BE SAVVY 21: Devilishly Awesome – Post #136

Monday we drove from Sundance, Wyoming to Spearfish, South Dakota. Before leaving Sundance, we decided to check out the Sundance museum. It was really interesting, and included things like registered sheep brands, old kids’ toys, local artists’ work, really old violin and pianos, and an assortment of other items and their histories donated by the residents of Sundance. I thought it was really cool that people were proud enough of their town that they would donate family heirlooms so others could learn about the place they called home. The town had a lot of history and a lot of pride, and that was great to see.

Across the street from the museum was the old town jail that had been restored to show what it would have been like when it was used. It also had a short history of the jail, which was used as a dog pound for a short while.

In South Dakota, before we checked into our hotel, we drove to check out something called ‘Devils Tower’. It was pretty startling, this huge, odd-shaped rock sticking up from this short clump of trees. It was shaped rather like a thimble, a cylinder smaller at the top than the bottom, but still flat on top. Gigantic vertical grooves ran up and down its sides, and it sat on a bed of loose fallen rock. Just to add to the strangeness, it was formed completely naturally.

Devils Tower was a sacred place for many Native American Tribes, and each had their own names for it. To the Mato Tipila it was Lakota, or Bear Lodge. To the Tso-i-e it was Kiowa, or Rock Tree. To the Wax?ank?sija Tibi it was Assiniboine, or Place Where Bears Live. To the Mahdo Wakupe it was Mandan, or Bear’s Hat. To the Woox-nii-non it was Arapaho, or Bear’s Tipi. To the Daxpitcheeaasaao it was Crow, or Bear’s Home. To the Nakovehe it was Cheyenne, or Bear Lodge.

I’d be interested to know the rest of the tribes’ words for ‘bear lodge’ because the Mato Tipila and Nakovehe words, Lakota and Cheyenne, are especially beautiful.

Devils Tower was originally called Devil’s Tower, with the apostrophe, but in an official document it was forgotten, and was never bothered to be replaced. Devils Tower it remained.

We took a walk around the base of Devils Tower, keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes. Some of the things we saw were burnt trees, long, partially intact pillars that had fallen off the tower, butterflies, and a jack rabbit with long, straight ears and a quivering nose crouching in the grass.

Leaving Devils Tower, we drove down a road winding through a small bit of grassland that had the best sign I have ever seen. What was it? ‘Prairie Dog Crossing.’ I burnt my arm on the hot glass of the car window taking a picture of it, but it was worth it. Of course, we had to get out to take a look around.

We saw them! I was thrilled. They look a lot like squirrels with thinner fur and hairy mouse tails. They held bit of grass in their paws the way squirrels hold nuts, and nibbled like they do. The way they ran was interesting. I expected sort of guinea pig, all four legs going at once, scurrying sort of a run, but I forgot one important thing. Prairie dogs are tunnelers that rely on strong hind legs for speed. Their run is more like a dog’s bound then anything I have ever seen. It is absolutely adorable.

After that excitement, I was more than ready to find the hotel and write postcards…lots of postcards…

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 20: Here We Go Again – Post #135

Sunday was the usual: drive, church, drive, hotel, sleep. This time, church was in Cody, Wyoming. It was pretty cool, because they held their summer services in the smaller of their two churches. The won it in a poker game, when the players decided that the pot had become too large for one person, so the winner would give the money to his church instead of keeping it for himself.

They were very friendly people, and had very nice, very chewy oatmeal cookies. I will say it again, the hospitality of a church can usually be measured by the quality of their cookies.

The rest of the day was spent driving to Sundance, Wyoming, where we found the hotel, had dinner, and went to bed.

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 19: Why did the bison cross the road? - post #134

We spent all of Saturday driving through Yellowstone Nation Park. If you’ve never been there, this may seem weird, and the fact that we didn’t even see everything may seem weirder, but if you’ve been you will understand. Yellowstone is huge, and is amazing, like no other place on earth.

I thought about the way I’d write this post, and I decided it would be easiest to explain this in groups, as opposed the order we saw them. First category? Animals.

As a national park, Yellowstone is home to a diverse and interesting collection of animals. Being in a completely different setting than Connecticut means animals none of us had ever seen before.

We saw a lot of elk. One stood eating grass by a river as another lay resting on the opposite bank. They were a bit odd, with bodies like horses or antelopes, necks like llamas, and heads a bit like camels, but mostly horses. They had dark heads and necks, and their color lightened across their back and down their necks. We saw a bull elk from a distance, hiding in a cluster of trees. Before the ranger waved us on (too many people were stopping to watch it, and were clogging up the road), we caught a glimpse of a huge body and even larger antlers.

We saw some deer as well. A doe was standing on the side of the road, minding her three fawns. She was a beautiful light brown, and her fawns were a similar color with white speckles down their backs…very Bambi. She nibbled at the grass and watched her kids, while they moved restlessly from place to place. They all ignored us completely, despite their closeness, probably because they were used to people passing through.

I saw two bald eagles. One was perching on a half-fallen tree across a river, staring rather regally into the distance. The other, if I was not mistaken, was dancing. It was sitting on the very top of a tree right next to the road, and was bopping from side to side quite energetically. It was weird, because bald eagles seem to be such mature, high class birds.

We were driving past a large meadow some way below the road, when we noticed that a cluster of people had stopped to take pictures. We scanned the area, and finally I spotted it. A bear! She was a black bear, lumbering slowly across the field. Behind her, hardly half her size, trailed her cub. I was thrilled to see a real bear, and equally thrilled that it was happening under such safe, secure circumstances.

We were driving along a stretch of road bordered on both sides by flat grass, when out of no where started popping up these fat little mice that would stand on their hind legs and look at us with their heads tilted, then scamper back into their holes. At first we didn’t know what they were, but the map we got at the entrance said they were marmots. Marmots or not, they were adorable, though impossible to photograph due to their speed and apparent inability to stand still!

The coolest animal, though, had to be the bison. They were huge and dark brown, with great hairy heads and insanely huge bodies. What made them so great? They crossed the road.

I don’t know why the giant herd of bison, moving one by one and two by two, decided to cross the road. Maybe they found causing a traffic jam amusing, or maybe they were grumpy and wanted to make a mess of things. Why did the bison cross the road? The world may never know.

They proceeded to swim across the river (yes, they can swim, a lot like horses do), climb up on the other side, and head into the woods there. Maybe they did that every day, moving across the river to eat, or maybe they were heading to a different location all together. I don’t know, but seeing them was something amazing that I will never forget.

That’s about it for the animals, but not for the park! The other crazy thing about Yellowstone is its ‘thermal features’. These come in a variety of styles, shapes, colors, sizes, temperatures, scents…no two are alike!

Some of the thermal features are like clear, bubbling blue pools. Others shoot pillars of water and steam high into the air, while yet others send thick clouds of steam floating over your head. Many have bright orange streams coming from them, painting the bare rock near them in vibrant shades of any color from red to yellow. The one thing they have in common? They all smell very strongly of rotten eggs. Ick.

We did see Old Faithful, the famous old geyser. We were incredibly lucky with our timing. Only five or ten minutes after we arrived at the small group of geysers it is seated near, it went off. The pillars of steam and water shot way up into the air, taller than the tallest pine trees nearby. It was amazing. It went on for two or three minutes, then the water slowly sank back down into the little, unassuming hole in the ground.

