Great Wolf Lodge

We stayed for two nights at Great Wolf Lodge. It was totally awesome. We have to leave today, what a bummer! I could stay here for two years!

It has a HUGE water park with 11 slides which we went on when we got there. The scariest was the Howling Tornado - that was even scary for my Mum and Dad, especially going backwards. Most of the time Callum and I hung out in the wave pool, which had huge waves when they came. Sometimes I wanted to change pools but I stayed there in the one that everyone was in.

Our KidsKamp room was awesome with a bunkbed in a kind of tent thing, and a tv which we tried to watch all night, but Mum turned it off. 

We swam in the pool til 9pm the first night, and the the next morning we went back in the pool with both  Mum and Dad and we went on the rides. Mum had a cold so she only went in for a couple of hours on Friday. We swam again the second night til closing at 9pm!

In between all this swimming, on Friday we managed to get to a giant mall (Concord Mills outlet shopping) and shopped, looking around some cool shops, and we had some pizza for lunch/ afternoon tea. Mum dropped her piece of pizza on the floor; it wasn't her day. Dad got her a new piece for free. I loved the lego shop and I wanted to see the rest of the shops but we had to hurry up so we could get more swimming in! We had Mexican for tea which was fun but I didn't like the beans or the beef. I did have 4 glasses of ginger ale cos our waiter kept coming and refilling my cup! He was awesome. We gave him a good tip.

A nice hotel and then a long drive

We stayed in a nice hotel after 20 minutes drive near Washington DC (in Maryland) which is not long. We got there at the end of our long day at the Natural History Museum. The first thing Callum and I did was jump in the pool. After playing for a while we decided to jump in at the deep end, but it was not as fun as Graham's pool because it wasn't as deep and it had no diving board, and it didn't have Graham either. After we had played a billion games in the water we were told we had to get out because a thunder storm was coming, after the beautiful day we had in Washington.

When we came back we had a delicious dinner at the hotel. I had a hot dog and fries, and then this amazing brownie parfait, which was ice cream, pieces of delicious brownie, really nice soft cream, all covered in chocolate sauce.

I couldn't stop eating it, it was so delicious. 

In our hotel room we had two double beds so me and Callum shared one. We had a tv in our room! So we watched tv in bed.

The next day we had another loooooong drive to Concord in North Carolina. It wasn't as long but it still took about 7 or 8 hours. For half the way I read a mini mystery book where you read mysteries and try and solve them. It was hard. But fun. It was like the only thing I did apart from my travel journal. We listened to music.

When we finally got to Concord, we went to the Great Wolf Lodge where we were staying and it was AWESOME!

The White House and the Natural History Museum

On Wednesday we took a metro into Washington DC again and walked up to see the White House where the US president, Barack Obama, lives. I thought it was beautiful with all the neat plants and the white White House. I saw some people behind trees and wondered what they were doing.

We also saw a very friendly squirrel before the White House and near the White House, he was sssoooo cute and he let me get close to him, but then Callum came and scared him away. I still tried to get near him though, but Mum told me to come to her. The squirrel followed me a bit, but then got scared and ran away.

Then we stopped in the Ronald Reagan building cos it had a food court, and we were really hot and needed a rest and a drink. It was filled with cold air from the air conditioning which was very delightful. We had big fruit smoothies and I almost finished mine - but I'd didn't want to keep the others waiting for me.

All of us wanted to go to the Natural History Museum. And it had so much in it to see, we didn't even see it all. I took loads and loads of photos on my camera, about 100! The battery ran out!

We saw lots of dinosaur skeletons, deep ocean creatures, old humans, and so much more - and we didn't even finish one floor. Crazy eh?

I liked the Hall of Human Origins best - but I liked all of them.

Fire station and Ambulance

On Tuesday, after we had been to the Lincoln memorial and seen some of the monuments from the top of the steps, we walked down the steps, and Dad picked me up again and put me on his shoulders. We walked and walked, and finally we made it to the metro station, Foggy Bottom (that was its name!), and Dad could put me down. We only just made it so we could catch our metro. 

When we got to Mark's house, we saw Mark outside because he was taking Chester for a walk. After Chester had licked me and Callum, we decided, after a while to go to the Maryland EMS Fire and Ambulance station, because Mark worked part-time there as a volunteer. It was a long drive (not long at all compared to our drive to Washington DC), we got there. When we went in, Mum took a photo of me in a fire hat, that was too big for me. 

Then Callum and I  hopped in the back of one of the fire trucks. It was a very small place for a big truck, but the boot was so big. There were two seats and it was very messy. There was also an oxygen tank above your seat so you can slip it on easily. Next I went in another fire truck. Callum was in the back of a ute (or pick-up-truck), so I got in also. 

