Annapolis

Annapolis was not a fair place. We all know that it's the recession and people are getting laid off. But that doesn't mean that you have to trap people and demand money. Well, unfortunately, that is what the police department did. I drove down an avenue(the exact name slipped my memory) in this little town. It was pretty nice with quaint little streets and nice houses. Up ahead, I could see lots of cars pulled over. I was intrigued and therefore slowed down. There was a man in pajamas sitting on a bench on the side of the road. I passed him and suddenly, I was pulled over! "What did do?" I asked the policeman. "Well, that man over there was gonna cross but you didn't let 'em!" This outrageous statement nearly made me shout. "He was sitting there, so how could he have any intention to cross?" You know the real kicker then? The policeman just said "Beat's me." He proceeded to charge me $80. I circled around again back to the little street. The hobo-guy was still sitting there. "QUICKLY! Cross already!" I yelled as loud as I could. "What?" "Cross already!" "I don't need to cross now." he said. That infuriated me even more. When I passed the policemen, I rolled down the window and said, "That guy didn't want to cross." He yelled across the street to the hobo-man. "Is that right Joe?" That hobo was actually a policeman dressed up! Joe must have said yes because the policeman thew his pen at me as I was driving away.

The three c's

The three c's that we went to were Cincinnati, Chicago, and Cleveland( in that order). Cincinnati had nobody on the streets even though it was a weekend afternoon. It turns out that everybody was at a concert. Cincinnati had a huge library. The downtown was full of one way streets. That made it confusing. We ate lunch at a La Rosa's. Something happened later.

Then, we went to Chicago. Actually, we went to Naperville. It was a pretty nice small town. There was free parking and a big bell tower. Chicago was not that nice. It took you thirty bucks to park for an hour. The Chinatown however, was really nice. The food was exceptionally good. The stores had wonderful products and they were all at reasonable prices. The grocery stores sold teas, spices, herbs and others.

Cleveland was also like Cincinnati. They had a large city with barely any people in it. The did have a Rock and Roll hall of fame though. The streets were narrower than Chicago streets because Chicago burned down and it was rebuilt with bigger streets.

Udvar Hazy

One of the things I saw in the Udvar Hazy Center was a collection of foods that the Russian cosmonauts ate. There were things like vacuum-packed bread, coffee and cream(which you squeeze out of a tube), cabbage soup(same idea of eating) and others.

There was also some American food like vacuum-packed M&M's.

The next display case that was interesting was the Charles Lindbergh display case. There were pins with little airplanes made of shells and stuff that didn't make sense with Lindbergh's plane slapped onto them. There was a Brotherhood of Some Monks pin with the plane circling the globe.

In this picture, you can see pins, cigarette cases, watches, buttons, letter openers, and a figurine. I even saw a hand washer soap thing called Lucky Lindy! There were bookends with his face and coin banks and mugs and other stuff.

D.C. trip part 5

We went to the Steven Udvar Hazy Center. It had a lot of airplanes, gliders, and gondolas of hot air balloons. Not to mention helicopters, models, artifacts, and uniforms. I took pictures of all the cool airplanes. They are below.

Beechcraft King air 350 (above)

Messerschimdt 163 Komet ( above)

German WWI biplane (above)

We also went on a tour. The tour guide told us that in their collection, they had a plane that was the same model as Hitler's plane. He also told us how the Enola Gay chose bombing targets. We also learned that the Aichi Seiran thing was meant to attack San Diego. They tried to do this with huge submarines and catapults on them. Over all, the tour was pretty interesting.

D.C. trip part 4

We went to the American History museum. We saw the Gunboat Philadelphia. That was really cool since it was a wooden boat with real cannons and stuff. It was like our Lego pirate boat except with only one mast. It had 3 cannons and 8 swivel guns. It was sunken by a british ship. A 24 pound bar shot sank it.

I also saw the Star Spangled Banner. The first American flag. It was much bigger than I imagined.

D.C. trip part 3

We went to the Natural History Museum to see the butterflies. We saw them and they were pretty cool. There was a cool blue Morpho that we couldn't photo since it was always flying. We could actually see the butterflies well since the room was small and many were resting on leaves. They even had cocoons. So many butterflies were there that it was very easy to photograph them. We also saw the ocean exhibit. It showed that one time the great killer of the seas was a ammonite. It was basically a snail! I also saw thatanother beast was a scorpion!

