Hippogriffs, Skrewts and Unicorns, Oh My!

Okay, the name seems weird, but those are animals of Hogwarts.  Full name: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Whew!

So, you know a guy who goes there?  Can you guess who?  That’s right, Harry Potter!  Today, you are going to take a trip to actually become a Hogwart’s student.  Meet Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwart’s. 

 

Okay, so he’s a giant.  But he’ll help you get to Diagon Alley.  That’s sort of like your school shopping for wizard supplies.  First stop, Gringott’s Bank. Next stop, The Eyelops Owl Emporium to pick up an owl.  And then there’s Ollivander’s and Flourish and Blott’s.  Oh look!  Gilderoy Lockhart is signing books!  Anyway, next stop, King’s Cross Station to go to Platform 9 and 3/4.

Whoo hooo!  We need to get past all the Muggles.  Run straight into the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.   Oh, look who’s on the train!

It’s Harry, Ron and Hermione!

Okay, we arrived at Hogwart’s.  Next stop, The Great Hall.  Now, put the Sorting Hat on your head!

Awesome! You’re in Gryffendor!  And, you’ve made the house team, for Quidditch of course!  And the snitch is caught!  Gryffendor wins!

Today in Professor Flitwick’s class, levitation.  Remember what we’ve been practicing — the swish and flick!  Now, the words: Wingardium Leviosa!  Awesome, you did it!  Now time to transfigure in Transfiguration!  Turning animals into water goblets is what today’s lesson is.  Our final class: Care of Magical Creatures.  Our teacher: Hagrid!  Today’s lesson: Blast-ended Skrewts.  Here is a picture of one:

Okay, no heads or eyes.  At least none that are visible.

 That wraps up today.  Now how about we learn about my opinion about the Harry Potter books.  Currently, I’m working on Goblet of Fire, number four in the series, which is in the middle of the series.  The other three that I read are called The Sorcerer’s Stone, The Chamber of Secrets and The Prisoner of Azkaban.  I think JK Rowling really did a great job on them.  How about I tell you my favorite scenes?  In Sorcerer’s Stone, my favorite part is when Harry keeps touching Voldemort and he turns to dust.  In Chamber of Secrets, my favorite part is when Harry uses the sword to kill the basilisk.  In Prisoner of Azkaban, my favorite part is when Professor Lupin turns into a werewolf.   So, in my opinion, the books are great.  The best part about them is that they are filled with action and magic.

See you next time with the Werewolf, Loch Ness Monster and more!

How To Become A Spy

Psst! Over here.  Today, you are going to have a special mission, should you choose to accept it.

Okay, you’re going to have to search the blog to find the answers to many questions.  But here’s the catch.  Unlike all the other quizzes I’ve given you, there will not be an answer key.  You just go with the answer you have. 

Now, knowing that you’ve searched the entire blog already, following all of my entries, you should know a lot of information on how to answer the questions.  Here we go!

1. What item did the Maya sacrifice?  Find this out in my entry about archaeology.
2. Fill in this blank: Hubble Space __________.  Find this out in my entry about astronomy.
3. Who invented the printing press?  Find this out in my entry about inventors.
4. What’s the opposite of thriving?  Find this out in my entry about biology.
5. How tall is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse?  Find this out in my entry about visiting a lighthouse.
6. True or False: Cancer is contagious.  Find this out in my entry about cancer.

Now that you’ve answered all these questions, I need you to solve a problem.  Somebody, whose name appears to be Tim Mischief, has messed up the world of famous authors.  He’s mixed up book orders and erased authors’ names on books!

First, I need you to find out Tim Mischief’s secret identity.  I’ve found two clues about him:

1. He’s a bank robber.
2. He’s from The Wild West.

I found this portrait of him, too:

Let’s take our evidence to the crime lab. DUM DUM DUUUUM!!!!

Okay, let’s analyze this under the microscope.  Let’s see, the handwriting matches this note he sent me.  Alright! I found it out!

This is Jesse James’s handwriting.  So that means Tim Mischief is Jesse James!  Now we need to fix the problems he made to all these books!

Problem One: Which is the first book in the Harry Potter series?

Problem Two: Who wrote The Pirates of the Carribean: Jack Sparrow series?

Problem Three: In the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, what kind of owl is Soren?

Answer Key:

One: Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone

Two: Rob Kidd

Three: A Barn Owl

Now, here’s the trouble.  We solved the problems, found out Tim Mischief’s secret identity, but he sent me a note.  Now, using the information you’ve collected from my blog from the past few months you should be able to find out what this note means.  The note says:

I’ll be on safari.  My getaway vehicle isn’t a vehicle at all, but an animal.  I’ll be able to get away fast, this one is a bird.  This one doesn’t fly, but it’ll camouflage in a herd.  Tim Mischief

All I found was a little gadget that was labeled “Animal Hypnotizer.”  Now, when he mentioned a bird that cannot fly but will blend in with a herd, he must mean blend in with a family.  It must mean an ostrich!  He must be on the African plains riding an ostrich! 

Bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep!  Okay, I called African security and they’ll be on their way.  Tim Mischief will be arrested. 

Thanks for helping me!  See you next time!

Unsinkable — NOT!

Iceberg ahead!

 Oh, hi there!  Today we’re going to take a trip back through time.  Now, I’m not talking about going all the way back to the stone age. No no, Toto!  Today we’re going to go back to the time of the Titanic.  Whew, that’s quite a tongue-twister. 

Okay, let’s start talking business.  The Titanic was an ocean liner from White Star Lines.    It left from England in 1912.  Now, here is an old and very popular picture of the Titanic:

Now,  let’s see…oh, yes.  The Titanic was thought to be unsinkable until it hit an iceberg four days into the voyage.  Now, that part you probably already know.  The question-o-matic will now give you a quiz about boats:

1. What is port and what is starboard?
2. What is the wheel that steers the boat called?
3. True or false, pirates really did use planks?

Answer Key:

1. Port is the left side of a boat and starboard is right.
2. The helm.
3. False, pirates did not use planks, that’s just what people in movies do to make pirates look more cool.

Let’s get back to business now.  Now, where were we?  Oh, yes. Here is a view of the Titanic anatomy:

Now, they had special compartments that could fill with water. If up to four compartments were filled with water, it could still go on.  But six compartments were flooded.  Whew! Call the police! Call the fireboats!  But they couldn’t, they were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!  So, they used a special signal and called The Carpathia.  Here’s the problem.  The people in command of the Titanic thought that the ship was unsinkable, but it really wasn’t.  So, some people had to jump overboard because there were not enough lifeboats. Lots of people died.  Hey, but there’s a good side to the story.  The Carpathia saved the rest of the people on the Titanic.

 Here are two pictures of the wreckage of The Titanic:

Alright, here is the man who first discovered the wreck:

This is his name: Dr. Robert Ballard.  He’s also my hero.  I have an autographed picture of him.  He’s an oceanographer, which means he’s a man who discovers things in the ocean.  He and the crew of the Alvin had many adventures.  Now he works in Connecticut at the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration.  And here is his old mini-submarine.  Introducing The Alvin!

Dr. Robert Ballard used to work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute which is where Alvin still works! 

For more information about ocean creatures, check out Miles’s Science Encyclopedia Part One.

Next entry is going to be a code-cracking challenge!

My Outer Banks Vacation Part Seven

Today is going to be my last day in the Outer Banks.  Well, basically it’s my last full day.  We’re leaving tomorrow morning.  Today, we visited the biggest lighthouse on the East Coast — 208 feet tall to be precise — Cape Hatteras Light! Having fun?  Well, take a look at this big view of the lighthouse, it’s sure huge!

My cousin Gabi, Grandma, my brother Eli, and my father climbed the lighthouse, but I didn’t.  257 steps to the top!  Holy cow, that’s big!  If you want to get my view of the lighthouse, check this picture out:

Now, I’m not sure if this insurance policy covers all this information, but I’m going to cover it.  First, I want to tell all of you, this place was not always here.  It was actually moved, and man that would take a lot of work.  The tallest lighthouse on the East Coast?  Phew! That would take a lot of work to move a 208 foot tall lighthouse.  But I pretty much know the process.  First, they got a big rig and then with extra care, they loaded the lighthouse onto it, then they pulled it down the road.  Then they made a big base, then with extra care too, they loaded the lighthouse onto it.

Since Mommy was so proud of Eli for climbing the tallest lighthouse on the East Coast, here’s a picture she took of him:

Well, that pretty much wraps things up for our vacation.  Stay tuned for a “titan” of a ship — The Titanic Entry!

My Outer Banks Vacation Part Six

Good day, everyone!  Yesterday was an amazing day.  Mommy, Daddy and I went to The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (REH-fuge).  If you’d like to learn more about the cool plants and animals we saw yesterday, look below.

Miles’s Garden Guidebook

Welcome to Miles’s Garden Guidebook.  Now, let’s get started.  First, you should take a walk through our miniature wildlife refuge.  This way, please. First, you should look at this sign which tells you what you should look out for.  It happened to me once:

Now that you know what to watch out for.  You can learn about all these cool plants and animals that we saw.  Wait, look!  It’s a bird!  It’s a plane!  It’s a darning needle?  A darning needle is just another name for a dragonfly.  And, by the way, I’m not talking about the mythology kind. Get it? Dragon?  Anyway, the dragonfly has landed and a quick snapshot of this will give you better image.