Somebody came out after a while and Mark started to talk to him, so I hopped out and went to Mum, and Callum followed me. After Mark stopped talking to the man, he hopped in a ambulance, so Callum and I hopped in too. The ambulance had grey walls and roof, and a white floor. It also had HEAPS of draws, boxes and small cupboard things. In one of the boxes there were stuffed animals to keep the little kids distracted, when their mums are in the ambulance or if they are. After a while of talking about the ambulance the guy that Mark was talking to gave Callum and I a plastic fire hat. We got out of the ambulance, but it was cool to see.  

Then we went inside the station and saw lots of other stuff, including the dispatch room where the emergency calls come in.   

It was such a cool thing to do, my whole family loved it too. Thanks Mark! And everyone at the station who was so friendly.

Mark and Beth's

We stayed two nights with Mark and Beth, they were nice.  It was fun. The first night we took Chester the dog for a walk. When we got back we had two giant pizzas for tea. The next morning Mark and Beth had to go to work so we went to a place called 'Friendlys' for a really nice breakfast. I had two pancakes. 

Then we went on a metro which was fun. It's like a train but sometimes goes underground and I like going on the metro underground and sitting backwards.

Washington monuments

After visiting the air and space museum we had to walk down 'the mall' (which is a whole lot of green space with trees and monuments) on a big path. It was super hot, over 100 Fahrenheit (which is like more than 38 degrees Celsius). We were all sweating really hard! It felt like we were walking forever. I walked halfway but then Dad had to carry me on his shoulders cos I was too hot, a bit tired, and I had heat rash which made all of my skin red and itchy!

After a lot of walking we saw the world war 2 monument and it had a big pool in the middle of a huge circle  with columns around it, to remember the people who fought in WW2. The water in the pool was mocking me, because I was so hot and I had finished the drink that Mum bought me.

After another long walk alongside the reflecting pool (which was mocking me as well), we arrived at the Abraham Lincoln monument which we had been aiming for. It was HUGE and in our Washington guide  it said in the 'kids corner' bit, it asked us what Abraham Lincoln was sitting on, and it was the American flag which was on a throne. I thought it looked like a bamboo throne. After a while somebody told us that there was an elevator which led to an air conditioned room which was lovely to be in.

This is the Lincoln memorial...huge huh?

This is the Washington monument and in front of it is the reflecting pool - when it is not windy you can see the whole monument reflected in it. At the moment it is covered in scaffolding cos it was damaged by an earthquake and they are fixing it.

The smithsonian air and space museum

We had lots of fun at the air and space museum. It was huge so I'm going to post some photos so you can see what it was like, and write a bit to tell you what they were.

These are some of the different rockets used for space flights. 

This is me under a big picture of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon (Buzz Aldrin is near the rocket but we didn't get that in)

This is a real astronaut suit that was used on the Apollo space mission

This is the Apollo command module which is very very small but 3 men had to be in it for a long time and it's barely enough room for one person 

(I don't think I'd be able to cope with 3 people in that tiny space)

This is the first meeting in space between the Soviets and the Americans. On one side is the Apollo and on the other is the Russian space ship (we can't remember the name) and in the middle is the bridge they built to dock in space.

This is me with a replica of the Mars rover that they used to test the mission to Mars

This is an astronaut climbing down from the Apollo landing craft that went down to the moon

This is some galaxies when they started photographing space

The weekend

On Saturday we went to Graham's house and in the car I was a bit scared cos they have a big snake in their lounge. It's a boa constrictor and her name is Eleanor. When we got there we hopped out and we saw the pool out the back and it looked fun and cool with a slide and diving board. We went inside and I saw the snake (when we find a computer we will download our photos and we will post some photos of Eleanor). Eleanor is 7 feet long and she looks even longer than that. Graham's Dad Chris built the cage for the snake, behind the couch. At first I was scared but then I got into it and started talking to the snake to see if I was a parseltongue (like Harry Potter). The snake moved forward to me after I talked to her. I think I can speak parseltongue!

We swam in the pool for about 5 hours and it was really deep at one end (maybe 9 or 10 feet). I jumped off the diving board lots in the deep end and Graham, Callum and I played with huge water squirted and this thing that's a torpedo that you make it shoot through the water. Sometimes it sinks and you have to dive for it. 

Halfway through our swim we got a slushy and I chose blue raspberry out of lots of flavours. We had a huge cup and it made my lips go all blue. After our 5 hour swim we hopped out, got dry and I had two hot dogs and a sprite. And then, believe it or not, we drove down the road to one of the most popular ice cream parlours in the area. I had chocolate and even the kiddie sizes were massive (that's what all the adults had too - 2 big scoops - only Callum my brother had a medium size, which I wanted). 

