Salt Lake City - Desert City

We have been in Salt Lake City for a couple of days.  This was after driving through Wyoming, where there are REAL cowboys!  It was all countryside for hours.  There is Nothing to do here in Utah besides go to Starbucks, which my mom loves because she can do her work there and they have comfy, leather seats.  But that gets boring after a while.  We went to the library once but my mom couldn't get online there so we didn't go back.  The first night we drove into Salt Lake City, it was all lit up.  It looked big.  When we drove into this major city, I thought, "Finally!  Civilization!"

Earlier in the week, we went to KOA Campground.  I have not been to a KOA Campground since I was very little.  It was my birthday the last time we went and I was about five years old.  I had fun at the KOA Campground because they had a pool, a hot tub and a media room.  The media room was not a gaming room, like I was expecting.  It was a room with a huge TV and movies.  It also had puzzles.  I was working on one and I got very close to finishing it but we had to leave.  It was only $30 a night but that is because there is a train that blasts every couple of hours - all night long! It woke me up at 3am and I didn't get very much sleep.  My mom didn't get sleep either so she went inside the van to sleep but she still woke up once more after that.  If it wasn't for the trains, it would have been a great KOA.  It was still fun to be there.  My sisters rode their bikes around.  They made friends with a girl in the pool, too.

KOA Campground Pool

Niagara Falls

Niagara falls is a beautiful place, and on Sundays, Canada puts on a fireworks show. The Canadian side of Niagara Falls is different by a little bit. Instead of saying MPH on the speed signs, it says, kilometers.  Here are some videos of Niagara Falls.  It is truly amazing at night, because the Canadian side lights the falls, and they change color.


The fireworks that Canada puts on are very good fireworks. That show is worth seeing from either The American side, or the Canadian side. The fireworks go on for about 30 minutes, and then they're over.    

We left Niagara Falls and we stayed very close to Michigan. We first went to Ohio, and then up to Michigan to see my Uncle Robby. He lives in a town that is an hour from Toledo, so we went there after our stay in Toledo, Ohio.  We drove about two hours to get there. There was nothing around just countryside on the way. It was pretty, but it was actually boring to see. Here is a picture of the Ohio countryside.


Read my mom's blogs! Go to: http://ligalo.hubpages.com/.









                                                                           

East Coast Tour Continues: Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine

We are on our way to New York.  We started in Maine on Friday.  Today (Sunday), we are in Connecticut.  We were in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, and we saw ships from different countries, including some of our own ships, in the Charleston Harbor. We saw  the USS Constitution, which is a ship built in 1794. Here is a picture of The USS Constitution.  They call her 'Old Ironsides.'  The USS Constitution is celebrating her 200th birthday.  They had a major celebration on the Charleston Harbor.  The Blue Angels flew overhead, there was a parade, real cannons were fired from the USS Constitution, they took her out to sea with US Navy sailors dressed in clothes from the 1700's, and there was a lot more, too.

After we visited the ships, we went to the Bunker Hill Monument, and we walked 294 steps to the top.  That's the same as a 20 story building!  Here is a picture of The Bunker Hill Monument. Here is a second picture of the inside of this monument.

Later that night, we watched the fireworks (they were neighborhood fireworks) and we thought they were real fireworks. We found out that the fireworks were scheduled for 10:30 pm, and not 9:00 pm, the time we were there. We did not watch the fireworks that night, because we could not find parking anywhere.

When we left Boston, we went to Vermont. On the way to Vermont, we passed through the Appalachian Mountain range. My mom wanted to stop at a site called 'The Old Man' which was there for thousands of years before it collapsed in 2003. The Old Man was a natural face carved into the mountain side, and the Indians in that valley below it worshiped it. Read more about "The Old Man" at this website: "The Old Man".  Above is a picture of 'The Old Man.'


When we left Vermont, we went to New Hampshire. There is nothing to do in New Hampshire, except for camping, fishing, and hunting, if you love the wilderness. New Hampshire is a nature lover's paradise.  New Hampshire is a beautiful state, and Vermont is very much the same.  Later that night, we watched the fireworks in a town called Mexico, Maine. Mexico is a very tiny town, and when we stopped in Mexico to buy some food at Walmart there, my sister said it smelled like feet in the air, but it was actually a paper mill. We learned that the fireworks were going on when a guy let us know that. The fireworks were so cool!  They were better than the ones in Boston and we had a terrific view!  I took this picture below.

After we spent a few days in Maine, we started heading to New York. We are in Branford, Connecticut, and we will go to New York soon.

I will write again when we get to New York.

Read more about travel at:http://hubpages.com/, and look up my mom at: Li Galo

Southern Tour: Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina

In Alabama, we learned about The Civil Rights Movement and how it started. The Civil Rights Movement started when a woman named Rosa Parks sat down on a segregated bus after a day of work and refused to get up. The driver, James Blake, asked her if she was going to get up. She said, "No." The bus driver then said that he would have her arrested. She said: "You may do that." The next day, the Bus Boycott started. All of this information is at the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama has  a lot about The Civil Rights Movement and Birmingham is where you should start. We also went to Martin Luther King Jr's home in Montgomery, where we met a woman who said she actually knew Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King's house was bombed, and he lived in the bombed house. When the bombing happened, his wife ran to the back where the baby was. Here is a picture of the MLK Jr house.

     
After we left Alabama, we went to Florida. Florida is very expensive.  On the way to Key West, we stopped in Miami Beach, where we stayed for a few days before moving on to Key West.  Key West is beautiful, and you need a couple thousand dollars just to do everything there.  There are tourist traps.  There is The Southernmost Point, where you can see Cuba if the weather is clear. Here is a picture of the Southernmost Point. Key West seceded from the United States, and declared war. One minute later, Key West surrendered, and then asked for 1 billion dollars. Find out more about this in: Key West Florida - The Little Island That Seceded From These United States 

After Key West, we went to Georgia, where we went to Savannah for a driving tour.  That was it for Savannah!

When our trip to Georgia ended, we drove off to the Carolina's. In South Carolina, in Charleston, we went on a Ft. Sumter tour, and it was fun! You can actually go there for free, if you have a boat, and you can stay there until it closes. I learned that Ft Sumter was used by the Confederates, from 1861 until 1865, when the Union finally destroyed the walls. This is what it looks like today. Ft Sumter was  changed during the Spanish-American War, and "Battery Huger" was built in the center of the fort but it never saw combat. Read more about Fort Sumter at:  Wiki Link to Fort Sumter

We drove through South Carolina to get to a town called Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is just like Branson, Missouri, and there is a lot to do there, starting from hotels to amusement parks, and ending with restaurants. Here is a picture of Myrtle beach. Wonder Works is a fun place, and to get in, you are flipped upside down to begin your adventure. find out more at: Wonder Works

In Wilmington, North Carolina, where we went to the Railroad Museum, where they had a model train room, a kids room, a history room, and they told about a legend of a guy. The legend goes like this: a man named Joe was riding in the caboose, and a strange sound startled him. The caboose had broken free of the train.  Joe saw a train approaching him. He frantically waved his lantern, but it was too late. The train plowed into the caboose, and Joe's head flew in one direction, and his lantern in the other direction.  Legend says, Joe still searches for his head.  They also have a steam engine outside.

See the states that I've been through on this map.

Now, we are just outside of Richmond, Virginia.