Good morning Troop 2532! I have resurfaced after a fun and amazing trip to South Africa! I have so much to tell you and lots of great pictures.

As you may have guessed, after my time with the Radican family, they were nice enough to find me a new home with a great new family! My new hosts are named Evan and Jennifer Fox and they live in Arlington, VA (right outside of Washington, DC). They are newly weds and Jen (as I call her) used to be a girl scout too! So needless to say I was so happy to be with them and then when they told me about the upcoming trip, I was ecstatic! I have never been to South Africa, but all I knew was I wanted to see elephants and zebras!

Here is a picture of the Fox family.

We didn't spend much time in Arlington, and we took off to South Africa in mid October. I got out my passport again and hoped a plane with the Fox family from DC to Europe, and then down to Cape Town, South Africa. It look almost 24 hours of flying! That's a whole day!!

When we arrived, I didn't realize how big Africa is! There were all types of people too with great accents and stories. In Cape Town, we got a chance to see and visit Table Rock, one of the new wonders of the world!  Table Mountain or Table Rock is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town, and is featured in the Flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top. The mountain forms part of the Table Mountain National Park.

After spending a few days in Cape Town we headed to Fanschaek, wine country. Mr. and Mrs. Fox got to try a lot of wines and enjoyed their time there. Then we went on to view some of the game reserves including Kruger National Park, Sabi Sand Game Reserve and Thorneybush Game Reserve.

Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 square kilometres (7,523 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 kilometres (220 mi) from north to south and 65 kilometres (40 mi) from east to west. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.

On the game reserves we got to stay in little huts surrounded by beautiful and majestic animals including elephants, zebras, giraffes, lions, and more! Here you can see the elephants right outside of our room!! I tried to get in the picture but it was hard to capture both me and the elephants! Can you see them?

Here are more pictures from the game reserves and what our huts looked like. They made for easy viewing of the wildlife, while not getting to close to get eaten! :)

Sabi Sand Game Reserve often shortened to Sabi Sand, is a private game reserve in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. It is named after the Sabie and Sand Rivers that flow through the park. It covers an area of 60,000-65,000 ha. Situated near to the Kruger Gate, the park shares a common 50 km unfenced boundary with the Kruger National Park to the east. Sabi Sand is the birthplace of sustainable wildlife tourism in southern Africa, and is the oldest of all the private reserves in South Africa. It has only ever been a wilderness area and is home to a vast wildlife population, which includes The Big Five, besides a number of endangered species. Flanking the Kruger National Park, animals pass unhindered between the reserves.

Just look at those teeth!

Thornybush Game Reserve, is a private game reserve, near Hoedspruit, in the Limpopo province of South Africa. It borders the Kapama Game Reserve and is located close to the Timbavati Game Reserve and the Kruger Park. The Reserve's surface area is approximately 11.000 Ha of mainly open savannah. I saw lots of cats at Thornybush! Do you know what these are?

Cheetahs! The fastest cat on the planet!

Though my time in South Africa went by wayyyy too fast, I got to spend some great time up close and personal with many new animals I had only seen pictures of in book or at the zoo. This time they were in their natural habitat and breathtaking to watch. I hope I get to come back here one day, it was a place I will never forget! Thank you to the Fox family for taking such good care of me!

On to my next adventure....where do you think I will go next?

My last adventure with the Radican Family was getting to tag along with Mr. Steve as he flew a trip to California. For the trip he picked, we were off to Los Angeles, California! I have always wanted to go there because I know thats where Hollywood is and lots of famous stars!

To start my adventure, Mr. Steve showed me the flight deck of the airplane he flies, a Boeing 757, which can seat over 200 people! (wow!) Here is a picture of me taking a peak...there sure are A LOT of buttons!

And here is a picture with Mr. Steve and I as he helped show me around the 757 Flight Deck and introduced me to the crew. They were all really nice. He also let me where his pilot hat, but it was too big for my head. :)

When we arrived in Los Angeles, Mr. Steve took me around town to show me some of the neat sights! I got to see the famous Hollywood sign on the hills, and some major LA landmarks like The Chinese Theatre and Walk of Stars. I took a picture with one of my favorite stars! Do you recognize the name?

Did you know that The Chinese Theatre was declared a historic-cultural landmark in 1968? The Chinese Theatre is the most sought-after theatre in Hollywood for studio premieres, it is where many of the major award shows like the Emmy's are held. Fans and tourists flock to these events to see the celebrities arrive and walk up the red carpet into the theatre. Rich in movie tradition, with its cement handprints and footprints in the forecourt, the Chinese Theatre immortalizes the brightest stars. More than four million visitors from all over the world visit The Chinese Theatre every year.

