Big Cities

We have been very busy in the past few weeks in two of the most famous cities in the US: Washington D.C. and New York City.

 Let's start with the nation's capitol. One of the first tours we took was of the Capitol.  Now, we took a private tour of the place so we got to see tons of murals on the walls and ceiling. But the main thing there was the Rotunda. In it were multiple statues of presidents and important people. In another room there was a statue for each state. On the ceiling in the Rotunda there was a massive mural that was just so beautiful. Plus, Washington was in the middle of it (which, by the way, he would've hated).

 Then we luckily got in for a tour of the president's home: the White House. There was a painting in every room we visited, and in most a clock. We saw some of the china that they used in the White House, which had changed dramatically over the years. My favorite part was how Lincoln's portrait stood alone in a room because his family requested it. And at the end, we stood in front of the President's seal!

 We also got a little tour of the Supreme Court. All they talked about were the court cases and how they couldn't do all the cases. But the building itself was cool!

The memorials were stunning! We didn't get to go to the top of the Washington Monument because the elevator was under construction (Boo!). The Jefferson Memorial was very impressive with the 19ft tall statue of Jefferson in the middle. The statue weighs 5 tons! The Lincoln Memorial has 145(?) steps total, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong. Lincoln's statue was also 19 ft tall, like Jefferson's.

Now, the Vietnam Memorial is a little different. It's a wall with every single solider's name on it. It's got tons of flowers and medals put there by the families. As for the Korean War Memorial, it had a wall with the names of those soldiers and then a small field of statues, looking like soldiers in enemy territory.  While we were there, we also saw the Naval Memorial and the Air Force Memorial.

Then we visited Arlington Cemetery. We got a tour of JFK's grave. His wife, Jacqueline, wished for him to be buried there. She also wanted an Eternal Flame to be placed upon his grave. She got both her wishes. JFK's brothers were buried there too.

As if seeing all the monuments during the day wasn't enough, we got a tour of all the monuments at night as well! The funniest bit was that the Washington Monument had eyes!

We went to a lot of museums while we were there! One of our first museums was the Newseum. It was really cool because it had news headlines and pictures from around the world. It even had a piece of the Twin Towers and a chunk of the Berlin Wall! That was one of my favorites. Time for the Spy Museum! This one was awesome because we got to see a lot of spy gadgets and secret codes. Oh, and you can't forget James Bond's special section of the museum! This is another top choice, the American History Museum.  This one is all about objects from different time periods of the U.S. It is really fun to see all the objects that make up our history! The saddest museum, by far, was the Holocaust Museum. It really explained the emotions of those people living in the camps. It's fairly self-explanatory, however. It's always hard to go through those types of museums.

 I've covered MOST of the stuff we've done in Washington D.C, so we can move on to New York City! Of course, one of the first things we saw was the Statue of Liberty. Not only did we see it, but we got to go inside it! We walked up a bunch of stairs to get to a very pretty view of the city. We also got to see a cool museum about how the French built it and why. They also showed previous models of what it would have looked like if they stuck with those old designs. After that, we got zipped up an elevator to the 102 floor of the Empire State Building. It was a little freaky, but we had a great view of New York and the Statue of Liberty! How about "Night at the Museum?" One of my favorite movies was filmed at the famous National History Museum. My favorite part of the museum was the skeletons, but the Hope Diamond was very cool too! Then we took a lovely boat trip around the harbor, where we learned about the history of New York a bit more. We couldn't go the full way around because of construction.

The final things I'm gonna talk about are the Broadway Shows that we saw. We saw Anastasia, Aladdin, and The Play That Goes Wrong. Anastasia was very pretty, with some very pretty singing involved. Aladdin was very fun and musical as well. And The Play That Goes Wrong... was absolutely hilarious. The idea was that they mixed up the professional actors with college students. While it was definitely my favorite, all the plays were amazing. That is all that I have to say about New York for now, but I might make a part 2!

Sorry this blog has been so insanely late! It's taken way too long... but thanks for reading!

Busy In Paradise!

 Wow have we done a lot in the past few months! We have done 3 main things though: Discovery Cove trainer for a day,  Universal Studios, and Walt Disney World. These things were so fun, I had to talk about them in a blog.

 First up was Discovery Cove, with the Trainer for a Day experience. This was certainly something to remember! We went and fed some birds and otters. We got to touch an armadillo and a SLOTH! I was so exited! But not as exited as my mom. Then we moved on to the water portion of the adventure. We went snorkeling, which I loved. We also got to feed rays and fish. They bashed into us and circled around us trying to get the food! I got to reach down and touch a fish. Next, we met an Epaulette shark. It was so tiny! Finally, we did my favorite thing, which was swim with dolphins!! We got to ride on their back and belly, and we got to kiss one! My favorite part was when two of them pushed on my feet with their noses. It was amazing!

