My Surprise Saturday Night in LA

Hi everyone. I bet you think I got lost here in Los Angeles. Nope. I didn't get lost. Kristin has been very busy working on the radio program. And I've been very busy playing with my pal Willa, watching Kristin and Rima "mix" the radio program, and enjoying my special spot in the back seat of Kristin's convertible.

I forgot how much time and effort it takes to make a radio program. This week Kristin and Rima finally finished the first minute of the program. Whew! I know from my previous trips with Kristin that the program is nearly 54 minutes....so getting the first minute done is important. Actually, the first minute is called the "billboard" and Kristin is supposed to spend a lot of time on it. She says if people don't like the "billboard," they might not want to listen to the full show.

Don't worry....Kristin and Rima have come up with the first "draft" of most of the radio program. The first draft is kind of like the first draft of a paper I write for school. I always have to go back and improve my first draft. Kristin and Rima are now working on making their first draft better.

Kristin told me if I was really good this week she would take me out on a special adventure on Saturday night. Well I must have been REALLY good, because Kristin told me to get my things ready late Saturday afternoon so we could go pick up Rima. Kristin also told me to bring my Cardinals shirt and hat because it might get cold. Hmmm...I wonder where we could be going??!!


Kristin picked up Rima and then she drove to one of the freeways. For those of you who follow this blog, you know Kristin doesn't like to drive the freeways in Los Angeles. I knew right then we were going somewhere very special. :)

Kristin exited at a place called "Dodger Stadium." I've never been to Dodger Stadium and I asked Kristin what it was. She told me that's where the Los Angeles Dodgers play baseball. Cool! We were going to a baseball game. I love baseball!


It was kind of chilly outside, so I was glad I wore my Cardinals jersey and hat. But as we were walking into the stadium, I saw lots of other people wearing Cardinals shirts. Hmmm....I think Kristin forgot to tell me something. So I asked her who the Dodgers were playing. That's when she smiled and said they were playing the Cardinals. How awesome is that?! The Cardinals are in town and I get to see them here in Los Angeles! This is an awesome surprise!

Here you can see me with Rima's ticket.

Our seats were in the "loge" section (one level up from field level) on the first base side, near the right field foul pole. They were really good seats! Here you can see me with Kristin. Right field is behind us.

And here I am with right field behind me.

Kristin says Los Angeles has not always been home to the Dodgers baseball team. She says the team moved here from Brooklyn, New York in 1958. Who knew? That means the Dodgers are celebrating 50 years here in Los Angeles. Interesting.

We were some of the first people in the ballpark. I like getting to the park early. That way I get to watch the players practice before the game. Here you can see some of the Cardinals players at batting practice.



Here you can see starting pitcher Kyle Lohse warming up in right field with catcher Yadi Molina. Kristin reminded me that Molina was catcher the night I saw the Cardinals win the World Series in 2006. Awesome!

There was still plenty of time before the game started after practice was over. So I spent time looking at the ballpark. It is very interesting. Kristin says Dodger Stadium opened in 1962. I had no idea! It is not like any other baseball park I have ever seen. Here's a photo of most of the field.

And here are a few photos that show why this park is different. I've never seen a baseball park with a view of palm trees.



There is also this very interesting sign on the hill behind center field. It says "think blue." Kristin says it is supposed to be like the famous "Hollywood" sign. OK...I am going to have to trust her on that.



Here's a really cool photo that Kristin took of the big California state flag in the outfield.

Just before the game started, several former Dodger players from the 1960s came out onto the field with kids for some celebration. I wasn't really paying attention to what the special celebration was, but Kristin pointed out that someone named Steve Garvey was standing on first base. Kristin says he is a really famous baseball player. I've never heard of him, have you?


FINALLY, the game started. I was super excited to be sitting where we were because we got to see Kristin's current favorite Cardinals player, Albert Pujols, play first base (he's wearing jersey #5 if you don't already know who he is).


