Sedona

Sedona is beautiful, the rocks are red! When we first arrived, it suddenly became cold and stormy. It rarely rains in the desert, but it did. And, the wind was going almost 30 miles an hour. We were cold, so we enjoyed the storm from the hot tub.

We had a fun pizza dinner and went to bed early. It was nice but a little cold the next morning. We drove to the top of Airport Hill and hiked around a little. I loved the feeling of sitting on the ledge of a tall cliff.  Then, we went to Chapel of the Holy Cross. It was crowded and a little boring. The church is built into the hilly red rocks.  I got in trouble for collecting money and my mom was freaked out by a tourist who dropped her drawers right in front of her and peed near the walkway! We didn't stay long.

After that, we hung out at a playground until we took a Pink Jeep Tour onto the Broken Arrow path. Witch is bumpy and crazy. So basically you ride in a jeep up the mountain.

Then we watched the sunset over the mountain it was beautiful.

After that, we went to bed.

In the morning we went to slide rock witch is one of my favorite things so far this trip. So we went to slide rock Arizona state park and went on a large hike down oak creek. When we got back we were tired so we changed into our bathing suits and slid down a slippery rock in the river.

Then we were off to the Grand Canyon.

PS, COMMENT.

Sequoia

Day 1: We drove from Yosemite with Grammy Char and Uncle Dave to the campsite where they are staying with cousins Wendy, Jane, Sam, Devon, Eric, and Daria. I don't get to see them very often so I was so excited to get to play with them! I am reading a series that Devin gave me in San Francisco, I also read two other books she loaned me while we've been driving: A Wind in the Door and a book about Einstein and the Theory of Relativity. After we played with Jane and Sam a little, we drove to our hotel. It was 7200 ft! On the way up, it started to get windy and it rained, then hailed, then sleeted. We couldn't even see but we knew we were on a cliff going up, up, up. Our hotel was nice and warm though.

Day 2: We met all our family at the museum and Sentinel tree. We all went to the giant Sherman Tree. We hiked around but then the clouds rolled in and we ended up picnicking in the cold. After that we drove to Lodgepole and the whole park was celebrating Earth Day. It was really exciting because they had a raffle and we won stuff. Eric won a lot of bottled water and my family didn't think it was very Earth-friendly. Then, we drove back down to go for a hike in the woods. It was a lot of fun. We walked to Tharp's log, where a guy carved a house out of a tree. Near there we saw a bear on the trail. (I think it was Jane who saw it first.) It was far away, but we watched it for a while. We also all wrapped ourselves around a giant sequoia tree. The first one we tried was too big, even for all 12 of us (I am counting Daria, but she's 1.5). The next we did worked!

After the hike, we went back to our hotel and had dinner at the lodge and went to bed.

Day 3: On our way out of the park, we met up with everyone again. We found a hike that was really fun, it had a small path with a huge cliff down to a river and really tall grass. The adults made us go back and we had a picnic. While we were eating, we started to play and I was balancing on a log and saw a rattlesnake. It stared right at me! Then, I called my cousin Jane over. Eventually, the adults came over and yelled at us to get away.

Then, we drove to the airport and said good-bye to Grammy Char and Uncle Dave. After we flew to Phoenix, we got into our car so that we can drive to Sedona.

Yosemite

Day 1: We're here! Finally, we are here. I can't believe we are here. Me, Autumn, Mom ,Dad, Uncle Dave, and Grammy Char. Earlier we went through the woods to dinner it was 2 miles (Dads idea) then we headed to bed. We are sleeping in heated tents. Autumn is with Grammy Char and Uncle Dave so I get Mom and Dad all to myself.



Day 2: This morning we went to breakfast, then we went on an 7 or 8 mile hike (round trip it was over 10 miles and 2,000 vertical feet that we climbed) and saw Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. I liked to walk up front with Dave. He knows a lot about a lot of things. Some parts were really narrow with steep stairs. Some of these parts were even wet from the spray of the waterfall. At the top, we could look down the waterfall.


Day 3: Today we went for a hike all morning around the valley floor and up to Columbus Rock (on the way to Yosemite Falls) then had lunch. Dave and I had a lot of fun building cairns. Then we had leisure time and after that walked to mirror lake, which actually looks like a mirror. Then we had dinner. We ended up walking 7 miles for the day.

