Camp Out Journal

Hi there.  Miles here.  Several months ago, the family went on a trip to Massachusetts with Aunt Deirdre and Uncle Geoff.  Here’s my journal of it:

Day One: The Trip Begins

Whoo! Quite early in the morning to be waking up, but we have to, it’s the best way to get to Massachusetts before nightfall.  Okay, into the car.  And look! Mom and Dad were telling us about a surprise, but not like this!  A portable DVD player!  They are so great.  And look at all the movies they got us: Alvin & The Chipmunks, The Dark Crystal, Pee Wee’s Playhouse and The Goonies.  Eli and I have decided that we are going to watch Alvin & The Chipmunks first, and boy is it hilarious.

Now we’re at our detour destination: Boston, Massachusetts.  We’re here for a very important reason.  My friend, Paula S. Apsell, invited us to where she works, WGBH studios.  Okay, we’re here, let’s go into the main waiting room.  Okay, revolving door!  Several minutes later, we’re on our way through our tour.  The pictures below will show what we’ve seen:

 

Large Picture of Studio Lights

 

 

 

Studio G, where Fetch With Ruff Ruffman is filmed!

 

WGBH Master Control

After the tour, we’re taken upstairs — what a view — to the NOVA offices by Kate Becker.  Paula and I met and we had this picture taken together:

Me and Paula Apsell

Paula and Kate gave me some really cool gifts, including DVDs of select NOVA episodes!  They got gifts in return, of course.  Several days before, we had put together gift bags of some of Bethlehem’s fine products, including cookie cutters, paper stars and huge boxes of Mike & Ike’s.  It turned out to be a pretty big coincidence that Paula Apsell’s favorite candies were Mike & Ike’s!  

And so after hanging out, we went to lunch at MIT.  Here’s a picture of the building, designed by Frank Gehry:

 

The Stata Center at MIT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met up with our friends Jen and Rosie. Turns out Rosie is only four. We gave them a gift pack, too.  We went into MIT and found some really cool rooms.  The cafeteria was cool, too.  A police car was in the cafeteria!  

After a great lunch, we went to a place called Toscanini’s for ice cream.  Here’s a picture of me, Dad and Eli there:

 

Toscanini

 

Then we went to the park, it had a really awesome mist fountain. There was plenty of room to run around and play. Rosie and I even walked through the mist fountain. After an array of goodbyes, we spent another two hours on the road. Finally we arrived at Maurice’s Campground  in Wellfleet on Cape Cod.  Aunt Deirdre and Uncle Geoff were already there.  

We staked our tent and had dinner.  Then it was time to arrange our sleeping bags, have some Harry Potter reading time and go to bed!

 

 

Day Two: Watching Some Whales

Morning! Time for some cereal.  I need my energy, because today is the grand whale watch!  A three-hour ride of nothing but flukes, dorsal fins and blow holes!  And water, I guess.  But first, it’s time to go to the flea market where we will buy almost nothing, I predict. Hey, ask Houdini, but I’m no mind-reader!

And, the family does buy something — two pairs of clip on sunglasses: B-O-R-I-N-G.

But hey, pretty soon we’re going to be going to Provincetown! Okay, we’re there.  And this place is shop and eat-o-rama!  Lunch at a Portuguese bakery? Check.  Lunch at McDonald’s? Negative!  But who cares about where we eat?  Pretty soon, we’re at the docks:

 

The Provincetown Docks, Pier, Port -- whatever!

 

 

 

We got on our boat for the service –Dolphin Fleet – our boat was called The Dolphin VII, and was it fancy!  Two levels, must have had a huge engine, the whole nine yards.

We’re out on the boat after about an hour and a half of searching, we finally have success.  And when we do, it comes like we won the lottery.  Look at these pictures:

 

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Dorsal and Fluke

 

We saw 6 humpback whales.  We saw one of them lobtail!  It was an amazing adventure.  I got a souvenir afterward.  It was a model of a gray whale.  I have it in my room.  Tomorrow we go to a wildlife sanctuary  I love this trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

DAY THREE: A Nature Hike

Today we are going to the Audubon Society, which is a wildlife sanctuary.  Our first step of the hike is to go by a pond which is very wet and marshy, what would you expect from a pond?  Anyway, we walk into some forest area which then deposits us onto the bay shore.  We can see some islands in the distance.  At high tide, the path is completely covered.  Luckily it isn’t that time of day. We see huge groups of crabs.  They are tiny, here are some pictures:

 

Crabs Close Up

 

A Colony of Crabs

After the crab encounter, we go back into denser forest, then walked by a beautiful grassland setting. The Massachusetts Audubon Society Wellfleet Wildlife Sanctuary is amazing!  