Near Old Faithful was another geyser called the Castle. We were even luckier to see this one erupting, because it only happens once a day. The next eruption was scheduled to be at 2-4 am the next morning. It sent out billowing clouds of steam, and was very impressive. We watched it for a very long while, Mom especially seeming rather entertained.

We saw a small one bubbling clear water noisily, its small fountain surrounded by bizarre, almost alien orange lumps. Another was so tall and so close to the path, that its steam waves hit us right in the face, hot and smelly. There a breeze that day, though, so when you felt cool air on your face, you knew you could breathe with ease.

By favorite thermal feature had to be a large, still pool. It was perfectly clear, so you could see all the way down to the bottom. The most amazing thing about it, though, was the color. It was such an amazing shade of blue! I think I now have a new favorite color: geyser blue.

-Iona-

A Side Note - Post #133 1/2

I have a feeling that, just maybe, people are starting to get the idea that I am an overethusiastic blogger...o.O

Jacob: i wont have any hair left if i have to figure it out Iona: lol Iona: can I quote you on that? Jacob: yes Iona: good Jacob: its gonna be in a blog isn't it Iona: possibly

(This was on the topic of the riddle I posted earlier.)

But thinkgeek.com has a shirt that says 'I'm blogging this' and it's coooool!!! Then Stephanie Meyer is selling shirts for her book, Twilight, that have an apple on the front and say bite me, then say 'Official I Love Edward Cullen Fan Club Member' on the back. They're here. I must have one!!! I'm getting off track. Good night, everybody! -Iona-

BE SAVVY 18: No Lions, No Tigers, but Bears? Oh My! (Plus some wolves…) – Post #133

Today we drove from Missoula, Montana, to West Yellowstone, Montana. Though most of Yellowstone is in Wyoming, this section is not. The drive was very interesting. We kept passing over a very twisty river that was beautiful, pale blue with sparkling white mini-rapids. We saw a part of a forest that we thought had caught on fire before, because all the trees were very small and young, and there was a lot of dead wood around their bases.

When we got into West Yellowstone, we got a quick bite to eat (tuna salad sandwich and clam chowder for me!), then headed on over to check this bear place.

That was really cool. There was a lot of information on all sorts of bears. You can distinguish a black bear from a grizzly, for example, because a grizzly has a dished facial profile, a hump on its shoulders, small ears, and long claws and a black bear has a flat facial profile, no hump, big ears, and shorter claws. You can not rely on color because black bears can be black, brown, or even white. Weird, right? I thought so.

Outside was a large, fenced off area where you could watch bears. One was sitting in a hole it had just dug, one was lying on its back with its paws in the air, and one was playing in the river. They were handsome brown bears, but their size was terrifying. One was 1000 pounds, and taller than me when it was sitting and I was standing!

Across from the bears was a wolf exhibit. They were beautiful, white and grey, larger than dogs but twice as graceful. While most were sleeping in the hot sunlight, one got up, padded around, and generally amused all of those watch him (or her, I wasn’t sure).

We then went back inside to watch a presentation on bear safety. It said if a bear was walking towards you calmly, in blunt terms, you were dinner. It was best then to look as big and fearsome as possible, spray it with bear spray (like pepper spray), and fight it. Fun? No, but better than being eaten. It said to travel in groups in bear country, the bigger the better, and to be aware of your surroundings at all times. That’s generally pretty god advice, don’t you think?

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 17: Sum it Up – Post #132

I am a mixture of lazy and thorough, which is not easy to be, so I am very behind on my blogging. Basically:

Monday

The morning was spent lazily, then we went to an Osprey (minor league baseball) game at night. The highlight of this was probably a tie between the music and the entire crowd shouting ‘peanuts, peanuts’ to try and win some. The lowlight? The mascot who stole my book and made me dance…

Tuesday

Mom, Calum, and I spent the day at a water park recommended by one of Dad’s customers. It was pretty fun, with three big slides leading into a pool. The orange slide was for tubes, and was half covered, half open. The red slide was all closed, and the yellow was basically an open corkscrew with two turns at the end. The last was my favorite.

Around the base of the slides twined ‘Lazy River’, a circle with a minor current that you could float on in a tube. It was more fun than it sounds, actually. Pushing Calum into the various waterfalls when he least expected it was also a plus, of course. :)

Wednesday

We had a very lazy day doing nothing, but when Dad came home we went out to eat, then decided to walk up a hill. The hill in question had a big zigzagging trail that led up to a concrete ‘M’ the students at the University of Montana put up there. It was pretty cool, with a band down below playing music that drifted up so we could hear it. You could see for miles. It was weird, because you don’t think of Montana as having many trees, but it has tons.

Thursday

We got up and got breakfast at the hotel as usual, then started off on a five hour drive. However, about an hour out the car slammed into a deer that ran in front of the road. The airbags went off and the car got all smoky, but the only injuries were a cut on Mom’s hand and bruises on her thumbs. Dad called the police, and we waited on the side of the highway for the tow truck. The man in the tow truck drove us to the airport. On the way there, we saw the smoke from a forest fire. We didn’t see the flames because they were in a valley. At the airport, we talked with the car rental company and smoothed things out. They gave us a new car, and we went to a hotel for the night. We’d make up the lost time later.

Is that cheating, shortening my posts and cutting out a lot of hard work? Probably, but:

1. It’s summer vacation. I have a right to be lazy.
2. I’m exhausted
3. My posts are longer than my Dad's already. :P

More tomorrow! -Iona-

BE SAVVY 16: Lenny and Phil – Post #131

The actual driving part of our trip from Wallace, Idaho to Missoula, Montana was pretty, with rolling hills covered in skinny, tall pine trees and winding rivers that constantly crossed under the highway, but the fun parts were what Dad and Calum call ‘finds’, interesting places off the highways that seem like they’d be cool to check out.

The first of these was Silver Mountain, ski resort in winter, mountain biking and hiking spot in summer. It boasted the longest gondola ride in the world and wasn’t too much of a detour, so of course we had to check it out. We changed into sneakers, then bought tickets from the nice woman behind the little counter.

The gondola itself was a small, rectangular carriage with Plexiglas windows, two cushioned seats, and a thinly carpeted floor. According to the flyer, it ran for three and a half miles. The journey itself was certainly amazing. We were floating over pine-covered mountains, and even dipped down to pass over a small town sitting in a tiny valley. The ride was hot, with no air conditioning and the four of us in the little cabin, but it was worth it.

We got off at the other side after only about fifteen minutes. The woman who we bought our tickets from had recommended the chairlifts, so we found those. We split into pairs, me with Mom and Calum with Dad. It was a bit nerve-wracking at first, for several reasons.

1. Your feet were dangling over a good twenty feet of open space below you.

2. You had to hop on the bench thing while it was still moving.

3. Ditto getting off at the other side.

I did it anyways, of course, and it was actually really fun. The first of the two chair lifts was pretty short, but it was fun. It was breezier than the gondola, and you could see better.