As icing on the cake, while I was in LA, I also got to see the last flight of the space shuttle as it flew over the Hollywood sign and right by my hotel window! Sooo cool! Can you see it in the picture below? Look closely!

Dont worry if you can't find it, here is a better picture!

My time with the Radican Family-Part 1

Greetings Troop 2532!

I have landed in Washington, DC with a wonderful family called the Radicans. My new mom and dad are Steve and Casey. Casey was a former girl scout, whom has both her silver and gold awards! It’s fun to be with a family that knows how important girl scouting is! Here is a picture of them.

Casey works at a local research firm in Washington, DC and Steve is an airline pilot for United Airlines-he flies the big planes and goes over to Europe almost every week! I learned a lot while I was with them, and want to share some of my stories.

My first adventure with Steve and Casey was when I got to go along with them as they traveled to Lake Tahoe to visit some dear friends. I was so excited as I got to fly on one of Mr. Steve's planes and see the west coast of the United States.  Did you know Lake Tahoe is right on the border of Nevada and California? Here I am flying over Nevada in my very own window seat!

I got to look out the window as we fly by--look how high we are!! Steve said we were about 30,000 ft in the air!

Once we arrived in Lake Tahoe, it couldnt belive how beautiful it was. We were staying with Casey and Steve's friends named Mr. and Mrs. Bruce James. They were very nice. Their home is near Crystal Bay, Nevada and check out the view from their house! Mr. James was the former Public Printer of the United States, meaning he was in charge of all of the printing that the Federal Government does including the Bills from Congress! It was neat to talk to him and learn more about how I was printed:) He even gave me a Girl Scout Technology Event Badge. At The US Government Printing Office (GPO) where he used to work, they would host Girl Scout Technology Days where about 300+ girl scouts could spend a day at the GPO and earn their printing badge and learn about all the cool printing processes. It was really neat to hear all of his stories.

Here is another picture from when we got to go out on the boat in the middle of the lake! Did you know Lake Tahoe is almost 2,000 ft deep!!! I was glad I had a life jacket on. I did get to do a little swimming, but the water was really cold!

While I was staying with Mr. James, he had another family staying with us. They brought their kids along and I got to meet antoher girl scout! Her name is Eva, and we quickly made friends. She was so much fun to hang out with. She took good care of me and showed me around. Her brother Hondo, was also very nice.

(Hondo, me and Eva)

I had a great time in Lake Tahoe, but we were only there for the weekend. Soon we had to leave and head back to Washington, DC. We flew through San Fransisco, CA and Denver, CO too but I didn't get a chance to take a picture-I had to make sure I was keeping up with Casey and Steve and we caught our next flight!

The following week, I got to go on my second big adventure with Steve and Casey. Luckily I had arrived as they were getting ready to head on vacation to Iceland! I didn't even know where Iceland was, but Casey was nice enough to show me on a map. Do you know where Iceland is?

To get ready for my big trip, I had to get a US Passport as I would be leaving the United States! Casey and Steve helped me get one.

Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, almost closer to Greenland than Europe. It is an amazing country with wonderful people and beautiful sights! We got to stay with some friends of Casey and Steve named Sveinbjorn and Margret. Sveinbjorn has lived in Iceland his whole life, but travels all over the world often. Margret is originally from Poland.

While we were in Iceland, we got to see so many cool things! I will show you some of them below:

This is downtown Reykjavik, Iceland.

This is some of the scenery outside the city of Reykjavik. Iceland has beautiful mountains, volcanoes and valleys, and also hot springs (which is what are causing the white clouds in this picture).

A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth. You may see hot springs like these in Yellowstone National Park, back in the United States.

Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions on Earth. Recently, in the past two years, one of their volcanoes blew, you may have seen it on the news.

Because of this volcanic activity Icelandic landscape is breathtaking. There are also many glaciers on Iceland (some of the largest in the world) and so there are many beautiful lakes and waterfalls across the landscape as well.

This is one of the many volcanic mountains in Iceland.

Here I am standing in one of the old lava flow areas.

We also got to see a Geyser in action! Check it out! It's ready to blow! The video doesn't show it well, but the water goes up to almost 25 feet in the air! And its hot water!

