Road Trip Day 1: Plane to Vancouver
To Vancouver we had to take the plane. We went to the Toronto airport and we had a pass so we could go into the fast line, since in the normal it was completely full. We had to wait in a line to use a machine that prints out tags for our bags. The people in front of us were really slow and we went a lot faster than them. After we got the tags on our bags, we went into a short line to put our bags into the plane. This process took no time at all. After our bags went onto the plane we went into the security line. The line was really, really long. But since I have two air casts, they put us into the family line, which is about five times shorter than the regular one. But it still took a little bit of time to pass through, because there was only one metal detector. After I went through the metal detector, I got my boots swabbed. Once they completed the swabbing, a security guard pulled aside my bag, and started to rummage through it. They thought there was a weapon in my bag, but it was just a pair of plastic scissors in my pencil case. Finally, we went to find where our plane loaded. We were in D39, and it was really far from the security spot. Once we got there we waited for about 25 minutes until they started loading. In the front of the plane there were special seats that looked comfortable and cool. These seats had pillows and foot rests, so that the occupants could sit back and relax during the flight. These were for business and rich people who would spend tons of money on a seat. Our seats were on the back of the middle section of the plane. All the seats could recline, and on the back of the seat in front of there was a screen where you could watch movies, or look at how close we were to our destination, and other information about the plane ride. On the plane ride I played my DS, iPod, and I watched Pokémon with my brother on my computer. Since the plane ride was 5 hours in total, my brother and I got really hungry. So my mom bought us a pizza and a wrap to share. They were both really good. Once the plane ride was over, we went to get our luggage. It took about 15 minutes for the bags to start showing up, and it took even longer before we spotted our first bag. Then my great aunt and uncle brought us to our cousin’s house. When we got there it felt really late since there was a 3 hour time difference, but it was still early in the morning. We got there at about nine and back at home it was one. Going to a whole different time zone was a fun experience, and a great start to our trip. Hopefully, all gets better as the days go by.
3 days at Vancouver
Once we arrived at my cousin’s house, I dropped all my bags and hopped into the nearest chair. A little while later, it was time for lunch. For lunch, I had a quarter of a sandwich topped with ham, cheese and lettuce, and then I ate a couple of wings. I only liked the honey garlic wings out of the three different types, which were teriyaki, honey garlic and spicy teriyaki. I ate one teriyaki wing and two honey garlic wings. Since that was my second lunch of the day, I didn’t eat very much. After lunch I begged my dad to let me go onto the trampoline, but he wouldn’t let me because of the condition that my feet were in. Around 20 minutes later, he gave in, allowing me to jump around for 10 minutes. My brother and I had lots of fun playing with each other on the trampoline. One thing we played was to try to touch a certain pack of leaves, since there was a tree right beside us. The highest I could jump was the lowest my brother could jump, but sometimes we jump at the same time and he bounces me really high. When that happens I usually can’t land it because it is to hard an impact for my legs and my back bends backwards and I fall. Playing on the trampoline was lots of fun. When we went back into the house, our cousins were back from their camp. They went to a camp where they got taught how to make movies on a computer. Then we went to the beach. It wasn’t the kind of beach that you would expect. The beach was covered in big stones, instead of sand, and there were lots of dead jellyfish and big crabs. We spent a lot of time looking underneath rocks for crabs, and we were very successful. We found lots of little crabs and baby crabs. It was really cool for my brother and I to see lots of wild crabs, because we had never seen any before. We had to walk really far to get to the car, because my cousin parked very far away. After that we had dinner, and then we left to sleep in our cozy hotel
The Grand Canyon walk
Are whole family was really excited to walk the Grand Canyon. Every about five minutes I had to fix my casts because the ends of them kept on slipping out of my casts. My brother started to get bored so my dad went with him so they could walk faster and without interruption. Once they every certain amount of time the ends of the cast kept slipping out. When they left it was fine because we kept the water so about every twenty minutes we have a drink water. Walking down the Grand Canyon was amazing. The view was always really good. When we went farther the view was still absolutely amazing. Before we made it to the first rest spot, my mom and I saw two squirrels fighting under a rock. We think they were fighting for the cover away from the rain. In a couple of seconds one squirrel won the fight. Then a little while later the rain ended. My dad and brother only got misted from the rain that rained on my mom and I, that’s how far away from us they were. The path was all twisty and curvy, which is the reason why it is 10 miles down on the path. A long time later we found my brother and dad who were sweating. So it took my mom and I an hour and thirty minutes to get as far as we were going to go. My brother and dad were feeling bad because they thought that my mom and I had turned around a long time ago. So we started walking up as a family. After a kilometer we had a water break. Then we kept on walking and a little while later we stopped to have another water break. Then we started walking again. Once we were about 3 kilometers away it started to pour on us. I was soaking from top to bottom after a matter of minutes. We didn’t take any breaks once it started pouring, because I didn’t want to stop while I was soaking wet. I kept on stepping in puddles which soaked my feet. Once we were about a kilometer away my mom started to pretty much drag me. At first the rain was fine because we were hot and sweating. But then it started to rain really hard and it was not fun at all to walk up the Grand Canyon while it was pouring. Once we got to the top we found my brother under a roof. Then he told us that dad went to get the car, and he told Jace to wait until he saw us and walk straight and don’t turn. So that’s what we did and we didn’t find the car or dad. So we turned around and started to walk back. My mom was piggy backing me, so we could share body heat because I was freezing cold. We stopped at one of the bus stop spots, so my mom could try to call my dad. First she tried on someone else’s phone but it didn’t work, so then she tried her own phone but it also didn’t pickup. So we started to walk again. Then we found our car and dad. Then we were happy that we could finally be hot again.
