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My Last Week In The USA

February 6th, 2008 by james

Hey everybody sorry for the delay on the blog update.

My last week in the USA was a blast I had the greatest time with all my friends that I made during the time I was there. First I went on an awesome boat ride in the San Fransisco bay with Dennis, Andrew and one of his Alaskan mates. It was tons of fun. We saw one of the US battleships. It was in the bay temporarily before it was to be made into a museum in the water. I also got to see seals swimming in the water and at Pier 39 on the floating platforms. On the way back we took a look at Alcatraz from the bay.

The next day Donna took my friend, Cameron and I to Alcatraz Island. The tour is really cool you get a headset with a tape recording and you listen to the people talk about the prison. On the tape actual prisoners and guards talk about living and working in Alcatraz. After the tour we went to the gift shop to see one of the guards and I bought the book he had written and he signed it. I also bought a piece of Alcatraz to help fund the renovation project. After Alcatraz we all walked down to Pier 39 and the Museum Mechaneque where thay have all the old arcade and mechanical games you can play. Later that night, Dennis, Donna, Cameron and I met up with our friends the Furr’s, the Davis’s, the Avila’s and the McCullers and we all went Bowling as a final farewell to me. I had a lot of fun. On my last Sunday Cameron and I went Paint-balling for several hours. We played seven or eight games. I had a lot of fun shooting at the ground squirrels that kept on popping up like in a shooting gallery. There are some orange squirrels running around now because of me. After the Paint-balling we got to go Indoor skydiving. Our session was late so we went to Fry’s a huge electronics store. Then we went to a place called City Beach and played Pool until it was time to go back to the Indoor Skydiving place. When we got there we got bumped up a time slot and got to go in the tunnel earlier. They show you a video that explains all the different signals they will give you to help you float better. After you get suited up in a jumpsuit, helmet and goggles and ushered into a room with clear walls so your friends/family can watch you fly. I was nervous for about the first five seconds before the flight but once I was in there and floating it was awesome. When I was done it was Cameron’s turn he looked like he had a blast too. We all got two minute long flights. After the whole group was done then the pro skydivers had a turn. They were fun just to watch one would be up side down and the other right way up and they would spin around the flight room hovering. It was a sight to see. The next day it was Cameron’s Birthday so he had to go home. Later that day we were at the Knorr’s to have a goodbye dinner, but before that Markie, Andrew, Dennis and I went Indoor Go-kart racing. It was a blast zooming around all the corners and overtaking other people. We had two races and Andrew, Dennis and Markie all got into the top seven each time. I had fun just not crashing into anything. We had dinner at a cool Italian place that served great Lasagna. I enjoyed myself. My last day was just last-minute packing and double checking everything was good then we went off to the airport. We had dinner and talked until my flight then I went through security waving good bye to Dennis and Donna as I left then I boarded and flew home.

Thanks to everybody that was a part of my trip. I enjoyed meeting all of you and getting to know all of you. I hope we see each other again someday and wish it is soon. I especialy want to thank Dennis and Donna for putting up with me and being such great people I will miss them the most.

James

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My Maryland Week

January 17th, 2008 by james

Hey guys I have had a great week in Maryland.

I went to Maryland to keep Don (Donna’s Dad) company and to see all the guys again. I also wanted to see Denise the girl I took to the Middletown HS Homecoming Dance. I helped Don and Sharron with a Track meet the first day I was there it was fun and Middletown won. I spent the next couple of nights with Denise we had fun I took her to the movies and we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks. I spent the last couple of days help Don set up a meet they were running. The last night I was there we had another meet and again Middletown won. I had a lot of fun with the Boyers I am going to miss them.

James

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My Ten Days Of Christmas

January 3rd, 2008 by james

Merry Christmas everybody and Happy New Year.

Well Donna, Dennis and I all went up to Oregon for Christmas and New Year. We had a lot of fun even if it was raining most of the time. Christmas Eve and Day we were lazy and just hung about the house and looked at our new presents. Donna and Dennis got some work done. These guys plan as much work on their vacations as they do during a normal work week. We went bowling Christmas night, just Dennis, Donna and I. I wont tell you my score because it was bad and I am trying to forget that the seven year old next to me had double what I got.

Later in the week we met up with Dave and Bonnie (some of Dennis and Donna’s friends) as well as their kids and some of their friends. There was about ten of us all up and we all went glow bowling (that’s were they have those lights that make everything look white purple in the dark) It was heaps of fun. All the kids were on one lane and the adults were on the one next to us. I did a lot better this time getting some strikes and spares. I felt better about the whole seven-year-old thing earlier.

