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Today was the Literacy Council's volunteer appreciation picnic (we didn't have it last year, of course) and had to get another picture with Elias!
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He saw me wave to him and my gesture to come over, and he got so happy and excitedly came to where I was, awww. He's probably the happiest kid I've ever met, and always loves visiting everyone at work (especially his dad lol). I think he turns 5 this year..wow!

This was the last pic I took of him, in 2019:
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Wow, look at how much he's grown since then!! I love his smile lol

A couple English language students got up and made speeches about how all the teachers have changed there lives, which was awesome. Making a speech in your own language is hard enough, I can't imagine doing one in another language! Ryan and Jo came too and got to meet some of my coworkers, which was cool! Denise said we'll have to do another game night sometime..definitely!

For today's childhood journal entries, I'm going to post my trip to Washington, DC in 2002, and Mammoth, California in 2003. It's really fun typing them up here and making current day observations haha. I love my little observations from then too ("the lawn was very green!")


Washington, DC: 11-9-02
Hello again!! Guess what? For Memorial Day (I think) we went to Washington, D.C.! [I’m not sure what holiday I meant, because Memorial Day is in May LOL.] I’ll tell you about it! Me, Ryan, and my dad went. My uncle Jack also went, but he arrived later than us. We flew in to Washington late morning. We flew over a large body of water. I thought it was an ocean, then I realised it was WAY too small! Then, I thought it was a lake, but I saw 2 banks. I finally realised it was a river. It was the Potomac River.

We took the Metro (what they call their subways) to Union Station. I think it’s famous for its food courts, and sometimes there is something special going on. Our hotel was a few blocks from the station, and you could walk to the capital building! The hotel was called Holliday Inn. I wanted to stay at Courtyard Marriott, but Uncle Jack didn’t want to spend that much money. Dad said next time. Before we even knew we had a room, we changed from plane clothes to play clothes. [Dad worked for American Airlines, so we could fly for free when we were kids, but they made you dress up lol.] Ryan & dad took so long, I memorized the hallway by the bathroom. 6 paces straight, 4 paces accross. [You know you’re bored when…]

When they FINALLY got out of the bathroom, we got our room. The view overlooked the street and another hotel called the Hyatt. After we got settled, we walked to the Capitol Building. Dad kept going on and on about how it was different when he was there and how it was before 9/11. Dad asked a police guy how to get inside. He said they only passed 500 tickets out each morning (Sunday it’s closed) at 8:15. So, we saved that for Monday. Then, we walked to the Library of Congress. Ryan said they get 5,000 (or 500) new books a day! What Ryan and me expected to see inside were tons of books, but there were none. Ryan kept complaining about “this is not a hallway museum, it’s a library!” [LOL] He didn’t like that there was so many hallways and no books. We could look into a reading room from a balconie, but Ryan wasn’t satisfied. He even wrote in their log sign in book that there was too many hallways! [Hahaha, NICE :P] I said they were nice hallways, especially the Great Hall. In the begining, Ryan kept asking “where are the books?” Dad said it was the Great Hall, but it wasn’t

After that, we walked to the Supreme Court Building, the highest court in America! While we were at the Capitol Building, I asked about the Supreme Court. He said it was open Monday-Friday, opens at 9:00. He didn’t say anything about holidays. [I still can’t figure out what holiday this was supposed to be, unless I was writing about the trip WAY late.] We saved that for Monday, also. (Or so we thought…) After that, we walked the long way down the Mall to see the Washington Monument. Again, we asked someone about tickets. He said it was open everyday, and 8:00 is when they start giving tickets (500, again). The base of it felt smooth. There was red lights above the windows so planes don’t crash into it. We wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, so we asked someone where it was. She said it was behind a green dome building (which wasn’t green). We walked past a Justice Building and the F.B.I. Building before we got there. The food was good! (I’m not using delicious to describe it, because I’ve used it to describe every meal we’ve had! It was delicious, though.) [LOLOL] We got some shirts and this dude gave us some digital watches. He was a nice guy!

