The end of the day in Palm Springs California

In northern California

Pooh the pilot

Going to San Francisco

back in Salt Lake City.

Pooh met a line girl named Piper in Salt Lake City

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Pooh's Time as A Corporate Pilot

Pooh started off the trip at the by driving from Sheridan Wyoming to Billings Montana to catch a airline to Salt Lake City. Pooh told me he had already been there before and knew the way. We had a good time visiting with Virginia at the airport for awhile before boarding our flight, which is kind of a tradition.

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Farewell, Pooh Bear!

We kept him way too long - but we sure enjoyed having him!

Goodbye, Pooh Bear!  Thank you for visiting, enjoy your next destination.  We can't wait to read all about the fun things you'll see and do :)

P.S.We hope you like your new Utah pin!

Love, 
The Moody Family(Matt, Mandy, Tessa and Asher)

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The Great Salt Lake

For our last outing with Pooh Bear we took hin to see Utah's most famous landmark - the Great Salt Lake.

The Great Salt Lake is the remnant of the massive ancient lake, Lake Bonneville. Lake Bonneville existed during the last ice age, between 32,000 and 14,000 years ago. At it's largest, Lake Bonneville was almost 325 miles long, 135 miles wide and over 1000 feet deep.  It covered most of Utah!  Lots of animals lived in and around the lake.  As it dissapeared, it left several lakes behing, including the Great Salt Lake.  Here is some interesting information about Lake Bonneville.

The Great Salt Lake is very special for a lot of reasons!  

• It is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.
  
• It is the 4th largest Terminal Lake (lake without an outlet) in the world
  
• The salinity (saltiness) of the water is about 12% - much saltier than the ocean!
  
• The extreme saltiness of the lake makes it uninhabitable by most species - however, it is home to LOTS of brine shrimp and it's shores are covered in wetlands that are home to millions of shorebirds and waterfowl.
  
• The Union Pacific Causeway divides the lake into two parts
  
• The sand in the lake and on the beaches is oolitic sand - small round pearls of calcium carbonate.
  
• The lake smells kind of icky! Sort of like rotten eggs. The lower the water level is, the more it smells (because the mineral concentration is higher.)  Interestingly, the smell mostly goes away once you are on/in the water - it's worst on the shores.
  
  
  Pooh didn't mind the smell too much!  He thought the lake was very pretty and enjoyed learning about Lake Bonneville and about all the unique qualities of the Great Salt Lake!
  

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The Golden Spike

Utah is home to The Golden Spike, which was the last, ceremonial spike driven to celebrate the completion of the First Transcontinental railroad.  The Union Pacific railroad and the Central Pacific railroads connected here in 1869, making it possible to travel (almost) all the way accross the country by rail.
When the states each designed a new quarter, Utah's design featured the golden spike along with the words "Crossroads of the West"

We have LOTS of train tracks in Utah! We drive over them every single day, several times, no matter where we are going.  When I was a kid, we thought it was good luck to lift up your feet and touch something metal in the car (like a screw) when we drove over the tracks. It seemed like we were always holding our feet up!
We didn't take Pooh Bear to Promontory Point (where the Golden Spike actually is) to see the railroad, but we showed him lots of tracks around here!

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Greatest Snow on Earth

Did you know Utah is home to the Greatest Snow on Earth?
It's true!  It even says so on our lisence plates!Pooh Bear didn't know before he got here, but he does now!

Our snow is special because of something called the lake effect, which basically means that as the clouds and air pass over the Great Salt Lake they absorb extra moisture and the clouds sort of 'pile up' on top of each other.  This causes heavy snow fall and extra light snow - which is supposed to be great for skiing on!None of us in our family ski.  (well, Matt used to, but he hasn't been in about 10 years.)  That's a little like living in house with a pool in the backyard and not swimming.  People are always suprised to hear we don't ski.  
But we DO play in the snow when we get the chance!  Tessa took Pooh Bear out to play in the snow and they had a great time!  

Because we live on top of a mountain (altitude of about 7000 ft) we get a LOT of snow!  The city uses a special truck called a snow auger to clear the snow from our streets becuase it take so long to melt off.  

It cuts right through the snow and throws is up into the yards to get it off the street.  It's amazing to watch!  You can see the snow that has been thrown in these pictures.Last year was a very snowy winter, the last of our snow didn't melt off until almost May!  This year we have had a lot less snow.  There's about 4 feet in our yard - just enough for Pooh Bear to get lost in for months!  Don't worry, we took good care of him :)

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Travelling Friend Update

We have had so much fun reading about Pooh's travels!  Today Maisie and I sat down and calculated the miles travelled so far.  This time, we're using the "cheating method" of using the internet, but next time we'll learn about how to calculate distance using a ruler and the map legend.  For now, we're mastering numbers and addition of larger numbers as well as time zones.
Maisie wrote down all of the mileage between cities (this isn't exact--there were a few short road trips during visits we didn't take into account):
Denver to Portsmouth:  2,019 milesPortsmouth to Budapest, Hungary:  4,128 milesBudapest, Hungary to Portsmouth: 4,128 milesPortsmouth to Woburn, MA: 44 milesWoburn, MA to Windsor, Ontario, Canada: 606 milesWindsor, Ontario, Canada to Salt Lake City, Utah:  1,490 miles
Total Mileage: 12,415 Miles     OR  19,918 Kilometers  ( 1 mile = 1.609344 kilometers)

So far, we've had Pooh in 3 time zones:  Mountain, Eastern and +8 from Denver in Budapest.  Maisie learned that when it's noon in Denver, it's 2 p.m. in Windsor, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  It's the same time in Utah and bedtime (8 p.m.) in Budapest, Hungary.

