Location:
St. Paul Minnesota
Host: MsSylarFord/Stephanie
Date: June 1-9 2009
George
comes to St. Paul Minnesota. He is eager to start the day with
his host
MsSylarFord aka Steph. They check
the message boards
for fun with their fellow boardies before heading to work at
the Jewish
Community Center child care facility.
George
thoroughly enjoys spending the day playing with the kids on the
playground. He especially loved the slides and the stroller ride.
During
the lunch break they get a treat at Carbou coffee and
some hot pockets. George wonders if this is the flavor Hurley
threw
against the wall in the show. Hmmmm.
Back
at the JCC he hangs out with his new friend Boomer the bear.
Boomer also
travels by visiting the children at their homes.
George hangs out with Snoopy too.
After
work George eats at Stephs favorite restaurant Chilis and then
goes to a Weight
Watchers meeting to tell everyone
about his all fish biscuit diet.
Back
home George plays with Rowdy the stuffed dog.
Sings Karaoke and plays Wii with Yoda.
Another
day and another great place to explore.
Steph takes George to the famous Mall of America in the
nearby town of Bloomington! (George & Steph are under the letter F)
George sits Comfortably in the letter C, and Lounges in the letter L.
Inside
at the Nickelodeon Universe theme park,
George poses with Uniqua and Pablo from
the Backyardigans
and Dora the Explorer.
And
at the Lego Imagination Center
he asks Boba Fett if he's ever
played Wii with yoda.
After
all the fun this week it's great to relax with
a dish of black bean brownies and of course watch Lost.
George
says, "Goodbye Minnesota, I've had a great time.
And interesting numbers you've got on that
plate."
He also ponders if some day,
somehow, maybe he can visit Hawaii.
Wouldn't that be cool?
Nebraska
Location: Omaha Nebraska
Host: LostLoverSue/ Sue
Date: June 10-16 2009
George Bear arrives in Omaha and this time feels it would be
better to write
about his adventures for his website himself.
George writes: I came
to Omaha just in time for the NCAA College
World Series.
Saturday was opening
games at the CWS and my hosts Sue and her son Luke
had to weave around the
crowds to get to the big statue at the front of the stadium.
ESPN had a boom truck with a camera scanning
close-ups of the whole statue.
When they
got out of the way some nice LSU fans were nice enough to pose
with me at the Road to Omaha statue.
Right next door to the stadium was the Henry Doorly
Zoo. If you ever watch
CWS on ESPN
Sports you will see the Worlds Largest Indoor Desert dome in the
background
behind the stadium. When we were inside the Dessert Dome,
I thought I was
transported to the Tunisian Desert. Nearby
was the Lied Jungle.
It's the worlds largest indoor rain forest and I felt as if I was transported to the island.
Good thing Luke kept me company.
Over to Bear Canyon we got to see my own kin! I wonder if they feed them fish biscuits.
After fighting the crowds at the Zoo, I managed to see old
and new train engines.
Union Pacific
has their headquarters in Omaha and my hosts husband works there.
While in downtown Omaha I got a picture of me in front of
their Central Park Mall and
the Quest Center. This was the venue for the Olympic swim trials. This is where
Michael Phelps qualified to go to the Olympics and of course later won so many medals.
New to Omaha is this new pedestrian bridge. On the other
side of this bridge is Iowa.
Here is the Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company
headquarters.
See the huge mural on the front of the building.
During the Olympic swim trials they had a
huge mural of a swimmer on the front.
If
you're old enough you may remember an old TV show called Mutual of Omaha's
Wild Kingdom starring Carl Perkins. This was long before the Discovery Channel.
On the other side of town is the real Father Flanagan's Boystown.
Made famous by the movie Boystown starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney
which was filmed on location right here at Boystown. Today the village of Boystown
has been surrounded by the city of Omaha but it has its own zip code, post office,
police station, schools, etc and is home to 550 boys and girls living in 70 residences
lead by family-teachers. These are highly trained married couples there to provide
guidance to the youths during their stay. I got to get my picture with the
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" statue in front of the history building.
Inside I found the actual Academy Award Spencer Tracy won for playing the role of
Father Flanagan in the movie, he donated it to Boystown.
Here I am inside an old bus now on display inside the museum.
The richest man in the world lives here. Looks like Warren
Buffet is home today,
his garage is open and I can see his cars. He bought this
house in 1937 for $31,500.
Today it is
valued at 770, 000. A pretty modest
house considering how rich he is.
This
isn't even the most expensive house in town.
This town has hundreds of big houses valued at 1-10+ million
dollars.
Lots of neighborhoods filled
with million dollar mansions and Mr Buffet lives here.
You may even catch a glimpse of him with his
buddy Bill Gates at his favorite steak house.
His other favorite place to go is Dairy Queen of which he is a major stockholder.
Omaha is also home to Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air
Force Base.
Interesting to note, on
September 11, 2001, the President was brought here to SAC
headquartersto be
kept safe during the attacks of that day.
This is the SAC Museum.