Hoover Dam
We woke up at our hotel and then we packed up and left. We were in the car for about half an hour. We got there early so that we could make sure we had a spot in the 9:30 tour. When we got there we walked on top of Hoover Dam and looked around. It was really cool looking at down at the water and seeing how big Hoover Dam is. Then we went into the lineup and there was only one person in front of us. Then my dad and brother went back up to look some more at the top of Hoover Dam, while my mom and I saved a spot in line for them. For the whole time I read my book which is really good. I’m not sure what my mom did. My dad and brother came about five minutes before they were going to open. At 9:00 when they opened there were probably about 35 people. Then they had to check if we were carrying anything bad. They did the same thing they did at the airport. Then we went into a room with a big T.V. screen. Then we watched a short 20 minute movie telling us about how they built Hoover Dam. Then we went on our tour. First we went with forty people to use an elevator to one of the rooms over a water pipe. There our tour guide told us more about how Hoover Dam was built. Then we took another elevator to the turbine room. At the turbine room we got to see the top of the turbines. We learned that the only ones producing power were the ones with tops lit up in yellow. The tour guide told us about the turbines and how they work. Then since were in the Dam tour our tour wasn’t over. Then we went into the dam and into one of the ventilation windows. It was cool to be able to see out of the inside of the Dam out into the outside. Then we went into a tunnel and he told us about the tunnel and why there were numbers and letters in it. Then he showed us the elevator box. He told us not to kick it a whole bunch of times. Then he showed us super steep stairs. It’s almost as if you’re walking straight up. After that our tour was done. Then we went into the car for a 3 hour car ride to our Grand Canyon hotel.
Walking the top of the Grand Canyon
After Hoover Dam we had a 3 hour car ride to our Grand Canyon hotel. At the hotel we dropped off all of your big bags with the stuff we didn’t need in the car ride. Once we dropped off our bags we went into the car for another hour. It took about forty minutes to get into the Grand Canyon national park but it took us twenty minutes to get into the parking lot. Once we made it to the parking lot we went to the wall were you can look out over the Grand Canyon. It was an amazing view. It was really cool looking into the Grand Canyon. After a little bit we went onto a shuttle to so we could see different views. The first view we saw was Pima point. It was a really cool view. The view was different than the one we looked into first. Then we took a shuttle to Hermits rest and then we had to wait for a long time to get onto another shuttle so we could go see some other views. It was taking so long that we got a pack of small powdered donuts. Once we finished the donuts the next shuttle had come and we went onto it. Then we got off at Mohave point, which was also a breathtaking view. We walked around it for a little bit then we walked over to Hopi point. Which it was about half a kilometer. It took us about 10 minutes to get to Hopi point. We walked through Hopi point looking over the edge into the canyon. Then we were on our way to Powell’s point which was about a kilometer away. It took us about twenty minutes to get to Powell’s point. At Powell’s point a bus came but it had no space and we couldn’t get onto it. The bus driver said there was another shuttle coming right behind him. About ten minutes later the next shuttle came. Then the shuttle brought us back to where we first went onto a shuttle. Then we had another ten minute walk back to the car. Then we were going back to our hotel.