Day 4: We woke up, had breakfast, and packed up to go. Then, we drove to Alder Creek. It had...ALDER TREES. See.

Then, we drove to Sequoia to meet up with more of our family at their campsite.

san fransisco

Yesterday my great aunt "Grammy" Char picked us up at the Emeryville train station.
We drove to Twin Peaks for a great view of San Francisco. I was really restless.
Then we went to Char and Dave's (my great uncle) house and met up with my dad's cousins Devin, Eric, and their 1 year old baby Daria. We went for a walk to Mt. Olympus, then to Tank Tower. It was a great view also.

Sunday:
Woke up and had breakfast with Grammy Char. Then, she took my sister and me to Buena Vista park.
When we got back, our family took the bus to catch a cable car. My dad, Char and Dave rode on the outside. We got off at Fisherman's Wharf, and walked near the Ghiradelli manufacturing plant.

We went to the marina and there were a lot of activities. We spun yarn to make twisted rope, and flag name necklaces. Then we went on the Balclutha ship. It is now called the Star of Alaska.

Then we met Devin, Eric, and Daria and had a picnic in the park. I climbed a very big tree with my sister. After lunch, we walked very far up a HUGE hill to Coit Tower. At the top, we took an elevator even higher and saw more views of the city.

After that we walked down thousands of steps and had ice cream at the Ferry building on the Pier.  Then we took a trolley car home. We walked over 20,000 steps in just one day!

The next day we were off to Yosemite.

States personallity

Illinois - closely packed small farms.
Iowa - long farms far apart and very small villages.
Nebraska - I was asleep don't know
Colorado - large mountains very cold, it was snowing
Utah - small towns far apart, very hilly, prairie in between.

Chicago

We are now in Chicago. First we arrived at Union station and took a cab to the hotel. Then we walked to LYFE kitchen and ate brunch. After that we walked to Maggie Daley Park. It was so much fun it had sections: The Sea, The Enchanted Forest, Slide Crater, The Watering Hole, The Harbor, and The Wave Lawn. In slide crater I went down the slides, I looked like this.

This is at the watering hole.

That night we went to dad's friend Josh and his family who own Revolution Brewery- a beer company. That night, we watched funny videos with his children until we had to go. His son, Max, is my age and we had a lot of fun together!

Then we went to bed. When we woke up in the morning we went to Yolk diner for breakfast, then we went to see the strandbeests. 

The strandbeests walk on the power of the wind but there's no wind in the museum so we pushed them. The ones that we pushed were basic there is tons of technology that goes in to the more complicated strandbeests. One example are fellers that can sense when something is in front of them. Some even has sweat glands that automatically lubricates the joints using pressured air and water.

Then we had pizza at Lou Malnati's and went to bed.

In the morning we went to the Willis tower( formerly known as the sears tower) I'll let the pictures take it from here.


then we boarded the train next stop San Francisco.

on the track again...?

I am now on a sleeper car. It's cool but slower than I thought, sometimes I even forget we are on a moving vehicle. To bed! errr Chicago!

On the train

We are one hour and twenty minutes from Albany, there we will get into a sleeper car for the night. Then wake up in Chicago!

So far, I am having a great time. I was nervous about the trip but now that we are on the train, I am excited! My mom and I played a round of cribbage. My mom also met the guys sitting in front of us. They are two brother-in-laws in their 70s traveling across the country too.  It is fun to meet people and chat.

the day is coming

We leave tomorrow from Framingham MA for Chicago IL. I am exited.

Vexillology

A couple weeks before we left for our trip, my family watched the Roman Mars Ted Talk about Vexillology or the study of flags.

Vexillography is the study of how flags are designed. Have you ever thought about how flags are designed? Roman thinks that flag design is very interesting and simple, but most cities break all the rules and their flags are horrible. The rules are:

1. Keep it simple.

2. Use meaningful symbolism.

3. Use 2 or 3 basic colors.

4. No lettering or seals.

5. Be distinctive or be related.

Looking at flags for the places we are going, here's what they look like.

It turns out that only 3 of the places that we are going have flags. The first flag is Chicago which is an AMAZING flag, it fallows all of the rules. It has great symbolic value.(more information here). The second flag is awful it breaks all of the rules. The last flag is decent it only breaks one rule.

Hello. As you may know I am going an an amazing trip cross country and am going to amazing places. I will write about my experiences here, so continue checking throughout the year. Bye bye now.