 Now we are walking into the marshlands.  Here are some great snapshots to add to your collection.

Now we have entered some forest land.  Here is fern and a praying mantis:

I hope you enjoyed our walk through a miniature wildlife refuge.  Oh, by the way, when you’re driving, you might see what we saw — lots and lots of turtles!

See you tomorrow!  It’s going to be our last day here.

 

 

My Outer Banks Vacation Part Five

Good morning everyone!  Yesterday was an amazing day.  It was an even better blast to the past experience, and went even further back, too.  Okay, before we get to the time travel part, I think I’d better explain to you that the whole thing wasn’t real.

 Basically, are you ready to travel through time?  Okay, whoosh!

 We are in Pirate Days, Argh, Ahoy Matey!  We really went to something called The Adventure Museum. First, we got our admissions stickers. Then, the blast to the past experience began. We started by dressing up in old time clothes. Then, we started with some real business. We went below deck of a ship that was used 400 years ago (technically it was a reproduction, just like that Wright Brothers shed I mentioned in the last entry). Then we transported ourselves into a forest. Man, was that cool. I actually walked inside an Indian hut. Next, we tromped through a village, but that place was full of pirates! Kidding!

Now, let’s get back to what we usually do. First, you should understand that we were not really in Old England, we were really in Roanoke Island the whole time. We visited a general store where you could try on all kinds of women’s hats. Have a look at me in one of those hats:

Now, another thing you should understand is that we took off outdoors, too.  I learned which is healthier, a wood plate or a silver/lead plate.  How about you find out the answers to this and two more in this 400 year old quiz:

1. How did Blackbeard make himself look scarier?
2. In pictures of ships, you might not see these but there are small wooden planks on ships.  What were these used for?
3. Which is healthier — a pewter plate or a wood plate?

Answer Key

1. By stringing string through his beard and then setting the string on fire.
2. The wooden planks were used for traction when moving the anchor.
3. The wood plate was healthier because the pewter plate usually contained lead which could give you lead poisoning.

 Now that you’ve learned a few more smarts, I bet you already know how to roll a hoop with a stick.   So, if you don’t, I’ll tell you:

1. You need a hoop and a stick
2. Next, you roll the hoop on the front on your right side, if you’re left handed you roll it on your left side.  I’m right handed.
3. Roll the hoop with the stick for as long as you can.  You’re really doing it now!
4. If at first you don’t succeed, roll roll again.

Now that you know one of those popular games, let’s move on with our story.  When we went outdoors, we also visited a small settlement.  Here’s a photo of us with a woodworker:

Now, we also visited a blacksmith, but I don’t have a picture of that. We walked on until we made it to the docks.  That’s where we boarded the Queen Elizabeth II.  If you want to set sail, well, the ship is tied to the dock unfortunately.  We went to the gun deck, but there were no guns, mind you. The people who were on it were not pirates, they were English sailors, and I’m not talking about the English language.  Britain, okay?  Queen of England, you get me?  London? Big Ben?  Here is a picture of me and Eli by the ship:

At the end of the day, we blasted into the sky.  Well, we didn’t, the fireworks did!  We went down to the beach late at night to see Fourth of July fireworks.   People on the beach blasted their own fireworks until the city of Nags Head started their display. Here are some photos:

My Outer Banks Vacation Part Four

Hello everyone!  Yesterday was an awesome day.  Yesterday, we turned into NASA pilots and walked on a national historic site.  In one of the comments on my last blog entry, a question was asked about going to Kill Devil Hills.  Now, I did go there.  Answer this riddle and you will find out where I went.

Without this pair, you wouldn’t be flying on a Boeing 747.

Did you guess what it is now?  Or better yet, who?  That’s right!  The Wright Brothers’ Memorial at Kitty Hawk!  Here’s some information about the Wright Brothers.  First, you might want to know that the Wright Brothers didn’t always live in Kitty Hawk.  They actually lived in Dayton, Ohio, as bike mechanics.  They were also geniuses (and inventors) and wanted to actually fly.  Now, at that time, most people wanted to fly, too.  They had built planes and things but they had all failed.  But the Wright Brothers went into planning, unlike other people.  A weather agency told them that Kitty Hawk was perfect for flying their plane, which was built in this shed (well, technically it’s actually a reproduction, the real one must have rotted away years ago.):