When I was not with Donna and Dennis, I was hanging around with the kids- Austin, Kaitlyn, Tom and Lauren. We all had a great time. We got to ride the quad’s the last two days we were there. I had lot of fun riding. With all the guys there was about six bikes and two people rode in the Razer which is a new side-by-side. I spent the night at Dave and Bonnie’s and we went riding again the next day. We left later that day and got home to California at about five in the morning.

I hope you all had as much fun as I did on your Christmas holidays.

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My Snow Day

December 13th, 2007 by james

Hey guys I have had the best weekend in the snow.

Last weekend Donna, Cameron and I went to Lake Tahoe to do some snow boarding and skiing. The day we got there we went snowboarding. Now the first thing you need to know about snow boarding is how to stop. There are several ways, but the easiest is to fall over and let your body be dragged down the slope until you stop. At the end of the day you know that you were doing well if you hurt in your head, face, neck, shoulders, arms, chest, stomach, legs and feet.

After snow boarding we went and took a ride in a horse drawn sleigh for an hour. It was a lot of fun. That is until Cameron decided to hit a branch full of snow so that it all fell right on top of me. I got my revenge, I gathered all the snow that was on me and dumped it down his back. Believe me when I say it is not a pleasant thing to have done to you. It is very cold.

After all that we met up with Dennis and Ray (one of their friends) and saw a movie premier of Playground it is all about skiing and snowboarding. There are some crazy people out there. We saw people going down 100-foot drops and skiing off of cliffs. It was insane.

We spent the night in this awesome cabin by the lake. We had to keep getting new key cards for the door because we kept on locking ourselves out of the cabin but we still had fun.

The next day I tried out skiing. Dennis, Ray and Cameron went to the bigger slopes while Donna and I learnt how to ski. This is what I learnt.

First the best way to stop is by angling in your skis. This is known as a snow plow method of stopping. You turn by putting all your weight onto to the opposite ski of the direction you want to go. Got all that? Well I thought I did but when I tried going down the bigger slope it was soon evident I did not get the concept of turning. You see when you get on a steeper slope you can not use the snow plow stopping method. You can not create enough friction to overcome gravity so you need to turn to control your speed. I could not seem to turn on the bigger slope, so I would pickup speed and around the 50 KPH marker I would fall over hard. Donna says when I fell it was spectacular. I would cartwheel and land face first in the snow. But I still had fun. On the last run down the slope I didn’t fall once. All in all it was a perfect ending to my first snow trip.

Hope you guys are having as much fun as I am.

James

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Winding Down

November 29th, 2007 by james

Well after my birthday I had to catch up on a lot of my school work because I had fallen behind badly. So I got some of my work done and I went to the movies with Cameron and saw Fred Clause. After that I finished the rest of my schoolwork for the year so I am free to do whatever. So Cameron and I have been working for Dennis and Donna every couple of days because Cameron’s school has had a nine-day holiday so he has spent most of it at our place. We also have been having fun and watching movies we plan to set up a backyard air soft course later on so we are keeping ourselves out of trouble.

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My Birthday

November 29th, 2007 by james

Hey guys sorry I am behind on the blog I’ve been lazy.

But here is what happened on my 16th birthday first Donna, Cameron (a friend of mine) and I went to breakfast at IHop a Diner that has great breakfast menu. We ate then the staff sang happy birthday and gave me a free Sunday it was cool.

After all that we all went Paintballing it was a good setup they had and Donna told them it was my birthday and I got another five hundred balls on to of the five hundred I got with the equipment. We played for a good two hours and I think we did pretty good considering it was only my second time and Cameron’s fist. Also there was some really hardcore people out there. We saw this guy that looked like he was a navy seal all blue and gray cammo and full auto paintball gun with dual CO2 canisters. I was crazy we had a lot of fun.

We had to go so we could get to the next thing on time. I got to fly a Cessna 172 for 48 minuets. We flue around Mt Diablo and got to see a lot of cool things. We got to see the Delta River and the top of the Golden Gate Bridge because there was some fog around the area. It was cool to see all the mountains from a bird’s eye view.

At the end of the day we all went to a drive in movie we saw The Bee Movie witch was O.K after that we watched Beowulf it was a good movie but I didn’t like the ending.

So that was my birthday.

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My trip to Seattle

November 20th, 2007 by james

Hey guys I’m back from Seattle

I have done the coolest things. I got to go to Riley’s school and meet all her friends then she gave us the tour of the playground.

