The Dali Museum.

On the 1st of December, my great-aunt and uncle, grandpa, my mom and I took a trip to see The Dali Museum.  The Dali Museum is a museum that displays all of Salvador Dali’s incredible paintings.  I enjoyed gazing at his amazing paintings.  Lots of his work had explanations, but some left me wondering what it could mean?  My favorite object he did was the lobster phone, because I had never really seen something that bizarre.  I’m glad I had this fantastic opportunity to visit the Dali Mueseum!

Copy and Paste to See the Lobster Phone:  https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=FmLZAjgL&id=026ED642BCA11E443E6CBBF56134B77BAC957454&thid=OIP.FmLZAjgLbvngi1pZdnyOhQHaGP&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2f736x%2fe3%2f89%2fd4%2fe389d49be1a522e88d2a58affc189a48.jpg&exph=621&expw=736&q=lobster+phone&simid=607987700542148529&selectedIndex=85&ajaxhist=0

Copy and Paste to Learn More About The Dali Museum:   https://thedali.org/

Seeing A Christmas Carol

On December 9th, my aunt took my mom, sister, my cousin and I to A Christmas Carol in The City of St. Petersburg Theatre.  It was absolutely magical, the actors and sets even inspired me to want to act.  I loved the whole show, but my favorite part was the room in which Ebenezer Scrooge lived in.

Clam Bayou Field Trip.

On Sunday the 25th of November 2018, my family took a trip to Clam Bayou.

Field Trip 6

September 17th, 18th and 19th at Chassahowitzka.

September 19th at Haslam’s Bookstore.

September 20th at Sawgrass Lake Park, 2 mile hike.

September 22nd spent at Weeki Wachee.

My Trip to Georgia

I loved our Labor Day trip to Georgia and all of the activities we were able to enjoy while staying up there.  One more bit of information before you start reading, we were accompanied by another great family.  Without them, this trip wouldn’t have been as fun.  I don’t really remember the drive up to Georgia because I was asleep almost the whole way there, though I do recall I woke up to read a couple of pages out of a book I brought.   My sister woke me up when we pulled into the parking lot of a small shop.  To my amazement, it was part of the Appalachian trail!  My family is planning on hiking the trail next year.  All of us hopped out of the car to stretch our tired legs and walked part of the trail.  Afterwards we headed to where we would be staying, which was a cozy, grey cabin near sparkling waterfalls in the woods.  The rest of the day, we explored around the cabin and watched a funny movie to wind down, we were exhausted from the tedious ride up.  The second day was filled with activities.  We woke up and put on our bathing suits for a gorgeous waterfall swim.  As soon as I saw the rushing water fall from the tall cliff, my eyes widened.  I was ecstatic and wanted to splash in it as soon as I could!  I stepped in and felt I had entered into Antarctic waters!  My friend’s dad wanted a photo of my friend and I under the waterfall.  I slowly creeped deeper in the water.  Finally, after what felt like ages, (which was actually a few minutes) we both reached the freezing waterfall and posed under it.  I thought to myself as the photo was taken I might as well live this moment up, so as my friend started swimming back, without another thought, dunked my head in the icy water.  Lifting it up and realizing it was refreshing, I bobbed my head down again.  The second time was defiantly not as chilly as the first time.  As the day winded down to an end, we headed back and roasted delicious s’mores over the fire we made.  The next day all of us planned to go tubing (tubing is a leisure activity of floating on water in a large inflated inner tube).  Check it out here   After applying sunscreen, we talked to a woman about going tubing down the river.  The kind woman put tubes up in a large, white van and drove all of us down to the starting point.  We unloaded the big tubes and carefully stepped down the dirty, rocky path towards the shimmering water.  Everyone exitedly sat in their inner tubes and rode the water rapids and dodged rocks, spider webs and fallen trees until we spotted the rope.  The rope meant the ride was over.  I’m sure everyone had a fun time, since we were still talking about it when we got home.  The following morning, we traveled to Helen, a German inspired town.  The group spotted some shops to go into and we ended up walking into a cheerful Christmas store.  The Christmas lights glowed like stars. The last full day before we departed, everybody visited the heritage festival, it was a bright and sunny day, perfect for the event.  I could count over three dozen stands, some selling trinkets and toys, others selling paintings and one person selling ice-cream and milkshakes!  Before leaving we strutted up the hill and purchased the creamy, homemade milkshakes. We disembarked early the next day and traveled a long way to get back home.  Saying goodbye to our friends and waving to them as they drove away was shortly followed by bedtime.  To be honest, I was happy to rest in my own bed after sleeping on an uncomfortable spring mattress.

