Hello everyone -

Well, my computer time says it is 6:30 in the AM, so it is 7:30 PM here. I know you all will find this hard to believe - it is raining in Singapore. I mean really raining.

Today, we went over to Sentosa Island by cable car - not the like the SF cable cars, but like the sky cab ride at Disneyland (not WORLD, LAND, in So Cal - where the weather is normal) It was a lot of fun. There is not a whole lot going on over there, but we wanted to ride the cable cars. There are some touristy things over there to do, but none that really sparked our interest. We did go to the top of the Merlion - which is similar to the statue I posted a picture of a few days back. The merlion is part mermaid and part lion, and is the symbol of Singapore. The story goes that a prince found the island of Singapore - and when he and his men landed, they were greeted by a ferocious lion. Their eyes met, and in that moment, a mutual understanding of no harm came about. The prince decided the land would be called Singapore - the symbol is a mix of a lion and a mermaid. The lion is to honor the lion the prince encountered and a symbol of the lion watching over them, and the mermaid is the connection to the sea. There is a large statue over on the Island you can go up in - we went up and had a great view of the city (I will post later). While we were on top of the Merlion, a nasty storm started brewing - we quickly got over the the tram, which took us to Vivo City, the city's newest mall. Charna and I have guessed that there must be in excess of 50 malls on this island..shopping here is overwhelming. You can't make a lap in a mall and end up back where you started. We decided we had enough shopping and went to grab a taxi..and then all hell broke loose - it started pouring. We made it back to the hotel, but the intersection to the hotel had flooded out, so the cabbie dropped us across the street. We were pretty wet from just crossing the street, and it is still raining. We are meeting in 20 min for dinner, and I am hoping the verdict is to just stay here..it is hot, humid and nasty out. Plus, Charna and I went down to the hot tub, so I am feeling pretty relaxed right now. The only thing missing was my adult beverage!

Last night, we had a great time at the Night Safari! We had a perfect night for it! It is a good thing we went last night, tonight would not have been a good night to go! We got a cab out there and got there about 8 - getting a cab on Friday night in Singapore is difficult. We waited for 25 min for a cab that never showed up at the office. Traffic here is nuts too - Charna commented she is surprised there is not more road rage. :) Anyway, we got to the zoo and were all excited about the Bongo Burger..not so much after we ate it. It was, well...a little mushy in the middle..I only ate half mine. Thank God for Ben and Jerry's!

The animals were really cool. We ended up taking a tram around and then walking on the Leopard trail. We saw elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, leopards, tigers..and a whole host of other things. Sorry Jeff, no photos - the animals have "Keen" senses and flash photography was not allowed. I think Kinsel might have broken the rules and taken a pictures of the giraffes, I will check with him. Kinsel is a photo nut, for those of you that have not traveled with him. His memory card holds 2,000 pictures. I bet he fills it up before we leave! Haha - we love Kinsel to death - he will be one tough cookie when he gets back, that is for sure!

As for tomorrow, I think we are going to little India and then will take it easy. As I have made mention of earlier, the jet lag has really caught up with us and we are crabby campers without 9 hrs of sleep a night. But we are all fine, the project is going very well, and that is nice. We are all in agreement that Thailand would have been nice, but staying put is working out OK.

I hope everyone back home is doing well. In case anyone is worried, grammie says little Chelsie Belle is doing fine - misses her mom of course, but has very busy days going for car rides with grammie, playing with her cousin Ella (the brown brut) and taking all her toys out of the toy box and putting them all over grammies floor. Grammie has had to fix frog and cow more than once..don't you wish it just took playing with a frog and a cow to make you happy???

Have a great weekend! ~Nicole

PS - We ate Thai again for lunch today. Guess what was on the paper place mat we had at the restaurant, Kim B. ???? HA! You got it..Mr Grouper! We all had flashbacks...and HE DID NOT grace our table again!!!