Vancouver to Coeur d'Alene

Thursday 12 July 2018
We went on a 7 mile hike called St. Marks Peak over Howe Sound. The walk was in the forest and we had to make lots of noise so that bears don't get surprised by us and try to attack. We made up three songs to the toon 'God Bless America'. This is the first song that we made up is this: God bless my underwear, my only pair, stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above, from the washer to the dryer to the clothesline bright with sun. God bless my underwear my only pair. The second one was about a banana slug that we saw along our walk: God bless banana slugs they are so cute, they are yellow, like jello, and when you cook them they taste like marshmallow. The next one we made up was about Nathan: God bless our Nathan bear my only bro stand beside him and guide him through the night with the light from above, from the shower to the towel to the iPad which he loves. God bless my Nathan bear my only bro.  When we got to the top the view was amazing--better than I expected it to be. On the way down, we stopped at a lookout. At the lookout we met some people who told us about a place called Honey and that it was famous for its donuts. So of course we went there.


Friday 13 July 2018
Today was a travel day. We went from Canada to Coeur d'Alene Idaho (the land of potatoes). Before we left that day we went to the place called Honey to get some donuts for the road. Mum ran in and got 3 chocolate, 2 glazed and 1 maple because Canada is known for its maple syrup. When we got close to the border line there was lots of traffic because lots of people were trying to cross the border as well. After we crossed the border line me and Nathan got to go on our iPads for a while. Then the roads got really windy so we stopped watching. We stopped at a lookout and then kept driving. Later that night at like 11pm Grammy's flight landed and dad brought her to the house, but we were already asleep.

Saturday 14 July 2018
We got to see Grammy! I woke up and Nathan kept asking Grammy when we could open the presents that she brought us. As soon as we were dressed she gave us the presents to unwrap--including our early birthday presents. Grammy gave me: an American Girl doll, which I named Meghan; a gymnastics leotard; some clothes; and a gymnastics leotard, tracksuit and shoes for Meghan (she also already comes with clothes on her). At about 11am we went downtown to a playground, a waterpark and the beach on a lake. We stopped to play at the waterpark and the playground so we walked around trying to find a place for lunch. For lunch, I had a all beef American hot dog and a wild berry smoothie (which was way to sweet for me.) That evening, we went to see a local production of Guys and Dolls. The main reason we went to see it was because Nathan Detroit was the main character in it and my brothers name is Nathan. When we were little, my Grandma Lybrook gave us a CD of the music from Guys and Dolls that we listened to everyday when Daddy drove us to school.

Sunday and Monday, 15-16 July 2018
We did bike rides on rail trails both days. The first day was around Lake Coeur d'Alene and the second day we road through Idaho and Montana on the Trail of the Hiawathas. My favourite one was around Lake Coeur d'Alene because we got ice-cream and got to swim in the lake. The type of ice-cream that I got was Huckleberry and Chocolate. (The two mixed together don't taste very pleasant but on their own they taste divine.)

Ozette Triangle July 7

Hi, today I am going to tell you about the hike that we did on today.  The today was called the Ozette Triangle. The Ozette triangle was a nine mile hike, three miles in the forest, three miles on the beach and three miles in the forest again. The hike was a easy hike it wasn't a rigorous hike, it was a nice slow easy hike. There were no up and downs it was all flat but by the end of it your legs were aching it was like they had been chopped off. The walk in the forest was very peaceful for the first five minutes and then we started talking about if we might see any wild animals and then that ruined the peacefulness of the forest. We did the three miles of the forest in about an hour and a half to two hours. When we got to the beach Nathan climbed a sea stack while me, mum and dad had our sandwiches. When Nathan got to the top dad put his sandwich down ( which was a bad idea) to take Nathan's photo from on top of the sea stack and a crow came and took dads sandwich. After that Nathan went up a second time and went down a different way and fell on his rear end but he didn't cry ( I have such a brave little brother don't I). When we were walking along the beach dad wanted us to take a photo of me, mum and Nathan with the sea in the background. After the photo I saw something move in the distance for a second I thought it was a black stone but then I realized it was a bear! We all thought that it was a cub but then I saw that it had baby bears! The cubs were so adorable! Then dad got his camera out and gave it to me so that I could zoom in on the cubs and the mama bear! When the mama bear and the cubs went into the long grass mum said this is our chance to get past. So we walked past making loud human noises and singing song that didn't sound anything like they were supposed to. As we walked past I looked over at the bears and the one of the cubs climbed half way up a tree and then slid back down again. When we got back into the forest part of the hike we past a lot of camp sites and people coming to camp over night. After the hike we went out to a camp ground and got ice cream. Over all it was a very interesting and tiring hike.

