Bill and Karen Miller were super nice, they took us out on their fishing boat. Before the boat ride, I thought, we were going to go slow. But when we got on the boat, we had to back out of the dock, turn around, get going, then BAM! We were going 50 knots or (55 mph) 1 knot is 1.13 mph.There was a buoy that said NO WAKE! near some docks and fancy stores and restaurants. Karen told us that that meant we had to slow down so we didn’t make a wake that would damage another boat. We also had to be slow as we went under the bridge.
Author: Dacen
Swimming With The Shark
Well, we didn’t actually swim with sharks, but mom really wanted to take us to an estuary.It was supposedly 2 miles to the estuary around along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and back to Ava. It only felt like 1 mile though.
At the estuary we all really enjoyed it, but I enjoyed it the most. In the touch tank (which was about 50 feet in circumference, about 3 feet deep, and was filled with saltwater) there were all fish. We were allowed to touch the animals in the well named touch tank. There was a hammerhead which was very kind, lots of sting rays which loved to cling to walls of the touch tank, sea skates which loved to stay at the bottom of the touch tank, and lots of other fish that we didn’t know what types they were.
Do you like squares? I like Nike.
We learned that sharks, sting rays, and sea skates do not have a swim bladder so they have to move at an angle up and down and side to side at an angle, unlike fish who do have a swim bladder so they can swim straight up and down and side to side. In Mobile Bay, there are 17 discovered species of sharks. Sting rays have a more round body and give life birth and sea skates have more of a triangle body and lay eggs. However, they both have barbs on there tails.
On the walk to the beach we saw lots of pelicans…one was eating a snack.
–Dacen
Jackson Square
day we went to Jackson Square to eat some Cajun food and see some street performers play music, paint, do magic, dance etc. First we walked down to a restaurant (we didn’t really know where to eat). We went to Cafe Maspero to eat lunch. Then while mom stood in line at Cafe Du Monde to get beignets we saw some street performers called the Dragon Master Showcase, but Caden thought it was Suitcase. My favorite thing they did was the Dolphin Leap which they could only do for a little bit because it was really hard to do and hurt a lot. 3 guys would jump back and forth doing flips without hitting each other! Another cool one was the helicopter where a guy was just on his hand and spun his legs around really fast.
After that we went over to Jackson Square near the Cathedral to eat our beignets.
Next we went to the Mississippi River. At the river we saw this guy named AWOL. He told us about how Lake Pontchartrain flooded New Orleans, not the Mississippi River. Then he gave us beads.
We walked back over to Jackson Square because we really wanted to see the Magician. We saw the end of his act.
Then we walked a few of the streets of the French Quarter. We saw some more performers playing music. One band played a song called Bow Wow Blues. There were others but I don’t remember the names. They each played different types of music.
We saw so many fortune tellers, smokers, and drunk people. We also saw a lot of homeless people.
New Orleans was my favorite destination so far!
Blue Ghost
11:10
All Aboard!! We just boarded the USS Lexington AKA Blue Ghost. It is a model CV16 for those of you who are interested in what model it is. (By the way I am only doing my favorite parts)
First, we went to the virtual battle stations because I felt like blasting some jets down. The first battle station we went to was the Dog Fighting station which was super hard and made no sense because in real life there is a pilot, a bombardier, and a gunner. In real life I could do better than at the virtual Dog Fighting. The next battle station was the Combat station which was my favorite station. In Combat you were a 40mm gunner on the aircraft carrier and were trying to shoot the attacking jet fighters, which were bombing you with cannons and missiles. When I was waiting in line for doing Combat again, I did the last station, the Deck Landing station. The Deck Landing station Was like the Dog Fighting but it was tutoring you. I still like Combat the most.
11:50
10 minutes till our 3D movie!! We thought we could see the whole Pearl Harbor exhibit but we had to run through it. We thought we were lost part of the time.
12:00
Our movie is just starting!! The movie had nothing to do with the USS Lexington much less, boats or planes. It was about MARS One. At the beginning, there was this retired NASA astronaut who was talking about how people are the species that explore and how nothing is enough and the rocket that blasted people to space to build and live in the ISS. After all of that, It talked about the astronauts who built and lived in the ISS and the fun part of living in space. Fun Fact: the ISS took a decade to build and has more living space than a 6 roomed house! Then, this lady was showing what it was like to train for MARS One. Later it showed this guy working on an air tight inflatable mansion. It was 44 ft high, 40 ft wide, and 48 ft long. That inflatable mansion was deflated and connected to the pod called Orion. Next, this clothes designer showed the knew space suit. She also told about how people have learned a lot about the suits and what needs to be modified. Lastly, it showed the most boring part: THE CREDITS!!
12:45
Pearl Harbor We went back to the Pearl Harbor exhibit because we had time. We watched a short video about Roosevelt signing the declaration of War and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Then we saw different knots.
