Hello!

Shelly wanted to say hello. She really misses all the third graders. She is very happy summer school start tomorrow and she wishes you would all stop by and say hello.

Astoria!

I drove out to Astoria today. It's cloudy and cool. I'm really enjoying it! I'm not a big fan of the hot weather we've had this summer. Right now here in Astoria it's 59 degrees! I wore jeans and a jacket for the first time in a very long time! Summer school start Monday and I'm super excited! I have some really fun stuff planned! Miss you all third graders!!!!!

Thanks!

Thanks to Brody's family for going on vacation and letting me eat their eggs and berries!  By the way Brody needs help stacking firewood. Give him a call!  ;)

New paint and stuff!

Hello third graders! I painted a wall and covered up the pinkish cabinets. I think it looks awesome. What do you all think? The only thing I'm missing are a bunch of kids! I should have held you all back to repeat the 3rd grade with me! ;)

Hey Third Graders!

I went on a couple of short hikes recently. One of them was very short. I have lived here for three years and I had never been to Battle Ground Lake State Park. On Monday I decided to stop by and check it out and ended up walking around the lake. It's very beautiful out there! It was also very busy with people swimming and floating around on various inflatable things. I'm sure some of you have been out there, but I took a couple pictures.

On Tuesday I went out to Moulton Falls and walked a trail out there. It was beautiful! This is another new place for me. I lived out that way for a short time last winter, but I didn't do any hiking or anything. Now I wish I had known about all the hiking out there earlier. I will definitely do some exploring out there in the coming weeks before summer school starts, and then the regular school year. Here are a some pictures from the Moulton Falls hike. It ended up being 6 miles.

I just realized I'm not smiling in this picture! I was happy to be out there enjoying nature, so I'm not sure why I didn't smile. I forgot to say cheese! :) Do you like my new hat? Be honest! I can take it!

Other than hiking, visiting family and friends, and enjoying the sun I have also been doing a few things in the classroom. I am getting ready to paint the back wall that goes behind the library and the comfy chair area. I'm painting it a light blue. I'm also covering the pink cabinets and drawers with some stuff called contact paper. It's basically a big rolled up sticker. It's a color that will match the paint and look way better than that weird pink color.

Shelly wanted to say hello to you all, but she was too busy feeding her face! I took a couple pictures for you.

Miss you all! I hope you're enjoying your summer vacation and I can't wait to see you in the fall!

Home!

Hello third graders!

I'm home!

I left San Diego yesterday morning at 6:30 AM, drove 1,150 miles over 19 hours, and got home at 1:40 AM! 19 hours of straight driving is exhausting, so I slept in this morning. I'll probably take a nap today too! I just wanted to be home. I wanted my own bed instead of another hotel along the way. I didn't take any pictures along the way to show you. I just drove drove drove!

Now to get some rest!

More to come soon!

I hope you're all enjoying your summer! I miss you all!

San Diego Day 2

Good morning San Diego!

This is the morning view from my sister's balcony.

The San Diego Padres are playing in Cleveland today, so here is the ballpark where they play when the are home. If they would have been in town while I was here I would have gone to a game.

We went to the beach today and wandered around. It was beautiful! It reminded me of riding my bike along the beach last summer. I even saw some of the same route I rode last summer. It seems like it was just yesterday I was on that ride.

 Here's something you don't see in Washington! A cactus taller than me!

 This is a view of Fault Line Park from my sister's balcony. There is a fault line that goes right through the park. It is marked by the path that goes straight through the park. Over time as there are earthquakes the park could change shape slightly. This could take MANY MANY years though, so I'm not too worried about it while I'm here.

 Here are a couple of pictures of the firework show we saw last night. We watched from my sister's balcony, so they are kind of far away. It was a very cool show!

 Outside the baseball park is a statue of one of the best hitters ever, Tony Gwynn. He died a few years ago, so the Padres put up this statue to remind people of all of his accomplishments in baseball and for the team.

We walked out to the end of this pier. There were people fishing. It was beautiful!

 This is one of two giant chrome steel balls in Fault Line Park. They are super shiny! If you look closely you can see me taking the picture.

 These shrubs are all sculpted into different animals. It must have taken a lot of time to do this! They did excellent work.

 Sunset in San Diego

 A couple of women were making fresh tortillas by hand at a restaurant. Yummy!

I will be here one more day before heading back toward Washington. I will try to post another blog before I go or along the way.

I hope you are all having a great summer so far!!

Short hike and the town I grew up in.

Hello third graders!

I drove up to Montesano to see my parents today and decided to go for a short hike around Lake Sylvia. This is a lake that I grew up on. I used to ride my bike from our house in town up the hill to the lake. I would have an inflatable raft in my backpack along with my fishing gear. I'd paddle around the lake fishing all day before finally deflating my raft, packing it up, and riding my bike back home for dinner.

