Traveling Nora Returns Home

Emerson, Lindsey and Jess were awaiting Nora's return. Jess pointed out Nora's map in the hallway as she explained Nora's travels.Just look at all of the places Nora went! She traveled to Florida, then to Tennesee, through Georgia and back to Florida, then all the way up to Pennsylvania! After that it was waaay over to Utah, to Colorado, and now she's coming back to Wisconsin! Hey, do you hear barking?

It's Traveling Nora and Earhart! "Hey, guys! I'm home! Just wait until you hear all about my adventures."

"First, allow me to introduce myself!" says Lindsey. "I'm Lindsey, and I joined the girls just a few weeks ago. I came from a great home but I'm happy to join your crew." Nora welcomes Lindsey.
Jess explains: "We've been following along with your travels on your blog, and with this cool bulletin board. Sprout's Mom is still trying to choose photos from your Utah and Colorado travels. It always takes her a long time to pick from all of the great ones your hosts took."

"Well let me show you some of my treasures, then." says Nora. "Look at this great notebook my Florida host made for me. Isn't it beautiful? This doll is from Utah! There's a spoon doll from Pennsylvania but I heard Sprout's Mom grumbling something about having to sew... Anyway, there's Pittsburgh Steeler goodies, this great little backpack... and so much more! All of my hosts sent things like postcards, brochures, and lots of great information about the places I visited! Bird is going to have a great time looking through all of it."

"Check out how my hosts tricked out my traveling box! Isn't it the coolest? I just love how it makes me look like a bonafide jetsetter." *yawn* Lindsey can tell Nora is tired. "Let's get you into bed, Nora." Nora noods sleepily and goes off to change into her pajamas.
"There's just one more thing before we go to bed," says Nora, "I have to say a big 'Thank You!' to all of my wonderful hosts! They were so great to show me so much of their states, and to help Bird not miss me too much, and really learn about all of the places I visited. Thank you all so much."

Good Night Nora! The Sprout and Bird family thanks all of your hosts too. Traveling Nora will be off on her travels again in 2008--and this time, she's going global! Stay tuned, and have a wonderful holiday season!

Nora holiday farewell party

The night before I left Colorado a few of the girls invited me to party to kick of the Holiday seasons. One think that I quickly notice is the girls around here like to dress up and only where pants when it’s really cold out side. Good thing they have lots of extra dresses and don’t mind sharing. After Nicki, Marisol, Lottie, Jess, Lani and my self got ready it was time to have fun.



We had lots of goodies, Hot Cocoa, Candy canes and truffle. The perfect treats for the Holidays.



Next as all the girls gather around I received gift I wonder what could be inside. Its time to see.



It’s an outfit just for me and it’s a skirt outfit what a surprise. I can’t wait to wear it and it even came with purple and pink strip socks. The girls told me there are also shoes to go with it but were backed order and they will ship then out when they arrived. Now I’m getting sleepy but excited tomorrow I’m leaving and heading home. I hope Mommy is ready for me. I wonder what will be my next adventure?

Nora in Georgetown

What a treat today was, Emily, Samantha, Nellie and me headed up into the Mountains. I'm still trying to Figure out how we stayed warmed when walking out side with temperature in the teens and snow. We took a trip to the Historical town of Georgetown. Once a Victorian mining town settled by the Swedish now just a quiet town full of adventure. First stop was main street where we came across a park and found a sign to take a picture with.



The park we found was the John Denver Memorial Park by the way Mommy who is John Denver? While we standing waiting for picture to be taken a nice lady came up and was talking to us and said to us I saw the American Girl doll on Oprah this week. A little later when we went into one of the shops we ran into the lady again started to talk more about American girl then the store keeper said she has a Kirsten doll that she is getting ready to put into her store window dressed in her St. Lucia Outfit.



We got told to stop by the The Hamill House its an old Victorian home that has been restored it was closed to go inside the house but we got lots of pictures of the outside. I found an gate to climb on.



