Sunday, May 30, 2010

Los Angeles CA - Griffith Observatory & Museum

I met Aunt Laura's Friend Arsen and his son Danny! They showed me around Los Angeles CA and took me to a cool observatory! This is my new friend Danny at a park called Griffith Park! Danny is 7 and in 2nd Grade! He was excited to show me around!

On our way today we passed the Hollywood sign, can you see it in the background.

We went to Griffith Observatory and you can see all of Los Angeles from up here.
We went into the Griffith Museum and I shook hands with Albert Einstein!
Danny and I stood on scales that told us what we weighted on PLUTO and the MOON (I wish I could go there, but Aunt Laura said no such luck).


I got to sit on a REAL meteorite - this was in space! I guess this is as close as am getting to space!


After the museum we went over to the Griffith Observatory.This is the Zeiss 12-Inch Refractory telescope. You can see REALLY far from here!

Our last stop was the James Dean memorial. Arsen said your parents would be impressed, I didn't know who he was but Aunt Laura said it was really cool :).

Thank you Arsen and Danny for spending the day with me and showing me around Los Angeles.


At the Armell Acres Farm - Lisbon, NY

I am with Aunt Laura and Uncle John today. Uncle John's family has a Dairy Farm in Northern New York in a town called Lisbon! I met Uncle John's 12 year old cousin, Aaron who is in 6th Grade he showed me around the farm and showed me all of his animals!

The farm is really cool but it is stinky! A dairy farm is a place where they milk cows a few times a day, the milk is put into large bins, and it is carted off very quickly and eventually brought to our stores so we can have fresh milk! Today I learned a little about how it works.

First the cows have to be fed! There is this cool switch that dumps grain into a wheel barrel, then you take the food to the cows!


The Cows are brought in from the field an are tied up to these poles. They can have a drink here while they are being milked.

They use this machine to connect to all the cows, each of those silver things gets attached to the cow's udders! Then the Milk is sucked through the hoses into the big silver container in the end. It wasn't milking time so I didn't get to see the actual milking!

The milk is stored in the big silver container and is picked up from the big milk trucks. From here it's taken away to be pasteurized and put in containers for us to drink!
After we left the big barn, Aaron showed us all the other animals at the farm! They have lots of baby cows that will grow up to milk, but right now they just get to hang out in the small farm.

This baby tried to bite my head!! Her name is Sally. The cow tongue felt really funny, and it was REALLY long but I couldn't get a picture of it.

Aaron brought out his special chickens for us to see, this was the biggest and the funniest chicken I've seen!

Aaron collects eggs and sells them. He's only 12 and has a business!

This was a big sheep, he kept chewing on my arm!
They have these REALLY BIG horses called Belgian Horses. - Look Claire's eating my hand too! Everyone on the farm is licking or eating my hands or feet!
Aaron's sisters have these miniature horses, there are four of them and they were really cute! Their names are Nikki, Patty, Hotrod, & Reba.
Look, another animal chewing on my foot! (this one is Patty)


Thank you Aaron for giving us an awesome tour of the Armell Acres Farm!

Tagging Whales in Antarctica !




I have made it to one of the coldest and coolest places on earth! The ANTARCTIC SEAS! I am just off the coast of Antarctica on a ship that is tagging whales! Aunt Laura was so excited for me to learn more about the Ocean and it inhabitants, she plans on taking me Scuba diving soon but also said that it won’t compare to this experience. The Oceans are becoming my favorite place too.

I learned that tagging whales is a really neat thing that scientist do so they can watch and learn how the Whales move around, how they eat, what sounds they make and how they live.

A group of Researchers from DUKE University in North Carolina work on this project and were willing to take me on a quick ride with them. WOW it was cold, soon as you went outside; you could see ice on everything. You could also see Ice on my new friends! I’ve been to a lot of beaches & oceans lately, but I’m not sure I want to swim in this one!

They have this really cool map online where you can see where the ship is! We are moving right along the coast of Antarctica!
My new friend and chief tagger, Ari Friedlaender allowed me to help tag a humpback whale with a suction cup called a D-tag. Look at all the ice on the pole?


Since it was so cold, they told me I didn’t have to be in every picture and they allowed me to use some of their really cool pictures! Check out the website for more!

This is a beautiful picture of Antarctica

This is a picture of a Waddle SealThis is a picture of a Whale spotted in the distance:
This is a picture of a Gentoo Penguin


The Nicholas School of the Environment Expedition has their own weblog too.. You can follow them, just like some of you are following ME!!! http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/antarctica/2010 You can see what they do on a daily basis and check out the rest of their really cool pictures!

Thank you Meagan Dunphy-Daly and Ari Friedlaender and the rest of the crew! Had an amazing, and very special time! Maybe someday I will go to college to be a marine biologist and will join the expedition! Whatever I do when I grow up though, I will always remember how special the Oceans are!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

THE USS ENTERPRISE!!!