D.C. trip part 2

We went to the Museum of the American Indian. It was pretty cool. The outside was Kasoba limestone or something and the surronding area had decorative statues. We first watched a film in the 'Lelawi Theater'. It was about how Native Americans had roles in the community. We saw some folktales about some weird people who jumped into the sky and became stars. I also saw crafts and canoes and statues. There was also a place called Our People. It had crafts and gold and guns. The gold was all from Inca Peru and the Aztecs. The Spanish made the Incas pay one entire room full of gold and two others full of silver to get their king back. The Spanish, after the ransom was paid, just killed the king and ran away. The guns were all from North America, with a few from Siberia and Europe. It talked about how the guns affected Indian life. The one that looked coolest was the Siberian Eskimo's gun.

D.C. Trip part 1

We went to the Jefferson Library of Congress building. At first, we were about to go to the Madison Building but some one said that there was nothing to see. So we went to the Jefferson Building. We had gone here before but hadn't fully explored it yet. First, at the Info desk, we got 'passports'. It was where you put your passport into a machine and you did Learning Quests about information in that exhibit. I liked the 'Exploring the New World' exhibit the most. It was about the exploration of South America and the Caribbean. In that exhibit, I liked the 'Monster or Human' activity the most. It was where a old mapmaker put random things on his map and you had to decide whether they were monsters or humans.

The sad thing about the Jefferson Building was that you couldn't read any books. All you could do was watch other people read books.

Boreal

Boreal was this skiing place near Lake Tahoe. It had probably eight or nine ski lifts to different ski slopes. I only went on four of them because I was a beginner. The one I liked the most was called Castle Peak. Usually, I would go too fast and fall over. The third or fourth time, I did it without falling. I also liked the smallest one, Nugget. It was fun even though it was small. I never fell down on that slope. My brother showed me Cedar Ridge, which was a crazy one that went to the top of the mountain. Cedar Ridge had a lot of powder snow. I went down a small hill and then got stuck. Besides the powder snow, there were bumps. I went over one and fell on my back. But, all in all, it was pretty fun. The lift on Cedar Ridge was cool as well. It went fast and every time it stopped, it would swing back and forth. The 13th or 12th tower was leaned over so that was a creepy part. The one that I did not like was the Sunset Boulevard thing. It was the tallest one and I was definitely not ready for it. I liked skiing because it was fun and it was something that we never did before.

Milpitas and San Jose

I had a very good time in California. We only visited Northern California around the Bay area though. First, we went to San Jose. It was pretty cool and there were a lot of Chinese restaurants. We stayed in the Embassy Suites near Milpitas. The hotel was pretty cool as well. There was an atrium and it had a pool with living fish. There was also bamboo in the atrium. The coolest part was the glass elevators. They stuck out from the wall so you could see who was in the other one. Also, there were elevators on both sides of the hotel so you could see who was in the other ones as well. My brother and I played "Elevator Tag" where you try to tag the other person but you can go down elevators and stuff.
We spent some time in the Milpitas Library. It had moved into a new building and it was way bigger. We applied for library cards, got them, and got a whole bunch of books to read. The new library was bigger, with more computers and shelves. It even had a second floor. It was really busy. We could barely find a parking space in the parking lot.The two coolest thing is San Jose were the "Christmas in the Park" and the Tech Museum. The Christmas in the Park was a small section in downtown San Jose with decorations and displays celebrating Christmas. The best part was that all the displays were moving. The people in it were moving and they were dancing and stuff like that. I liked the Gingerbread house or the Santa Railroad Train the most. The following pics are of the Gingerbread House, Santa Railroad, Ornament mine, and Caribbean Christmas displays. All of them could move.

The Tech Museum was also really cool. There was a ball machine outside. It was where there was a conveyor belt and it brought up some balls to the really top of the machine and from there, the ball rolled on the tracks and hit all sorts of obstacles. Sometimes, it would go through some chimes or bounce off a wood block. When we got inside, we didn't need to pay because we had a membership. there was a second story and we went there first. It had an alphabet machine that could write your name with alphabet blocks. The sign said that the robot remembers the exact location of all the blocks. There was also this other machine nearby that drew you. I liked the alphabet machine better because the drawing machine made me look like a gorilla. I also saw this weird game where you have to get the machine to the edge of the cliff without going over. Downstairs, there was an invention lab and other exhibits. There were the lightbulbs that were powered by the bikes and a lot of other green things.