After we left Georgetown we stopped outside of Idaho Springs so we could run around for awhile. Not only did Emily let me ride her sled we also made snow angles. I'm going to missing Colorado and all the other places I've seen. I've been told tomorrow I'll be heading home but tonight its off to an Holiday party I go.

Fort Vasquez

Over the weekend Lexi and me went to Fort Vasquez it was built in 1835 as a trading post for fur trading. It was abandoned in 1842 talk about short lived. Here I am with a buffalo its hard to imagine but they used to roam the land here.



The fort served as a trading post not only to the white man but to the Indians ( native American ) who rule much of land that is now Colorado. Here Lexi and me are exploring an teepee.



After the fort was abandoned it in 1842 it came into disrepair but during the great
Depression came the new deal and the exterior walls where rebuilt no interior were rebuilt but there is brick a outline of where they would have been. Here Lexi and me are sitting where the living area was.



Here I am in a window boy did they make them small.




Here is a picture of what the fort looks likes from the outside.

Tea with Mattie and Nicki

What a wonderful surprise I was invited to have Tea with Mattie and Nicki today. Mattie could be my long lost twin and Nicki could also pass off as my twin. First thing was to change into a frilly dress perfect for tea. Mattie let me borrow one of her dresses. After our hair was fixed up off to our tea party we went. Mommy can you guess which one is me?



What wonderful goodies we had Peppermint tea, Strawberry shortcakes and chocolate cupcakes. It was fun acting so lady like for the afternoon. I can’t believe Samantha would have tea every afternoon and had to lady like daily. I’m so happy to be a girl of today.



Pouring hot tea so it does not spill is harder then it looks. Eating dainty bits of our treats was even harder. We only spilled a little of tea. I had a lot of fun at my tea party, Its good to be proper lady for bit but now back to being a girl and running around.

Down to the Springs I went it’s what the locals call Colorado Springs. My host mom and grandma took Marisol and myself to the Air Force Academy. It was a quiet day down at the Academy no planes flying around but there was still plenty of things to see.



After we got on base we first headed up to Cadet Chapel it was closed so we could not go in but still got a few picture of it.

Out side the Cadet Chapel was a courtyard full of statues mostly of planes of Air Force also were statues of important people. Marisol and I got to run and play around the courtyard it’s so nice when you’re the only ones there.

Up at the visitor center we found this Falcon statue to take a quick picture at. It did not take me long after seeing Falcon everywhere to figure out it’s the mascot of Air Force Academy. I even got stuff Falcon to take home with me.

Goodbye Utah!

Oh the fun I've had here in Utah! I will miss it very much, I have really grown to love the mountains. Before I leave I wanted to share a few more of my photos, and my album, which can be viewed here. I think you will really like my album, we did a lot of fun stuff.

Here I am doing one of my favorite things in autumn, hiking! Check out those beautiful mountains, the one you see in the distance is called Mt. Olympus (like in Greece!). The air was cool and crisp on that day, and the leaves were so yellow!Did you know the 2002 Winter Olympics were hosted in Salt Lake City Utah? Jessica and I went up to the Utah Olympic park. We even got to see some ski jumpers and luge runners practicing! And I have photos of both in my album!
Not all our activities were outdoors (although I love being outside when the weather is so nice!). One day I got to go to a doll show. It was in downtown Salt Lake City in the Fairgrounds. I had such a great time visiting with some of the other girls. Did you know that the tall girl next to me is over 100 years old and from France? She had the prettiest accent! After the doll show we went out for tea, I ordered Vanilla Bean Tea, it was delightful!
Goodbye Utah, I'm off to Colorado!

What a busy week it has been!