I had the pleasure of going on an adventure with another amazing person serving our country! Commander Michael Bobulinski of the United States Navy.

CDR Bobulinski explained that he is a proud American living in Virginia Beach, VA, and he displays the stars and stripes outside his house each day. I wanted to start my trip to the ship by waving hello with the flag in the background.

I got buckled up for the trip to the ship, but was a little uncomfortable in such a large chair.

This is CDR Michael Bobulinski . He has been serving our country in the United States Navy for 18 years. He is a Naval Flight Officer, and is currently stationed aboard the oldest nuclear aircraft carrier in the Navy, the USS ENTERPRISE. Here we both wait for her to park and get tied up to the pier in Norfolk, VA. You can see the aircraft carrier behind CDR Bobulinski.

We walked out on the pier to see the ship up close.

After the ship was tied up, and we were allowed to go aboard, I wanted to go up and see the flight deck. The aircraft carrier is a huge floating airport for military aircraft. I was very surprised to see a helicopter on the flight deck.

After looking over the flight deck, I wanted everyone to see the big airports landing area. Airplanes get launched off the front of the ship in a very short distance. It is better than a roller coaster ride.


As we walked to the back of the ship, into the area where the aircraft land, I found another helicopter and another American Flag.

I wanted to see how high up he could go, so we walked up several flights of stairs or ladders as they are called on the ship, and looked out a window on the Admiral's Bridge or Flag Bridge (which is more than 9 floors above the water...which is as tall as a skyscraper). Here I am looking at the front of the ship out of a window.



The walk up the ladders to the Admiral's Bridge was very tiring, so we took a break and looked at another aircraft carrier parked nearby. This one is the USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH, CVN-77. It is one of the newest aircraft carriers in the fleet and is named after...that's right, the 41st President of the United States.

I had a really awesome day with CDR Bobulinski. I'm very excited I got to visit this really cool ship! He said to tell you all that if you have any questions to send them to Aunt Laura and she will send them along to him.

Thank you to CDR Bobulinski for serving, it was a pleasure meeting you!

Friday, May 28, 2010

At the Airport

Aunt Laura's Friend Jon (no not Uncle John this is a different Jon) - took me on a business trip to Atlanta, GA. We're going to take more pictures next week but today we had lots of fun at the airport! It's more fun traveling by airport than by mail or by computer :).

Wow, the airport in Atlanta is such a busy place!! There are people and airplanes EVERYWHERE. We had a really cool car that we went to the airport in and then I got to enjoy looking at all the airplanes for like 3 hours because our flight was very late. Once we got going, though, the view was great. Lots of clouds and pretty blue sky!



I had my own seat on the plane with a TV in it so I could look on a map to see where we were. The map was really neat. First it would show our whole country with the states and capital cities written in English and then it would show it in Spanish.

Then it would say how fast we were going, how high in the air we were and how cold the air was. Did you know that the air temperature outside the airplane gets to be in the negatives?? Boy is THAT cold! And we were flying at 39,000 feet which is almost 7 miles high!

We were only on the plane for a couple of hours so after a quick stop at the bathroom (even Flat Stanley has to go sometimes) we picked up our luggage and headed home for the night. I didnt get to sleep until like midnight, which was also cool.

Flat Stanley usually goes to bed much earlier than that. Check me out on the Dunkin Donuts cup. That cup was HUGE.






Thank you Jon for taking me to the Airport! I can't wait until next week!

With the Sheriff in Florence SC




Aunt Laura's Uncle is a Deputy in Florence South Carolina. He took me for a ride in his police car. It was very fun!

We pretended like I got arrested and he put me in the back for a minute:
Uh-oh. I didn't like that very much! I like being a good boy so I think I'll not do that again!

Thank you Uncle Harry for taking me on a ride in your police car, letting me turn on the lights and the sirens, and having a fun day today!

Rhode Island

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Aunt Laura's friend Pauline. I learned that Pauline, Aunt Laura, and Sam's mom are all in the same sorority, but different schools! How cool is that?

We went Narragansett RI today- this area is made up of beaches, and fishing areas. I love the beach and I'm glad I get to see lots of them. This is another one on the Atlantic Ocean! This picture is looking at the Newport Bridge. This is a HUGE bridge that was a little scary going across!

When we went across the bridge we met the toll taker, she was nice and took my picture!


Here I am looking at the beach and watching for surfers!Found one!!!

This is the Judith Point Light House, pretty!This is on the fishing pier, this is a big boat!! its in a town called Galilee just nearby!

This is at a really cool restaurant where I got to taste LOBSTER! Pauline told me that Aunt Laura and Uncle John DIVE and catch lobsters themselves! I hope I get to see that before I leave!

Look.. I'm in the claw -- heheh!!This is a big ferry boat that takes people to this island called "Block Island" - it also has nice beaches!
Thank you Pauline for taking me around Rhode Island! Also Happy Birthday to Pauline! (We did get to have some cake)!