Thulani in Pennsylvania USA - Update 2

Ok, here is an update on all of the activities Thulani has had over the last week! Thulani has been very busy! 

Kaitlyn and Mitchel sporting their Pink Out tee shirts for the month of October Breast Cancer awareness month!

First we began with visiting my kids’ schools! Mitchel’s Kindergarten class was first and he had a great time, while visiting his class on Monday, October 17^th. 

Then on Tuesday, the 18^th he went onto the Middle School to visit the 8^th graders in Kaitlyn’s Social Studies class and again he had a great time.

Wednesday it was off to fight some fires down in the Baltimore, Maryland area with their Dad. 

As you can see from the pictures there is more to fighting fires than just putting them out! He got to visit with everyone on the shift. There was time for working out in the gym and cooking dinner and eating it of course. 

Then some computer work and of course bed time! 

Oh and I almost forgot the best part, running fire calls too! J

He really enjoyed that best of all! 

Tomorrow we leave for Disney World! So there will be an update in a few days as we must finish packing for this big adventure we are about to embark on!

Thulani in Pennsylvania, USA

October, 11, 2011.  Thulani arrived in our home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA to meet Kaitlyn, 13 and Mitchel, 5.  Harrisburg is the Capital of Pennsylvania and has the Susquehanna River running next to it separating, what we call the West Shore from the East Shore.  The Susquehanna River is 464 miles long and is the longest river on the East Coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean.  Harrisburg is located only 14 miles West of Hershey, PA.  Hershey is known for its Hershey Chocolate Bar and Hershey Kisses.  It is popularly called "Chocolatetown, USA." Hershey is also referred to as "The Sweetest Place on Earth."

Some of the places Thulani will visit while with us are Baltimore, Maryland, where he will get to ride on a real Fire Truck (with Kaitlyn and Mitchel's dad), Philadelphia, PA the largest city in PA which was founded by William Penn and has many historic facts.  This is where the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776 and the Constitution of the USA on September 17, 1787.  Also a very fun and exciting place Thulani will get to visit is Disney World in Orlando, Florida!  And then if time permits a day in New York City!  He will be very tired by this point and ready to go onto his next adventure I am sure!  J

Thulani in Florida

Day 1:

September 14, 2011. Thulani arrived at our home in Middleburg, Florida where he met our 3 boys. Mason, age 6, Vincent, age 5, and Jamie, age 3. Middleburg is a suburb of Jacksonville, which is the largest city in the state of Florida. Jacksonville is also the largest city land-wise in the continental United States. Jacksonville is in the First Coast region of northeast Florida and is centered on the banks of the St. John's river. We also have beautiful beaches that are along the adjacent Atlantic coast.

Here is a picture of the city at night:

  Thulani meets the boys.

 
Day 4:
Today we took Thulani to visit historic St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the continental United States and a place we love to visit. It is a tourist city and is rich in history and we love visiting all the old churches, buildings, and the fort. We also enjoy visiting the beach there, St. Augustine beach, along the First Coast. St. Augustine was first discovered in 1513 by Spanish explorer Don Juan Ponce De Leon who named it La Florida which means "land of the flowers." Many of the streets are named after the first Spanish explorers who came to the city and launched six different expeditions in order to settle. St. Augustine was founded 42 years before the English Colony at Jamestown, Virginia and 55 years before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock, making it the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent. For detailed information on the city you can visit this website here: http://www.oldcity.com/history-information.cfm. Below are the pictures we took with Thulani on our visit to the oldest city.

Vince and Thulani outside the oldest wooden school house in the United States.

Below are picture of Thulani and Vince in the Plaza De La Constitucion

Vince and Thulani at the Trinity Episcopal Parish. The oldest Epsicopal church in the United States.

Vince and Thulani at the Castillos De San Marcos. The old Fort.

 

Thulani sitting inside one of the cannons.

Thulani and a view of the Intercoastal Waterway. It was about to storm.

Thulani and Vince outside the old cemetery that was the public burying ground during the yellow fever outbreak.

We took Thulani to visit St. Augustine Beach after we left the historic part of the city.

Thulani driving over the bridge of Lions back in to the city of St. Augustine.

We took Thulani out to lunch at Mcdonald’s LOL.

Day 5: Thulani visited school with Mason and Vince at Wilkinson elementary where Mason attends 1^st grade and Vince attends Kindergarten.

Thulani in Argentina

Hello everyone!!

Thulani arrived in Argentina on July 26th (it took him a little bit longer than expected) most specifically in Trelew, a city in a place called Patagonia.  We must say we were a little bit worried about him, but finally he arrived safe and ready to do very fun things with us.

As many people know, Patagonia has very beautiful places known worldwide, such as the Perito Moreno Glacier, Ushuaia and its snowed mountains, Punta Tombo where the Magellanic Penguins come to breed by the thousands, like little people attending a very big party!

Near to Trelew we have Puerto Piramides which is worth visiting to watch the whales that come here every year to breed and have their babies, it is a sight worth seeing. You can also swim in its transparent blue waters, do scuba diving, etc. It is placed in Peninsula Valdes, which is a Natural reserve for wildlife preservation.

Now, I am going to introduce you all to our story of the foundation of many cities and towns such as Gaiman, Trevelin, Rawson, Trelew.

On 25 May 1865, one hundred and sixty three Welsh people sailed aboard the Mimosa from Liverpool. Two months later, on July 28^th, they arrived at the coast of New Bay, in Patagonia.

However small this group might seem to us today, it just the beginning of a social phenomenon that has left its mark to this day.

One of the main objectivs in the formation of the settlement in Patagonia was to keep the welsh language and traditions alive. And they succeded in doing so.

Thulani isn’t a fool, he arrived just in time to attend a traditional tea party in Gaiman, where lots of people gather to spend some time with family and maybe why not, have a cup of tea (or two or three as he did!!!). We had a wonderful afternoon after eating more than our bodies could handle, after of course paying the little price of having to queue for an hour outside of Salem wihch is the welsh chapel we decided to visit.

In the picture we can see: Ana, Sofia, Santiago, Martin, Clara, and me, Natalia. Ines took the picture

In Trelew the little bear is staying with Natalia and Ines, we are 2 friends; Natalia is a paediatrician, Ines is the proud mom of Clara (9) and the lovely twins Ana and Sofia (4). But we also have a lot of kids around for Thulani to meet, like Santiago (our nephew) and Martina, who is Clara’s friend.

Ana and Natalia

Ana

Clara and Ana

Clara

Natalia and Babel

Santiago

Sofia

He also met Babel, the lovely shih tzu puppy (who is unfortunately going through a bad hair decision). We even had to go to the pet shop with the twins to choose some coats for her!!

Thulani travelled to Viedma with Ines to do a job,  she wanted to take him to tell his story to some friends. He had a very delicious asado with chorizo and meat!!!

We think Thulani misses his family a little bit, so we played with him in the swing, alone and with Sofia, he used the slide and had a little nap afterwards in a hammock! This time he didn’t eat anything.

As the days went by, we did lots of things, but we couldn’t show you the pictures because our camara broke.

On his last day, Thulani sat on a fallen tree to say goodbye to our beautiful country, so he watched the sunset alone with a great big smile on his face. 

We will miss you.

Come back whenever you want!!