What have I been doing this last week in Utah? Keeping busy! Here are a few preview photos from the album FarmhouseGirl and I are working on:

One of the first things we did here in Utah was to go to the visitors center downtown, I got some trinkets to bring home, and I liked looking at the big interactive map of the state.The autumn in Utah is very pretty. One day was warm enough to play monkey in the trees!
Another day Rachel and I went to the pumpkin patch to pick out perfect Halloween pumpkins, look at this one I found!
This guy was also at the pumpkin patch. He was crying because he said nobody wanted to be his friend. I asked why, and he said because everyone thought he was scary, but he really wasn't. So I decided to become his friend, his name was Ralph.
On Saturday we went downtown to a doll show. Can you believe it? Another doll show! It was really fun, and the other dolls were very pretty.
After the doll show we went to the "Beehive Tea Room". I ordered Vanilla Bean Tea, and it was very tasty!
Another day we went on a autumn walk, the colors are really pretty here. In Utah there are a lot of yellow leaves, but not many red leaves.
See all the yellow?
And I got to visit the State Capitol Building. I pretended I was in Washington DC.

Hi Mom! I'm in Utah!

I am here, I am here! What a day it has been. This morning at 5:00 am I felt my box moving around, and then I realized I was loaded into a truck. I was happy to be finally on my way to Jessica's (FarmhouseGirl's) home, but I realized I probably would spend most of the day in the UPS truck. I tried to sleep, but it was freezing! Sheesh! It is only October! Finally the truck warmed up a little and I was able to nap. Then, around 3:00 pm I felt my box jostle again, and I was delivered!

I was freed from my box by my new host and her kitty Mabel. I was so glad to finally be able to stretch my legs. I was in my box for a week! Jessica knew I was very tired so she led me to a new room, and said I could rest up as long as I would like. This was nice, I could rest, brush my teeth, and change my undies before I met any of her girls. Jessica did lead me to a new room, Traveling Violet's room! Jessica told me Violet is out traveling again, she is in Calgary Canada, and while I was here I could use her room. Wow! It was perfect, and the best part was that Violet has a laptop! I took off my shoes, relaxed, played with her American Girl doll, and then worked on this very blog entry!

So guess what Mom? I have a lot in common with my host family. She too loves kitties (she has three of them), she loves when the seasons change, loves the Utah outdoors, and she LOVES pasta and fruit! I guess one night while I'm here I might be able to help with dinner.

Another great thing is that the Utah autumn is in full swing, all the leaves have started to change and the mountains are capped in white snow! It is very pretty!

It is so fun to finally be in Violet's room, she has been a blog friend for awhile, but we've never met!

My Adventures in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

I cannot believe I'm about to climb back into the travel box! It seems like just yesterday that I arrived in Pittsburgh, but I've actually been here for over two weeks.

I was amazed to discover that my hostess' name is also Eleanor...except that it really isn't. She said that Eleanor is the name she uses when she writes on the computer, but her real name is different. She chose that name because it belonged to a famous queen she admired who lived in England and France over 700 years ago! Who knew I had such a regal name myself! My hostess said I could refer to her as Miss Eleanor, and that's what I shall do in this blog. Miss Eleanor and her husband have two children: a Princess who is 8 and a Prince who is almost 4. I got to play with them a lot while I was here, and we went on many adventures! Earhart hung out with all of the stuffed dogs in Princess' room most of the time.

We did so many things! On my first day, we went to the Mall to visit a doll store. I was relieved that I never had to stand around in my underwear like these dolls. They must be so embarrassed...and cold!
On the other hand, I loved visiting the nursery. Look at all of these cute babies!
Okay, so they aren't real babies. They're dolls. But they surely look real!

Now this was just plain spooky!
All of these doll heads were just sitting there on boxes! Miss Eleanor explained that people can choose what they want their baby dolls to look like and the store will put them together right there. I'm glad my head wasn't sitting around on any old shelves at the American Girl store, waiting for a body.

The next day, Jess and I played outside.

She let me ride the scooter, and I got pretty good at it if I do say so myself! I was proud that I could keep my balance so well.


