The Farm

Hi everyone!

Miss Dana has some cousins who live in Queen Creek, Arizona, which is near Phoenix, Arizona. This morning, Miss Dana and her family (that's Pete and Meri - Miss Dana's brother and sister with their cousins) drove there to see Tyler, Carson & Cole's Farm. Even though they live in town, they have a one-acre lot where they can have animals and a garden and a big backyard to play in. Here are some neat photos from our trip there!

This is me saying hi to George the Sheep. They have had George for three years. Look at how much wool he has! The boys have seven sheep, including two new lambs. One of the lambs is drinking water in the second picture.





After we saw the sheep, we went to the chicken coup. Tyler said that they have 23 chickens, now, and they get eggs from them every day. Tyler and Carson collect the eggs and feed all of their animals every night after school. Their dad feeds all of them in the mornings when he gets up because he gets up really early. Look at how Tyler is holding both me and the chicken. That was pretty cool, but I was a little nervous because the chicken was squirming around a little bit. I was glad Tyler was able to hang on to the chicken so well!
















From there, Tyler and Carson showed us their pigs, as well as the barrel that they keep their pig feed in. They said that one barrel will feed the pigs for one-and-a-half weeks. So, they not only feed the pigs, but also make sure to tell their dad when they are almost out of feed so they can get some more.
















Next to all of their animals, the boys have their own garden. It is a very neat garden, where they are growing many delicious foods that they will be able to eat soon. With the animals so close by, they are able to use the manure from the animals as fertilizer to help the plants grow. Because of the climate in Arizona, they planted the garden in mid-February. You can see how well it is doing! I wish I were here to see everything when it was ripe. In the garden, they grow strawberries (that's me pointing to one of their first strawberries of the season), onions, sweet basil, tomatoes, Armenian cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, different kinds of peppers and carrots. Mmmmm!




















This next week, Tyler is on spring break from third grade (Carson is in pre-school). They spent some time in their backyard with Peter and Meri (Miss Dana's brother and sister) jumping on the trampoline. It looked like a lot of fun, but I think I would've gotten squashed (again!), so I stayed back and just watched.


As you can see, it was a big day and we had a GREAT time! Tyler and Carson hope that you enjoyed seeing all of our photos. It's fun to meet other kids who are just like you ... living in Arizona!

Have a great day! My next post will be from a new destination, but I still have to tell you all about our trip to the Grand Canyon with all of Miss Dana's family. Definitely another adventure!

Bye!
Flat Stanley

Wrapping up Singapore ...

Hello!

I'm sorry this is such a late post, my friends. I'll explain why in my next entry. But, for now, I wanted to finish telling you a little bit about Singapore. It was a neat trip, but again, we were very busy and did not have much time to do sight-seeing. Actually, Miss Dana had to spend a couple nights trying to find a place to do her laundry. We were staying at a very nice hotel in Singapore and they did not have a washer or dryer to use. The hotel staff would have cleaned our clothes for us, but they wanted to charge 20 Singapore dollars just for one pair of pants, which would have been just under $14 in the United States! So, as you can imagine, having to pay for every single item of clothing would have been way too expensive. We found a laundromat at a nearby mall that was able to wash it for us, instead for much less money. Here are a couple photos of views from our hotel. This one is the skyline of Singapore (which is a city and country all in one). On the bay, you can see the floating football pitch (soccer field, as we would call it in the United States).



You can also see the object that looked like a ferris wheel. It turns very slowly and allows passengers to get a bird's eye view of the city and bay. We weren't able to go in it, but it looked really neat all lit up at night. London has a similar structure called the London Eye.