A very bigto Mary, Carl, April, Brannon, Melissa, Gabriella, Mandy and Tessa for their help in this project!

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Pooh Bear in Utah!

Pooh Bear got to Utah a few weeks ago, but we've been so busy with the Holidays that I haven't had a chance to post until now!

We've had a great time with our traveling friend so far, though!
The first weekend he was here Pooh Bear went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a sleepover with Tessa and Asher.  They rode TRAX downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.

Temple Square is the center of Salt Lake City, and the the begining of the grid system that Utah roads and addresses are based on.  It is also where church headquarters are located.

Utah is home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Most people know the church (and it's members) by the word Mormon.  The Mormon Church has a very interesting history!The Church was started by Joseph Smith in Palmyra, New York in 1829.  Church members suffered much persecution in the early days of it's establishment, and as a result moved around a lot before they were able to find a place to settle.  In 1831 church headquarters moved from New York to Ohio. In 1838 they moved on to Missouri.  In 1839 they moved again, to Illinois.  In 1844 Joseph Smith was killed in an Illinois jail.  Brigham Young eventually succeeded him as president of the Church.  In 1846 the vast majority of Mormons left Illinois and headed West. They ended up in Utah in 1847 and have been headquartered here ever since.  
But enough about the LDS church!
Back to the Temple Square Lights!
Each year volunteers, missionaries and church employees wrap tree branches with lights and set up Nativity Scenes for a dazzling Christmas display.  Millions of lights are used.

This is what Pooh Bear went to see!He had a great time and was a fun friend to bring!

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His final weekend in Canada!

Well Pooh certainly had a lot of fun while he was with us! We wanted to take him to see some sites here in Windsor before he left so the best place we thought was down by the river...the Detroit river.

He got to see the big bridge, the Ambassador Bridge, that takes him back and forth from Canada to the United States...there is also a tunnel but you can't see that since it is under the river ;) When you look the other way you can see many big buildings including the Renaissance Building in Detroit, Michigan.
There are some beautiful sculptures along the river walk also and some of them you can sit on. Here is Pooh bear sitting on his first 'elephant' and the 'baby'.

Pooh also learned about some history of Canada...

We had so much fun having Pooh here visiting us. We know that he will have fun at his next destintation, off to Utah he goes to meet some new friends :)

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We Remembered...

Today is November 11...Rememberance Day! We wore our poppies proudly to say that we remember those how have fought for us and for those how have sacrificed their lives for us so that we have freedom. Pooh also remembered with us during our moment of silence today and learned all about the importance of this day.

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Quick update...

Just wanted to let everyone know that Pooh is still here in Canada!

The flu bug came to visit our household so our weekend plans were cancelled. But we wanted to let you know that Pooh escaped the yucky flu bug and helped take care of us while we were sick :) He is such a kind, sweet bear.

We will be back soon with pictures of our future adventures!

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Happy Boo Day!

Pooh had soooo much fun trick or treating! He got all dressed up and received tons of candy.

We made sure that he didn't eat too much candy...we didn't want him to get a tummy ache while visiting us!!

Enjoyed seeing all the pumpkins and kids dressed up and even helped hand out the candy :)

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He arrived!

Pooh made it safe and sound to Michigan...just in time to go trick or treating!

He got to do some more traveling that day from Michigan to Windsor, Ontario, Canada (the custom guards were very nice and had no problems letting me cross the border) and his first night in Canada he got to watch some hockey...

The next day (Thursday) he went to school with his new friend Bella...He is having tons of fun and getting lots of attention from his new friends! Pooh is very excited about going out tonight for trick or treating and can't wait to get all dressed up like all the kids :)

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Off to Michigan

Well it is with a sad heart that I report I have sent Pooh off to his next destination, Michigan. I hope that he makes new friends and has a wonderful adventure. He was a joy to have as a house guest. He never made a mess, didn't snore and didn't eat all of our honey. So we wish him well on his journey to another part of the country. With him are some brochure of the places he visited with us and he has a lanyard with pins from all the places he has travelled thus far. I hope Pooh is glad he ventured out of his corner of the Hundred Acre Woods.

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TF: Salem

Salem is a great place to visit most times of the year. October, however has both good and bad points. It is probably the most crowded time of the year to visit. They celebrate Haunted Happenings all month so tourists are many and school groups also. Alot of high schoolers especially after reading the House of Seven Gables and the Scarlet Letter. It is a great seaside town, we really enjoy visiting it whenever we can.



This is probably the most popular and most recognizable museum in Salem...The Salem Witch Museum it chronicles the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in which 180 people were accused 19 people were hanged and one man crushed to death by stones. Pooh was to afraid to go in so we just took pictures outside.

We could not make a trip to Salem without stopping in at the Hawthorne Hotel a beautiful hotel that is in the National Historic Hotel group. That is where Michael works and here is Pooh in the lobby with the pumpkin family.

This is Brannon and Pooh(although he wouldn't hold Pooh for the picture) at the Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial. It is in memory of all of the fisherman that have been lost at sea. Most notable are the names of the men who were lost in 1991's "Perfect Storm", you may recall the movie starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlburg (a Boston native I might add).

We ended our day by stopping in at Hammond Castle, a medievil castle in Gloucester, MA on the northshore. Unfortunately it was closed for the day, but it is a beautiful castle that was built by

John Hays Hammond, Jr. between the years 1926 and 1929 to serve both as his home and as a backdrop for his collection of Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts. In addition, the building housed the Hammond Research Corporation, from which Dr. Hammond produced over 400 patents and the ideas for over 800 inventions

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