Yosemite National park
After Death Valley we went to Yosemite national park. It took us an hour and thirty minutes to get to Yosemite. When we got to Yosemite we parked and then went onto a shuttle, to the Yosemite village. From Yosemite village we took another shuttle so we could get to the Lower Yosemite Falls. When we got there we looked around. We saw a Deer and its fawn. It was really cool to see a mommy deer with its fawn. We see lots of deer but we never see baby deer. Then we made it to Yosemite falls, there wasn’t very much water coming down. My mom and brother went onto the rocks so they could get closer to the water fall, while my dad and I went for a walk around for a little while. Then after a little bit we went back to bench to wait for my mom and brother. When my mom and brother got back we went onto a shuttle back to Yosemite village. Then we got a bag of chips. We then waited a long time for a shuttle to bring us back to the car. Then we went into the car to Curry village. At Curry village my brother and dad went almost all the way up to Nevada falls. Which is pretty far away from the parking lot. My mom and I went a little way there and then we played some games and read. After a long time my mom and I went back to the car and 3 minutes later my dad and brother came back.
Sanfransico
Our first day in Sanfransico we woke up went into the car and went to the pier so we could go on a boat ride around Alcatraz. We went onto the long bay bridge from Oakland to Sanfransico. It was the longest bridge I had ever been on. There was a road underneath the top road on the bridge, because it was only a one way bridge. Once we got off the bridge we were in Sanfransico. Then we went to pier 31 to park the car. Then we had to walk to pier 39 so we could get on to the boat. It took us about 15 minutes to walk to the pier were the boat was. My mom went to the ticket line but someone told her that she doesn’t have to go into that line if she has a Sanfransico city pass. So we went into the line up to get onto the boat. It didn’t take very long for the line to start moving. After a little bit we were on the boat. My mom and I sat down on the bench while my dad and brother went out to the front. It took about five minutes for the boat to start once we got on. When the boat started to move my mom and I went to the front with my dad and brother. When the boat started to move fast it got really cold at the front. I got see a whole bunch of sea lions lying on a whole bunch of floating planks that people put there, so all the people who come can see them. Then we went past Alcatraz and then under the golden gate bridge. Near the golden gate bridge there were a whole bunch of birds eating fish. It was a really cool site. Then we went back under the Golden gate and then to Alcatraz. At Alcatraz we saw how tiny the cells were. We also saw the original paper. Then we went back to the dock. After that we got off and went onto a bus to Ghirardelli square. Then we all got amazing milkshakes, which took us about ten minutes to finish, except for my dad who finished his in about 5 minutes. After we had Ghirardelli’s we went on a cable car up one of the city mountains, but not even close to the top. Then we walked down a stairwell beside the twistiness’ road in the world. After that we went onto a trolley to the explorium. The explorium was super-duper cool. The first section we went into was the tinkering section. We got to do cool things and we got to learn how stuff worked for example a door bell. We did tons of stuff in that section, it took us about 45 minutes to move on from the tinkering section. The second section we did was colors and lights. There were even more cool things in this section. We did a whole bunch of experiments and then we moved on. One of the experiments I did was putting colored blocks on top of others and then you could see if the colors mixed or if they were see through or if you could only see the top colored block. The third and final section we did was the cells section. There were even more cool things in this section. The coolest thing was seeing a baby zebra fish in its embryo moving around. It was amazing to watch. After that section we were done and we went back to our hotel.
The San Diego zoo
Today we went to the San Diego Zoo which is an amazing zoo. My favourite animals to watch were the Capuchin Monkeys, Wolf Monkeys and River Otters. The Wolf monkey was funny because it was trying to attack a person who was wearing a hat repeatedly. And you can tell that this was not the first time that the monkey had done this, because the fence at that spot looked like it had been abused often. I liked watching the Capuchin because the seemed highly intelligent compared to other animals. In the Capuchin habitat there was eight holes in the fence. There were four on the right and the rest of the left. Outside the hole there were tubes full of food. It was cool to see Capuchin pick up sticks and put them into the holes so they could get their food. We also saw one that poked his hand under the fence and grabbed a stick and snapped it in half so that it could use it more effectively, That seemed really smart. The River Otter’s habitat had a really cool habitat. They lived in their habitat with monkeys. When we got to that exhibit, there was a person throwing food into the enclosure; nuggets to the monkeys and fish to the otters. The monkeys were under a bush and they ran out from under to grab the food and ran back. It was also good to see the River Otters playing with each other. I have been Toronto Zoo, Cincinnati Zoo, Peterborough Zoo, Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay Zoo, Niagara Falls Aviary and this park was the best zoo that I have ever been too.
Darian's First [virtual] words 