this is the real zoo!

hi everybody and excuse the lower case letters but i only have ten minutes left and trying to figure out the keyboard is a bit difficult.

we left zambia yesterday and crossed the zambezi river in a speed boat and now we are in botswana. i just had to take a three hour nap with the frauses as we got up at 5 in the morning to go on the morning game ride.

it was absolutely amazing! we sat in the backof a 4X4 vehicle and here is what we saw in three hours time:

cape buffalo including "buffalo bull"
kudu
spotted hyena, pregnant
the sunrise!
yellow bellied stork
hippos
guinea fowl also known as chobe chicken!
wart hogs
elephants
tree squirrels
ground hornbills

but the very best were the lions, oh my! we saw at least eight of them, but not the big guy. although some folks spotted him later. the mom was there and other moms and their cubs. they were playing and the main mom growled for everybody to come over. i have never seen anything like it...ever.

and as proud as i am to be a bear i would be quite proud to be a lion.

i have to go as the computer is flashing that i only have five minutes left. we are off to a late lunch here at the chobe marina lodge and then another game viewing expedition.

xo

teddy

zebras and monkeys in zambia

Hello from Zambia! I can not tell you how amazingly different this place is than home on Whidbey Island. There are no similarities whatsoever, although yesterday on our shuttle bus from the Livingstone Airport there was a man with a WAZZU/Washington State University baseball cap on, so that's a familiar name with many of you.

I will skip the 17-hour plane ride. It was actually OK and the Frauses did just fine. It was a long, long long trip, and we had to refuel in Senegal. Sue had three meals and saw three movies (Friends With Money, Aquilla and the Bee and Down in the Valley). The food was quite good and they served complimentary wine from South Africa. Sue went to sleep right after dinner, as did I. We were on South African Airways and everybody was very nice. I was again in the overhead bin but that was fine as it was very dark and quiet and I had plenty of yummy food in my little backpack.

We finally landed in Johannesburg, South Africa which the locals call Joburg, even in the newspapers. We stayed at the Metcourt Laurel at the Emperors Palace. This is the biggest complex I have ever seen with a huge casino, and indoor shops and a big food court and even roller coaster rides! They had a huge statue of David just like the one Sue and Bob saw in Florence, Italy some years ago and inside the ceiling is painted like a blue sky with white, puffy clouds. It was a bit strange and very Disney/Vegas in feel but the rooms were perfect.I think they are getting ready for the World Soccer Cup that South Africa is hosting in 2010.

We were all very tired and went right to bed after dinner.

Monday morning we had a complimentary breaky at the hotel and then took a shuttle to the airport. A few hours later we landed in Livingstone, I presume! Bob is driving Sue and Max bananas saying that all the time. In fact they are laughing a lot, especially this morning when they overslept and missed the tour of Victoria Falls (I told them to set their alarm clock!).

But it's not a problem as they can go tomorrow. Nothing is a problem in Zambia, it will work out. The city of Livingstone was a big shock to Sue as it is very remote and "uber rustic" according to her. Bob reminded Sue that Zambia is in fact a third-world country.

On the way to the Zambezi Sun Hotel the driver pointed out an impala. And when we got to our hotel there were zebras in our front yard (that's one of them in the photo above) and monkeys and baboons. Sue and I both laughed at that, as we have only seen them in zoos, not at hotels. Sue said, "Teddy, we're not in Langley anymore!"

Last night we went on a very fun sundown cruise on the Zambezi River aboard the African Queen. I have never seen a sunset quite so big and beautiful and they had nice drinks and appetizers for everybody. The Frauses got a lot of great photos. Plus we saw hippos, lots of hippos!

One thing I know for sure. It's hot, very hot. It's in the 90's, so Sue and I are going to walk over to the Livingstone Hotel and sit on their beautiful veranda overlooking the Zambezi and have a cool drink. You can even see the spray from Victoria Falls. The Frause boys went on a kayak trip on the Zambezi (they saw crocodiles!) after lunch and tomorrow morning they are going white water rafting. Sue is going to have a massage in a really neat white tent by the banks of the river. Hopefully the monkeys won't pester her!

Oh, today at breakfast a big monkey jumped up on one of the restaurant's outdoor tables and tried to grab a woman's food. It was a big to-do and everybody was chasing after the monkey. We have to make sure our doors are closed as otherwise they will come in our room. There are also lots of mosquitoes so we are putting on plenty of Deet every day. We have all had our shots (Hepatitis A&B, Oral Typhoid and Polio) and are taking our malaria pills every day. So far, the mosoquitoes don't seem too bad (and so far, nobody has had to take their anti-diarrhea pills!).

OK, off to have a cool drink and then maybe later take a dip in the pool. The people here are oh so very nice. And I'm a very lucky bear...

Copyright 2006 Sue Frause. All rights reserved.

off to africa!

Well, you can imagine how excited I am to be going on this big adventure to Africa with Bob, Sue and Max. We'll be gone for two weeks to South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. And Sue says we're going on two safaris, to Victoria Falls, Capetown, a Rhino Walk and the wine country. I can't wait!