I had a neat surprise the first weekend -- I got to see Miss Mia! She came to a conference in Pittsburgh and visited with Miss Eleanor! She said that Sprout and Bird missed me but were reading on the computer about my adventures. Hi, Sprout and Bird! Miss Mia also said she got to ride an incline when she was here. An incline is a train track that goes straight up a steep hill. One train car goes up the hill, while a pulley system brings another one into the bottom station. You can see the station and maybe the tracks behind me in this picture of the Duquesne Incline: Pittsburgh is a very hilly place, and there used to be more than a dozen inclines going up and down this steep hill called Mount Washington. They were used to carry passengers and freight between the coal mines, railroads, and neighborhoods. Now there are only two left. This one behind me still uses cars that are almost 130 years old! The train cars don't go very fast, but I'm not sure I'd like to go on one. I'll have to remember to ask Miss Mia what she thought of her incline ride.

Pittsburgh's downtown is actually pretty small. It is called the Golden Triangle because the three rivers that surround it force the land into a triangular shape. The Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers join together at the tip of the triangle to form the Ohio River. There is a nice park at the triangle's tip called Point Park. The fountain at Point State Park is fed by a glacial formation and sprays 6,000 gallons per minute. You can see the fountain in this picture:

Hey, can you find me?
I'm standing beside a huge paddlewheel from an old riverboat! Pittsburgh was a major industrial city. At one time most of the country's steel was produced here. It was carried up and down the rivers, and on the railroads, all over the nation.

Okay, did you find me? I'm way down in the corner. See?

The next day, Miss Eleanor, Princess, and I traveled to a colonial tea party at old Hanna's Town, in the county where Miss Eleanor grew up. I wondered if Felicity might want to come with us, but Princess explained that Felicity refused to drink tea because it was imported from England. In her time, this country and England were at war. Felicity's best friend Elizabeth is originally from England, and she was pleased to join us. I borrowed one of Felicity's gowns.

Hanna's Town dates back to 1773, which is almost exactly the time when Felicity lived in Williamburg, Virginia. Hanna's Town was destroyed in 1782 by an American Indian tribe who fought against us during the Revolutionary War. Hanna's Town is an archeological site for people who want to learn about Pennsylvania's past. It has been excavated, restored and partially rebuilt. We visited the reconstructed Hanna Tavern/Courthouse, three log houses that were over 100 years old and had been moved to and rebuilt on this site, a reconstruction of the Revolutionary-era fort and blockhouse, and a wagon shed with a real Conestoga wagon like Laura Ingalls or Kirsten Larson might have ridden on.



Elizabeth told me to go put my head in the stocks because I ate so many tea treats. Good thing I didn't get stuck!


We had lots of fun the next week. We started to decorate for Halloween, stopped at Miss Eleanor's favorite children's bookstore, the library (where I met a very large Paddington Bear), a brewpub for Oktoberfest where I got to peek at the vats of Penn Pilsner beer, and we even went to a pumpkin festival where I got to ride on an inflatable pirate ship and climb a rock wall!





Avast, mateys!

Boom.
Don't try this at home.

Our last big outing was to the National Aviary. I've never seen so many birds!

We got to visit the tropical rainforest, and I loved the flamingos. Their feathers are pink because their main diet is shrimp. We also got to feed these little lorakeets.
One even landed on my head! I saw penguins, Bald Eagles, condors, and lots of owls. There was a contest to name the new baby condor, and Princess thought up a really good name. I hope she wins. We also got to look at the kitchen, where we saw all the things that different birds might eat. I don't want to think too much about some of the things on this tray!

On my last day, I got my picture taken with the doll school that Princess has in her room. See if you can find me with all of my new friends!

I also got a wonderful surprise from Miss Eleanor. She said that since I share the name of a famous medieval queen, I need to have the clothing to match. So here I am in my Eleanor of Aquitaine gown. It's even my favorite color -- purple!

I've loved my time here in Pittsburgh and hope I can come back to visit again some day. The fall leaves are crisp and beautiful. But now, Earhart and I are off to Utah for more adventures!