I had such a great time in Iceland. I learned how to say a few things in Icelandic too. Let me teach you:

Hello or Hi: Hae (pronounced Hi)

Thank you: Takk

No Thank you: Nei Takk

Yes: Ja (pronounced Yeow)

Goodbye: Bless Bless

I hope you liked my pictures from Iceland. I am getting ready for my next adventure now. I am getting ready to go with Mr. Steve on a trip. Any ideas where I will end up? Guess we will have to wait and see. -Juliette

Back to St. Louis

Flat Juliette Adventures in Kirkwood, Maplewood, and downtown St. Louis, MO, June 19, 2012 through July 15, 2012.

**Apologies from the hosts (The Dunlap Family) for occupying nearly a month of Juliette’s year-long trip.

What follows in an excerpt from Juliette’s travel journal…

…I arrived in Kirkwood, MO to the home of Josh, Casey, Noah, and Toby Dunlap on June 19, 2012.  It was not as warm of greeting as I had hoped since Mrs. Dunlap and my previous host’s were such good friends.  However, I soon understood why.  It seems that the young boys in the family; Noah, who was just a couple months past 4 years old, and Toby, two-and-a-half years old, were in the hospital.  Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap were with them at St. Louis Children’s hospital after the little boys were diagnosed with an infection of Escherichia coli, or what most people know as E. coli.

This illness was pretty scary for the mom and dad since many children who get sick with E. coli sometimes have their kidneys stop working.  The kidneys are very important and keep the blood in your body nice and clean, but with an E. coli infection, the toxin released from the bacteria makes the red blood cells break apart and start to clog up the kidneys.  If it gets too bad, some patients have to have dialysis or a transfusion.  Dialysis is where the doctors hook up tubes from a special blood cleaning machine to the patient to clean their blood to help the kidneys out.  A transfusion is where the doctors take out a lot of bad blood and put in new blood from a blood bank.

           Noah didn’t get nearly as sick as Toby, and the doctors said that he could go home on Thursday June, 21.  Both boys had been in the hospital since the day before Father’s Day.  Such a strange present to give their dad!  

This is a picture of Noah and Toby at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

 Toby’s condition was not improving and the doctors decided that he needed a transfusion.  Toby had swelled up from so much fluid that he had gained nearly 10 pounds.  The doctors thought that his kidneys were about to shut down and so on Sunday morning, June 24, Toby had a transfusion.  A couple days later, the doctors were so happy to see that Toby was getting better, that they said that he could go home too.  Thank goodness for the clean healthy blood in the blood bank.  This just shows how important it is to give blood during local blood drives!

After being home for a few days, Mr. Dunlap thought it was time to show me around town.  We visited the Kirkwood train station and farmer’s market.  It is so nice to see so many happy people enjoying the nice day.

Then, we decided to see the biggest national monument in the United States of America, The Gateway Arch.  It was June 30, almost 100°F outside, and the big Independence Day party that the City of St. Louis puts on called Fair St. Louis was just starting to get set up.  We thought that it would be a great opportunity to see the riverfront   Mr. Dunlap, Noah, Toby, Grandma Dunlap (who likes to be called Yia-yia), and me loaded up and headed to a train station in Shrewsbury, MO to catch a ride on the MetroLink.  The MetroLink is an electric train that makes up part of the public transportation system for St. Louis and the surrounding towns and cites.  After boarding the train in Shrewsbury, we rode the train all the way down to the station under Eads Bridge.  Eads Bridge is a very old bridge that connected St. Louis, Missouri to East St. Louis, Illinois.  

Here I am sitting in my seat on the MetroLink on the way down to the Arch.

  We walked across the riverfront right up to the Arch.  The arch is made out of stainless steel and people are allowed to walk right up to it and touch it.

The Arch is so tall, it is hard to get a picture of the whole thing so close.

This is Noah, me, and Toby standing in front of the north leg of the Arch.   It is really shiny, and you can see Yia-yia’s reflection

 There is a museum underground between the legs of the arch.  After we went in and got our tickets to ride the tram up to the very top, we walked through the museum.  There are a lot of interesting things to see in the museum which is called the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is a great place to learn about the Louisiana Purchase and what life in America was like back around the early 1800s.  That is over 200 years ago!

This is me inside a teepee on display in the museum.  

This is me and Noah on the ride up to the top!

 

We spent a lot of time looking through the exhibits, but eventually it was our turn to ride the tram.  When they built the Arch, they had the great idea to put a tiny train inside the arch so that people could ride up to the top.  The tram cars are very small and barely hold 5 people, but the view from the top is worth the cramped ride.  When we got to the top, there were about 80 people already there.  People were taking turns looking out the small windows out over the city and over the river into Illinois.  Thankfully the air conditioning was working!  The very top of the Arch is 630 feet from the ground.  This makes it the tallest monument in the country. 

