Visiting the Mid-West-Chicago

Grandma decided to stay in Minnesota, so Mom and I rented a car and drove to Chicago to visit Uncle Colin, Aunt Lori, and my cousins Jack (15), Sophie (13), & Gavin (12).  It was for only a day and a half, but I had a really good time.

 Our full day was Saturday, July 1.  We took the green line down town and we started off doing the River Walk.

 There are some crazy buildings here!

 We used a hotel bathroom that was entirely covered in little mirror tiles!

 Our main destination was Maggie Daley Park just north of the the Chicago Art Institute.  It was so much fun!  There were lots of structures to climb on.

 All with skyscrapers in the back ground.

 I hit the slides!

 The park also had water features.  This one cooled us down.

 We also went up the lighthouse.

 Uncle Colin, Jack, and Aunt Lori waited in the shade.

 We crossed the highway on the Serpentine Bridge by Frank Gehry.

 There was another park called "The Prairie"  

 We got to soak our feet in the cool water.

 After walking 5 miles, we took the Green Line back to Oak Park.  I had a lot of fun and I slept really well that night.

Visiting the Mid-West-Minnesota

 Grandma Judy and Tha Tha have moved into a retirement community.  Their apartment strangely looked like all of their other  homes.  Grandma said it was because she still had the same furniture.  I like their home, it reminds me of a magazine.  Unfortunately, Tha tha was in the hospital during our visit.

 Mayowood is one of the big old homes in Rochester Minnesota, own originally by one of the Mayo brothers.  We had a tour with Grandma Judy.  The Mayo Clinic took ownership of it in 2014 and had done a lot of needed preservation work.  The house looked great!

 It was strangely cool in Minnesota for late June.  Fortunately, I had my sweatshirt.

 This garage has a fountain on top.  Mom and I found that to be odd.  On Monday, I started another camp at Quarry Hill.  This year it was about fossils, rocks in general and a lot of digging.  Excavating is not my thing, but I had to do it to know it.

 My class met out in the garage.  We got to ride a bus to one of our excavation sites.  It poured on the way back to Quarry Hill.  It was a good camp, but next year I will chose a different area to study.

Grandma bought me this book on our trip.  Ryan Higa is one of my favorite You tubers.

10th Birthday Party

This year I did something different.  I invited my two of my three best friends (The third one is Sabrina, and she is in Russia for two months.) Andy & Seth.  We started out by having Go kart races!   Seth was 10 minutes late, so Andy and I played some video games and air hokey.

 Dad decided to drive with us.

 Getting strapped in..

 And GO!!!!!!!  Andy kicked all of our butts and was definitely the fastest.  The blurry one is Andy.

 Waiting for our second race-I'm in the middle.

After go karts we had lunch and then went to the movie theatre to see Cars 3.

We got there a little early, so we got to play some video games.

It was a good party!  The three of us had a fun time.  I wonder what I will do next year.

Back Home, Skating, & Hapkido

After our Oregon road trip, I was happy to have the weekend NOT being in a car.

I went to Claire and Emma's birthday party that Sunday.  It  was at a skating rink.  I spent two hours trying to get better at skating.  I found that I liked the inline skates better than the old fashioned quads.

I finally graduated from my walker!.  My behind hurt so much from all the falling that I had to take a small pillow with me to school to sit on the next day.

I'm still enjoying Hapkido.  Grand Master is trying to punch me and I am trying to block!

I find this to be a lot of fun!

Multnomah Falls-June 3rd

First stop on our Family Road Trip is: Multnomah Falls!  I forgot that I was here half my life ago when I had just turned five.  It was a really beautiful waterfall.

 My parents climbed the mile up switch backs to the top of the waterfall.

 Here's Dad at the top.

 Also at the top is a trail to Larch Mountain.  This area is very magical with lots of moss and lichen.

 Everything is so green and lush.  Next time we plan to come back to explore more of trail #441 Larch Mountain.

 I really liked this model of Larch Mountain & Multnomah Falls.

 After our big hike, we went to Ground Breaker Brewery in Portland, where everything is wheat free!

 Then we went to spend a night in Kennedy School.  This was our last night of WiFi until we came home.