gratitude and thankfulness; everyone in the family pours tea to the elders, starting with the great grandparents (they are 94!) and then to all the aunties and uncles. 

 

 

Last but not least, we served tea to Parker, Elle and Brandt's mom and dad. Before we served the tea to each person though, we put candied fruits and vegetables in the tea cup which made the tea really yummy and sweet! The candied items are supposed to bring good fortune and much success for the whole year! (We even got a few bags of  candy for ourselves....).

 

 

Parker said this year it is the Year of the Snake, his zodiac sign (he was born in 2001), which should bring Parker extra luck and even more happiness. I couldn't remember my year of birth but maybe when I get home, you can tell me and I can look it up online.

 

Our food adventure didn't stop with the Chinese New Year as Uncle Todd and Aunty Kwan Lynne got us Hawaiian food as well. The most traditional Hawaiian food includes rice, macaroni salad, lomi ("low-me") salad (tomatoes + salmon + maui onions, poi (comes from mashing taro, like a potato but purple in color, and adding water + sugar) and lau lau, which is pork or chicken wrapped in a taro leaf and cooked. 

 

 

 

All of it was really yummy but I have to say that the poi sort of tasted like touthpaste.....Parker, Elle and Brandt agreed.

Well, gotta run, but things are swell here, and warm.........I will really miss Hawaii. It was such a different place to visit and to think, its still part of the United States and so far away from any other land mass. Let's try to make it back here again, but if not, I'll sure have special memories (and pictures!).

As they say in Hawaii, "aloha hui hou" (or until we meet again),

ROBERT

PS Uncle Todd says I'll be visiting his Mom and Dad in California.....I'll write soon.

No snow days here!

Dear Nick,

Hawaii has so much history and some pretty cool surprises.


Parker was nice enough to show me around his school. Punahou School was founded in 1841 and is the largest private school in the US (over 3,000 students from kindergarten - 12th grade!); it is also the alma mater of our President, Barack Obama; as you may know, he was born and raised in Hawaii.

http://peasantswithpitchforks.com/point/images/obama72.jpg

 

Do you see the future President? This is his 5th grade class  picture.

What's really cool though about his school is that students don't even have to wear shoes if they don't want to (Parker wears "slippers" or flip-flops to school every day, except when he has PE). Parker says in addition to all the "national" holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, they also get to celebrate some more unique ones like Boys Day and Girls Day (Japanese), May Day (also known as Lei Day, Hawaiian) and Chinese New Year.

Most kids in his school are a mix of different ethnicities, like himself, part Chinese (his mom) and part haole (his dad; pronounced "how-lee" and meaning Caucasian, or "white"). It's pretty cool that Hawaii seems like such a "melting pot" of people.

I love Hawaii!

Aloha,

Robert

Diamond Head, whales, and craters...Oh, my!

Aloha Nick (this actually means "hello" and "goodbye" in Hawaiian),

Parker, Elle and Brandt have been busy with school and their activities but we managed to get around a bit this week. For instance, we went to Diamond Head State Monument (see link below for some really cool information on the crater). It worked out well because Parker and Brandt both have soccer practice right at the base of the mountain at a park called Kapiolani Park (pronounced: "ka-pee-o-la-knee"). Not only is the park right next to this dormant crater (formed 300,000 years ago!) but it is right next to the Honolulu Zoo and famous Waikiki Beach as well. Waikiki Beach sure has a lot of hotels and tourists, seems like a fun place to vacation.

 

 

After the Monument, we also went to Diamond Head lookout.  As you can see in the pictures, it's an awesome view of the beaches and what seems like endless waves. Uncle Todd said the lookout is a great place to spot humpback whales (called "kohola" in Hawaiian) that are migrating from Alaska. From January to early April, these huge animals travel 3,000 miles to breed and give birth in Hawaii's warm waters. On any given day, he said you could probably see between 10-25 whales swimming. That's awesome!

With all these fun things we've been doing and seeing, I've noticed that the Hawaiian language is still used throughout. It's been a little hard to read, and even harder to pronounce some of the signs and streets that I have seen. For instance, we passed "Kaualio Place" (pronounced: "cow-a-leo") the other day.  Uncle Todd said the Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters (vs. the English alphabet which has 26 letters); this explains why I am seeing a lot of what appears to be the same name. Parker, Elle and Brandt say that after a little while I'll get the hang of it....it sure seems confusing now though.

Well, gotta run, but will check in again soon. (By the way, Hawaii time is 5 hours behind Eastern standard time.......so while you are having lunch, we're just about having breakfast).

Aloha hui hou,

ROBERT

Diamond Head State Park

http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/parks/oahu/index.cfm?park_id=15

ALOHA!

Aloha Nick!

I finally arrived in Honolulu, HI, on the island of Oahu.....it was certainly a long trip (it's a 5 hour flight just from Los Angeles, CA, all over water!). The state of Hawaii is our 50th state and the island of Oahu is one of seven islands that make up the island chain and is the most populated; tourism is the main generator of activity with people coming from all over the world to see the beautiful beaches, feel the warm weather and eat the different types of food. Planes arrive from China, Korea, Japan, Australia, California, New York, Seattle, and many other places everyday. It hasn't taken me too long to thaw out since when I arrived the temperature was 82 degrees. Uncle Todd said it was very, very cold back in Connecticut.

Uncle Todd, Parker, Elle and Brandt let me sleep in a little since I was a bit jet lagged but we still managed to get out and get to the NFL Pro Bowl Ohana Day.  As you may know, the NFL has this annual event and there were tons of All Star players to see; the players had to practice and prepare for the actual game but they were nice enough to sign autographs and take pictures with everyone. "Ohana" means family in Hawaiian and they had all these fun activities for kids to do as well. It was a lot of fun, and of course, the weather was perfect.

                                                       

Uncle Todd said that they have recently been having "vog" which sort of looks like fog/smog but is actually volcanic ash and comes from the volcanoes from the Big Island of Hawaii (it's actually the biggest island within the whole island chain......good name for it, huh?!) On those days, the sky looks grey and it feels very humid. Not sure if we will be able to go see the volcanoes and lava that flows from it since the only active volcanoes are on the Big Island a (45 minute airplane flight from Oahu). Parker, Elle and Brandt told me that the Big Island also can get snow since Mauna Kea (this means "white mountain" in Hawaiian) is 13,000 feet above sea level; they even said that the mountain is 2x the size of Mt Everest but that most of it is under the water/in the ocean. I would have never imagined that a place so warm like Hawaii could get snow! That's pretty cool.

photo credit to:  http://static.astronomija.co.rs/nauke/geologija/vulkani/Vulkani/Mauna_Kea/mauna_kea.jpg

                                                              

Well, I am sure I will have more to share soon but wanted to let you know that I am safe and sound in our 50th State, Hawaii.

Aloha hui hou (this means "until we speak again"),

ROBERT

Goodbye Norway!

Dear Nick,

My trip to Norway ended just the way I hoped. We all got to see the Northern Lights.  They were very special. Though is was very, very cold. I loved reindeer sledding. Dog sledding was great too but those dogs are loud.

I hope I get to visit Norway again.  If you'd like to see how a boy like you from Norway spends his day, click on the link...

http://www.timeforkids.com/destination/norway/day-in-life


Right now, I am on my way to HAWAII!  Did you know it is more than 7,600 miles from Switzerland?  That's a long trip.  I hear the beaches are really beautiful but you know I will send you pictures as soon as I can.

Bear hugs,

Robert