Fun mail!

I got quite a few letters in the mail recently! I am behind in posting them because I have no secretary at the moment.

The first card is a birthday card from Little Fox. This card is beary colorful! Thanks for the card, LF!

The second card is also a birthday card, but it's not for me. It's for my mom who recently had her birthday, and it's from Sandy. She was beary surprised and pleased that she actually got some fun mail instead of it being me all the time. She says thank you, Sandy!

I also received another card from Sandy. Wow, Sandy is really keeping the post office busy these days. It's a Halloween card with a picture of Sandy in his astronaut costume from a few years ago.

There are lots of Halloween stickers inside! In case you missed it, check out what Sandy dressed up as for Halloween here.

I also received a card with a Minnesota design on it from Jerry and Ben who recently hosted the annual Halloween costume contest. The prize was a Starbucks gift card! Thank you beary much - I think I will get some hot chocolate and a cookie.

Thank you for the fun mail everyone!

Hot pot

Hello! Today, I am reporting LIVE from a Chinese hot pot restaurant where we will be enjoying a delicious meal.

I was greeted by a panda bear when I arrived at the restaurant.

"你好！" he said.

"你好!" I replied.  (你好 means "hello" in Chinese - I have been studying Chinese with Uncle Tibbs).

I was also pleased to see panda bear cushions on every one of the chairs in the restaurant. This is a very bear-friendly restaurant so far.

For those who have never visited a hot pot restaurant before, let me explain briefly what it is. You first choose a delicious broth and the server brings it to your table. These are special tables with a cooking plate built into it.

Let's turn it up to a roiling boil!

While the broth is boiling, the server has brought out all the ingredients we have selected for our hot pot. These can be vegetables, noodles, meat, and FISH!

One of the most important parts of the hot pot experience is the sauce. To my right here, you can see I've created a fabulous concoction of soy sauce, scallions, garlic, and hoisin sauce. There is no right or wrong answer here. You can put anything into your sauce.

It's important to keep the raw food plates and utensils away from the cooked items so they won't be contaminated. Add the raw items into the broth one by one until they are fully cooked. It usually doesn't take long since the meat is sliced very thinly.

That's a lot of food! My favorite item here are the FISH BALLS! Enjoy your hot pot!

Happy Halloween!

Jerry and Ben hosted the annual Halloween Costume and Pumpkin Carving Contest of 2019! My costume for this year is...

a sushi platter!

I love sushi so much that I decided to dress up as sushi.

A sushi meal would not be complete without some soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger.

And how will you eat sushi? With chopsticks of course!

Yeah, that's some nice looking salmon and shrimp sashimi!

Thanks beary much for hosting this fun contest, Jerry and Ben! What did you dress up as for Halloween?

Icelandic króna

I forgot to show you some Icelandic króna (ISK) that I had leftover from my trip to Iceland! In Scandinavian countries, "krona" means "crown" and because these countries had kings, the currency had their crown on them. (1 USD is equal to approximately 124 ISK)

On the 500 ISK bill is Jón Sigurðsson (1811-1879). Iceland’s leading politician during the country’s fight for independence, Jón is commonly referred to as “president” Jón, even if he lived and died before Iceland ever had a president.

Ok, now are you ready to see some coins?

These are really cool coins, I promise you!

Do you notice anything interesting about these coins? They have fish on them! In Iceland, for the longest time, fish was the foundation of Iceland's economy. Here I have a 10 ISK, 50 ISK, and 100 ISK coin. The 10 ISK coin has the capelin fish on it, the 50 ISK coin has a crab on it, and the 100K ISK has a lumpfish on it. I also did some research and found that the 5 ISK coin has dolphins on it.

I wonder if there is any currency out there with bears on it...

Iceland, part 2

Here I am at Þingvellir National Park. This area is located in a rift valley created by the drifting apart of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. These plates are moving apart at a rate of 0.8 inches annually.

Now I'm at Skógafoss - a beautiful waterfall! According to legend, the first Viking settler buried a treasure chest in a cave behind this waterfall. Supposedly some locals were able to find this treasure chest, but only for a moment and were only able to grasp a ring attached to the side of the chest before it vanished again! The ring is now in a museum.So...  was there actually a treasure chest? Hmm... sounds like a case for Sherlock Sandy.

Now our tour guide is taking us to Sólheimajökull, a glacier very close several volcanoes in Iceland, the most notable called Katla. I hope it doesn't erupt while we are visiting!

Phew, this is a long hike for a stuffie. I'm going to take a break.

We're almost there - can you see it in the background?

There it is! I saw some tourists with crampons and other glacier hiking gear, but we just opted for the main trail. It's a bit chilly as we get closer to the glacier - I'm glad I have my coat with me!

And after that long hike, it's time for a snack! I enjoyed checking out the Icelandic supermarket.

They have a lot of snacks I recognize here - Iceland gets good reviews for snacks!

Okay, I hope you enjoyed the trip to Iceland! Hopefully some postcards I sent have arrived by now!

Iceland, part 1

Last month, I traveled to ICELAND! It was a bit chilly so here I am wearing my warm coat. We were there for several days.

Our first stop was at a tomato greenhouse in Friðheimar. Geothermal energy in Iceland heats up a lot of buildings in the country, and greenhouses are no exception. Look at all these aisles of tomatoes!

They were growing sunflowers and other plants as well.

I also learned that they import bees from the Netherlands. There are 60 bees in a box plus one queen bee and it costs about $60 USD. Bees... mmm... honey...

After my mom pried me away from the box of bees, we continued to our next stop on the tour which was the Geysir Hot Spring area for some bubbling geysers.

This is Little Geysir, appropriately named because it is so small.

And now I'm standing in front of the Strokkur geyser waiting for it to...

"HEY!" called out a familiar voice.

"Huh..."

"DROOPY!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I happen to be on the same tour you are," he said.

Wow, what a coincidence! I seem to run into Droopy a lot during my international travels (last year at Chichen Itza)

WHOOSHHH!!!

Suddenly, the Strokkur geyser erupted high into the air.

Wow, look at that!

If you're wondering how hot the water is, just take a look at this sign! That's pretty hot alright.

After we saw the geysers, we stopped at Gullfoss, which means "golden falls." On sunny days, you can often see a rainbow above the falls, but that day was a bit cloudy.

That's a huge waterfall, isn't it? I am going to be beary careful and not get too close to it.

Here's a different view of Gullfoss. Can you see how small the people are in this photo?

That was it from our first day in Iceland. Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!

Postcard from Sandy, Jerry and Ben... in Canada!

I received a postcard from Sandy, Jerry and Ben the other day! They were going to send me some salmon - yum! - but customs and border security are so finicky nowadays. My friends have been on a whirlwind international tour this past summer. I'm having a hard time keeping track of who went where!

Thanks for the postcard everyone!