The next day Graham came over with his mom and we went to this really cool toy shop in town. We couldn't believe how cheap everything was there compared to NZ. I got two playmobil sets that cost hardly anything compared to what you'd pay in NZ (like $60 each in NZ was $14 and $20 here plus tax, which is about a dollar). When we got home we all played with our new toys and I didn't get to stay up that much that night cos the next day we had to drive to Washington.

The drive to Washington was reeeeeeaaaaallllyyyyy long - 9 hours- but we did get to stop and have dunkin donuts. And there was a big traffic jam at the end cos it was commuter time and also we saw 3 accidents. It was good to get to my Mums cousin's (my 2nd cousin) house and meet Mark (our cousin) and his fiancé Beth and his awesome dog Chester. I'll write more about him soon.

Playing with Graham

On Friday last week my cousin Graham came. He's very cool and likes stuff me and Callum do. When he got there we gave him presents and talked a bit. Me and Graham played with a tennis ball and some fun velcro gloves until we got called in to have waffles for lunch. When we got there we put syrup on the table and started at our waffles. When we got our food we saw a squirrel in the neighbour's garden and it was eating a nut. It was so cute! I put this kind of golden syrup on my waffle as well as lots of strawberries. The waffles were very very nice, but not as nice as pancakes (I think). We all played a board game but Callum didn't play with the toy cars and animals with me and Graham.

After a while we came inside, but it was then I realised we were going mini golfing! I was very excited because I hadn't been mini golfing in ages. Soon Graham gave me his putter to borrow, and we hopped in the car. When we got there the park was big and beautiful with big trees and a creek, and lots of squirrels. Graham showed us the first hole after we had all had a while of admiring the park. There were about 20 holes and we had fun 5 of us playing (me, Mum, Dad, Callum and Graham). Graham was pretty good at it. When we crossed the bridge over the creek to play the other holes, we saw a chipmunk going down a bank to the creek. It was so cute (partly because it had stripes). Graham probably won mini golf but Dad was pretty good too.

Here now!

Now we're here and very excited! I'm so glad to see Monica and Michael. It was a short drive to her house. When we got there they had a beautiful garden and Monica showed us around. It is a nice house and my room is awesome. It even had presents for me.

I got two beautiful dresses and a bead kit and lots of chocolate. Then me and Callum went to sleep for 5 hours til tea time and mum had to wake us up.

We saw a squirrel when we were sitting on the side porch when I was eating Nutella. We went for a walk after tea, it was nice, we saw lots and we stopped off at the playground for while before we went home. We were surprised that it was so hot even in the evening it was so bright and hot, it was hot and bright 'til 10ish. The houses are really old, some over 150 years, and Michael said their house is 77 years old. In the olden days servants used to live in the basement and children were not allowed in the new living room and there was a couch and tv in the hallway for the children. The family who built the house were Greek and had 7 children. One day one of the boys fell off an upstairs porch into the front garden on some flowers and the mum was worried about the flowers more than the boy who could have broken a bone!

Yesterday my cousin Graham came over and we played all day. He is 6 and lots of  fun. I'll write more about our day later. I'm having fun and I'm glad we're here.

Flights

We had a good flight to Auckland which was only one hour. But then the next flight was not that great cos it was to LA in the USA and it took 12 hours. It was overnight so you had to sleep and I only got 4 hours sleep cos it was uncomfortable and there was too much noise. The plane food was horrible but I liked watching a bit of a movie, (Escape from Planet Earth), and playing games and listening to music.

We've spent half of the day at LA airport which is ginormous and so hot and sunny. First we had some lunch there, and then then we wandered around for a while until I found some friends for Cappaccino.

We went to a really cool space theme restaurant and it had really cool music in the elevator. Callum and me were too tired to eat much. It had a cool bathroom as well. 

We are all checked in now for our flight to Chicago and then we go to Greenville but we are all too tired from the walks and from not getting enough sleep to do anything. So I thought I'd write on my blog.

This is Callum and me when Callum got his new toy that when you throw it, chuck it or roll it it always lands on its feet.

It was so cool getting a comment from room 14 while we are waiting in the airport.  I hope the mega fair went well. It's a bummer I missed it.

All checked in

Here we are at Wellington airport. Our big journey has just started. There's a big Gollum here, and I can't stop reading the word mojo.  I'm already tired and we haven't even had our first flight! We're all getting very very excited.  I spoke to my Aunt Monica this afternoon and she said she was looking forward to seeing me.  It's going to be fun!