Grand Canyon in the Snow

On Wednesday 2 April we woke up and had breakfast.

Then we drove up to Desert View and Watch Tower. There were pictographs and petroglyphs on the walls inside the Watch Tower. From the top you have a great view of the Colorado River.  The Watchtower was built in the early 1900s by a lady architect, Mary Coulter.

Next we went  to Navajo Point to watch the Ranger Talk about the effects on having the dam on the Colorado  River.  One of the facts I learnt was the Colorado River used to be red with the sediment in it and colorado means red in Spanish.  While we were there, Robin and I got our 2nd Junior Ranger badge.

We called into the Pioneer cemetery and saw Captain Hance's grave, as well as a memorial to war veterans and to victims of a plane accident which happened near Desert View in the 1950s in which all passengers and crew were killed.  Because of that accident, air traffic control started in the USA.

We looked at the Kolb Studio which showed a movie the Kolb brothers made while going down the Colorado River in 1915 or so.  We also went to Lookout Studio, another building designed by Mary Coulter.

We then got a free shuttle bus along the Canyon Rim to Hermit's Rest.  We didn't get to see a lot of the Canyon on this trip, as it was snowing quite a lot during the afternoon - the snow flakes were soft and flaky.  There was quite a bit of snow on the ground.  We had to get snow off the car windows.

America Grand Canyon

On Tuesday we went to Grand Canyon to walk in the Canyon. We went on the South Kaibab Trail. We saw some rock squirrels and birds, but not a lot else.  The top of the trail is at 2,195m and we went to Ooh Aah Point which is at 1,965.  The trail follows an exposed ridge line.  I felt scared when we went down as I was a bit worried I might fall off the edge and the path was a bit slippery at times with the small gravel on it.  Occasionally there were strong gusts of winds and it whipped up it stirred up dust.

We used the free shuttle buses to travel round parts of the rim, stopping and looking to see down into the canyon.   We also walked along part of the rim and were able to see the Colorado River at the bottom (but only from some parts) and also the bridge at the bottom of the South Kaibab Trail.  We went to the Yavapai Geology Museum to listen to a Park Ranger talk called Geo-glimpse, which was about how the canyon was formed.

After dinner, we went to the Shrine of the Ages to another Ranger talk.  Ranger Ron was pretending to be Captain John Hance who was known as the greatest liar of all time, and was the first white person to live at Grand Canyon.  One of the stories he used to tell was to look out for men, especially young men, but old too, as one day there was a young man at Grand Canyon strolling about and he was telling Captain Hance that he had the newest of everything.  The newest thing in the world were on his feet - Indian soled rubber boots! (the boots had rubber soles on them).  He said his boots had big grippiness, and could grip on to rocks.  He started to demonstrate the grippiness by leaping from rock to rock, and then, on his last jump, he jumped right into the canyon!  "Ahhhh", he screamed on his way down, and he landed on his Indian rubber soled boots and "Ahhhh" he screamed on his way back up!  Once he was back up, Captain Hance tried to grab him, but "Ahhh" again, and his bouncing continued all night.  In the morning, Captain Hance's friend said "I can't take this any more" and Captain Hance asked "What are you going to do about it?" and he replied "I'm going to shoot him".  As the friend was about to take the shot, Captain Hance smacked the rifle out of his hand and then said "Grab me my lasso".  Once he had his lasso, he swung it around and the next time the young man bounced up, he lassoed him right out of his boots and onto safe ground.  So, they didn't shoot the young man, but they had to shoot the boots as they kept bouncing!  I really enjoyed the talk that Ranger Ron gave, and laughed practically the whole way through it!

When we left the evening talk, it started to snow.  The flakes were very tiny white balls which only melted when we touched them.  I don't think there was enough to settle.

We stopped in for hot chocolate at the Masick Lodge, then headed off to bed.

America Going to the Grand Canyon

On Monday 31 March we went and had breakfast before we set of to The Grand Canyon in Arizona along Route 66. Once we left Robin and I were playing a game called "What Can We See". 

After a while I got bored of playing that so I was looking outside for a while. Robin kept getting us to vote on what game we wanted to play. No one wanted to play with Robin so he gave up.       

America Joshua Tree National Park and in the Car

On Saturday 29 March Robin, Mama, Papa & I went into Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP). The tallest Joshua Tree in it is over 43 feet. Robin & I were doing an activity to become a Junior Ranger for JTNP so we were doing lots of activities. We saw lots of rocks and boulders, most of them bigger than me. The thing that I noticed most was the landscape. I had expected that it would be barren with nothing but it had lots of wildlife and plants. 

We saw Butterfly's, Lizards, Kangaroo Rats, Darkling Beetles, Scorpions, Ground Squirrels, Tarantulas, one Gopher Snake, a Beavertail Cacti, a Chia, lots of Joshua Trees, Cholla Cacti, Mojave Yucca, Creosote Bush, Californian Fan Palm, Juniper & Barrel Cacti.