We got off at the bottom, and got onto another one right next to it. This one was longer, so we had more time to look around. Some parts were so steep, the tree stumps were growing horizontally out of the ground, then made a 90 degree bend so the tree trunks themselves were standing vertically. They were weird trees, very tall but super skinny. Some of them looked like they had thick chunks of hair hanging off of them. Mom and I thought that it was some sort of disease killing them, but then we realized that they were dead branches. Dad through some sort of vine might be choking the trees, but he wasn’t sure.

I was a lot of fun talking to the people coming down the other side. I said hi to all of them, got a wave from two cute little boys, and helped a little girl and her mom remember the end of ‘On Top of Spaghetti.’ Not bad for being suspended up off the ground in little metal bench!

When we got to the top of that chairlift, we got off and walked up a small dirt path to a hut on the very top of Silver Mountain. It was beautiful up there, with butterflies landing delicately on the wildflowers and tree covered mountains fading into blue on the horizon.

In the hut we met a very nice old man named Phil. He was a retired forest fire spotter, and he explained to us what the hut was. It was a reconstruction of one of the huts that fire spotters had lived in. Their job had been to keep an eye out for forest fires, use an ancient device in the middle of the hut to pinpoint their precise location, and report them in. It was fascinating, actually.

We went back down the chairlifts, then got slushies from a restaurant before riding the chairlifts back down to the car.

The second place we stopped at was a mine tour. We parked the car, then waited in a small shop for a trolley to take us to the mine,

The trolley was cute, three wooden benches facing outwards, and the driver’s seat up front. We sat on the end, facing backwards. It was all open, no windows or anything, which was cool.

It’s wasn’t too far to the mine, and we learned about the different mines nearby and the two films shot in the town while we rode.

We stopped outside the mine entrance, a big square leading into a tunnel. Peering in, we were met with a blast of cool air. Our guide’s name was Lenny. Lenny was a retired miner, who explained that the mine we were at was a failed mine. They didn’t find any minerals there, so they used it to train high school kids. He also explained the different types of miners, how it was very hot down in working mines, how they would work for about six hours straight with no lunch, but with a gallon of water, and how most would work for years before they got their part of the tunnel mined out.

When we went inside the mine, he demonstrated a coring machine, rock pushing machine, and scooping/carrying machine. He seemed to make a point of embarrassing me along the way, but I am so used to the…interesting senses of humor my family has that I was at least partially immune.

One interesting thing was, he was making a speech on how the machines were very loud, so miners lost their hearing, and he asked if everybody understood. This grumpy-looking old woman who had scowled the entire time raised one hand and asked, ‘What?’ like she couldn’t hear him, then cackled. It was definitely interesting.

Other than that, the drive was relatively cool. Calum and I watched X-Men 2, which was cool, and we were there before we knew it!

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 15: Famous Potatoes - Post #130

Saturday, I woke up slowly and got ready even more slowly. The Holiday Inn Express (which I liked, especially the smell of chlorine which reminds me of swim team) includes breakfast, so I had some muffins and cereal and a glass of orange juice.

We then all piled into the car and drove to a nearby lake, Lake Cour d’alene. Dad booked up seats on a cruise of the lake, and while we were waiting I went for a swim.

The water was cold, but not as cold as Oregon, so I was fine. However, Calum and Mom were sunbathing, and Dad was driving back to the hotel to pick up some things, so I was alone in the water.

A ways out were the string of buoys connected by a rope that marked the edge of the swimming area. I decided that, with nothing else to do, I would swim to them. It didn’t look too far.

I didn’t have any trouble, exactly, because three years of swim team has made freestyle my strong stroke, but it was certainly harder than I’d expected. It was, first of all, a lot farther than it looked, and I hadn’t thought about swimming back as well. Second, I’d never tried to swim for any real distance with waves. They weren’t big, but they were big enough to get up my nose and in my mouth and give me grief. Third, I haven’t really swum since the beginning of April, so I was rather out of practice.

I was fine, and had no trouble, but I returned to the beach tired, which I hadn’t expected, and rather glad I hadn’t tried for anything more.

Soon it was time to board the boat, and we got seats on the top deck near the stern. The tour took us all around the edges of the lake, and a young man pointed out the more interesting features over the intercom.

Cour d’alene means heart of the awl, because the local Native Americans were known for their sharp trading practices. The boat was called Morning Star in that language.

The lake had osprey, which built their nests on the various posts and structures poking up out of the lake. Ospreys have to rebuild their nests every year, because they rip the old ones up to get their young to leave the nest.

Some of the houses had no roads leading to them. These were summer homes, because parts of the lake did freeze in the winter. However, the lake did have a maritime postal service, five days in the summer and three in the winter, which was pretty cool.

One of the most interesting things we saw was a floating golf green. The rest of the course stuck out into the water, but this one green actually floated, and was on a platform that rotated daily so the game you played was never the same. In fact, if you have ever played Tiger Woods 2005, you might have seen it…

We went on a search for lunch when the tour was done, and stopped at a nice little family sort of restaurant called Perkin’s, where I got fish, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese, which I had been craving. Gooey, fake cheddar cheese covering overcooked elbow macaroni…I would have made about ten boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese had we had a stove…and ten boxes of Kraft…

After that we drove to a Border’s on my request, where I picked up Uglies and Pretties by Scott Westerfeld and Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin. Then it was to Target for a cheap chess set for Calum.

Mom and Dad were pretty exhausted – boats can do that to people – and Calum and I weren’t feeling too active either, so we headed back to the hotel for a break. Mom and Dad lay down for a nap, and Calum and I played chess.

The first game, Calum beat me by cornering my king with his rooks. I, not very good at understanding those sorts of things, nodded and challenged him to a game of checkers. It ended up with his one remaining piece versus all but three of mine. I won. :)

Then we played chess again. I, at some point, realized that my strongpoint was not employing devious and complicated and hopeless strategies, but in finding the flaws in Calum’s plans. That’s what I proceeded to do. I won the next two games.

We got bored, so we settled down to watch the extras on the X-Men DVD, each with one ear of the iPod earphones I had plugged into my laptop. They were cool, but they, too, lose their interest, so we woke up our snoozing parents.

We ended up playing minigolf. I lost against Calum and Dad pretty badly, which was okay because I got a hole in one on the first hole. :)

After the minigolf we went down into the arcade, and I watched two guys play DDR on one of the real machines. One of them – who kind of looked like Christa’s brother – was really good, like Rachel/Rachel’s sister/Bridget good. That’s pretty good.

I played, on my own of course, and was pretty awful. It made me laugh. They had a bunch of songs from all the games, and I was especially awful on Speed Over Beethoven. I beat Calum twice in air hockey, though, which made me feel a bit better.

None of us were really hungry because of the big lunch, so we decided to just go out and get ice cream. It took forever, and included a stop at some IGA, where I found these weird candies called Idaho spuds. They had a chocolate and coconut coating, but what was mysterious was the inside. Was it marshmallow flavored tofu, or coconut flavored marshmallow? Mom though egg whites…the world may never know.

We eventually stopped at this nice, Friendly’s-like restaurant called Shari’s. I got a sundae with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, and brownie. Calum got one with all that plus caramel and nuts. His was called the Turtle which, of course, made me instantly think of Rachel.