Kristin likes Albert Pujols because he reminds her of Mark McGwire. I know Mark McGwire is one of Kristin's favorite all-time favorite Cardinals players. Her last bunny was named after Mark McGwire.

I was so excited when Albert Pujols came up to bat that I wanted my picture taken with the playing field in the background. Here it is. Trust me, Pujols is at the plate.


Don't believe me? Here's a close-up.

And here you can see Pujols swinging at the ball. Look carefully and you will see him swinging his bat AND the streak of the ball.


Is that a cool photo or what?!

Albert Pujols hit a double and helped some people score. The next batter, Rick Ankiel, also hit a double and more people scored. It was very exciting. And in the end, the Cardinals won the game 4-0!

I'm sure the Cardinals won because I wore my jersey (the same one I wore to the winning game of the World Series!). Here I am celebrating the win with my friend Rima.


Before we left the ballpark, Kristin bought me a baseball with a picture of Dodger Stadium on it so I can add it to my collection of baseball stuff. She also let me pick out two more baseballs for my sister and brother. Thanks Kristin!

Well that's the story of my exciting (and surprising) Saturday night in Los Angeles. Kristin is going to need her computer soon. Don't worry if you don't hear from me again for several days. It just means Kristin is super busy. I'll be fine. I will be with my pal Willa!

Hope all is well with you. Until next time....bye for now.

Living the Los Angeles Life

Hi everyone. I hope all is well with you. Life is GREAT here in Los Angeles.

Kristin has been very busy working, so this is the first time I've been able to have some computer time since we arrived on Tuesday night.

When we arrived, we got our rental car and checked into the hotel. We are staying at the same hotel we normally stay at when Kristin is here in Los Angeles...or LA as they say here....for one of these long trips. The hotel is nice. It has a separate living room, small refrigerator, microwave, and TWO televisions!

As soon as Kristin finished unpacking, we went to the grocery store. And just like she promised, I got to pick out a box of treats for my furry friend Willa.

I could hardly sleep Tuesday night because I couldn't wait to see Willa and give her my gift. Willa must have known I was coming, because she barked right away as soon as Kristin got to the door. Willa is 10 years old now...but she still acts like an excited puppy. She was jumping and barking to greet me. It was so awesome. And she LOVES my treats. Willa is a bit shy when it comes to taking photos, but here's a great shot Kristin took of me and Willa this week.


This is my third trip to LA with Kristin so she can "mix" the radio program. So I know this means she will be working TONS. I know she always worries I will get bored, but I told her not to worry. I have my own TV in the hotel room at night. And, I get to play with Willa all day when we are at Rima's house.

As you know, Kristin always rents a car when we are in Los Angeles. That's because you can't get anywhere without one here. And yes, the traffic is as bad as ever! But this year, Kristin surprised me when she picked up the rental car. This is the car she got.

How cool is that?! I've never been in a convertible before. I have noticed that there are a lot of convertibles here in LA. Kristin told me she's never driven a convertible but decided she wanted to live the "full LA experience" on this trip. I'm not sure I know what that means, but she does look like she fits in with the other drivers here who have convertibles. (Note to Kristin's co-workers....she is personally paying the extra cost for the convertible).

Riding in the convertible is SO MUCH fun. It has a really tiny back seat. Kristin says she's not sure why there is even a backseat because she thinks someone basically has to be "flat" to fit into the back seat. Well that makes it PERFECT for me!

Can you see me in the photo above? Kristin has even fixed the seat belt so I can ride in the back seat all by myself. How awesome is that?!

I really like riding around in the convertible. I like having the sun on my face. And I really get to see a lot more than I normally see when I am riding in the car. But I have learned that I have to take my hat off or it will blow right off my head!


Yesterday (Saturday), Kristin and I went to a nearby mall and a Walgreen's store so she could get some medicine (more on that in a minute). Kristin was shocked when she pulled out of the hotel parking lot. Traffic was a mess! She was surprised because it was Saturday and normally the traffic isn't so bad.