After we left the wildlife sanctuary, we had a picnic dinner on the beach.  

The Very Beautiful Sunset

Tomorrow we leave.  We had a very fun trip in Massachusetts.  I especially enjoyed the great outdoors and the fun of exploring on the trail across from our camp site.

Siamese, Please!

Hey there.  Today is going to be part educational, part comparison.  Today, we are going to be learning about Siamese cats.  We are also going to be learning about Sagwa, TV’s own Siamese cat.  So let’s get started.

 

First you should know that Siamese cats were a type of species that appeared in a country called Siam, now known as Thailand.  Meanwhile, this is something to compare against.  In the TV show Sagwa, Sagwa lives in China. How’d that happen?  I don’t know, but maybe you do.

 

Siamese cats are extremely vocal, which means they meow a lot.  Their voices are loud and low.  In Sagwa, all the Siamese cats speak English, but only to each other, not to the royal family they belong to.  Both fictional and real Siamese cats are extremely friendly.  Both groups of Siamese cats also cannot camouflage themselves, despite their amazing color.

 

FUN FACTS:

 

1. The cat in the popular newspaper comic strip “Get Fuzzy” is a Siamese.
2. Two Siamese cats belonged in the White House because their owners had Presidential fathers.
3. The popular book character “Skippyjon Jones” is a Siamese cat.  
4. A ton of different breeds have derived from the Siamese cat.

                              

                                                              

                                                                                                                                           

 

 

 

The picture of the Siamese cat is courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

 

We’re going to be having a quick blog contest.  Next entry we will announce the winner:

Can you relate cats to this picture?

 

See you next time, with an entry about my trip to Massachusetts!

Operation: Ribbit Part Two

Eggy seems to be doing fine in his new environment, called the Tad-pool.  Eggy seems to be turning gray, which I believe is part of his metamorphosis.  Just in case you don’t know, metamorphosis is exactly like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.  But a frog doesn’t have a chrysalis or have to eat leaves.  A frog starts out as some eggs that look like eyeballs in a small pond.  When the eggs hatch, little tadpoles come out that are just about, I believe, an inch long.  The tadpoles can grow bigger until they can be, say, three inches long.  Then their front arms sprout and then their tail starts growing in.  Then, after the tail has disappeared, its back legs sprout and it has completed its metamorphosis.  The frog will grow bigger and bigger until they are ready to live on land. 

 Here’s a picture of Eggy in the Tad-pool.  This picture was taken just today.  Eggy is at the bottom.

Miles’s Science Encyclopedia

Part One

Biology:

There are a wide variety of animals and plants around the world.  Some of them are endangered and some are thriving. Some have scales and some have skin.  In fact, you might not have noticed it, but you’re an animal, too!

Let’s start with reptiles. Reptiles include snakes, lizards and crocodiles.  In fact, you thought dinosaurs were reptiles, but they aren’t!  They were actually related to birds! 

Next let’s go with birds.  Chickens,  turkeys and ostriches can’t fly, but birds have many special adaptations to their environments.  For example, Archeopteryx, one of our first birds, was specially adapted for a forest environment.  And Emperor Penguins are designed especially for very cold environments in Antarctica.  This is a picture of an ostrich, the fastest land bird in the world.

Now, you’re forgetting yourself, because you are a mammal!  All mammals drink milk from their mothers when they are newborns, just like you!  And, just like birds and reptiles, they are adapted for their environments, too.  For example, horses have hooves to adapt to their environment.  And how could a tiger catch prey if it didn’t have claws? Whales are mammals, too, though you may have thought they were fish.  This is a Beluga Whale.

Finally, we’ll do fish.  Glub glub glub.  All fish live in oceans, lakes and rivers.  But one kind of fish is a little unusual.  The Mudskipper is sometimes a fish out of water.  Judging by its name you’d think it sometimes lives in mud.  Well, you’re right!  Sharks are a real T-rex of the deep.  And some have seven rows of razor sharp teeth, plus extras underneath.  This shark was photographed at the Baltimore Aquarium.

 Thank you for checking out this science encyclopedia on biology.