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.