Alive Museum

The Alive Museum claims to be "Korea's original and biggest chain of Illusionary Entertainment Museums" and it didn't disappoint! On the first day of Little Man's holiday break, we headed there to check it out. We had a blast wandering around and taking countless photos in the 3D art. Here are some of our favorites!

All bow to King J

Lookin' good, Mom!

This whole scene is disturbing...

Those are some good moves

Trying to keep Singapore from flooding

Eeewwwwwww!!

Babies

Speaking of babies... watch out for that big one!

You know you're having

a bad day when...

Hello from Western Australia

To escape the heat and humidity of Singapore, we decided to head down under for some cool, spring weather. We flew into Perth, explored the city and took a day trip to Rottnest Island.  Then we rented a car and drove along the coast to Margaret River. With a few stops to check out the ocean - and an incredibly long jetty - we made it to the picturesque town of Margaret River. With vineyards around every corner, a cute main street full of shops & restaurants, beautiful rocky coastlines and kangaroos, we loved everything about this place.

Riding around Rottnest Island

Nothing beats chasing waves

We made it 1.8km to the end of Busselton Jetty

An area near the beach that was burned in a wildfire

We loved the beautiful sunsets

Walking down to the beach

The best way to visit the vineyards

is with a tour... do you have a Skipper?

A new friend

Yippeeee! Running around the vineyard

while Mom and Dad taste wine.

Smile Bug!

Feeding the animals at a petting zoo

A momma kangaroo but we never saw her joey!

We loved the amazing Karri

trees in the Boranup Forest

Selfie in the cave!

Catching Up... Again!

Time keeps on speeding along and although I love having this blog, I find it falls to the bottom of my "to-do" list! Our fall was busy with school activities, photo club excursions, visitors and travel.  Here is a re-cap of our past few months starting with some photos from around Singapore.

The view from Mount Faber

looking across to Sentosa Island

From the other side, a view of the city

Hey there, Mr. Iguana!

Carvings on a display about Singapore's history

Henderson Waves bridge

The entrance at the Chinese Garden

A bridge in the garden

The view from the Twin Pagodas

Inside one of the pagodas

Circle Line Art

The Circle Line is the subway line that circles the city -- creative, huh! What I didn't know, is that every station on the line (29 of them!) has some unique art work or architecture. My photo group toured some of the stations to experience this unique art.

Several of these "cartoon" murals are located in

Bishan station. The artist was depicting life in Singapore.

Stadium station is filled with lines.

Lines, lines and more lines!

An empty train... you don't

see this very often!

This sculpture in Promenade station gets quite

a bit of attention. Especially when 12 ladies

with big cameras are taking photographs!

From the basement level looking up

Esplanade station

Ghost Month

The Ghost Festival (also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival!) is celebrated during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar; which is usually in August. Taoist Chinese believe the gates of hell are opened during this month and the souls of the dead are freed and allowed to roam the earth. Because of this, we learned people become very superstitious and don't make big purchases, move into a new home, start a business or make any other changes in their lives that might disrupt the ghosts. Burning barrels and makeshift altars are very common on the side of the road and on sidewalks.

People burn incense paper, incense sticks

and ghost money in these barrels. They

burn them so the spirits will have money!

Little Man and I ran across this

altar on the sidewalk. Along with

candles and incense, people leave

food for the ghosts. Little Man asked

why the ghosts need probiotics...

hmmmm...  that's a good question!

First Day of School

Little Man is super excited for the first day of school. It's hard to believe he is in Grade 2 already! We're all looking forward to a great year!

Looking good!

Heading down to the bus...

it comes early at 6:55 a.m.

Maine... The Way Life Should Be

We love seeing this phrase on the "Welcome to Maine" signs. And it sums up our summer visit so well -- family, friends, bonfires, lakes, fishing, seafood, ice cream and beautiful coastal towns. We had an amazing time and can't wait to do it again next year!

Picture perfect Wilson Lake

Cousins and best buds

Giant lobsters...

and lobster salad, lobster stew and

even grilled cheese and lobster...

Yummy, yum, yum!!!

Someone very special celebrated his 8th birthday

Driving Aunt Donna and Uncle Mark's boat

So much cousin fun

Two boys in a canoe

Snugglin' up with a black bear

Egg Rock Lighthouse

We took a beautiful sunset cruise on the

Margaret Todd and then the next morning,

we went fishing on the Tiger Shark!

Family!