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!!