While we were waiting in traffic, Kristin told me part of Interstate 105 was closed and that's why cars were moving so slowly. As we got closer to the highway, I noticed that there were lots of satellite TV trucks, big semi trucks, and lots of people walking around on the closed freeway. I also saw people eating. I thought this was strange so I asked Kristin if there was some type of festival happening on the highway. Kristin said she didn't think so. I pointed out the food truck and then she told me that she thought the interstate might be closed so it can be used in a movie. A movie?! Kristin reminded me that we are near Hollywood and many TV shows and movies are made here in California. How cool is that!?

Kristin told me not to get too excited. She promised me she would check her computer as soon as we got back to the hotel just to make sure she was right. Guess what?! Kristin did look it up on her computer and the interstate WAS closed for a movie shoot. Kristin can't find which movie...but I don't care. I got to see a real live movie shoot. That's WAY awesome!

Kristin had to go to the drug store because she is really sick. She thinks her ears got infected on the plane ride here and now her sinuses are icky (and she lost her voice). She sounds just like my Aunt Lynn when she gets sick. :( Kristin told me she was sorry she didn't feel like taking me anywhere special this weekend. I told her not to worry. I will go anywhere she wants to go....just as long as I can ride in the convertible with the top down. In fact, I don't care if she just drives around the block. I LOVE riding in the convertible.

That's all for now. Kristin is still working really hard (despite feeling bad) so she needs her computer back.

Bye for now

Back from Austin...Headed to Los Angeles

Hi everyone! I've been so busy traveling (and trying to keep up with Kristin) that I haven't had time to tell you about my most recent adventure.

Last Tuesday, Kristin called to ask me if I wanted to go to Texas with her for a few days. Of course I said yes! Honestly, I don't even know why she still asks me whether or not I want to travel with her. I always have great adventures with her!

We flew to Austin on Wednesday morning. And King Tut decided to make himself known again. Both of our flights were delayed. Oh no! Somehow Kristin was still able to get us to Austin, Texas before dark. Whew!

Austin is the capital of Texas. See if you can find it on the map.

We were in Austin so we could visit my friend David Brown. You may know he is hosting the newest radio program Kristin is working on. David has a really cool office/studio in the basement of a building on the University of Texas campus. His office is part of the radio station he works for, KUT. Here I am with David as he works on cutting the script.

Normally Kristin and I travel to New York for the radio program host to voice the script....but I'm glad my friend David is in Austin. I didn't get to spend too much time there, but it seems like a pretty neat place.

Just before we left, Kristin bought me a stuffed armadillo with the word "Texas" on it. Thanks Kristin! I will add it to the rest of my travel collections.

And guess what?! I am super excited to tell you that I am leaving with Kristin tomorrow for Los Angeles. Why? Because that's where Kristin does that thing she calls "mixing" the final radio program. If you've read my blog before, you know this means I get to see my friend Rima and her dog Willa! How cool is that!?

I know Kristin is going to be super busy working on her radio program, but she promises to take me to the store so I can buy Willa some special dog treats before I see her on Wednesday.

Well I had better get packing. I won't be home until May 30th.

Bye for now....

Rio de Janeiro

The day after we visited the farms outside of Brasilia, the entire team got on a plane and we flew to a place called Rio de Janeiro....or "Rio" as the locals say it. Rio is big city along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. See if you can find it on the map.

Kristin says Rio is famous for its beaches including ones named "Ipanema" and "Copacabana."
I've never heard of these beaches, have you? I'll have to ask Aunt Lynn if she has heard of them.
It was pouring rain when we landed at the airport. It was also really late at night, so I didn't get to see the beaches. But I did get to see the beach the next morning from Kristin's hotel room. This is "Leblon" beach.
Here you can see me and Flat Gabby with Keith. Leblon beach is behind us.