My Activity-Packed Week.

Coral Castle:  Last Wednesday, my mom, dad, sister and I drove our van a little over five and a half hours to see a mysterious masterpiece that has confused thousands of people since 1921 (the year Coral Castle construction began).  Edward Leedskalnin, the creator of the Coral Castle, weighing only one hundred pounds and five feet tall, cut, carved and moved every single piece of coral by himself.  I was amazed at his creations and work but, my favorite items he carved were the chairs in the throne room.  Five detailed chairs made for Ed, himself, which was the most comfortable chair in the whole castle, his wife (if he was to marry), two small kid chairs and the least comfortable chair, which was designed to be rough and sharp was for his mother in-law (if he was to get married).  (Coral Castle entrance pictured above).  If you would like to visit Coral Castle, copy and paste this link:  https://coralcastle.com/.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park:  After Coral Castle, we drove down to John Pennekamp State Park. It was beautiful, except for a few minor details.  There were too many rocks in our area of the campsite.  Before dinner, my family and I walked down to the beach to snorkel, but even though there were still rocks everywhere, the water was refreshing and had a huge variety of fish.  We swam for a few minutes and then headed back to make delicious, juicy burgers for supper.  After the amazing burgers were eaten we ate s’mores and my sister and I fell asleep watching a movie afterwards.

Key West:  Waking up was rough because the beds were extremely soft and comfy, somehow I found the motivation to get up though.  We had breakfast on the road and roughly three hours later we arrived at the southern most point of the continental US!  We were able to take a few pictures before more people started crowding in.  Since it was getting late, we decided to stop at another camp ground, Sigsbee, a little earlier than we thought.  They happily let us in and gave us the last spot right next to the water.  It was absolutely gorgeous and my sister and I got into our swimsuits and jumped right in, closely followed by our parents.  To my amazement, the ground was just covered in coral!  A good two hours went swiftly by and we got out to make dinner.  Just like the night before, my sister and I fell asleep watching a movie after eating s’mores.

Making Blankets for Homeless Veterans:  We drove back home and right around the corner was another event.  By far my favorite activity that week, making blankets was so much fun!  Nothing from the blankets went to waste, I even took some extra pieces to make scarves, cat toys and dog toys. Lots of volunteers showed up to help and we all successfully made sixty-four blankets, before we ran out of materials to make them.  Next month everyone is aiming to create one hundred blankets!  I’m so grateful I was able to help a homeless veteran in need.

Kennedy Space Center:  My family and I drove a couple of hours to Kennedy Space Center for our friend’s birthday.  This tourist destination, was packed with facts about space, space craft and the future of space travel.  I wasn’t thrilled about going because he is more Thea’s friend, not mine.  Even though I didn’t enjoy most of the park, I loved all of the 3D movies and interactive games!  If you would like to go, copy and paste this link:  https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/.

My Amazing Beach Day at Pass-a-Grille!

As most of my beach days go, I made sand castles, swam and played with my sister, but this beach day blew me away!  I had walked on this beach before, but never really took a moment to appreciate its beauty.  The shoreline had hundreds of pretty shells and the sand was like powdered sugar!  A small distance from the sand was the  murky water with lots of waves.  We were not allowed to go past our hips, for safety measures, we were warned about possible rip currents at this beach.  A rip current is a strong, forced flow of water.  Rip currents kill, on average, 46 people in the United States every year. As we were swimming around the shallows, a man further out in the water, got caught in a rip current, but he was saved by a kind woman with a rope.  A few hours later, my sister and I were finding shells in the water when she yelled “Manatee!”.  I freaked out!  It wasn’t even a foot behind me, to avoid kicking it, I had to swim with only  my arms instead of using my feet.  As I swam away to my sister, Thea, I looked back and it was calmly swimming near us.  We got out of the water to build a sand castle, but Thea walked with my dad to go fishing off the nearby pier.  I was left with no one to play with, I decided to make up my own beach game.  I made a line in the sand as a barrier, and made borders.  I had a little more than 12 feet and I started running back and forth.  The aim of the game is:  don’t let the waves touch you, and keep making it to the sides of the borders.  Around fifteen minutes after I started playing my game, my mom and grandpa invited me to go on a beach walk with them.  I agreed and ran ahead of both of them to get a good look at shells farther up the beach.  I picked up a few cute shells.  My mom was willing to carry them for me.  Before turning around and heading back to our bags, I spotted an object gleaming in the sand.  I slowly walked up to it and picked it up, to my amazement, it was a circular, double sided mirror, one side was convex and the other side was concave!  It was absolutely gorgeous!  After walking back, everyone was tired, we packed up and left the beach.  We drove our relatives back home, had dinner together, then headed back to our house and got ready for bed.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_current