The next day we went to a Reptile Zoo and got to see all these cool snakes, alligators, lizards and even a two-headed turtle. After that we got to handle some of the Pythons. For Lunch that day we went to the Tokyo Steak House and that is something you have got to see for yourself the guy cooks at your table and makes a show of it juggling raw eggs and making fireballs fly at me. The cook was flicking mushrooms onto our plate (except mine which hit me in the head) then he flung a chicken piece onto the plate of someone at another table without them noticing. When we were done at Tokyo we went to Pike Place and as we got there Donna said quite calmly “I hope you get hit in the head by a fish” I didn’t know what was that about. When I got there I understood. There is a fresh fish stall were you buy fish and they throw it from the display to the weighing station then back to the customer. I know its crazy. When we were done there we went to the Gum Wall I know what you are thinking and you are right it is a wall covered in you got it gum. Once we were thoroughly disgusted with its gumminess we left to go to the Space Needle. It is a tall tower that you go to the top of so you can see the whole city. We got there as all the lights were coming on so it looked really cool.

Now I need to tell you that in America they don’t eat meat pies. 90% of the people I have told about them looked at me as if I was wanting to eat their cat. For them a pie is cherry, blueberry or apple not meat. So Donna took me to Australian Pie Company and they were great. When we were done we went to Wolf Haven a wolf rehabilitation place were you can look at wolves up close and personal. We got to see Grey Wolves, Snow Wolves, Red Wolves and some coyotes. At the end of the day we went to visit Pete and Cyrstal, the ones from the Oregon trip. We stayed for a while and chatted, we put up a shelve, but then we had to go home.

The last day we were there we went to a football game of Riley’s They did really well in the first game but lost the second by just two points. Since it was our last night we went out to dinner at the Melting Pot a Fondue restaurant. The food was great. There was chicken, lobster and steak. For dessert you dipped marshmallows and cheese cake in melted chocolate.

We flew home so there was no 23-hour train ride back to Tracy.

That was my trip to Seattle. Sorry It took so long to write about.

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Back To Cali - Updated

November 2nd, 2007 by james

Hey guys I’m back in California after my Homecoming dance (which was really cool) I have had my first American Halloween and it was awesome I scared this one kid and he ran away and never came back. The next door neighbours puppies are being sold off and every one is depressed cause two of the are already sold but what can you do. I will be going to Seattle soon to help take care of my Aunt Donna’s niece and nephew because get this her brother won a trip to San Fransisco HA HA HA. For those who don’t know we live about an hour away from there so we are going up to Seattle and they are coming down to us go figure.

That is about it for now until next time bye

Since I didn’t wright much I though I would update you on whats up. I just spent the weekend at one of Donnas friend’s house. She has a son named Cameron who’s really cool. Camron invited me to go and play a game of American Football it was really cool I scored two touchdowns and got one poke in the eye. I am really proud of my poke in the eye. We went to a driving range the next day and I was hitting the ball 160 yards (1 yard is a bit less than a metre ) with a 5 Iron so I felt preity good. We also when Quad bike riding around the place. In-between all that we watched movies and played video-games. All in all I had a great time.

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Even More Time In Maryland

October 23rd, 2007 by james

Hey everybody how are things? Guess what I’m still in Maryland and I will be here until October 29 then I am back to California. I have extended my time in Maryland because I am going to the Middletown High-school Homecoming Dance I’ve got a date and all. The dance is this Saturday but the Homecoming American Football game is this Friday.

In the past couple of days I have been going to some really cool paces with one of the Cross Country guys Andy we went to a corn maze that a farmer grows in advance of Halloween. We also picked some pumpkins for them to carve. I carved a pumpkin a week ago but the squirrels have eaten most of it so I carved a foam pumpkin so they could not destroy that one too.

The next night we went to a Haunted House and it was really cool they had people popping out of nowhere like the roof and what looks like solid walls it was really realistic I have had so much fun with the Boyer’s they are really cool they know everybody I can’t wait until homecoming.

Till next time Bye

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More Time In Maryland

October 14th, 2007 by james

Well hey everybody I’m still in Maryland and having the longest two weeks of my life. I got here on September 14th it is now October 13th. I was only meant to be here for two weeks but I am enjoying myself and I am even going to the Middletown High School Homecoming Dance (which should be fun). These past few weeks I have been to a really fun Youth picnic and did another presentation for a smaller class. Last week we went to a place called Spook Hill where you car goes uphill -in neutral. It is supposed to be the ghosts of the Civil war casualties pushing your car as they would push the cannons. I also went with a friend to see another Air and Space Museum. It was really cool there was a Space Shuttle, Superfortress, P51 Mustang, the new Joint Strike Fighter and my dads favourite a P38 Lighting. It was pretty banged up though but it still looked cool. Outside of all the really cool places I have been taken to, there is always practice and the X’s Country meets which are always a lot of fun and I really look forward to the next one.

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