Then it was back to the hotel for some minor packing. Tomorrow was a short (short being less than five hours) drive of maybe three hours to Missoula, Montana. Fun stuff. :)

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 14: Frozen Sandbar - Post #129

Thursday the wind was so low, the kite wouldn’t even get up in the air. The tide was low, though, and a sandbar appeared. Calum and I ran on it in the freezing cold water up to our ankles, until the tide came back in and it was half way up our shins. We forgot that we were on a sandbar, though, and ended up wading back through waist-high water. Cold, cold, cold!!! But it was fun while it lasted.

I tried to bury Calum when we got out, but it is now scientifically proven (well, not really) that he can not lie still, so there went that idea.

We were both cold, and now Calum was sandy too, so we ended up back at the house for showers and lounging around, reading mostly. I’ve read every book I’ve brought with me (excluding summer reading) at least twice.

When Dad got back from Salem and Monmouth, we went out to eat at a nice Mexican restaurant, where I got this platter of chicken, cheese, rice, mushrooms, peppers, and onions that I do believe was bigger than my head.

We spent the evening packing, because the next day would be spent driving eight hours from Oregon, through Washington, to Idaho.

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 13: Cobblestones - Post #128

Wednesday the wind was a bit weird, so it was hard to fly the kite. After I woke up at about half past noon (how awesome is that???), we really just hung around in the sand.

We walked down to the snack shop again in the afternoon, and I got a bag of chocolates pretending to be rocks, which were cool.

When Dad came home that night, he took us out to a different part of Oregon, to a beach covered in rounded black stones of all sizes. The cool thing about this was that when the tide rolled over them, they made a peculiar rattling sound. Mom thought it was creepy, but I liked it. It was kind of like the feeling you get when you listen to rain, that same sort of natural comfort.

Well, if you ignored the cold and the wet and the mist that chilled you to the bone.

We saw a huge pink starfish in a sort of tide pool, and green anemones, which I can spell. The coolest animals, though, were the seals. You could see their little rounded heads poking up out of the waves off of the shore, and occasionally they would flip over and their tails would splash. You have to love seals.

After we watched the seals, we went to a restaurant Warren had taken Dad to before. The restaurant was called Mo’s, and it did seafood. It was delicious, and the fact that each table had a bucket of crackers on it only made it cooler.

On the wall was a sign that said:

YISDERSOMENIMORORSISASISDENDERISORSIS?!

I figured it out first. Can you get it?

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 12: Flying Beetles - Post #127

I woke up late again on Tuesday. After more rice and carrots for breakfast, Calum, Mom, and I walked down to a store we had seen yesterday while driving to the movies. (Dad was in Salem again.) It was called Flying Things and it sold, among other things, kites.

The kite we bought is a Beetle, and I love it very much.

It is a sort of triangle, and is black, green, grey, blue, purple, red, orange, and yellow…kind of like a tent that fell into a rainbow or something. It has two handles, and you can steer it. It’s pretty cool, because you can understand a lot about winds and air currents then you would have before. If the wind is strong enough, you can make the kite do dives and turns and other cool tricks. It doesn’t take too long to set up, just hooking a few poles together, looping the flight lines onto the kites, and then unrolling the lines. It’s insanely fun, and relatively easy, depending on whether you’re trying to just keepit up in the air, or make it dance.

Next to Flying Things was a sweet shop, a bit like CC’s in Wolcott. (If you’ve never been there, I strongly recommend it!) I got a piece of chocolate filled with marshmallow and caramel, Calum got a gigantic sundae with Rocky Road ice cream, and Mom got a coffee.

We spent the rest of the day flying the kite (mind the seagulls), building sandcastles with new buckets and shovels, and running up and down the beach, an extremely tiring activity. Then, it was time for bed.

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 11: 100% Completely and Totally Savvy - Post #126

I slept in, and it felt wonderful. Dad was already gone for work in Salem. (Not Massachusetts. That would have been a bit odd.) Tea, rice, and boiled carrots were breakfast. This might have looked a bit odd next to Mom and Calum’s cereal, but it was delicious. Come near me with syrup or eggs in the morning and nine out of ten times I will run away screaming. I’m not a big cereal sort of person, and when we go out for breakfast I usually eat about half a pancake. Something about sweet in the morning completely takes away any hunger I might have had. But, of course, I can eat ice cream at seven in the morning, no problem.

We dressed in shorts and sweatshirts, then went down to the beach. It was a walk of about a minute and a half, which was awesome. Calum and I immediately rushed down to poke the Pacific.

In science this year, we learned about rocks and their properties and most of it went right out of my head, but one thing that stuck was from when we did currents. The ocean water on the east coast is warmer than that of the west coast because the east is heated by the northward-flowing Gulf Stream, and the west is cooled by the southward-flowing California Current. Well, it’s true, at least for Oregon. The water was freezing cold! Instead of swimming, Calum and I set about to one of the best activities of the beach: building and protecting a castle.

Now, our castle was a rock stuck in a bit of dirt, but that was okay. The fun part is protecting it, the intricate system of walls and moats set up to protect the ‘castle’ from the incoming tide.

We lost, of course. We always do. When the tide came in, it pulled down our castle with ease. It was fun, though, watching the rough piles of sand be smoothed by the water, then sink back into squished little lumps.

There’s not really much more to say about most of that day. We hung around and enjoyed the feeling of having nothing to do, nowhere to go. It was cam chowder for lunch, then, before we knew it, Dad was home again.

We all piled into the car and drove to a nearby movie theater. Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest came out on July 7^th, and I was determined to see it as soon as possible.

Spoiler warning. My customary red ‘don’t read beyond here unless you’ve already seen this or aren’t planning to’ warning. Admittedly, it’s not as necessary as the one for new Harry Potters, but I’m guessing there are people out there who will appreciate this. Or maybe it just makes me feel special…heehee. Anyways…

I enjoyed the movie immensely! It had plenty of cheesy references to the first movie. Jack’s, “Elizabeth! Hide the rum!!!” was pretty awesome. I really liked Bootstrap Bill. I think they did him perfectly. I got very annoyed with Elizabeth, though, when she left Jack on the ship…I wanted to kick her, then give Will a hug because she kissed Jack. Poor Will. Jack was pretty cool, though, when he got the bottle of dirt from the weird fortune teller, and when she said she’d take it back if he didn’t want it, he said, “My dirt!”

The fight on the waterwheel between Jack, Will, and that other guy whose name I always forget was pretty cool. The greatest part had to be when the people on the ground stopped fighting when it rolled by and were just all, “Okay…that was weird.”

I really liked how they added the organ music to the soundtrack, because of Davy Jones’s character. I love organ music when it’s used in the right way, like in the newest Phantom of the Opera, I believe. Very awesome.

