Our unexpected day in New York!

On Tuesday evening, our friend Toshi called. Turns out her family was supposed to go to NYC the next day, but their son was running a high fever, and they didn't think they should go. She GAVE us three bus passes to NYC AND three tickets to see "The Lion King" on Broadway!! Oh, my goodness, what a HUGE and unexpected surprise! We hurriedly made plans to pick up Morgan from VA, re-arrange our day on Wednesday to accomodate this, and got up early on Wednesday to meet the bus. Here are a few shots from our fun day!

Yes, it WAS cold!!

Signage outside the theater

Girls in front of another "Lion King" sign, with Morgan sporting her new hat and scarf bought from a street vendor

We visited the Toys R Us on Times Square -- the one with the huge in-door ferris wheel! Of course, the girls had to take a ride. Here's the car they ended up in!

The Lego displays are incredible. Check out this huge tower and the helicopter hanging from the ceiling behind it.

Morgan checking out a Lego replica of the Empire State Building.

Mackenzie posing in front of the "chandelier" in the Barbie house!

The girls found these pincher-type grabbing gadgets -- and of course, a pinching battle had to ensue!

Hanging out with King Candy in the Candyland section!

The gross-out moment of the day -- in the candy section, we found this disgusting item -- "Larvets"!! These are actually crispy larva, and in this case, cheddar-cheese flavored...... uck. (And no, we did NOT try them!)

Back outside on Time Square, we were amused to see that the crystal ball already had the sign in front of it for 2012! They stay ahead of things in NY, don't they?

A view up Time Square in one direction.....

....and then the other!

Inside the theater was an ENORMOUS wooden sculpture of Mufasa (which ended up also being a pivotal prop in the play).

Think they were just a BIT excited to be at the play??

The costume for Scar.

What an amazing and completely unexpected day!! Thanks again, Toshi, for this wonderful gift!

~~~

Unexpected Thanksgiving treat!

Yesterday, Nelson, Mackenzie and I went to Harrisburg, PA to spend Thanksgiving Day with my daughter-in-law's family. They live within 20 minutes of Hershey Park and during the day, we were talking about the park, the chocolate factory, and all of the interesting things in Hershey. Mackenzie mentioned she'd never seen Hershey, so our hosts checked on-line and found out that the Chocolate World tours were open last evening. So after dinner, we took an impromptu trip over to Hershey's Chocolate World, did the tour, and then explored the gift stores and displays in the huge atrium area. I used my cell phone to take these pictures, so they're not the greatest shots in the world, but here they are anyway!!

They had this large, lovely tree right inside the front door....


And then -- look at this beautiful Christmas Cottage they had on display --



Now look again, more closely. You'll see that every single part of this house (which is as large as the storage shed in my back yard) is made of CANDY!! Wow!!

The roof is made of Cookies And Creme chocolate bars, and the spaces in between are individual Kit Kat bars! The decorative edges are large and small York Peppermint Patties and the red trim pieces are Twizzlers!


The design over the front door was created from wrapped and unwrapped Hershey Kisses.


Along the roof ridges, you can see Hershey Kisses that weigh almost 3 pounds each!



The front door design was created from red Twizzlers and the door wreath was made from holiday-wrapped Hershey Kisses!



The sidewalk was made from chocolate pieces and the door mat was a FIVE POUND Hershey bar!



The fence railings on the porch were covered with Ice Breakers Frost, wrapped with Twizzlers "ribbon" and the garland was made of more Hershey Kisses! The porch itself was made from white-chocolate-covered Kit Kat bars!



Each railing post was topped with another large Hershey Kiss. The stained glass windows were made of a sugary mix; the colored portions were Jolly Ranchers melted into it!



The snowman was covered with the Ice Breakers Frost; his hat was made from mini-Twizzlers; his scarf was long braided ropes of various flavors of Twizzler strings; his eyes were York Peppermint Pattys and his buttons were made of dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Even his "carrot" nose was made from orange Twizzler strings!



This isn't the greatest picture in the world, but this was the information poster that shows the details of types of candy used on this cottage.



For a confirmed chocoholic like me, what a treat this was!!
~~~

The Honduran Adventures of Fluffy and Curly!!

