Evergreen Air and Space Museum

Today we went to Evergreen space and aviation museum. The main attraction was a plane called the Spruce Goose. Although named the Spruce Goose it was not made out of spruce - it was made from mostly birch. It was built in 1947 and cost 25 million dollars to build. The reason it was built was because the Americans needed a way to deploy cargo and troops during WW 2, mostly to Europe. Called the air boat, the Spruce Goose was six times the size of the largest aircraft (at the time). It could fly, AND float on water.  It weighed 4,000,000 lbs and its payload weighed 130,000 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

A man named Howard Hughes took on the task of building the Spruce Goose and many said it would not fly being the size and weight that it is. But he proved them wrong by flying the Spruce Goose for a short period.  After he flew it, it was never flown again. Instead it was kept in a specially designed hanger which cost 1 million dollars a year to maintain. He was rich, so he could afford it! Eventually, he decided he didn't want to pay anymore and was going to ship parts to museums then Walt Disney came in and said he would pay for the whole plane. It eventually was placed in Evergreen aviation centre and has been there ever since.

 

Not only does Evergreen have a Theatre, space museum and aviation centre. It even has a water park. The bad thing about the water park was the stairs. You had to take 111 stairs to get to the top. But at the top a plane (747) was sitting on the roof.  All the water slides came out of the plane. They also had wave pools, spa's, whirlpools and a basketball court in the water. It even had an arcade!

Mt St Helens

Today we went on a strenuous drive down to mt st helens. It took 3 hours and our first stop was at the bottom of mt st helens. It was a reserve and we found some interesting facts. Mt st helens was a volcano and is famous for that. When it erupted it blew the whole top off the mountain. It also caused the biggest landslide in history.  It was the cause of millions of trees getting smashed. But the Weyerhaeuser's foundation salvaged about 600 trees a day for at least 6 months. Also 57 people died and 1 person caught the whole thing on video camera. Although the eruption was huge not many people heard it.  When it erupted the sound waves were pushed upwards causing the sound waves to be lost in the sky. The Weyerhaeuser's foundation also planted 18.4 million trees after the eruption. After that we went up the mountain and stopped at a mountain close to mt st helens. we watched a short film on mt st helens then a huge window apperaed and we had a direct view of mt st helens. You could even see the huge landslide slightly. The top of the mountain was covered in snow and clouds were crowded around the mountain. so basically we drove all that way and couldn't even see what we came to look at.

 

The next day we drove down to Washington state. We had some amazing Oysters served many different ways. And then we had the greatest tartare in the world for dinner.

American Flag, Food and People

                                                                                                                                                                                                The American Flag

The American flag consists of three colours - red, blue and white. The colours represent purity and innocence (white), hardiness and valor (red), and the colour of the chief (blue).  The stars and stripes on the flag also represent something. The star is a symbol of the heavens, and there is one for every state. The stripes are symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun, and there is one for each of the early colonies. The flag itself represents unity and is nicknamed Old Glory. The flag was first hung up in 1777. Not much has been changed since, the only major change was the amount of stars and stripes. While their is currently 50 stars for each state and 13 stripes for each colony, there used to be only 13 stars for the 13 states. Gradually the amount of stars started picking up. June 14th is flag day and the reason the service members have the flag backwards on their back of their shoulders is because that is what it would look if the flag is carried forward. The American national anthem even mentions the flag quite frequently since it has played such a role in America's history. In just about every great moment in American history, the flag has flown high. Most American's honour and respect their flag.

 

 

The Food

The most famous American food would have to be cheeseburgers and hotdogs. Not to mention Buffalo wings and barbeque ribs! Other interesting fact are that Chocolate Chip Cookies, Smores and Fortune Cookies are all American. But the most famous among most Americans is a Thanksgiving roast. But my all time favourite American food is the awesome bacon. And the all time best candy is Reeses and Hersheys or Wonka products and M&M’s. Some of the all time best places to eat in America would have to be The Cheesecake Factory featured in the Big Bang Theory, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee's and IHOP.(International House of Pancakes)

The People

The most famous people from America are usually inventors who invent every day living necessities, like Thomas Edison, who invented the lightbulb. Some of the most famous people are actors and sport stars. Some of the famous sport stars are Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, and Michael Phelps. Some famous actors include Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr, and Jennifer Lawrence. Another famous American is Walt Disney and his legacy Disneyworld attracts 17 million people a year.