On Monday, March 9, we left the hotel and boarded some shuttles to the airport. Our flight left at 4 p.m. in Singapore and, because of the time difference and the International Date Line that we crossed on the way to Thailand, we landed in Los Angeles at 4:50 p.m. on Monday afternoon after a 15-hour flight. (our view from the plane)



From there, we flew to Phoenix, Arizona, where Miss Dana's Godmother and uncle live and have been on vacation ever since and trying to readjust to the Pacific timezone, which is three hours behind Florida. My next post will tell you all about what we've been up to in Arizona ... Miss Dana will be seeing her cousins who live in Arizona. Tyler, Carson and Cole are 8 years old, 5 years old and 1 year old. She is going to have them tell you a little bit about what it's like to live in Arizona. If you have any questions for them, please have your teacher send us a note!

Have a great weekend!
Flat Stanley

Tournament Time!

Wow! I realize that I've only been "on the road" with Miss Dana for less than two weeks, but I can't believe that I have not sent you any updates from Singapore! It was a busy Tuesday and Wednesday with pre-tournament press conferences and assisting reporters with other interview requests. But, today (Thursday), the first round of the HSBC Women's Champions started - and boy was it humid! Thailand was hot, but the breeze kept the weather nice. Today in Singapore, it was mostly cloudy, but there was not much of a breeze, so it made the air feel very wet and heavy. Around 3 p.m., we had to stop the tournament for 52 minutes because there was lightning in the air. When the lightning comes, it is not safe to have the players and fans outside, so the rules officials blow their horns and make sure everyone leaves the course. Once the lightning leaves, they were able to start playing again. Even though we got done a little late, we still finished the round, which is good. The second round will start tomorrow at 8 a.m. - a little bit earlier than today's 9 a.m. tee times because there is another chance for rain. And when it rains, it pours here!

Since Miss Dana has not taken many photos, yet, I hope you all are able to look at some of these photos on LPGA.com. They are not only photos of some of the leaders, but there are some fun photos from the pro-am. A pro-am happens usually on the Wednesday of tournament week where the professional women play with a group of three or four amateur golfers for 18 holes. It is a very neat chance for some fans to get to know the players.

Well, I hope you have a great day, today! I'll try to have Miss Dana put some more photos up soon!

~ Flat Stanley

Sightseeing

Well, after the event got done on Sunday, it was time to pack up and get ready for Singapore. Usually Miss Dana leaves right away Monday morning, but there weren't enough flights, so she had to wait until Monday afternoon to leave Bangkok. Because she left so late, she was able to join the LPGA Deputy Commissioner Libba Galloway to visit some of the temples in Bangkok. It was very neat to see all of the buildings that were built in the 1760s and the Buddhas. Many of the people of Thailand worship Buddha - the religion is called Budhism. It is very neat to see all of the ways the different cultures live and what they believe.

This is a picture of me with Miss Libba and Miss Dana at the Wat Phra Kaeo, which is where the Emerald Buddha is and The Royal Grand Palace was also behind those walls. We visited another temple called Wat Pho, where the Reclining Buddha rests. He is very, very tall and very long - so much so that we could not get a very good photo of him! After we visited the temples and had lunch, we were dropped off at the airport. We left Bangkok and arrived tonight (Monday night) in Singapore for this week's event: the HSBC Women's Champions. It starts on Thursday and you can follow the players and their results, once again, on LPGA.com. Singapore was only a two-hour flight from Bangkok and we are now 13 hours ahead of Florida time. Which means, it is getting late and is time for bed. We need to rest up for another busy week of interviews and great golf!

Good night from Singapore!
Flat Stanley

The Media Center

Hello, again, everyone!

I hope you are having a good Monday, so far. I am actually getting ready for bed! We had such a neat week, but boy was it busy! Remember that nice hotel I was staying in in Thailand? Look at the pool it had! The weather was very hot because we were close to the equator in Pattaya City. The city is located on the bay, which you can see beyond the pool. I was very excited to hopefully get down and spend some time by the pool, but we never did! It was a very busy week and Miss Dana spent most of the day at the golf course helping out all of the reporters. Once the tournament started on Thursday, I watched her answer questions, bring players in for interviews and ask them questions, e-mail and print out information and results, and type up notes after each round that she sent to media not only in Thailand, but around the world, so they have as much information as possible to write their stories. On Sunday, we had a few minutes free, so she brought me into the interview area and let me sit on the couch where the players sat and use the microphone. It was really neat, but we did not have very many media attend my press conference. :) Haha!
The chair on the right is where Miss Dana would sit to ask the questions. The chair on the left was for the woman who translated the answers in English into Thai for the journalists to understand. She was very helpful and very smart! In this photo below, you can see all of the reporters and photographers working very hard on their stories. They did a great job and were very nice to work with. They asked a lot of good questions because they know it is very important to ask questions so they can understand everything and write interesting stories that do not have mistakes in them.