There were people swimming in the ocean and I wanted to swim too. But Kristin said we didn't have time. :(

But we didn't have time because we had to take a cable car to a place called "Sugar Loaf Mountain." How cool is that?! It's like riding a cable car except the cable is ABOVE my head instead of under the street like in San Francisco.

Here you can Sugar Loaf Mountain from the ground.

Kristin says the mountain...which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean....is almost 1300 feet tall. WOW! That's really tall. She says it is named Sugar Loaf because people think it looks like a loaf of sugar. A loaf of sugar? I've heard of a loaf of bread but I've never heard of a loaf of sugar, have you? Kristin says many years ago, sugar used to be packed into the shape of a loaf to be shipped. I had no idea!

Riding the cable car was REALLY fun! Here I am with Keith and Flat Gabby on the the cable car.

When we got off the cable car, this is what we saw. How cool is this photo!?

I could also see this really interesting statue that I had also seen from Kristin's hotel room. She told me it is called "Christ the Redeemer" and it is a very famous statue in Brazil.

The clouds kept moving over and across the statue while we were on Sugar Loaf. Here is another view of Christ the Redeemer.

I also noticed a number of small houses packed along some of the hills across from Sugar Loaf Mountain. Kristin says these are some of the "favelas" of Rio. She says the people who live there are poor just like the people we saw in Sao Paulo. This makes me sad.

Just as we were leaving I saw this lizard on the rocks. It was the first lizard I have seen on the entire trip. And yes...Keith was NOT super happy to see it.


Here's a photo of the radio team during our visit to Sugar Loaf. From left-to-right: Kristin, Simon, David, and Keith.

After our visit to Sugar Loaf, we stopped at a gas station. This was a cool gas station. It was in the MIDDLE the road.

I thought we were there to get gas for the van. But Keith told me we were there to look at the station itself. That's because the station sells "Alcool" or ethanol. Now I understand why we visited the sugar farm and the place where they make machines that make ethanol earlier in the trip.

Keith told me that 90% of the new cars in Brazil run on ethanol. I also learned that the taxi cabs in Rio can also run on natural gas. I had no idea!

Here you can see the gas pump. The ethanol pump is on the right. The gasoline pump is on the left.

While we were waiting for Steve and Simon to finish filming at the gas station, Kristin walked down the sidewalk in the middle of the road so I could see this really cool sand castle. It shows some of the famous places of Rio.

Not very far from the sand castle, I saw these interesting buildings along the beach. Kristin says they are food stands.

But the food stand on the right in the photo above isn't just any food stand. It's a McDonald's! This is the most interesting McDonald's I've seen yet!

I really wanted to go to McDonald's to get some ice cream (it was HOT outside). But Kristin told me we didn't have time. :(

We didn't have time because Kristin and Keith had to get into cab so we could get to the airport for our flight back to Chicago. Bummer...I really wanted to spend more time in Brazil. I definitely want to come back here again.

I want to thank Kristin and Keith for taking me on another great adventure. I also want to thank my friend Simon and my new friends Steve and David for being so nice to me.

That's all from Brazil. Until my next adventure....bye!

On the Farm

Hi everyone! I must apologize for not finishing my Brazil updates until now. I have had SO much homework since I got back. And Kristin has been so busy with her computer that she hasn't had time to help me with photos. So please accept our apologies.

The same day we rode on the boat in Santos, we got on a plane and flew to Brasilia. Brasilia is the capital of Brazil (I guess that makes sense). See if you can find it on the map.

Brasilia is a very interesting place. All of the buildings and bridges look very modern. Kristin says that's because the city was built in the 1950's by "modernist" architects. I'm not sure what Kristin means by "modernist" but I can tell you that many of the buildings look like they were taken straight from the Jetson's cartoons.

I also learned that Brasilia is something called a "planned' community. That means there are specific places for everything in the entire city. For example, ALL of the drug stores were in one block. How strange is that?

