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.

Erosion Science Experiment

Yesterday, I tried a fun science experiment about eroding candy. For this experiment, you will need M&M's or Skittles, and a water dropper.

Then, on a curved plate, put 4 different colors away from each other on equal amounts of curve. Then, for one of them, drop 10 drops of water on top. For the next, do 20. Then 30, and 40.

After some time, you will see the one with 40 drops (red) eroded away fast, while the one with 10 drops (blue) eroded away slow.

I like this experiment because it shows how different amounts of rain, snow, or wind erode things differently, and I hope you enjoyed doing it.

2018 Winter Olympics

I have been watching the 2018 Winter Olympics over the past couple weeks, and I will talk about some of the sports.

The sports I have done, out of all of the sports in the Winter Olympics, are ice skating, and downhill skiing. However, I do not think I am good enough to do those at the Olympics.

I take ice skating lessons, so I was interested in watching the ice skating. I got to see amazing Nathan Chen. On his short program, he did badly, and fell on every jump. On his long program, he did amazingly, and did six of one of the hardest jumps! He almost got a medal, but not quite.

I was also interested about the single bronze medal the United States won for ski jumping. It was accidentally given to another country, but then 50 years later, the correct American received it.

I was also amazed that South Korea did not let anyone practice the slalom hill, so two people lost by missing the gates.

As you can see, there is a lot I am interested in about the Winter Olympics, and I hope I taught you something!

My Trip to the Redwoods

Last weekend, the Boy Scouts took a trip to Little Basin State Park in the redwoods. We got there around 8:00 pm, and in the morning my patrol had a breakfast of omelets.

Then we set off on a hike.

When we got to the top, we had a lunch of BLT wraps, and took a picture with the American flag.

Then, after a dinner of quesadillas, we had a campfire including a Sanders water bottle challenge.

Then, the next morning, we had doughnuts and did a service project of shoveling out the fire pits.

I bought all the food for my patrol. When I bought the bacon and chicken, I pre-cooked it at home, and the scouts thought that was the best idea ever. None of the other patrols did that, and no one else thought of that, so they loved me. The trip was one of the best we ever had. We all had fun, even on the service project. We also had fun with all the games I brought.