The Honda LPGA Thailand finished on Sunday, March 1, and was won by Lorena Ochoa, of Mexico. Not only is she the number one player in the world, but she is very, very nice and she and many of the LPGA players spent a lot of time signing autographs for the fans who came out to watch them play.

So, I guess, even though I did not get to swim in the pool, I got to see where Miss Dana works when she goes to Thailand.

Just wait until you read about the special trip we got to take after the tournament got done!

Bye!
Flat Stanley

Our first adventure

Hi, friends!

OK, we've started our adventure. This is a photo of Miss Dana and I on the plane before we took off.

Now, can you find a globe or a map of the world to see if you can follow where I have been? Please keep reading:

We left Jacksonville, Fla., at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21. We flew 2 hours, 30 minutes to Newark, New Jersey (which is near New York City). As we were getting ready to land, I got to see the Statue of Liberty lit up at night from the airplane. It was very beautiful, unfortunately, we did not get a picture of it.

At 10:30 p.m., we flew out of Newark for seven hours to Anchorage, Alaska. It was a long flight, but we were already so tired that we slept quite a bit on the plane. When you go such a long distance, you change time zones. So, when we landed in Anchorage at 1:50 a.m. in Alaska, it was actually 5:50 a.m. Sunday in Florida. They had to put more gas into the plane and get it ready for our next flight, so we sat down in the airport terminal for an hour to wait. I was disappointed because it was in the middle of the night and we could not see anything outside the windows.

At 2:50 a.m., we were back on the plane and getting ready to fly again. This time, we were going to be on the plane for 13 hours! That was a very long time! We flew south and west to Taipei, Taiwan. If you look closely on the map between Anchorage and Taipei, you may see a line called the international date line. Your teacher may be able to help you find it and explain what it is. We landed in Taipei at 7 a.m. Monday, which was 6 p.m. Sunday night in Florida. We spent one hour and 30 minutes there, then had one more plane ride to Bangkok, Thailand, which took 3 hours and 30 minutes.

Because Miss Dana works for the LPGA, she had to go all the way to Thailand for this week's tournament. There were a couple of players on our flight and some TV cameras were there to see them get off the plane. Once we got our suitcases, the tournament had a bus and some cars waiting for us.




We drove two hours from Bangkok to Pattaya City. When we got there, we were greeted and given these beautiful necklaces of jasmine and flowers - kind of like the flower lei's they greet visitors with in Hawaii. We arrived at the hotel at 1:30 p.m. on Monday in Thailand, which was 1:30 a.m. in Florida. That means, right now, we are typing this note to you at 11 p.m. Monday night, but you may read this Monday afternoon at school. Kind of neat, right?

Well, since it is so late here, I am going to bed. Below is the picture of me lounging in the chair next to the flower necklace, looking out our window. I hope Miss Dana will take me to the golf course tomorrow - Siam Country Club.

Bye!
~ Flat Stanley

My new travel partner

Hi, everybody!

I just met Miss Dana today. She lives in Ormond Beach and is a media relations coordinator for the Ladies Professional Golf Association, which means she works with journalists and TV reporters who want to report on the professional golfers at their tournaments. Miss Dana is getting ready to go on a long trip for work and I get to go with! I am going to be gone for quite a while, and if I wait until I get back to tell you all about my trip, I am afraid I will forget many details. So, we have started this blog so I can tell you about where I am going and post some of our photographs as we travel.

Well, I have to go. Miss Dana says it's time to start packing for the trip!