And then Barbossa at the end… I don’t know, but the third movie is going to rock, it really is. I think I’ll get as many people as I can (probably only me) to dress up as a pirate and go see it. I’ll wear some of the stuff I got for Ariel’s costume party. Dad’s kilt shirt is the greatest pirate shirt ever, because it is white, had poufy sleeves with tight wrists and a wider bit over your hands, and laces up at the top. The coolest thing, though, is that is comes down almost to my knees. I wore it over old green leggings from Goodwill, then put a buckle over the shirt and around my waist. Instant pirate! Add a bandana, some boots, and that fake sword that says, “clang” when you press the red button, and you’re all set…

Now, if you’ve been to the movies with me, you know that I have this thing about staying until the very end of the credits. Half of the reason for this is because I have yet to see an Iona in the credits, but the other half is that many producers will reward you by adding a little bit extra at the end. It is best to come in with no expectations, because frequently there is nothing, but then you get ‘No dragons were harmed in the making of this film’ from the latest Harry Potter…

Did you stay for the end of Pirates? Because you should have… Remember the dog they left on the island with the cannibals? We got a short clip of that dog sitting in Jack’s throne on the island, with a crown on his head and the keys in his mouth replaced by a very large bone!

Ah, pirates. I love them.

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 10: We really ought to k-know w-who’s w-who… - Post #125

Not long before we got to the house in Oregon where we would be staying, we drove past a sign for a drive-through safari, of sorts. So we took the turn (as we have a tendency to do) and went through it.

My favorite parts of the safari, hands down, was the dashboard of the car, the street in front of us, and the large hairy creature crossing the road all into the same picture. Another highlight was spotting a large, bearded animal that may or may not have been a gnu (perhaps an elk?). If you have ever (whether voluntarily or because I have made you) listened to the Gnu Song, you will understand the exciting aspect of the situation.

There was also a large bird sitting on its eggs, an animal like a bald sheep with a jackal’s head, a very pretty peacock with a shimmery blue neck, (Microsoft Word informs me that shimmery is not a word. I inform Microsoft Word that it is now.)

We spent a good deal of time driving in circles around two very large brown bears playing in a pond. They seemed to be having a great deal of fun swimming, splashing, and swatting each other in the faces. Ah, well. Bears will be bears.

The house we would be renting for the week was off a skinny little gravel road. The first thing I did after hopping out of the car was to run down the rest of the road, stand at the guardrail, and stare.

Hello, Pacific!

Only a glance, though, before unpacking and checking out the house. On the first floor was the kitchen/laundry stuff, a bathroom, my room, and Calum’s room. Calum’s room was decked out in bears, very cute, with a set of bunk beds up against one wall. I adored my room. No, it was nothing like the striped, bright, fuzzy melting pot that is my room at home, but somehow that would have felt out of place here. No, my bed was full-sized, with a simple flowered quilt, a chair in one corner, two bedside tables, and a TV on one wall. The relief it was to have my own space…after a week of hotel rooms, this was paradise.

Upstairs was a living room, my parent’s room, and another bathroom. After some exploring, we found another set of stair leading up outside. The house had a deck on the roof! Well, it was sort of on the side of the roof, up against the hill, but it was very cool. You could see the ocean from there, and it was the one place in the house where Mom’s phone had a signal.

Was it perfect? Yes, I do believe it was…

-Iona-

P.S. Leslie, if J.K. Rowling kills off Harry…I will do something very stupid. Very. She can’t so that!!! I really have no idea, I mean she killed off Dumbledore. I wouldn’t put anything past her.

BE SAVVY 9: The Base of Mt. Shasta - Post #124

This morning, Dad woke me up by throwing my backpack onto my bed. We packed quickly, then got breakfast from the front office. The man there said that our trip to Burney would have been a total waste if we didn’t go check out Burney Falls.

What can I tell you? He knew what he was talking about! The falls were beautiful, tall and white and making a small rainbow in the mist at the bottom.

There was a trail that wound down around, then up over the falls, and we decided to walk it. The only problem was my stupid flip flops. They are perfectly comfortable, but are very slippery. The real problem this time was that the bottoms were made of a sort of foam. I had a small pain in the bottom of my left foot for some time, and when I stopped to see what it was, I realized that a small rock had cut into the bottom of my flip flop, cut all the way up, and was now digging into my foot. Ouch. We pulled it out, though, and all was good.

It was a little bit of a rush to get from there to a small Episcopal church called St. Barnabas, but we were only 15 minutes late. It was a cute little service, with maybe 20 people, and everyone was very friendly, especially during the peace and afterwards, out in a small hall with coffee and snacks.

Everyone we talked to wanted to know where we were from, what we were doing here, and whether we’d been to the place that their brother/sister/cousin/mother/father/great uncle Alfy had been in Connecticut. It was a lot of fun, and they had awesome cookies that seemed to be butterscotch oatmeal. Yes, it does sound disgusting, but they’re awesome.

This little town has half the population of Wolcott, but is bigger than Connecticut. It sits at the base of Mt. Shasta, a huge snow-capped mountain they call a hill. The mountain is beautiful, and you can see it from anywhere around there.

Now I’m sitting in the car again, listening to (ironically) California by Hawk Nelson. We’re headed for Lincoln City, Oregon, out on the coast. It’s about another 200 miles, according to the captain (Mom) and co-captain (Dad). We’ve passed some bizarre lands, short grasses and lakes and pine trees and hills. There’s definitely nothing like this on the east coast.

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 8: Great Mountains and Bad Puns - Post #123

On the drive from Reno, Nevada, to Burney, California, we stopped at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Well, we didn’t really stop, as drove all the way up to the top, then back down again!

We started out at the bottom of the mountain, surrounded by huge pine trees everywhere. There was a small store where we picked up some chips and water, then got back in the car and started the drive up.

We soon stopped at a small parking place and got out, to be met with an amazing sight of towering hills, and an awful smell of rotten eggs. The stomach-turning stench was caused by hot sulfur, holes in the rock that steamed and smelled. There was also a pit that was spewing what looked like hot, grey cement, while making an odd gurgling noise. This was good fun to watch, but trying o take a picture of it mid-spew was nothing less than impossible.

Dad wanted to do a trail, but it was closed. Since it was a sulfur trail, he came up with the ‘witty’ blog title, “That Stinks.” Definitely groan worthy.

And so the drive continued. We stopped frequently to take pictures of the stunning mountain scenery, and to attempt to stop Calum from ‘exploring’ his way off the side of a cliff. What were most startling were the patches of snow that began to appear amidst the trees. Snow. In July.

Well, as we got farther up, we learned that that was not at all unusual. The snow banks on either side of the cleared road were taller than the car, at least 20 feet tall! We stopped at another spot, where another trail was closed. We learned that the closings were due to snow, and they had actually just opened the top part of the mountain. During the winter, the snow here got up to over 40 feet!

The trail we had planned to go on was named after a particularly unfortunate guy named Bumpass. Again came Dad with his…individual sense of humor, and the blog title, “Bummer.” Honestly…

It was here that we decided we wanted a family picture, and of course, I’m the one with the most experience in going up to strangers and asking them for things, so I asked a friendly-looking man and woman if they would take our picture. They were very friendly and asked if I would do the same for them. I said yes, of course, but was more than a little surprised by the camera the man pulled out.

It was old, with a leather case attached to it, and was a bit like a toaster with eyeholes. He told me it was a camera for taking 3D pictures, and said to look in the left lens, make sure my fingers weren’t over either of the two in front, and press the button. It clicked, and I felt special. I’m really going to have to find one of my own some time, it was very cool.