The places we went were Joshua Tree Visitor Center, Oasis Visitor Center, Hidden Valley, Barker Dam, Skull Rock, Arch Rock, Keys View, Cholla Cactus Garden & Ocotillo Patch.  

Then we went to the visitor center & we got our Junior Ranger Badges. After that we went to our hotel & went to Crossroads Cafe for dinner.

Personally I enjoyed Joshua Tree National Park.

Today we woke up and had porridge for breakfast, packed our bags & Robin & I watched TV while Mama & Papa packed up. Then we got in the car and started driving. 

I started my blog and when I finished I was doing some other things on my Chromebook.

After that we drove on Route 66, an historic route. We were still in the Mojave Desert which is where JTNP is. Later on we went into Oatman where we fed wild Burros (a donkey) that used  to work in the mine and they were left by the mine. 

We've ended up in Kingman which is still on Route 66, and we are getting to the Grand Canyon.

                 

 

America Trip

Today we were driving to Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP for short). When we were in the car Robin and I were playing with our new Lego. 

While we were driving we stopped at some places on the way. Julian is an old Gold mining town where we stopped to have an old fashioned Soda Float. I had the Vanilla flavour, Mama had Root Beer and Papa had Sarsaparilla.

The next town was Sultan Sea which was a low lying desert with no outlet. It was accidentally flooded in the winter of 1905.

On arriving at JTNP we went to the visitor centre and then to our hotel. After we put our things in the hotel we went for a swim in the pool. It was freezing, but I went in (nothing like a good swim in a pool during a hot day). Then when we got inside I broke my lego up to make a tank. 

After that we went up to JTNP to watch the sunset and we could also see the San Andreas fault line, Papa and Mama felt the shaking of it last night.                  

America Legoland & Kids Muesum

On 26 March, Robin, Mama, Papa and I went to Legoland for the day - it is about 30mins north of San Diego, in Carlsbad.  I was excited to go there because I would get to see lots of Lego blocks and models, and also go on rides.  One thing I was surprised about was that in the queues for rides, there were play areas for children with Lego blocks, and also that some of the things in Miniland could move.

Some of my favourite rides were a dragon roller coaster, the Coastersaurus (another roller coaster, this time with dinosaur themes), and driving small Lego cars around a set of roads complete with stop signs and traffic lights.

My favourite attraction in Miniland was the Star Wars dioramas, scenes from the different movies.  The one I enjoyed the best was the scene from The Clone Wars.

Before we left, Robin and I bought some Lego each - we both bought Star Wars Lego.

After a good nights' sleep, we went to meet up with Tante Thea for the day.  We also got to see and say good-bye to Miss Ronnie, who went to the beach for the day.

We went to the Children's Museum, which was interactive activities for children to play, learn and create.  There were messy things (bubbles, painting pictures and farm machines, making clay models), noisy things (a music kitchen, climbing ropes which had noises and music attached to them), and very colourful things (the Rain House, a bouncy castle, and the Rainbow Bridge (it had pictures of bananas on it which you could scratch and smell) - all things with hidden meanings and uses).  There were also chickens and an outdoor garden, where we made newspaper pots for dwarf beans.

After a few hours there, we walked around San Diego for a while, mostly along the waterfront.  We got to see lots of statues and memorials for US Servicemen along the waterfront, as well as a pelican and a sea lion or harbour seal.  We then drove up to the Presidio, which was an old fort above Old Town San Diego.

We ended our day by having dinner in an Italian restaurant in Little Italy with Tante Thea, our last time seeing her on this trip.  It's been great seeing Tante Thea while we've been on our holiday.

America San Diego #2, 3 & 4

On Sunday we went to USS Midway an old Navy Aircraft Carrier which is now a museum. When we got there we bought our tickets with Tante Thea. Once we were on board we got our audio tours and we got our headphones to use on  board. We went to all sorts of places that I can't remember but I can remember that we could not go on the bridge. We went to the Admirals Quarters, the Captains Quarters, the Pilot Briefing room, the Plane Control room and many others. The Midway planes shot the most MiG's in the Vietnam War.

On Monday Mama, Papa, Robin and I went to Balboa Park. First we went in the Museum of Air and Space. I went into the museum and I saw some of the things at the start and then I went on the flight simulator. It was awesome. Then we saw Tante Thea and Ms Ronnie and we saw a man making sail boats and he let us use them. That was the best thing I did that day. After that we saw the Cactus Garden. Papa, Ms Ronnie and Tante Thea got left behind. Then we went to the motel with Tante Thea and Ms Ronnie. We had pizza for dinner and then we went on a Carousel. Last we got some fries and an ice-cream.

When we woke up on Tuesday (Wednesday in NZ) we had breakfast. I had one waffle, scrambled eggs on toast with sausages. After that I had four packs of raspberry yogurt. Then we went on the train to Old Town and walked around for a while until we saw the Covered Wagon and we played on it for ages. When Mama and Papa arrived we went to them and we kept playing on the wagon. Then we went to look at the cemetery and had dinner at the Mexican restaurant. Then we came back to our hotel.