 Moving on to the theme parks, Universal came next. We got the VIP experience. We went on over 10 rides while we were there because we could skip to the front of the line.  My favorite ride was the hulk ride. It goes upside down 9 times! We also got to visit an animation school, where students learn how to create and design movies. We saw a sound studio and a 3D printer. It was really cool to see that students helped make some famous movies. For dinner, we went to the Chocolate Emporium. The food was incredible! The milkshakes were mason jars with giant pieces of dessert on top. One of them was a confetti shake with a piece of cake on it! We had to get the desserts to go because we were so full.

 Last but not least, Disney. You really do have a magical time! We went to all 4 parks, plus Disney Springs. The first and main park there was Magic Kingdom. It was where Cinderella's Castle stood towering over Main Street. We saw two muppet shows at the Hall of Presidents, plus a show about the presidents. We went on Space Mountain a bunch of times too. My favorite park, Animal Kingdom, came next. It was where my favorite ride was as well as the Safari rides. On the Safari ride, I saw a baby hippo, a baby giraffe, a baby elephant, and a baby warthog. That was so fun! We also went on this ride called Expedition Everest, where there's a museum of Yeti tracks and proof of Yeti existence. Next up, the famous Hollywood Studios. We rode the Rock'n'Rollercoaster with Aerosmith. We entered the Twilight Zone at the Tower of Terror. But my favorite part of Hollywood Studios was the Star Wars stuff. We met Chewbacca, BB-8, and Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren wanted me to join him, but I said no. He said I couldn't deny my destiny. There were also Storm Troopers wandering around the park at all times. Finally, a trip around the world at Epcot. It had the best food of all the parks. It also had the rides Test Track, Soarin', and Mission Space. But in all the parks, my favorite part of Disney was the ride Flight of Passage, where you turn into an Avatar and ride a banshee. It was a surreal experience. It feels like you're actually there. It was the best ride I've ever been on. Disney overall was an adventure I'll never forget.

 That's all for this blog so stay tuned for more blogs by Erin.

Vacation At Coconut Bay

Today's blog is about this awesome 9-day vacation that we just took to St. Lucia. St. Lucia is a tropical island in the Caribbean. We stayed at the Coconut Bay Resort & Spa. The reason we went to St. Lucia is because it was my brother Reese's last winter break from college. He graduates in May. It was about a 4 hour long plane ride to get there. I went there with my aunt Amy, my grandma Cherryl, my parents, and my two brothers.

While we were landing, we saw the luscious, green island coming up ahead. It really was stunning.
When we got to the hotel rooms, we saw that we had a view of their mini waterpark. I spent most of my time there playing with Ethan at the lazy river.

The Coconut Bay Resort & Spa is all-inclusive. We went to the buffet for breakfast, had drinks for lunch, and went to a different restaurant every night. We also went to the spa. I got a manicure, pedicure, and a haircut. I didn't expect them to cut it as short as they did! They cut off 8 inches of hair. My mom got a matching haircut because she wanted to support me. :)

We did 5 excursions while we were there. That was a lot to do in 9 days! The first excursion was a Catamaran Snorkeling Adventure. We visited 2 beach stops. I saw tons of cool fish. It was a lot of fun! I swallowed a lot of salt water though. Still, I would definitely do that again. We also ate lunch at  a buffet thing. They had a really cute cat that I spent most of the time with.

Then, we went zip-lining. While we were walking there, there was a snake in the rafters! Yikes! There were 12 courses of the zip-line. It was through a rainforest, which was so green that's most of what you could see. One of the lines was 800 ft. long! I wish that I seen a parrot on the zip-line. They said you could, but that it was rare. 

Next, my grandma, my aunt, my brother and I went shopping as a late Christmas gift. My parents and Reese went separately to look around island. We went to 2 different towns. The major city there was Castries.

The most difficult excursion was a bike ride. It was through the rainforest to a waterfall. It was very pretty. We got to taste some fresh coconut that our guide opened with a rock. Now, the bike ride was very hard. It was really muddy, it was slippery, there were some thin bridges, it was steep, it was just really challenging. Both grandma and Amy fell. But the waterfall was incredible. The photo doesn't do it justice.

The final excursion was a horse-back ride on the beach. That was also really fun! My horse was pretty naughty though. He kept trying to eat the grass. He kept getting really close to the guide as well. Our guide had to push him away with his feet. The horses also got into the water a little bit. They liked the water.

I loved sitting in the hammocks, or chilling in the pool. Overall, St. Lucia was one of the best vacations I've ever had! 