We had a mini snowball fight, in which my feet got completely cold and wet, on one large snow slope. Again, this was in July. How bizarre is that?

Near the top of the mountain were several construction vehicles, noticeable for their orange paint against the white snow. As we drove by, we saw the reason. There had been an avalanche, sending huge clumps of snow across the road, and the trucks were there to clear it out.

Continuing our drive, we stopped for a few minutes near a lake, but soon came running back to the car after being fiercely attacked by mosquitoes. Not fun…but seeing the odd, bright green moss hanging off the trees was fun.

We stopped again after spotting a sign for ‘Subway Caves’. We descended a set of stairs, then faced the entrance to a large, dark tunnel. Part of the entrance had caved in, and the floor was rough and bumpy. We didn’t have a flashlight or any light at all, but we started walking in anyways.

Can you blame me for being a little nervous? I had seen the cracks in the ceiling before we’d left daylight behind. They just screamed cave-in. Then there was the little fact that we couldn’t see a thing. Not good!

However, we hadn’t gone far into the darkness before we met an incredibly nice man and woman, and their small child, who gave us their little flashlight, as they had another, larger one. We continued on.

We were very lucky we had that flashlight. The floor got very rocky rather quickly, there was no light except our little flashlight, and there was one part where Dad would definitely have hit his head if we hadn’t seen it coming. However, we did make it out alive and back on the path to the car despite the lightning flashing overhead and the thunder rumbling in the distance.

We got to our little motel, where I slept on the pull-out couch bed, practiced my flying card trick, and tried and failed to build a house of cards. I also glanced briefly at my summer reading…but decided against it. What kind of book has thirteen characters by page 9? And we have to be tested on it!!!

Why? Honestly?

-Iona-

P.S. And to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song, our little ditty…

H-Y-P! O-T-H! E-R-M-I-A! Hypothermia! This looks like Germany-a...

BE SAVVY 7: Dust Hazards and Lake Walker

I just saw my first ever tumbleweed! The fact that it was in the middle of a mini twister in the middle of the road that we just drove through…maybe I should be a bit more worried, but oh well. That was so cool…

We’re half way through the ten hour drive from Las Vegas to Reno, and I’m actually caught up on my blogging. How odd. Let’s go back to this morning, and continue from there…

We woke up early this morning to get a good start. We said goodbye to dad, who would be spending the day working, taking a flight to Reno, and meeting us there.

After a while we stopped at a diner for breakfast, a tiny little place in a rundown sort of little town thing where the occupants referred to the exterminators as, ‘goofy bug people’ and you had to go outside the restaurant to get to the doors leading to the bathrooms.

We’ve since driven through some of the most bizarre scenery I’ve ever scene. It’s mostly dirt and sand covered in tiny, odd little bushes, with huge mountains sticking up out of flat plains. I don’t even remember the last time this road took a turn.

Maybe an hour ago we stopped next to this big blue lake, Lake Walker, that randomly popped up out of nowhere. There was a little place on the cliff where you could pull over and take photos, but the guardrail, for about two hundred feet, was covered in a thick mess of spiders and web, with these bright blue dragonflies flitting about in the bushes beneath.

Whoa, weird. The land suddenly went super flat. All the big hills that used to line the road disappeared, and the only mountains are off on the horizon. Apparently, according to a small green sign on the side of the road, this is the Top Gun drag strip. Mom says Top Gun is a movie, so I guess that’s interesting.

We’re driving behind a construction vehicle, Calum is watching Star Wars, I’m listening to music, and Mom figures we’re at 375 miles out of 500. That’s only 125 to go! I wish I knew how long in time that was, but it’s varied so much, it’s really impossible to say.

I guess I’ll write something else when something actually happens. In the middle of the desert, where the only life we’ve seen so far are two people and four wild horses in the past 6 hours, this is seeming increasingly unlikely…

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 6: Breadsticks and the Hogwarts Ceiling – Post#121

Tonight we went out to eat with two men Dad might be working with, and Warren, the president of Therap. The restaurant was awesome, best described as ‘suave’. It was set as underwater, with soft music and colorful changing lights.

The waiters and waitresses not only brought you your menu, but then stood and talked you through the entire thing, recommending certain items and answering questions. I got wild Tasmanian sea trout, which was actually very good. It came with these odd purple potato-y things that were a bit like sweet potatoes that weren’t sweet.

The restaurant also had very good, sort of spicy bread sticks about a foot long and a centimeter in diameter. They were crunchy, and I ate way too many…

They gave us these cute little chocolates when we were done eating. They were a tiny white chocolate cup filled with chocolate moose, and a dark chocolate wafer stuck in the top. Delicious, delicious.

After we ate, we went over to a hotel called the Venetian. It was, of course, decked out in tan and light blue and mad to look like Venice. I was riding up an escalator, talking to Mom and not really paying attention, when I suddenly caught sight of the room we were heading into.

I thought we were outside, because the ceiling was done up to look like a blue sky with puffy white clouds, right was the sun was about to set. The light was pale and soft, and buildings lined either side. A flute, guitar, and accordion trio played quietly from the center square, and gondoliers taking travelers up and down the small canal running under a bridge and into the next room.

The ceiling was so realistic, that I immediately compared it to the one in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. The enchanted ceiling was bewitched to reflect the image of the true sky. This painting looked that real.

We were going to go see a show at the hotel Treasure Island, where the end of Miss Congeniality 2 was filmed, but they couldn’t put it on because the winds were too high. A few long streaks of lightning flashing across the darkened sky convinced me it was time to go back to the hotel.

All was not lost! We settled in for a quiet hour eating ice cream (chocolate vanilla twist in a waffle cone) before heading off to bed.

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 5: Discovering the Titanic – Post #120

Today, Dad was working with Warren again, so Calum, Mom, and I set out to explore on our own. We went to a cute restaurant for breakfast, and were just being seated when we spotted Mrs. Skreb, my band teacher. We’d known she was in the same hotel as us and had left a message on her room’s answering machine, but had begun to think we wouldn’t actually see her. She was there with her mom, who seemed very nice, and we exchanged a few words before going our own ways. I’m glad we saw her. She’s pretty awesome.

We took a long walk through a few hotels and a lot of the nearby streets. Calum spotted a sign for a Titanic exhibit with actual artifacts, and pleaded with Mom until he was allowed to go.

It was actually a very well done exhibit. You are given a small card before you begin, with the name of a real passenger on it, and some information about him or her. At the end of the exhibit, you learn whether or not your passenger survived. My passenger’s name was Kate. She was 19, and from England. She had a 2^nd class ticket, and survived the event. She was on the Titanic because she was eloping with a man named Henry. Henry did not survive.

The exhibit was complemented by music, a sort of soft techno that really fit the sad, underwater atmosphere. We saw parts of the ship, letters, money, dishes, clothes, and bags. It was really well put together, with an “iceberg” showing how cold the water would have been, making it easy to understand why most of those who died did so from hypothermia.

We walked back to the hotel and now people are swimming again, leaving me here. With my blog. And you wonderful people. Like Brianne, who commented. She’s cool. Want to be cool? Comment! You know you want to…everybody’s doing it…heehee.

Bye for now!