The Wright Brothers wanted to be alone so nobody could copy them (man, would that be bad).  They also wanted a soft place to land and also some wind because at first they built gliders and then they built engines with propellors.  Kitty Hawk had all of that so that’s why they chose it.  After we got some information from the Museum, we headed up to the memorial.  (Man, was that tiring!) Here’s a picture of the view of the tower on the walk there:

Wow, isn’t that a view?  Well, anyway, once we finally reached the tower, we stayed there a few minutes before snapping a lot of pictures.  Here is a picture of me and Eli in front of the tower:

Wow, isn’t the memorial big from that angle? Amazingly, the tower (with an estimate) is about 15 stories high.  If you want to see the tower compared to me, you’ll see that I’m a little midget compared to it.  See for sure, here’s a picture of a size comparison:

Wow, isn’t the memorial huge compared to me?  Anyway, here’s some airplane questions:

1. Who disappeared over the ocean and was never found?
2. What’s barnstorming?
3. What does the “prop” in prop plane stand for?

Answer Key:

1. Amelia Earhart
2. Barnstorming is when you fly a stunt plane.
3. It stands for propellor.

Anyway, when I told you at the beginning that we became NASA pilots, I didn’t mean that we went to college and got the degrees and everything. Here is a picture of what I actually mean:

See you tomorrow!

My Outer Banks Vacation Part Three

Today I turned into a true fisherman, a true golfer, and even better, a true marine biologist.  Those are three of the adventures I encountered today.

First, in the morning, I went to do something I’d never done before.  Can you guess what it is?  Answer this riddle:

 In my process, you put stuff  on me, you also throw some string out. 

You know what it is now?  Yup– fishing!  That’s when I turned into a true fisherman.  Can you guess what our bait was?  Frozen squid!  Yup, I know that’s not the bait you expected, eh?  You probably expected worms or flies or some other fishing lures.  Grandpa and my cousin Gabi took me along.  Here is a picture of us at the fishing pier:

 Next, we went somewhere else with a lot of fish in it — the North Carolina Aquarium! Want to learn what I learned?  Take the short quiz below:

1. What shipwreck went down near Hatteras Island?
2. What stingray is the most popular kind?
3. Do otters live in forest areas or wetland areas?

Answer Key:

1. USS Monitor
2. Atlantic Stingray
3. Amazingly, river otters can live in both places.

Here is a picture of the Shipwreck of the Atlantic exhibit.  Note: It was during a special presentation.

Last but not least, I turned myself into a true golfer at a pirate golf course.  Arrghhh!!!!  Sorry, I was just doing a bad pirate accent. Anyway, we didn’t really sword fight and all that, we just got things into holes.  One part was a pirate prison and it was really creepy.  One time, smoke came out of it!  Here’s a picture of all three of us at the golf course — me, Eli and Gabi:

 

See you tomorrow!

My Outer Banks Vacation Part Two

Day Two was even more fun! We went and did everything.  We ran up sand dunes and flew kites.  We also went to the beach again. 

 First, we went to the beach.  Here is a photo of it below:

We saw some really cool sights.  We also collected some perfect shells. But we found something even more amazing!  To see what  is, answer this question below.

What kind of  creature is a crustacean, but not a lobster?

That’s right!  A crab!

Another place we went is Jockey’s Ridge State Park.  A national park is like Yellowstone National Park or the Everglades.  But this is a state park.  But before we did that we bought something that is cool, and we’re bringing it home.  Here is another question to guess what it is.

What flies, but is not a bird?

That’s right! A kite!  Ours looked like a dragon.  Here are two pictures of us flying it:

In case you didn’t know, here’s some quick info on Jockey’s Ridge.  First of all, the sand dune that we started our kite on is the biggest on the East Coast. Pennsylvania’s on the East Coast and so is Maryland.  Also, if you want to take flight yourself, we saw hangliders.  I really wanted to try it, but mommy said no (which is what I don’t like about her). We ended the day with a good Barbeque dinner at Sooey’s BBQ and Rib Shack. They gave us free frisbees with our meals!  I got popcorn shrimp and man was that good.  I ate every bite of it.  Even the tail! 

Stay tuned for tomorrow!

My Outer Banks Vacation

Day One: At The Beach

It’s our first day on a vacation!  Today we visited the beach. 

I really had a great time.  We were greeted by a cool, and sort of gross looking, dead stingray.  Here is a picture of it:

Here are some amazing instructions for surfing without a board.

Step One: Walk to the beach.
Step Two: Wait for a big wave to come in.
Step Three: Stand in a close spot to where the wave is coming.
Step Four: You should move a little bit.
Step Five: Repeat the process and it’s really really fun!

We also built sand castles! But they didn’t have a very good foundation.

Anyway, the beach was very fun. Stay tuned for Day Two made tomorrow!