Like in Sao Paulo, we spent more time in our van than actually visiting the cool buildings, so I only have a few photos to show you. This is a really cool bridge that goes across a lake that was built when the town was built.

And this is one of the many interesting buildings I saw from the van.

The morning after we arrived in Brasilia, Kristin told me we were going to drive outside of Brasilia to visit a farm. At first I thought Kristin was kidding, but then I started to see this as we got further away from Brasilia.

Can you tell what's growing in that field? If you guessed soybeans, you are correct! I didn't need to fly all the way to Brazil to see soybean fields. I see them everyday in the summer back in Iowa. I even saw the same seed corn signs I see in Iowa. Can you believe it? Look closely and you will see Kristin is holding me in the photo below.

I could tell Kristin didn't think I was too impressed with the soybean fields. So she asked me to look closely and tell her what was different about the fields here in Brazil. Hmmm....they look the same to me. That's when she pointed out that many of the fields we saw were brown and ready to harvest. So? Then Kristin reminded me that the farmers in Iowa had NOT planted yet this year. She's right! Now I was really confused! Kristin smiled and told me that because Brazil is south of the equator, it is fall here right now. And because Iowa is north of the equator, it is spring at home. Who knew?!

Kristin also told me that Brazil is the largest "exporter" of soybeans in the world. That means Brazil sends more soybeans to other countries than any other country in the world...including the US. I had no idea!

The first place we stopped was something Kristin called a "farming cooperative." That means several farmers were working together to make as much money as possible. Don't tell Kristin, but it was kind of boring at this place. No one was really working. I did get to see an interesting "elevator" or place where grain is stored.

A few miles up the road we visited the site of something called "AgroBrasilia 2008." It wasn't open yet, but workers were setting up all sorts of displays including small fields of different crops. I could also see where tractors were going to be on display (but they weren't there yet).

I told Kristin that "AgroBrasilia 2008" looked similar to something I've seen before...I just couldn't name it. Kristin told me it reminded her of the Muscatine County Fair. YES! That's exactly what it reminds me of! I had no idea they had fairs here in Brazil.

Since there wasn't much for me to do at the ag fair (there were no rides for kids), I was bored again. But Kristin told me to be patient. She told me we were going to visiting a working farm in a few hours. Plus, she said I might even get to ride a combine if I was good. I promised to be REALLY good.

Well I must have been good, because Kristin kept her promise. Soon we visited a farm not far from the ag fair location. Here they were harvesting soybeans.

I was really exited to get to ride on the combine....but I'm not sure my friend Flat Gabby was excited. I convinced her it would be OK to ride with Kristin. Flat Gabby still wasn't convinced so I told her I would even hold her hand. She agreed. Now before you say anything...I don't like to hold hands with a GIRL, but it was the only way Flat Gabby would ride with me. In the end, it wasn't SO bad to hold her hand.

Kristin would only let us ride in her pocket because she was worried we would blow away. At first I was upset, but it really was windy on the combine since the driver had the door open so Kristin and Steve could tape the ride. Don't worry, Flat Gabby and I did get to see through the top of Kristin's pocket. Here you can see a photo Keith took while we were riding the combine.


And here I am with Kristin and Flat Gabby after we got off. It's a good thing I have some spare clothes because we were COVERED in dust!


Here you can see the combine transferring the harvested soybeans to a truck that will take them to an elevator like the one we saw earlier in the day.

If you look closely in the photo above, you will see Kristin near the rear of the truck with her recorder and microphones. She sure looks funny there, doesn't she?!

Here's what the field looked like after the combine was done.

Kristin says the sky looked amazing. Well I'm not so sure about that, but it did look interesting. What I thought was amazing was the farmer's truck. It's a small Chevy truck. How cool is that?!


Well that's my review of my visit to the soybean farms near Brasilia.

Until next time.....