 

Cape Flattery and Macaw July 6

Hola, it's me again. I am going to tell you about what I did today. Today me and my family went on a
walk in Neah Bay which is 

the most northwestern part of the USA. When we got there, me and Nathan had to go to the toilet.
When I opened the door to the women's bathroom it was disgusting, absolutely awful. So I held it
in for the walk. Before we started the walk there was this 

information board that had lots of information about the walk on it. There were also sticks that the
park rangers had found and they decorated it with string and made it so that you can use them on
the walk for free. Or you can pay five dollars or more to keep the 

stick. On the way to the end of the trail, me and Nathan sang Christmas songs. When we got to a
lookout we saw a type of rare bird called Murres that nest in the cliffs. When we got to the top
we saw an island with a lighthouse on it. Apparently somebody stole the light from inside the
lighthouse so they had to buy a new light. The walk was on the Macaw Indian Reservation. After
the hike we went to their Native American museum and learned about there history. Over all it was a
fun day. 

Hoh Rainforest

Hi it's me again, I am going to tell you about what I did yesterday. Yesterday, we went to the Olympic National Rainforest. We did a couple of hikes, well they weren't really hikes, they were more like walks. We didn't do a hard hike because we needed to have a rest from the past two days of nonstop hiking. The three hikes that we did were: (1) 'The Hall of Mosses' (2) 'Ruby Beach' and (3) 'Kalaloch Beach'. Before we went on the first walk, we attended a ranger program and learned about Elk. On 'The Hall of Mosses' walk, we picked wild blueberries, wild salmonberries, wild huckleberries and wild blackberries. The Hall of Mosses had moss all over the trees. The second walk was Ruby Beach. It had huge sea stacks, tide pools with sea stars, sea anemones and mussels in them. Me, mum, Nathan and dad tried to make a bridge across a little stream on the beach. The third beach was Kalaloch Beach and we sat on the rocks and did our junior ranger booklets. Just before we were going to leave we saw a seal's head pop out from underneath the water. Then we went on a 2 minute walk to see the largest Cedar Tree in the world. Over all, it was a nice relaxing day. See you next time.

    Me on a Sea Stack                                    A Salmonberry                                    Biggest Cedar Tree

                                                                                          

Sunrise Point

Hi there, I am about to tell you about the hike that I did two days ago. The hike two days ago was at the Olympic National Park near Port Angeles in Washington State, America. The name of the hike was the Switchback Trail to Kalhane Ridge and Sunrise Point. It was a magical experience for me. First we walked up the steep Switchback Trail to the mountain ridge. When we got to the ridge line some mountain goats followed us along the trail. The ridge line trail was very narrow and steep, so we had to walk single file. Then we walked along the ridge toward Sunrise Point. There were beautiful wildflowers all different colours such as pink, orange, yellow, violet, indigo, red, blue, purple, soft pink and peach. On the way, we stopped to take photos with the Olympic Mountains in the background on one side of us and a view into Canada on the other side of us. We stopped for lunch on a hill not that far away from Sunrise Point but the view was spectacular so I wondered how much better the view could be from the top. For lunch mum, dad and Nathan had PB and J sandwiches and cheese, crackers, strawberries and Oreos, whereas I only had cheese, crackers, strawberries and Oreos. After lunch we made our way to Sunrise point. The view from the top was amazingly spectacular--you wouldn't even know how mind blowing and beautiful it was.

After that at 9 pm we went down to the downtown area to see the fireworks for the 4 of July ( America's Independence Day). As the fireworks exploded in the sky you could see many beautiful colours of red, white, blue, purple, gold, silver, orange, green and many more amazing colours. Over all, it was an extraordinary day full of excitement and experience. Bye--and see you next time!

                                                                                                   

          

Mount Ellinor Trail

Hi again, I am in America for a holiday over school break. The place that I am in in America is Washington State. Two days ago me and my family went on a hike up a mountain called Mount Ellinor 

Trail. The hike is in the Olympic National Forest. We only did half of the hike though. What we did is we drove half way up the mountain and then hiked the rest of the way up. We hiked 1 and a half miles up to the top, witch was 2400 feet in elevation gain. On the way up there was snow! Lots and lots of snow!

Dad took a photo of me and my brother Nathan on a rock in the middle of a huge spot of snow.The views from half way up were spectacular so I couldn't wait to see view from the top. When ever we saw someone coming down from the top we asked them if they if they had seen any mountain goats. Everybody we asked said that they had seen them and I couldn't wait to see them my self. As we walk further up the trail the more snow we saw. Eventually we reached the spot where the mountain goats were. We saw a lot of adult goats but there was one baby goat. It was so cute and fluffy. There was a lookout near where the goats were. To get to the lookout we had to cross a giant snow field. For lunch we had cheese, crackers, strawberries and raspberries. When we got down from the rock that we had lunch on dad got trapped because the goats wanted to go on the rock that we were on. He had to wait for them to pass until he could come down. On the way to the top me mum and Nathan played " I went to the shop and I bought".... . When we got to the top we saw chipmunks and me and a goat had a starring competition. The views were amazing more than amazing not even the best of words can describe how mind blowing and beautiful it was from up there. 

                                                                                        

                                 SNOW!!                                                        Mama and baby mountain goats

                                                                              

               

                                                              Lots and lots of snow!!