Sports

A week ago I started my first swimming training at Lake Oswego. I was placed in the highest group and started getting back into it. One of the bad things about the swimming pools is that the lanes sizes are not the same. Most pools here are 25 yards - the lanes are narrower, and crowded. I banged up my hand and my ankle so far. Everybody in this development squad is extremely fast and some are training for the Olympic trials. I can barely keep up, even doing my best stroke - breast stroke. Training goes for two hours and normally consists of half an hour of land training, followed by an hour and a half of swimming. The land training is pretty straight forward doing sprints and lots of drills. Then in the pool we always have to do lots of IM pull which is the hardest thing I've ever done. It is especially hard when Coach makes you use your arms only to do the butterfly!

 Today we went to the Portland Timbers soccer game. It was basically a play, what with all the fake injuries. The Timbers played Chivas and won 3-0. Every time the Timbers scored a guy would cut a section of a log out marking one goal. The crowd also was pretty into it especially on the west grandstand side. People were yelling and jumping about. Whenever a goal was scored green smoke would erupt from smoke machines and it smelt pretty bad. It also covered the goalies so someone could have had a quick goal.

 

Seattle is Sunny!

Today we visited Seattle and it didn't rain! Seattle is in Washington State, on the west coast. 

  We went to the largest building in the world called Boeing which builds airplanes. The factory is so big, you could fit fit 12 empire state buildings, or 5 Pentagons or 5.1 pyramids of Giza inside of it. We went on a tour and we saw the workers building airplanes, which was pretty amazing. Then we saw the inside of the new plane the dreamliner. The Dreamliner is supposed to be the biggest and largest plane ever - it has bigger seats and windows. It is also quite eco-friendly as it is built using special lightweight carbon fibre material. It also only costs around $202 million to purchase,  which is not too bad. But you still have to buy the engine and paint.

I learned a few interesting things about Seattle while we were visiting. 

1. The Space Needle is an Iconic landmark in Seattle. So it must be the most photographed object in the city. One random fact a few tour guides like to point out is that it actually comes second. A giant Pink Elephant car wash sign on Battery Street and Denny Way downtown come's first.

 

2. More people bike to work in Seattle than in any other city in the U.S. - and Seattle was the first city to put cops on bikes, too.

3.Several major companies were founded in Seattle including Boening, UPS, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks and Costco.

4.The happy face was designed by a Seattle aid agency in 1966.

 

5. Seattle's nickname is the rainy city although many cities in the US have much higher rainfall.

San Juan Island - Friday Harbor

Today we visited the San Juan islands which is off the coast of Washington state, near Canada. We stayed in Friday Harbor which is famous for their awesome mussels and clams. Right next to our hotel was a whale museum which showed you how killer whales came to be according to old Indian tales. We also got to see the comparison in brain sizes between an everyday Whale, Dolphin and Human.  We also learnt that the main cause of Killer whales dying is because their main source of food is being taken away. They eat salmon, and humans also love salmon, and we've eaten a lot of it.

Later, we went kayaking around half of the big island. The water was cold enough to make your hands go numb. We got to see jellyfishes, starfish, sea cucumber and a porpoise.One of the best things about kayaking was you got to see a view of mountains coated in snow. 

Plus we got to see the epic houses along the cliff face. We saw a house that was once owned by Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.    

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Alcatraz

A few weeks ago we visited Alcatraz in San Francisco. When we first got there we went into a long strip of building to watch a short film on the history of Alcatraz. Next we picked up an audio guide and started walking around. We learnt about the worst criminals in Alcatraz such as American gangster Al Capone who was one of the most famous gangsters in history. Alcatraz was not only home to prisoners, many guards and and there families lived there.The jail is large and took up most of the island. The reason Alcatraz is so famous is because nobody has ever escaped and lived. First you have to break out of your cell then swim or catch the guard filled ferry across to San Francisco.  Most would die trying to cross the icy cold water. We eventually found out that the prison had a library, outdoor field and special cells which had thicker bars and substantially larger amount of space.  According to the prisoners the worst thing about Alcatraz was that they could often hear laughter and joy coming from nearby San Francisco. Plus it seemed close enough to swim but would most likely end up with death.

 One of the most famous stories of how people escaped was from a spoon and a paper mache head. The prisoners all had to go to sleep at 10 and every night 3 men would chisel away at a rusty vent no wider than a computer screen. Gradually they would make a substantial hole big enough to climb through and escape using the paper mache heads as decoys to pretend they were asleep.