Yesterday I flew with Sue and Bob (in the overhead bin, not my preferred seat!) from Seattle to JFK. It was an uneventful flight and we finally got to the Hotel Kitano in Midtown Manhattan around 10:15 PM.

They went to the hotel lounge and heard some jazz, the Billy Drummond Trio. They said they were really good, although they only heard the last few tunes. Then they went to some lounge for a nightcap and back to the hotel.

This morning I stayed behind while Bob and Sue did some last minute shopping. I hope they bought something for me! Sue had a fairly long list so they took a cab uptown. Afterwards they cabbed it to Max's apartment and the three of them had lunch at a cool noddle joint called Momofuko Noodle Bar (translated that means "lucky peach" in Japanese).

Now they're at Max's apartment while he does his final trip preparations. I am stuck back at the hotel with all the baggage. Not fair!

Our flight is at 5:55 PM Saturday night and they say we have to be there three hours in advance. We're flying on South African Airways, and it's a 17-hour flight with refueling in Senegal. I've already asked Sue not to put me in the overhead bin so hopefully she will let me sit with her. She and Bob have seats together and Max is behind them on aisle. It's a big Air Bus and everybody has individual TV/movie screens so hopefully there are some good movies for bears!

We'll land in South Africa around 5:30 PM on Sunday (they're nine hours ahead of the West Coast). It's spring time down there, but Max checked the weather and it was 92 degrees Fahrenheit in Zambia. Phew! But it's a bit cooler in Cape Town.

Oh, my mom said she was reading the new Oprah magazine and Oprah said she forgot her passport when she landed in South Africa. She even put it in a special pink passport holder so she wouldn't forget it. Six hours later, government officials gave her a temporary passport to enter the country, where she is building a school for girls.

I hope Sue remembered to bring my passport. I don't think Teddy has the same clout as Oprah!

Copyright 2006 Sue Frause. All rights reserved.

glacier national park is one cool place

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MONTANA -- You can imagine my excitement when Sue said we were off to Glacier National Park. Did this mean that I was going to see some of my relatives?

As our plane touched down in Kalispell, Montana I could barely (bearly!) contain my glee.

Glacier National Park is more than one-million acres with elevations ranging from around 3,500-ft. at West Glacier to more than 10,000-ft. along the Continental Divide. No wonder it's called The Crown Jewel of the Continent.

There are nearly three dozen active glaciers in the park, but I found out due to global warming, by the year 2030 park scientists predict there may not be a single glacier left in Glacier National Park. At one time the number of glaciers was an estimated 150 in 1850 and today there are approximately 35.

That's bad and that's sad.

Sue took me on a lot of cool hikes. The first one was with a really nice guy by the name of Pete Metzmaker of Glacier Guides. During the school year he's a science teacher in Whitefish, Montana. I bet his students really like him as he's funny and really smart. And boy can he hike!

Of course hiking is easy for me, as I get to ride along in Sue's day pack. We did a three-mile round-trip hike to Avalanche Lake with Pete and although it was a little warm, it was beautiful. And all along the way people would say, "Oh look, we really did see a bear at Glacier!" I'm glad I could make their trip complete.

For the next three days we did more hiking: Hidden Lake (where we saw mountain goats up close) and Grinnell Lake. That was a fun one as we had to take two boats to get there. I do love riding on boats, it feels good to have the wind blowing in my little furry face.

Park ranger Ginny West was our naturalist on the two-mile Grinnell Lake hike. She told us she had seen the back end of a bear just a few days ago and also pointed out fresh bear scat on the trail. For those of you who don't know what scat is, it's poop. That made Sue walk a little faster and be more alert for any bear sightings.

We stayed in some really neat lodges along the way: Lake McDonald Lodge and Many Glacier Hotel were the oldest ones. We also stayed at The Resort at Glacier in St. Mary. The nice fellow at the front desk gave me pictures of the forest fires that were nearby earlier in the summer but fortunately they were put out before any damage was done. Our fourth night was spent at The Belton Chalet in West Glacier. It had a really great restaurant and even a small spa where Sue had a massage. It's just what she needed after all that hiking!

Some of the people we were traveling with went rafting on the middle fork of the Flathead River. But I had a chance to meet park ranger Doug Follett, who I spotted in Apgar Village while having lunch at Eddie's Cafe (have the grilled ham and cheese, yum!).

I had never met a park ranger before, and Ranger Doug has worked in the park for 46 years. He was so nice and when Sue asked him what kind of bear I was, he said, "Broad head, round ears. He's not a black bear, he's not a grizzly. He's a teddy!" I was really happy when Sue took a picture of us...just me and Ranger Doug.

Best of all, he had one of those really cool Smokey the Bear ranger hats. I didn't have the nerve to ask them if they came in teddy bear sizes.

Ranger Dave also shared some of his poetry with me: "Walk with me where the grizzlies roam and see the places they call home."

Maybe I can be a park ranger when I grow up.

PS: Just in case you forgot, I turn one-year old on Thursday, Sept. 14. Happy Birthday to me!


Copyright © 2006 Sue Frause. All rights reserved.