White Christmas!

It snowed a lot starting on the night of Christmas day, so we woke up to Boxing Day with a ground covered in snow. Strange Panda liked it a lot since he has natural camouflage in the snow, or at least he did until he got so grubby.

Christmas Day

Finally it was Christmas day! We got up early from the jet lag, so we got to look in our stocking which was filled with lovely candy.


There were a ton of presents under the tree because a lot of the family was coming over this year.


After we opened all our presents, we had a lot of fun playing with the wrapping paper too!

Heading to NC for Christmas

We headed back to North Carolina for Christmas again this year. Due to all the snow in London, we had to sit around in Sheffield for a few days before getting a new flight on Christmas Eve. The Chicago airport was fine though, with nice comfy seats for waiting in.


We arrived so late that Natalie and her family were already there and waiting for us!

Brief trip to the US for a wedding

We had a brief trip to Maryland, north of DC to see Li's wedding.


Sadly we did not have much time to go anywhere so we do not have any more pictures. We had to build this replica of the US Capitol building since we did not get to see the real thing again.

Heading home from Sweden

All good things must come to an end, and so it was with our trip to Sweden. Here we are on the train on the way back from the airport.

Exploring Uppsala

We decided to go explore Uppsala. It is a small city so we could see a lot in a day. That's the cathedral behind us.


In case you couldn't see, this is a statue of a sheep. It was pretty cool. There were lots of ducks around too. You can see one if you look closely.


We toured the king's old gardens which are now the botanical gardens.

We got to pretend we were the king of Sweden and could fire our cannons at the cathedral.

Through Stockholm to Uppsala

We went back through Stockholm to get to Uppsala. On the way we went to the Stockholm City Museum, where I found this lovely fluffy white rug to sit on.


In Uppsala we stayed with one of Dad's friends from Duke. This was our bed.

We were pretty exhausted after all that travel so we just went to bed.

Strange Panda explores the north part of the island

Bill was tired so he went to bed and I went with Dad to explore the north part of the island by bike. We found this boat but we couldn't find any oars so we didn't take it into the water.


I knocked on this old miner's house but no one was home.

Here I am on the bike with the water looking very pretty behind me.

Continuing on to the island of Ranö

After the military base we got to the island of Ranö. It had a nice little board telling us what was on the island, and asking us not to disturb any platypuses that we might find, as it was a nature reserve.


We made a nice friend at one of the farms on Ranö.


I decided to catch up on my reading.

Thankfully there was a nice bench to sit on by the beach so I was able to read in peaceful surroundings.

Joining the army for a bit

After the windmill we continued on until we found a military base on the island.


The army was very nice and let me drive this giant tank.


This was my favorite army vehicle though.

Can you tell why? It's named after me! Koolest Platypus Bil (slight misspellings but I can forgive them).

Bill's big biking day out

Dad and I rented a bike and explored the island, along with a neighboring one called Ranö.


There was a big, modern windmill in the middle of the island so we went to go see it.


There was lots of heather which was hiding delicious bugs.


It was much harder to see the water bugs because the water was quite choppy. I decided not to go swimming as a result.

I thought I would try some of my natural camoflauge here. Can you see me?

Utö Youth Hostel

The youth hostel on the island had great views in the rooms.


But the best part was that we got our own bed. It was great!

Taking the ferry to Utö

Bill and I took a ferry to an island called Utö. The ferry took three hours but it went past lots of pretty places. This is the inside of the ferry.


Looking out the window at the beginning we got to wave goodbye to Stockholm. That ferry in the picture was just like ours.

Wandering around Stockholm

We walked around the city and saw lots of interesting places on the waterfront.


Behind us is the Vasa Museum and an island which is mostly gardens.

That's the old town in the background there.

Arriving in Sweden

Dad took us to Sweden for a trip. We stayed at the airport the first night in a hostel made from a 747.


Here we are waiting for the airport shuttle to pick us up so we can take a bus to Stockholm.

Wasdale Head and nearby

The next day we drove on a windy road in the fog to get to Wasdale Head. Anna is holding us in front of Wast Water.


We also went to Muncaster Castle which was nearby. It was pretty cool.


Muncaster Castle has an owl sanctuary, so there were lots of owls. Thankfully they were behind cages so they couldn't try to eat us.

I liked this one because it had really pretty colors.

Down by the lake

After climbing the hill we went down to the lake shore to see the water up close.


I looked hard but I could not find any delicious water bugs swimming around on the lake. Maybe it was too rough for them. Maybe some other platypus had already eaten them.

Heading to Orrest Head

Once we arrived in Windermere we decided to go for a hike since it was good weather. We started up a hill to a place called Orrest Head which had a great view.


We stopped to rest on a bench at the top of Orrest Head and enjoyed the view.


Here we are on the bench again.


Behind us you can see the view we were enjoying of Lake Windermere. It was very pretty.