By the time we got off the tram ride back down to the bottom, it was getting late and we decided to head back home.  We waited at the MetroLink station under the Eads Bridge again.  It was a very hot day and we were all tired.  We thought about going to Ted Drewes’ Frozen Custard for a fruit concrete, but later decided to visit Noah and Toby’s great-grandma and great-grandpa to tell them about our adventure.  Maybe next time I am back in St. Louis, I can visit Ted Drewe’s after a day at the Zoo.

This is our souvenir photo for our Arch tram ride.  The big happy fellow is Josh, Noah and Toby's dad.

Well, I am heading out to Washington DC to visit with Mr. Dunlap’s brother, Benjamin and his wife Heather.  It should be an exciting trip seeing our nation’s capital.

This is me at the top!

Here I am waiting for the train under Eads Bridge

Wellington in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Hi fellow Girl Scouts.

I'm sorry it took me so long to write, but I wanted to make sure I included pictures.

I am in a horse town called Wellington.  It is a suburb of West Palm Beach, Florida.

My host mom picked me up after work on Saturday, April 7th.  She apologized for being so late but made up for it by presenting me with a cupcake.

I had my own room with my own bed in my own room.

After settling in we went for a walk with the dog.  It is so hot and humid here even though the sun has gone down.  It is still over 70 degrees and my hair is so curly.  My house mom has a funny part to her hair that she calls her cow lick.  She says it acts up all the time.  On our walk we saw several toads.

My host parents tell me that these are exotic or non-native toads and are a pest.  It is hard to believe that something so cute could be such a problem.  I guess they are toxic and can kill your cats and dogs if they lick one or pick one up.  On our walk we saw quite a few exotic house geckos as well.

They are pretty cute too and not harmful.  I guess in some cultures it is considered to be good luck if a gecko enters your house.

After our walk I was pretty tired so I went off to bed.

The next day was Easter Sunday.  It was a nice relaxing day. We went out to get some bait for fishing.  Almost everything was closed.  The grocery store and even Target was closed.  We picked up some bread for fishing at the dollar store and some earthworms at PetSmart and headed home for some fishing.  They had enough fishing poles that I could have my own.

Can you see my yellow bobber in the water?

I didn't catch anything that day.  My house parents said that the fishing is usually better during the evening.  We did see some really big fish swim by though.

I was still pretty tuckered out from a day in the sun so I headed off to bed after our walk with the dog and guess what?  There was a gecko in my room!  I took a picture of him. 

He is starting to re-grow his tail.

Monday the 9th I spent the day bird watching.   This is what it looks like in my host parents' backyard.

Don't let the grass fool you.  It is very crunchy feeling on your feet.  I guess there is so much sand in the soil that the grass absorbs some of it.  My host dad was kind enough to pick me up for a picture.

Here are a few of the birds we saw.  A whistling duck:

A funny looking bird called an ibis (they have blue eyes):

This one is a juvenile. You can tell by his coloration.

A long-tailed grackle:

And a bunch of exotic Muschovy ducks.  My house parents named one of the Muscovies "Sneezy" because he sounds like he sneezes every now and then.  He came right up to me.

The evenings are pretty much all the same.  Walk the dog and in for the night.

On Tuesday we went for a bike ride and lizard watching.  Check out the pictures of the exotic lizards they have right in their neighborhood. This guy is called a curly tail.  When he runs he curls up his tail.

This guy is called a brown anole. 

I guess they also have green anoles here but the exotic brown anoles are taking over and chase the green ones high up into the trees.

Speaking of trees.  Check out this awesome picture I took of a pine tree.

Check out the other plants growing on the tree and the flowers.  My host parents told me that the flowers bloom here year round.  I also took a picture of a bromeliad that was growing on another pine tree.

Tuesday we all headed off to bed early.  My host mom said that she had to get up early to send me off to my next host.  She wanted to take me to the zoo where she volunteers on Wednesdays, but she said I was on a tight schedule.  I need to visit two places a week if I am going to make my 100 places in a years time.  She wanted to keep me longer and take me with her to Peru this summer.  She promised that she would keep up with my travels on the blog and maybe even send something back from Peru.  She said that I am now heading north.  She wouldn't tell me all the details but said that there might even me snow where I am headed.