There are two trails at Lake Sylvia. One trail is 2.8 miles around the lake and the other is 2.7 miles down the river past the dam that holds the water back making the lake possible. Here is a link to a Google map showing where I am. On the map you can see the dashed lines that represent the trails that go around the lake and the river past the dam.

Lake Sylvia State Park

Below are two links to two videos I shot of the falls at Lake Sylvia and a video of a woodpecker. In one of the waterfall videos I zoom in on a hole in the rock in the middle of the falls where the water pours in. When I was a kid my friends and I would climb up there and swim in the hole. IT was a little dangerous, but very fun!

Lake Sylvia lower falls from above 1

Lake Sylvia lower falls from above part 2

Woodpecker

Below are a few pictures of the dam that holds the water back to create Lake Sylvia. Back in the 1800s the damn was used to generate electricity to run a saw mill that cut logs into boards to be used in the construction of houses in the area.

Here is some leftover evidence from the old saw mill. This saw blade is huge! What's left id half of the circular blade but there is still about 5 feet of it. Imagine a saw blade taller than you!

The picture below is a picture from under the dam. When I was a kid my friends and I would go underneath and let the water splash on us and cool us down.

The trail I hiked was the nicest I have ever seen it in all the years I have hiked on it.

I love Foxglove flowers! 

The town of Montesano, where I grew up, is the Grays Harbor county seat. This is the court house. It's a beautiful old building. All of the floors inside are marble.

 This is the little league field where I played little league for many years. Every time I visit this field I have old memories that come back.

 This is the house I grew up in. The two windows on the top floor were my bedroom windows. I loved this house. I hope to own it someday.

That's all for today third graders! I hope you're having a great summer and I miss you all very much!

Shelly's trip to the vet

Today Shelly has an appointment with the vet to get her yearly check-up and to get her nails trimmed. I have to convince her it's kind of like a spa day so she doesn't get nervous. I tell her "Shelly today is spa day! You'll get a manicure and a pedicure, you'll get a massage, you'll get to ride in the car with me, and maybe we'll stop and get you a treat on the way home. The truth is that she's going to the vet to get her nails trimmed. She hates it. She closes up inside her shell to hide and the vet has to try to get her to open up enough to hold onto one of her legs so she can trim her nails. Last time I took her this took over an hour because she was so closed up. Shelly stays mad at me for a few days afterward. Maybe if I painted her nails she would forgive me sooner!

The picture below was right before I took her to the "Spa." I don't think she even realized she had a piece of bark on her nose. HAHAHA!

Below is a picture of Shelly in the cooler I transport her in. She doesn't like the bumpy car ride.

This is the veterinary technician that worked with Shelly today. I told her I was blogging for my third graders and she was happy to pose with Shelly.

Shelly was not happy when the technician started clipping her nails. Shelly sealed up so tight inside her shell that we couldn't get her out for another hour and a half! We were there for two hours and only got three out of four legs out long enough to trim her nails. Shelly didn't have fun today. She is back home in her tank resting now. She might be mad at me for a few days after this. Or maybe not since she has a pea brain. HAHAHA! It's literally the size of a pea!

First post for summer 2017!!

Hello Third graders!!

I have been having a really difficult time deciding what to do this summer. There are so many things I would like to do, but haven't settled on a plan. So many of you enjoyed my blog when we read it in class, and many of you wanted me to do one this summer, so here it is. Even though I am not planning on riding my bike to Mexico or taking a rocket ship to the moon I can still blog my fantastic journeys. If you'd like to read them and look at the pictures, and possibly a video from time to time, awesome! If you'd like to comment, or email me, that's awesome too! If you're too busy enjoying your summer before you become FOURTH GRADERS that's fine too!

I miss you all very much!

So my first adventure starts with a drive to Seattle for a baseball game at Safeco field. I watched the Seattle Mariners play the Houston Astros. It was a very good game! As you know I love baseball. I wish the Mariners would have been playing the New York Yankees, but I still enjoyed it.

I sat out in left field right under the big Safeco Field sign. A couple of home runs were hit my way, but I didn't get a chance to grab the ball. Remember when Max brought the ball he got from the Mariner's game? Lucky kid! I've been to hundreds of games over the years and have only gotten maybe 5 balls in all those years. Way to go Max!

My seat was in the second row right behind the Mariner's bullpen. For those of you who don't know what a bullpen is that's where the pitchers warm up. I was looking down from my second level seat right at the starting pitcher Felix Hernandez. He ended up pitching a great game.

The last picture I have is from the outside of Century Link Field where the Seattle Seahawks play football and the Seattle Sounders play soccer. I have never been inside for a game, but maybe someday.

That's all for my blog today. I need to check out of my hotel and get going. I will try to have more exciting adventures for you to read about soon. Maybe I will take that rocket ship to the moon! Maybe I'll go find Peggy the pegallamacorn!!

Miss you all and hope you're having a great summer so far!!