Oregon

On Saturday, my family set off on a 10 hour drive to Portland, Oregon. We saw friends, went to museums, and ate at restaurants. I had an independent study for school, which means I do all of my schoolwork on the trip, and turn it in when I get back.

After we had dinner, went to bed, and woke up, we started an Urban Adventure Quest, a scavenger hunt on your phone.

It led us to many places, including public drinking fountains that were installed to give loggers water.

For lunch, my mom had a Bubble Waffle!

Then, we went to the Oregon History Museum.

After that, we took a tour in Powell Books, the biggest bookstore in the world! (The size of a city block, about 4 floors, and about 1.5 million books.)

Then we ate at a very fancy restaurant.

The next day, Monday, was my mom's birthday. We went to the Oregon Zoo, saw lots of cute animals, and lots of bronze sculptures. Portland has public transportation, and we took a bus/train/thing underground and went back up in an elevator to get here.

Then we went to the World Forestry Center. (It teaches you all about forests.)

Then, on Tuesday, we toured Bob's Red Mill, a milling company with a friend. Bob was inspired to mill from a book he read.

I even got to use a hand grinder!

Then we went to OMSI, a science museum.

On Wednesday, we saw an art museum with a special exhibit about Laika stop-motion animation! To make one, they have about 1,000 faces for each character, and they clip them on and off to make facial expressions. They also have bendable bodies so they can move.(They are the company who made Coraline, ParaNorman, Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings.)

It also had other art.

Finally, on Thursday, we drove home. We passed by the Capitol building on the way home, too. We got back at 8:30 P.M.

This was a great trip! We saw all we could, but there was more.

The 4 States: Maryland

The 4th state I visited on this trip is Maryland. The last three are Delaware, New Jersey, and Pensilvania.

Here are all of the great things we did in Maryland:

• Walters Art Museum
• Urban Adventure Quest
• Baltimore Museum of Art
• George Washington's Monument
• Fort McHenry
• Capitol Building
• Annapolis History Museum
• United States Naval Academy
• Oriole Stadium
• Geppi's Entertainment Museum
• John Hopkins University
• Charm City Cakes

There were many great places we ate at:

• Lexington Market
• Vaccaros
• Chick and Ruth's Delly
• Annapolis Ice Cream Company

My favorite parts of Maryland were Fort McHenry, the Naval Academy, and the Capitol Building. I loved the trip!

The 4 States: Pennsylvania

Today, I will be blogging about Pennsylvania. Here are the links for the last two posts:
The 4 States: Delaware
The 4 States: New Jersey

We went to some very amazing places. These are some favorites, but we went to more than this.

• Liberty bell
• Capitol Building
• Snyder's of Hannover
• Renovah
• Utz
• Hershey Story
• Hershey Chocolate World
• Independence Hall
• Philadelphia Magic Gardens
• Valley Forge
• Museum of American Revolution
• Urban Adventure Quest
• Constitution Museum

We ate at a bunch of great restaurants, but these are some of my favorites:

• City Tavern
• Little Lion
• Sonny's
• Campos
• Franklin Fountain
• Reading Terminal Market
• Italian Market
• Duck Donuts

I think that City Tavern was very interesting because all of the waiters wore colonial costumes, and everything was colonial. The Reading Terminal Market had restaurants from all over. Cheesesteak, pizza, sandwich, salad, soup. My mom will talk about everything in detail, so be sure to check her blog.

The 4 States: New Jersey

This post is the second of four posts. You may have missed the last one. If you did, click here:
The 4 States: Delaware

Here are all of the things we did in New Jersey:

• Tour the Capitol Building
• Visit the New Jersey State Museum
• Visit Princeton
• Washington Crossing (The Delaware) State Park (New Jersey)
• Washington Crossing (The Delaware) State Park (Pennsylvania)
• We walked from New Jersey over Delaware, and on to Pennsylvania. (We crossed the Delaware River, too.)
• Grounds For Sculpture Gardens
• Crayola Experience

We ate at:

• It's Nutts
• Jerry's Pizza
• Yummy Fancy Italian Place That I Forgot It's Name

I would recommend the Welcome Center in the Capitol Building for kids, and Washington Crossing State Park was cool also. The Grounds For Sculpture Gardens were very cool. There were over 600 sculptures there!

The 4 States: Delaware

I am on a trip to four states: Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. I will blog about all of them, but I have finished Delaware, so I will blog about it now.

Here are some cool places:

• The Old Statehouse
• The Capital Building
• Air Mobility Command Museum
• Bowers Beach

We also went to Cheddar Scratch Kitchen for lunch!

These are all great for kids, and you can get a stamp book for stamps at every Capital Building! Everything was very fun and I learned a lot!