The Christmas Decorations on Balboa Island are completely over the top. Like this one for instance. It blew fake snow off the roof and did a computerized light show every 7-minutes. It took three weeks to decorate.
Another one had fake penguins, fake snow and a fake ice pond in their front garden. This house belongs to a Teddy Bear collector gone crazy. If you look in the windows you will see mountains of bears and stuffies.
Hi everybody who reads my blog. This is a blog post about a zoo I've been going to since I was little. My friend is the Zoo Curator so I get to go behind the scenes and learn about the animals.
This is a Foosa. It's from Madagascar and it's endangered. It eats lemurs, which are also from Madagascar. I helped to excercise her by waving a scrub brush back and forth around her cage. She also likes playing with Elk-flavoured bubbles. She got really excited when we took the bubbles out and looked sort of sad when we put them away. She'll be getting a beautiful new habitat as soon as the zoo is finished.
This is Sophia the Jaguar I first met her when she was a baby.
This is a little porcupine I got to pat. I also got a few of her quills and one of her whiskers. This is the play ground that is under construction and that I got to play on.
After San Francisco got some heavy rain this week, the estuary behind our boat filled with all manner of floating debris. Maia was giving me one of her spa treatments on the forward nets, when the garbarge floating below caught my eye. We grabbed the fishing net and did our little part for the environment.
My favorite quote from Maia "The smart people have a responsibility to clean up after the stupid people." Words to live by...
When we finally reached San Francisco - my immediate reaction was 'wow!" The Golden Gate Bridge sparkelled in the sun, the city was huge, the houses were beautiful.
After years of planning and a month of sailing we finally got here. I wish everybody who reads this blog could see what the city is like for real.
Since we do passages sometimes I have to do three days of handwriting, two days of math and two days of social studies all in one day.
On other days if there is something interesting to do on shore, I visit it and then I might make a big poster picture about what I've learned.
My school day usually ends at lunch, depending on my mood.
Maia’s been talking in riddles lately. We all have.
It grew out of a homeschooling activity – ‘research an animal that interests you and make up a riddle based on facts you’ve learned.’
Maia’s first riddles were these:
My large eyes help me see in the dark
I am very cute
My long tail and long arms help me swing from trees
I live in the AmazonRain forest
What am I?
Green skin around my eyes,
An optical illusion,
I mostly hop,
I’m a poor flyer.
What am I?
(if you leave your answer in the comments and Maia will tell you if you’ve got it:)
Her riddles have grown so cryptic that we need to let go of our adult thoughts and imagine the world through her eyes:
Mountains High
Valleys broad
Sun shining on my peak
I was once a volcano
Who am I?
Long sandy beaches
A hideaway
And friends
At first we thought Maia was approaching riddle making the way she used to approach Eye Spy. Rather than giving us clues about something she could see – she gave us clues about something she imagined and wished she could see (made for a tricky game…)
But they all have solutions, we just need to close our eyes and listen.
A boater's birthdays are always fun - this was my 3rd, 8th birthday.
This is the lighthouse near Victoria - we saw it just before we left to go south.
The sun is hot to hold. When the sun went down I helped with night watches - at night we keep sailing because there is no where to stop. It was fun because I got to sleep on the settee.
This is a humpback whale we saw he's one of my classmates. Don't you like him?
He likes gym and likes leaping and dancing.
We got to Coos Bay Oregon after 3 days at sea. I like passage making - Charlie wasn't so keen on it though.
I was sad that we had to give away our crab trap before we left, but I found a new tiny one. So far I've caught five crab, a star fish and a fish carcas.
That's my school desk and these are my class mates. They are noisy and smelly, but when you're home schooled you have to take what you get.
Charlie is my cat. Sometimes he is very bad. Like just now, he jumped up on my craft project. It’s in his nature to be bad. Sometimes we have to remove him from behind the watermaker and every time we give him catnip he goes crazy. And he eats plastic bags. I don’t know why he has to be so bad…
But he is very cute and cuddly. But I just wish that he could for one day in his life be good. He does know how to open doors and hatches though - which is very clever.
"hey maia! i found your message in a bottle at sarah point (Powell River BC) thats pretty cool that you live in a sail boat. By the way my name is Emily :)"
One day I sent out a message in a bottle. And just when I thought I wasn't going to get an answer a message turned up. I'm going to send out way more messages in bottles because it is really exciting to get an answer.
If you want to put a message in a bottle you'll need to find a dry bottle with a wide neck that you can seal with a cork. Then get a bunch of duct tape and a small peice of paper. Write your message on the paper. You might want to write your age and name and how to contact you. You should write down where you are too! Once you're finished your message, role up the paper really tight and put it in the bottle. Cork it and wrap it with duct tape so it stays dry.
Throw it in an open stretch of water where there is some current. And then wait for an answer!
If you ever find one of my bottles please write me back.
Riding on the bow during big waves is like a roller coaster. Paddling a kayak down tidal rapids is like a log ride. But building your own zipline is the best ride of all. We built it using our stern line in a place called Smugglers Cove.
First we attached a pully and a tube for a seat then I climbed on and went!