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 4: The Tournament of Kings – Post #119

Tuesday night we met up with Dad, who had spent the afternoon doing a training call with coworker Warren. We walked down to a dinner show we had bought tickets for earlier, called Tournament of Kings.

The setting was a huge oval arena, a dark dirt floor surrounded by stands four rows high. Each row had cushioned seats, like at a movie theater, behind a long counter. In front of each seat was a plastic mug and an odd, shallow bowl with a long handle on one end.

Stands cover three sides of the oval, but on the short side nearest to us was a sort of castle setup. I could see it very well, since I was the very last person in our row. Er, that might be a bit confusing, so here’s a nice little diagram thing. Isn’t Microsoft Paint stuff pretty? I'm the little yellow dot, by the way. :)

Soon a man came around to fill our mugs with root beer and out bowl things with very hot and very good tomato soup. The only problem? No spoons…

It was only a moment before out into the arena came a small man dressed as a jester, and a tall man dressed as a wizard. They informed us that we could not use cameras during the performance, could not smoke (this got cheers, the one man who booed got ridiculed by the jester!), and would be eating like they did in medieval era…with out hands. So we drank the soup. That was easy enough, but the real challenge came when they brought out the main course. The little roasted potatoes and boiled broccoli seemed easy enough, but the small whole chicken? Kind of a problem.

I couldn’t bring myself to tear apart a chicken, so dad did it for me. After that it was fine, and actually very tasty. Is there a moral in there? Maybe…or maybe not. Oh well, let’s move on.

We were lectured in huzzahing (you must throw your hands high into the air), toasting (drink deeply and sigh loudly), and drumming (move the drink away from the edge of the table). Then, as the plates were cleared and small apple pies passed out, the show began.

The plot? A tournament is being held by King Arthur to present his son to the kingdoms. Each kingdom’s king will be competing for the honor of being called champion. The seven kings rode out, to cheering from their section. We were seated in Ireland, and it was actually rather fun to cheer for our king. He had shoulder length, dirty blonde hair (nicer than mine), and was dressed all in green. His horse was a very pretty dark brown. The other kingdoms were Spain, Russia, Hungary, France, Austria, Norway, and Dragons.

Dragons were evil, of course, and their leader was a frightful man with a staff that shot fire. It was real fire, too, because every time he shot it, I felt the heat. He didn’t compete in the challenges, but popped up every so often to offer threats if the kings did not let him compete. They didn’t.

The challenges were riding the length of the area and grabbing flags, knocking the heads of dummies, and jousting. During Spain and Ireland’s joust, Spain actually grabbed a rope from the side of the castle and swung across the arena, coming back to kick Ireland in the face. There were also dancers and acrobats, and it was very cool. Spain ended up winning, which was all right, because he was my third favorite after Norway in second (very pretty brown hair and a brown horse with a white patch on its nose) and, of course, Ireland in first.

After all the challenges, out of nowhere poofs the evil Dragon king with his dragon-headed minions. The minions were a lot like something out of Power Rangers, except cooler because of the whole fire thing. Anyways, they were controlled by the Dragon king, who stood back from the fight.

There was a pretty cool little battle, where all the kings ended up unconscious and King Arthur dead. The Dragon king and his minions had vanished, so it was just Prince Christopher, who took his father’s sword in a cloud of smoke and swore revenge…then back came the evil guys!

Some more cool fighting, in which the kings returned, and the minions were dead. The Dragon king vanished in a blast of smoke and fire, promising to return.

The show ended with Prince Christopher’s coronation, very pretty with the dancers and acrobats and kings all bowing. All of a sudden, sparks flew across the ceiling in three directions, a giant firework exploded in the middle of the arena, and the Dragon king’s maniacal laughter rang out across the room…

I got my picture with Spain and France afterwards, because they came out to say hello. I went to bed feeling all tingly from the clapping and huzzahing. Another exhausting night…

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 3: Tiny Chocolate Candies – Post #118

Mom woke me up this morning by turning on the TV at about ten, noon home time. It was fun taking a while to get up, reading Meg Cabot’s Safe House and being lazy. We headed down the elevator (we’re on the seventh floor), and through the casino to get a bite to eat…a very expensive bite. They don’t seem to do cheap in Las Vegas. So, after a cinnamon bun and some orange juice, we headed out to explore.

Using various modes of transportation – including flat and very long sorts of escalators, a monorail, bridges, elevators, and our feet – we traveled through the nearby hotels and attractions. We went inside the Egyptian one, with hieroglyphics on the walls and sphinxes everywhere, and took a short walk around to laugh at the rather insane quality it possessed.

After that, we headed over to New York, New York. It has a Statue of Liberty and everything, but the most interesting part of it is a huge red rollercoaster that winds in and out of the hotel, with loops and twists and it looked terrifying.

If the outside of New York, New York is impressive, it’s nothing compared to the inside. It’s set up to look like a busy New York street, with manholes leaking steam, cozy pizza restaurants, and – of course – shops.

One shop we stopped at was a magic shop. It’s always fun to look at the chattering teeth, fake flies in ice cubes, and lipsticks that change color according to your mood. A man was standing near the front of the shop, disappearing and reappearing tiny light, making red balls pop out everywhere, and turning playing cards blank. The trick he did that really caught my eye, though, was levitate a playing card, and then a man’s credit card, in midair. He flew it around his neck, flipped it from hand to hand, and hovered it between his fingers.

So I bought it. What can I say? I’m pathetic at resisting advertising. I won’t tell you how it works, because I’ll probably show it to you and one point or another, but I’m practicing in the bathroom of our hotel and won’t do it in public until I’m at least half way decent with it.

We also went into MGM, a big shiny blue hotel whose emblem is a lion. That is easily explained when you walk inside; two huge baby lions are playing with their trainers in the center of the lobby.

An interesting this about Las Vegas is that it’s hot, incredibly hot, but that’s okay. You don’t sweat, because it’s not humid, and since you’re not sweaty, the bugs aren’t attracted to you. It’s actually a lot more pleasant to go outside and walk around than it is in Connecticut.

After our exploration of the surrounding hotels, we went into M&M world. That was fun. Colorful M&M characters stand at every corner and, since the M&M company is currently sponsoring PoTC2, Dead Man’s Chest, Pirate things were everywhere.

The building had several stories, and was basically a giant gift shop. There were M&M slot machines, socks, figurines, and flip flops that printed ‘I (heart) M&M’s’ whenever you walked over dirt.

We waited in line for an amusing 3D film called, “I Lost My M in Vegas,” starring red and yellow. When red bets and loses his M in a game of roulette, they go on a quest to get it back. The highlights of the film? When a giant vacuum is sucking everything into a tube, a fierce wind blows around the auditorium, and when the chocolates walk into a dance club for lost socks, a disco ball descends from the ceiling and throws light around the amused viewers.

One part of the shops had giant tubes of M&Ms in every color imaginable. Christa says only eat the blue ones, but which blue? Aqua? Navy? Plain old blue? I got every odd color there was, including cream, grey, maroon, dark pink, giant M&Ms, and almond M&Ms. The almond ones especially were delicious. Calum, being rather odd, got a very large bag of maroon, gold, and silver M&Ms. His reasoning? “It’s gold and silver like gold and silver, and, like, maroon like Hearts.” Exact quote.

