Flat Friends from Room 206

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Flat Joaquin Goes to Hawaii!!

Flat Joaquin arrived in Maui by airplane. Maui is one of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean about 4,000 miles from Minneapolis.

In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state of the 50 United States. The island is made up of two volcanoes, one is Haleakala, 10,000 feet high and the other is the West Maui Mountains. There are rain forests that get over 300 inches of rain and dry areas that get 20 inches a year. People love to surf and snorkel, bike and hike. In the first picture, Flat Joaquin is on the sandy Kaanapali Beach.

This sand comes from the coral in the ocean. The Myna bird almost landed on his arm! You can see the two islands behind him. Lanai is on the left and Molokai is on the right. See if you can find the islands on a map. The second picture shows Flat Joaquin enjoying the resort and the swimming!

Many weddings are performed near the beach. The cake looks delicious but we didn't stay for the celebration.

It's fun to go exploring around the island so we took a drive to Hana, a small town on the far side of Maui. Hana is about 48 miles from the airport in Kahalui but it takes about 3 hours to drive the winding road with many one lane areas and many bridges. There are many places to stop and see the waterfalls or the crashing waves.

On the road to Hana we came to the Painted Eucalyptus trees. They are very unusual and look like someone painted them! Flat Joaquin loved being in the middle of a lot of these trees.

The beaches on this side of the island can be black from the volcanic rock or even red sand from the red volcanic rocks.

It was great fun to go down the tricky trail to the beach. Flat Joaquin loved the adventure! We went all around the island, seeing the ranch land

and the top of Haleakala, the 10,000 foot mountain. This was a part of the island we have never seen before. Everyone loves an adventure!

Flat Nathaniel Goes to Arizona!

Flat Stuart Goes to Idaho!

Flat Stuart went to Idaho, and got to work with Round Stuart's Uncle Scott!

Flat Joaquin Goes to Washington D.C.!

Flat Joaquin went to Washington D.C. to visit Round Joaquin's great Uncle Steve. Here are some photos of his trip:

Flat Marlon Goes to Texas and Florida!

Flat Marlon went to Frisco, Texas (right outside of Dallas).

Whoo Hoo! No school today! On Saturday it was 80 degrees. On Sunday the temperature dropped to 26 and it rained so there is ice everywhere. The windchill is 5 below zero!! That never ever happens in Frisco Tx!

I am on my way to Marco Island, Florida!!! Whoo Hoo beach here I come!!

I made it to Marco Island to the beach!

Time for an early morning swim in Marco Island!

Today I found shells! Look closely at the dark shell, it's got a live crab on it!!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Flat Ana Goes to Maryland!

Flat Ana went to see non-Flat Ana's Uncle Ted & Aunt Helene Grabow in Maryland. Here's a rundown of what they got up to:

Johns Hopkins University (School of Medicine), Baltimore, MD. Flat Ana visited one of the Nation’s leading universities, which has produced 37 Nobel Prize winners. The hospital was ranked #1 in the Nation for 21 of the last 22 years. The concept of “grand rounds” whereby difficult medical cases are presented to the entire medical class for discussion was developed here at the original hospital pictured with its historic Victorian dome, built in 1889.

American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD. Flat Ana went to the American Visionary Art Museum to see visionary or outsider (self-taught) art. In front of the museum is one of the famous art cars (bus) made by one of many untrained amateur artists featured in the museum and its grounds.

Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD. Flat Ana went to Fort McHenry were the U.S. defeated the British Navy in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. During this epic battle, Francis Scott Key became inspired to write the Star-Spangled Banner, our country’s national anthem.

B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore, MD. Flat Ana visited the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum located at historic Mount Clair Station. This station offered the first regular railroad passenger service in 1830 and received the nation’s first telegraph message sent from Washington, DC in 1844.

Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD. Flat Ana went to the Baltimore inner harbor to see the sights. The Harbor is the home of Phillips Seafood, which is the nation’s largest blue crab processor. Also pictured is the Pratt Street Power Plant (now Barnes and Noble) and the U.S.S. Torsk (retired WWII submarine), which sits in front of Baltimore’s National Aquarium.

U.S.S. Constellation, Baltimore Inner Harbor. Ana visited the U.S.S. Constellation which is the last sail-only war ship built by the U.S. Navy. The ship performed largely diplomatic duties but was part of the African Squadron from 1859-1861 that disrupted the African slave trade and led to the release of imprisoned Africans.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Flat Renna goes to California!

Flat Renna went to visit Un-Flat Renna's aunt in San Francisco, California. She had a whirlwind tour of the city and its sights. Here's a recap, with plenty of photos!

First, she headed north our of the city to what is called "The Wine Country," because the climate and soil is very god for growing grapes, which is made into wine.

So many options of places to go!

This is a vineyard in the background - see the straight rows of grapes growing?

Flat Renna even got to touch a real Emmy award statue. She must be quite the actress!

She also got to visit a magical place called Fairyland:

Can you find her in this picture?

When she got back to the city, she got to go to the famous Bay Bridge, which is a long suspension bridge that goes across the San Francisco Bay.

Another way to go across the bay is to take a ferry boat. You can even drive a car on the ferry boat, so that you can drive it when you get off the boat!