On Deck. We went on the Poop Deck (tee hee I said Poop Deck!) We saw lots of Naval planes and helicopters. Then we saw an exhibit on artilleries. We also got to play with guns! I shot at a semi truck. It was the real 80mm cannon, but it wasn’t loaded. In that exhibit we learned about what the big bar on the plane does. It stops the plane quicker when it is landing so it doesn’t fly off the ship.
Birds and Marine Animals of Texas
When people not from Texas imagine Texas, they imagine brutal, arid, desert with tumbleweeds, cacti and roadrunners. Actually, Texas is humid, filled with wonderful birds, many palm trees, but does have cacti. There are also beaches, bays, and oceans. Some water fowl in Texas are seagulls, cranes, pelicans, ducks, and geese. Some other fowl are Bronco haters, cardinals, black birds, sparrows, pigeons, falcons, and hawks.
There are lots of Bays, Gulfs, oceans, and beaches in Texas which means lots of fish and crustaceans. Here are some fish, saw fish, black moray eels, red fish, red drum, black drum, Atlantic sheep head, sheep head minnow, Atlantic spade fish, shark sucker, sea trout, clown fish, red lion fish, sand fish, blue catfish, black drift fish, gulf flounder, yellow edge, long nose killifish, and moon fish. Some crustaceans are stone crab, giant hermit crab, blue crab, Atlantic shrimp, and some snail eggs.
I hope you learned a little something in that. And don’t forget what Texas actually looks like. TTFN
–Dacen
Carlsbad Caverns
CARLSBAD CAVERNS
January 25, 2016
Happy Birthday to me!
Today I turned 10! We drove down to Carlsbad Caverns National Park NM. We arrived at about 11:15 we decided to eat lunch right then because we can’t eat in the caverns and sadly, the elevators were out of service. We headed into the cave at about 12:30 due to lunch, visitor center, and bathroom breaks. When we headed into the caverns we had to go down a twisted path deeper, deeper, deeper, and even deeper. It got darker, darker, darker, and even darker. Finally, we had descended all the way to the twilight zone. The twilight zone is where many small animals like raccoons, mice, rats, snakes venture and where miners would mine guano (bat poop) in the 19th century to the early 20th century.
JIM WHITE
In the early 20th century a guano miner named Jim White wanted to explore deeper into the cave. All of his mining friends thought he was crazy. But this was the dream of his lifetime. Imagine being Jim White in the early 20th century and having to carry a lantern in one hand and digging deeper and deeper into the cavern with the other. Also there weren’t any paths or railings. But in 6 months by himself he explored all of Carlsbad Caverns.
THE SCIENCE OF THE FORMATIONS
Walking the 3.75 miles of Carlsbad Caverns and seeing cool formations in every direction is awesome. But it wasn’t easy for the formations to get there. When it rains the rain water slowly, slowly seeps through dirt, rocks, and gasses and pick up minerals like iron oxide, sulfur, and calcite. Then, the combination of the rainwater and minerals drips and turns into a colorful, rock icicle which is called a stalactite. When the combination of the rainwater and chemicals finally drip off of the stalactite they drip on to the ground they form a stalagmite. Sometimes the gasses make a bubble like a balloon and it is called popcorn. A soda straw is formed when the chemicals mixed with rainwater drips down and forms on the outside making it hollow. A column is when a stalactite and a stalagmite unite. A drapery or bacon is created when the solution of chemicals and rainwater drip down the wall.
FUN FACTS
After walking through the amazing caverns we were going to do “ask a ranger” on the Jr. Ranger program. One interesting thing I learned was bats actually eat moths not mosquitoes. Also, I learned that the real owner is Bill Gates. Just Kidding! Everybody owns all of the National Parks. Probably the coolest fact I learned was bats can see just as good as humans but they use echolocation at night because it’s darker and harder to see. Also, using echolocation it’s harder to catch the sound because it’s going the speed of sound and that’s why bats have big ears. With echolocation bats can figure out the size, shape, density, distance, and type of animal the sound bounced off like paleontologists can see what a prehistoric animal eats, the size, weight, what it looks like, and much more. I hope you learned a little something about caverns!
How I Feel
I feel sad about leaving. I am sad about leaving because I will miss my friends, family, school, church, and house. I will miss my friends because they will play with me, they are nice, and they will always lend me a helping hand. I will miss my family because they are so loving, fun, and will not forget about me. I will miss my school because of the amazing, kindhearted staff. I will miss my church because they are nice people, and know me well. I will miss my house because it is comfortable, fits my needs, and is what I like. That is why am sad about leaving.
I feel excited about the trip. I feel excited about the trip because we will meet lots of family, friends, new people, and we will get away from the cold weather, and see lots of fun places. Some fun places I am excited for are Carlsbad Caverns, San Antonio, Big Bend, Kennedy Space Museum, The Mississippi River, Disney World, Cape Canaveral, World of Coke, Smithsonian, Washington D.C, Hershey, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, World Trade Center, Cape Cod, Niagara Falls, the smallest state, and the first state.
-Dacen