Mackenzie's two favorite stuffed dogs go on all trips with her. This time, she wanted to do a photo diary of the trip from their perspective -- so here it is!!
~~~~~

Day #1 -- Today, we got to fly with our Mommy, Mackenzie, on TWO big planes to Honduras.  Planes are lots of fun!!  We got to watch TV and play games!!

And of course, we ALWAYS put on our seat belts when the captain told us to!

Sometimes, we just snuggled with our Mommy during the ride.

And after the plane rides, we had to take a long, bumpy ride from the airport to our hotel.  It was like a FOUR HOUR ride over really bumpy roads.  Our mommy put us in the rolling crate (her carry-on bag) to keep up safe during that trip; otherwise, we might've bounced out the window!!  Mommy didn't take any pictures of us that evening, 'cause she was REALLY tired!!

Day #2 -- Today, we woke up Mommy and told her we really, really, REALLY wanted to see the hotel.  So here we are, exploring our new home!!  This is us sitting on the desk in our hotel room.  And of course, we too will only drink bottled water in Honduras.  What self-respecting American dog would want to go home with a case of Monte-Ruffa's Revenge??

We sat on the bed and watched TV for a while, but found out that even Lassie and friends speak Spanish here!!  We just watched the pictures.....

Then FINALLY Mommy took us out to explore.  Here we are, checking out the pool.

We decided to work on our tans a bit.  We're kind of pale (especially Fluffy!!)

The surroundings were so beautiful and the breeze was so nice!!  This was doggy-heaven!

Later that day, Mommy and her family took a drive to visit a nearby fort called San Cristobal.  We explored all the nooks and crannies, 'cause that's what busy dogs like us are supposed to do!

We helped guard the lookout towers.  Those silly humans didn't seem to have any guards in those towers at all, so we took over.  We're such good, responsible dogs!

Here we are again, on guard duty.  We're staying VERY alert!

We even tried to operate the cannon, but nobody would help put in the cannon balls or light the thing!!

Mommy came and took us off the cannon and explained it was only there for decoration.  Silly us!!

Then we all paused for a photo by the gates to the fort.

It was a fun day!!

Day #3 -- After two busy days of exploring and travel, our Mommy was VERY tired.  When we woke up in the morning, she was SQUISHING us!!

Look at her hogging most of the bed.  She hardly left any space at all for us!! 

Later that day, we went up the mountains to visit Mommy's family.  We stayed hidden all day, which is why you won't see us in these pictures.  You see, they had LOTS and LOTS of animals that were much bigger than us, and it made us nervous.  They had this CAT that kept scratching Mommy (why didn't she stop picking it up??  that's what we wanted to know!!).

And they had a BUNCH of big dogs.  Mommy seemed to think they were absolutely wonderful.  We didn't like them at all.  We stayed hidden!

This one has the same name as one of Mommy's big dogs at home (Cody!).  Still, we weren't sure he wouldn't eat us, so we didn't come out of hiding!

We must say, though, that those dogs may have the house with the coolest view in our whole family.  I mean, really -- what dog wouldn't want to live in a place like this?  Lots of room to run around and the best view ANYWHERE!

Our mommy's mom (our grandmother??) was busy all day making cakes.  It smelled really good in the house.  Why didn't we get any people food to try??  That is so NOT FAIR!!

Day #4 -- Unfortunately, on this day, "Grandma" went away to decorate cakes and took the camera with her, so there are no pictures of us.  We wish we could've gone, 'cause we hear we could've jumped up and eaten CAKE!!

And chased chickens, turkeys, and geese around!!!

And played in this BIG field!!

But nobody let us do that, so instead, we stayed in the house with the BIG DOGS and MEAN CAT and hid some more...... sigh...... boring......

Day #5 -- This was the big day; the reaon we all came to Honduras in the first place -- AND MOMMY LEFT US HOME AGAIN!!  That was so mean.....  But Mommy explained that we would've been very bored and would've had to be on our best behavior, so maybe it was OK that we didn't come along.

Here's Mommy, waiting to go into the wedding.

Here's that cake again.  And we never did get any to try....... we're very upset.  But the humans look very happy, so we guess it must've tasted pretty good!

We're still upset that the CHICKENS got to come to the wedding and we didn't.  We're so much better behaved and dignified than stupid birds....

.... and we would've had a lot of fun chasing this big fluffy one away from the food tables!!

And this moth???  We could've eaten an exotic new treat if we'd come too!!

And our "Grandma" found lots of new little friends that could've play with us if we'd come along. But nooooooo.......... we just stayed home in the crate.......... blah.......

Day #6 -- Mommy went to visit some really old ruins this day.  She said it was a place called Copan Ruins.  Here she is, climbing down the side of an old temple.  We didn't go along -- it looked just too scary for little dogs like us -- and WAY too big for us to climb up!!

Day #7 -- This was our last day in Gracias, Honduras.  Mommy took us for a ride to visit the town. Here we are, in front of an old church.

Mommy decided to get in the picture with us!!

And then we visited another old church.  This one was REALLY pretty, and didn't even have the gate on the fence closed!!  You mean dogs can just go in and out whenever they want to???

Nope, apparently not.  We had to sit outside on the front step and get out picture taken there.  We guess dogs are not supposed to go inside of churches after all!

Then Mommy discovered this big tree with pretty orange flower on it.  The flowers were HUGE!!

Look at this!!  The flowers were nearly as big as our heads!! (Mommy wouldn't let us eat the flower though!)

And then we visited ANOTHER church!!  This town is full of old churches!!

We got to play on the gates. (Guess dogs aren't allowed inside this church, either!!)

We visited a few other places, and then we had to come back to the hotel so Mommy could finish packing for our trip back to Maryland.  She made sure we were very comfortable in one of her bags!

Then we made another VERY long, VERY bumpy ride back to a big city called San Pedro Sula.  Unfortunately, Mommy was starting to get sick.  She didn't feel good at all.  Look how sick she looks.

In our new hotel, we tried to go to sleep in the pretty bed.....

...... but right across the street from our hotel was a BIG park.  We had to keep sneaking peeks out the window!  It was fascinating being in the "big city"!!

Day #8 -- This was the day we took the two planes back home to Maryland.  Sadly, Mommy was VERY, VERY sick on the plane, and so her mommy didn't take any pictures of us.  But we got to sit and watch out the window as we flew away from Honduras.

Goodbye, Honduras, and goodbye to our Sowers family!! We hope we'll get to come back and visit you again sometime!!

~~~~