Attractions In Texas

One thing about Texas is that it has so many places to visit. One of the places we visited was the Perot Science Museum. My favorite exhibit in the museum was the Sports room. It was very interactive. You could race fast people and animals. We raced a cheetah, which was gone before we put one foot down. It taught you how your body works. Another exhibit was a fossil room, where you could learn about extinct animals. Again, it was very interactive. Ethan and I could create prey or predator and fight each other. The prey had to defend itself against the predator, whatever it might be.

Next, we went to the Melting Pot for my birthday dinner. It was a marvelous fondue restaurant that we went to with my mom's friend, Kerry. It was my first time having fondue. It was fun because you could cook your meat in the fondue. I had s'mores fondue for dessert!

After Dallas, we traveled to Houston. While we were there, we went to the Space Center. We learned about the moon landing with Apollo 11. We saw some real spacecrafts, and we got to go into a cargo plane and a space shuttle. I had 2 favorite parts: a Mars presentation and a science presentation. The Mars presentation talked about the rovers and how we will get a human on Mars by 2040. The science presentation was about air pressure in space and what would happen to different objects without air in space. 

Now, we are in Corpus Christi, and we are enjoying the weather and beach. Stay tuned for more blogs by Erin.

The 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

We went to John F. Kennedy's museum in Dealey Plaza. Here is what I learned.

JFK was born on May 29, 1917. His parents were Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose F. Kennedy. John had 8 other siblings. He was not a very healthy baby. John suffered from diseases as an infant, such as whooping cough, measles, and chicken pox. He was almost 3 years old when he suffered from a life-threatening disease. About a month later, he was better.

September 12th, 1953, John married Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 7 years later, he became the president of the USA. He was big on civil and equal rights. His blunder was when he tried to invade Cuba. The mission backfired. Cuba attacked back. John prevented a crisis in Cuba. The Soviet Union planted nuclear bombs in Cuba. John sent an army to block the Soviet Union from entering Cuba. After a 13 day standoff, Russia backed down and removed the bombs. John was considered a hero.                                                  
                                         

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country.

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.

His other famous achievements included the signing of the Nuclear Test Ban and the Space Race.
Russia sent a satellite called Sputnik 1 to orbit the earth on October 4th, 1957. JFK said that we would land someone on the moon in this decade. It didn't happen until 1969.

November 12th, 1963, JFK and his wife arrived in Dallas, Texas. Secret service was there. But, at 12:30 p.m., there was a gunshot. John grabbed at his throat. More gunshots. John fell suddenly. Realization slowly crept in. He was driven to the hospital. John had been shot in the throat and head. The second shot had missed.

The people waiting at the Trade Mart were confused. Finally, the announcement was made 2 priests who were with the President say that he is dead. The official announcement came shortly afterward.

7 witnesses said they had saw a rifle on the 6th floor window. The police closed down the building and went to investigate. They couldn't find the man anywhere. They found a rifle and some food. They scanned the fingerprints and they led to Lee Harvey Oswald. Lee had lived in Russia for 3 years and was a part-time worker at a gun company. The police searched everywhere. Then they got a message saying that a police officer was shot down. They eventually found Oswald in the Texas theater. Lee was shouting, "I didn't shoot no one!" Shortly after Lee was arrested, he was shot. The police found Jack Ruby to be the killer. He was charged for murder.

Overall, I liked the museum. It was very informative. We got to see where Lee camped out. We saw the exact places where JFK was shot. I never knew anything about JFK before this. He died and left his young kids without a father. But, he did have a lot of achievements. I highly recommend that you visit there yourself.

Writing Assignment

I've been doing descriptive writing for one of my homework assignments. Here is my character.

There was once a knight, Sir Finn Ramshorn, who was known for his courage. People also saw that he was kind, helpful, heroic, humorous, and self-effacing. He was pleasant to be around. The townsfolk noticed his long, curly, chestnut hair. His gold-tinted armor shone in the light.Yet, despite his perfect appearance, he was clumsy, and he often tripped. No one ever heard him raise his voice; it was gentle but deep. He was beloved by all.

The Solar Eclipse

We drove 12 hours total, not including stops, to see the total solar eclipse. It was one of the most amazing sights in the world. It was so cool to see the world dim around you! It looked like the moon was eating the sun! It suddenly turned dark in the middle of the day. The cornfields around us turned grey.

We placed ourself in Savanah, Missouri for the eclipse. We thought it would be cloudy, so we drove 4 hours total to Concordia, where, as it turned out, we were right. We managed to see a perfect solar eclipse. Our neighbors at Savanah told us that the clouds had blocked the eclipse.

This was definitely worth the ride. It's a once in a lifetime experience. If you missed it, you can go to Chile on July 2, 2019.

 Stay tuned for more blogs with Erin.