Heritage Village.

Today I took a field trip to a magnificent location, known as Heritage Village.  I couldn’t believe all of the beautiful houses!  Each one had an in-depth history and where the homes had been moved from.  This park is definitely worth checking out if you’re near Largo, Florida.  If you would like to check out their website, follow this link…   http://www.pinellascounty.org/heritage/.

I Went to the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

Today I went on a field trip to the St. Petersburg Museum of History.  Not only does it have encompassing facts about local St. Petersburg history, it also has over 5,000 signed baseballs, facts about all American wars, the stories of the first commercial flight and a 3,000 year old mummy!  My favorite exhibit was of the two-headed chicken that lived eight months!

My Big Day.

Yesterday was filled with excitement, especially spending the day with family. We were accompanied by our Aunt and two cousins.

The Florida Aquarium:  Pictured above, the entrance to The Florida Aquarium.  Walking through the bag check and into the building was spectacular!  The lights had flying seagulls attached to wire, a touch pool with shells from a beach and the walls were painted the prettiest sky blue.  To the left was a souvenir shop full of toys, key chains, clothing and other knickknacks.  We walked up a 30-step stairway to a huge room labeled “The Wetlands Trail”, this room had trees, plants and mangroves.  All edges of the room had something new to gaze at.  Snakes such as a Python and dozens of fish.  We proceeded to observe ducks as they napped in the sun and we walked into a dark blue tunnel, but my aunt didn’t join us, she said  she would meet us at the end of tunnel.  The roof had a rippling look to it and the tiny, adorable garden eels were poking their heads up from the sand.  It took my sister and I awhile to figure out they were eels, they looked like snakes.  We met up with our Aunt and swiftly ran over the manta ray tank.  I didn’t touch a ray but, I did put my hand in the water trying to calmly pet one on the back.  After sanitizing our hands we went to a splash pad outside and only stayed about 10 minutes before leaving for lunch.

Armature Works:  We drove to Armature Works for lunch.  The Armature Works has such a nice vibe to it, the building was originally a warehouse, so the walls and ceiling are brick and concrete.  Armature Works has a food court that was new in the area.  I decided on getting a cheese pizza, which I soon regretted actually eating.  The crust was burnt, the sauce was like water but, the cheese was delicious.  Thea ordered a sushi burrito, basically, a sushi roll, but uncut, so its long and thick.  Our cousin started feeling sick, we left to play in their big pool (They live in an apartment,  it’s a friendly community pool).

Pool:  Our cousin laid down in bed and we got into the pool.  The chlorine levels were so low that Thea and I could open our eyes underwater and it wouldn’t sting.  We borrowed our cousin’s float and took turns lounging in the sun.  Swimming laps was how we spent the majority of the three hours we were there.  A bunch of kids showed up and one group of people had a cute Australian Shepard, named Riley.  Our cousin felt better almost two and a half hours later.  He played with the other kids as we were packing up.  We all dried off and said our goodbye’s.

Yogurtology:  By far the best frozen yogurt place I have ever been to, the inside was beautiful!  Painted in pastels and with dangling lights, frozen yogurt machines and over fifty toppings, our jaws dropped!  I decided on getting a gummy topped peanut butter, chocolate and vanilla frozen yogurt bowl and my sister decided on getting a chocolate, salted caramel and vanilla with chocolate toppings.  We enjoyed the treats outside on a bench, in the warm sun.

My favorite part was the sweet ending, Yogurtology.  I hope I will be back very soon.