I left with a pair of red M&M earrings, feeling rather pleased.

We came back up to the hotel room. Everyone’s out swimming except me because, as you know, I’ve got a tremendous amount of blogging to do…

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 2: Viva Las Vegas – Post #117

My first impression of Nevada was something along the lines of “...whoa. We're still on Earth? You're sure about that?"

Look at a map of the world and you’ll see the mountains are odd, sort of scraggly things, dark at the top, with all these creases in the sides. You pretty much assume that’s the artist being artistic, but it’s not. They really look like that.

How bizarre is a desert? It looks like Mars. Most of it is varying shades of brown, but there is some sort of pasty white in places, and a startling scarlet in other. There’s also water in spots, with pale tan sand lining the edges, and that is a sort of pale blue, but green is rather nonexistent.

The first green I saw was on a golf course. A miniature golf course. How strange.

Our hotel, Excalibur, is a giant white castle with blue and red cones topping the towers. Cheesy? Very, but it was next to a pyramid and a miniature New York City, so that’s all right. It seemed like that was all of Las Vegas, a big show for the rest of the world. Ads are plastered everywhere, mostly in the forms of large television screen on buildings and stands by the street or giant posters plastered everywhere.

We stopped by the hotel only so Dad could run in and check us in at the front desk, then it was off to a baseball game.

I am no expert at baseball, but even I know that 12-2 is a pretty depressing loss. The Tucson Sidewinders (of the Arizona Diamondbacks) creamed the Las Vegas 51s (of the Las Angeles Dodgers). See, even in baseball Las Vegas has a gimmick. The 51s are named for Area 51, the fictional government hideout that allegedly hides proof of alien life. The 51s’s mascot eerily resembles Jar Jar Binks.

The highlight of the game for me? A blue raspberry and grape shave ice and watching the Sidewinder’s third base coach make ridiculous signs to his players.

After the game were fireworks. They were cute, with a variety of effects and colors and some decent music accompanying them. They played the different military hymns and the soldiers in the stands stood up for their one, which was sweet.

The drive back to the hotel was amazing. There’s a reason all the pictures you see of Vegas are taken at night. The city transforms into a colorful maze of lights. Everything, even Walgreens, has a flashing, changing sign that turns night into day.

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 10:00. In home time? One in the morning…

Time for sleep! Good night!

-Iona-

BE SAVVY 1: Departure - Post #116

A note: BE SAVVY=Brockie's Exciting Summer Annual Vacation, Varies Yearly

Well, today has been interesting! Dad woke me up around seven for or usual goodbye-and-have-fun-on-your-trip breakfast with Pepere at eight, which was nice.

After that it was back home for about three hours of last minute packing (very last minute), cleaning (no one likes to come home to a messy house), address gathering (for postcards), and phone calls (for Dad).

I downloaded Diner Dash from shockwave.com for something to do on the plane. It’s such an amusing game! You are Flo, a woman tired of her hectic but uninteresting job. She quits, and decides to open up her own restaurant! Juggle orders, food, bills, and cleaning in this fast paced and ever changing game.

I sound like a television ad. How awful.

At around one, the car came to pick us up. Mom and Dad said it was a limo, so Calum and I were expecting the unusual but not bizarre bus thing that takes people to the airport.

Nope, it was a limo limo; long, stretched and white, with tinted windows, an intercom, and a black wall with tiny red lights and a row of glasses. My trip to the airport, to my delight, was made sitting sideways.

I love Bradley. Not only is it closer to us than JFK, but it’s nice and small. The lines are really almost nonexistent compared to some of the ones I’ve been in. I mean, think back to the London Eye or the Carnival Cruise and we sprinted on through.

They had these absolutely terrifying new security devices. It was your standard doorway of a metal detector, but it had a door to it, and a floor. You had to go in there, the door closed, and a stream of air shot up at you from your feet. It was another security device, but, as I said, it was incredibly creepy. I was very nervous, except there was another line to one of the old fashioned ones, so we just waltzed on over there without a problem, and we were set. Hooray!

We grabbed a slice of pizza from the tiny food court (which I recognized, strange the things you pay attention to when you’re little!), then made our way to the entrance. This was done rather neatly, with the passengers set into lines A, B, and C, and let onto the plane in that order. The whole seating process is cut in half because people can sit anywhere they’d like. It’s actually really good. The time sitting in the plane before takeoff was really short, too. All in all, one of the smoothest and quickest departures I’ve ever made. Excellent.

There I go with the television advertising again…oops.

No movies or anything on this flight, but snacks included dry roasted peanuts, 100-Calorie Oreo packs (better than they sound), cheese and crackers, and these surprisingly tasty little plane-shaped crackers. Cute. Very cute.

I read two of my books and played some Diner Dash, made difficult by the minor turbulence we had over the Rockies, I believe it was. Now I’m sitting here, typing this in Word because, as I completely forgot, planes don’t have internet access, unless maybe you’re a celebrity. For me? Not today…

My nose was all blah for a little while, probably because combining a sinus infection with altitude is a really bad idea. Oops. Oh well.

It’s 7:11 Connecticut time, so we should be there relatively soon. That’s good. I can’t wait to see our hotel. It’s themed, all of Las Vegas seems to be. The name’s Excalibur, of course making it medieval (which I can spell), and Mrs. Skreb, the school band conductor, is supposed to be staying there until the 5^th. Strange, right? Out of the whole United States…

There’s no crying babies, the plane’s riding smoothly, and the napkins have little maps on the backs of them. All is right with the world.

-Iona-

Fiesta Numero Cuatro - Post #115

Okay, so this party was Bridget's. Rachel, Mitch, Travis, Tyler, Colleen, Sue, Sam, Sharon, Coree, and a bunch of people I didn't know were there. We got a lei when we first arrived. They were pretty, with beads and things on them. Mine was yellow. She had a pool, so we swam a lot, then were engaged in a violent war, pool vs. deck, the missiles in question being small rubber ducks with grass skirts. They hurt, trust me. The afternoon was really a blur of Bridget's dancing, playing slaps with Mitch and Rachel (ow), and making fake blood out of ketchup, backed by a mainy Queen-based soundtrack. Dark fell, and those of us left gathered around Bridget's stereo to talk. From her deck, you can see almost all of Wolcott, including my watertower and the B.A.W. We watched people shooting off fireworks from two different places, and Rachel and I convinced Bridget to let us build her. She's a lot heavier than Brianne... Then yesterday I went to go see The Devil Wears Prada with Emily. I went back to her house, where we continued to watch Aquamarine, The Ringer, and The Brother's Grimm. When we got to The Brother's Grimm, it was about midnight, and it became extremely difficult to watch the movie seriously, partially because of the Lemonheads and Gummi Worms, but also because: a. we had no idea what was going on. b. some of the parts were really funny, even though they probably weren't supposed to be. c. the torturer had an awful toupee and curly sideburns. d. no one who was killed stayed dead. It was fun, though, and we did fall asleep...eventually... Now we're packing, because tomorrow we leave to begin our road trip. It's about four or five hours to Las Vegas, which is no picnic, trust me. I just hope they have a good inflight movie. I want to save the DVDs for the tedious car rides... And my next post? From Vegas... -Iona-