After that, we walked to the gates of Arlington Cemetary, but it closed at 5:00. So we walked over the mile-long Potomic River. We walked on a bridge that got hit by a plane once. [Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge in 1982 because they didn’t de-ice the plane before taking off. Only 5 people survived..sad!] We walked over to the Lincolin Memorial. It has names of all the 50 states & the year that they joined the union. People liked to sit on the steps leading up to the monument. Then, dad led us to the Vietnam Memorial, which I didn’t know till I looked at it. Dad tried to find 2 of his friends that died in Vietnam, but it was too dark. Then, we walked to the hotel. Uncle Jack finally arrived, and we called him & told him we were going on the roof to the hotel’s pool. The pool was closed, so we hung out and talked in a workout room. Then, we watched T.V. and went to sleep

On Sunday, we ate breakfast and walked down the Mall to the Washington Monument. I got to be really fond of the Mall (no, not because of the Mall in London). [Yeah right, I’m sure that was a big reason I was fond of it LOL.] Whenever I saw it I’m like “the Mall, it’s the Mall!” We got tickets for 11:00 (I think) and it was 8:00 something, so we went down to the Vietnam Memorial. Dad cried a little, because he was sad about his friends. [The only time I’ve ever seen him cry.] Then we walked to the Korean Memorial. We read these captions and saw that a country lost way more people than the U.S. Then we walked along the river to the Jeffrison Memorial, with Roman pillars (practically every building in Washington had Roman pillars!). After that, we quickly walked back to the Washington Monument and took the elevator to the top. I could see lots of buildings had courtyards. I even saw the Pentagon and the Supreme Court from the top!! Then, we walked down the Mall a little way to the Air & Space Museum. (The whole Mall is lined with museums!) I got lost there. I saw Orbile & Wilber’s real plane! We ate at the food court. I had: a whole Bosten Market meal, fries, a piece of pizza, and a whole pizza. [HOW??? Must have been growing or something lol.] Uncle Jack said “you kids never stop eating.” (I was very hungry!) After that I got some popcorn while the rest of the group sat on a bench. I joined them. Dad said “you just ate a meal.” I was very hungry, indeed! [Wow..must have been all that walking too. :P]

Oh yeah, I forgot something! Still before the Washington Monument we looked at the White House! The lawn was very green! We saw people on the balcony, but I didn’t know who they were. We also walked past the Treasury Department. Back to what I was saying before. After the museum, we went to Hard Rock Cafe again. We walked past Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. We saw the same guy who gave us the digital watches. I had my back turned to him when he said “your the people from last night!” Then, we rode the subway back to the hotel and watched T.V. and went to sleep

On Monday, we ate breakfast and then stood in line with about 500 people to get tickets for the Capitol Building. We got tickets for 2 or 3:00. Then we walked over to the Supreme Court. It has “Equal Justice Under Law” written on it. It has 9 Justices, and my favorite is Sandra Day O’Connor. We asked someone if we could go in, but we couldn’t because it is closed on holidays. Then, we saw the Pentagon and the side that the airplane hit. Then, we went to Arlington Cemetary. The Supreme Court Justices, and Kennidy is buried there. They bury 25 people a day! (I think!) Then, we rode the subway back to the Capitol Building. You could see the Mall from a balcony! Inside the rotunta, it smelled like paint. The ceiling of the rotunda had cool designs. Then, we walked to Statuary Hall, where Congress used to meet. Our tour guide said each state donated 2 statues (exept 2). We found one for Texas and it was Sam Houston. Then, we went to the crypt and saw the old Supreme Court chamber! After that, me, Ryan, and dad went to a greenhouse thing (lots of palm [trees]!). It wasn’t that hot. Uncle Jack went to the Mall to go to the Natural History Museum. We had to leave for Texas. The subway stations we passed by or went to were: Judiciary Square, Capitol East, L’lefant Plaza, Pentagon & Pentagon City, Union Station, Arlington Cemetary, and more I can’t remember! Well, have a good rest of the day, Palmy!

Mammoth, CA: 7-16-03
Good afternoon, Palmy! I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean" yesterday! Orlando Bloom was sooo cute and funny! I HAVE to see it again! (Maybe I can see it 5 times like the "Two Towers"?) [Yep, pretty sure I did lol.] Anyway, last week I went to Mammoth, California with my relatives. It was SO fun! We flew to Fresno Wednesday night. We drove the 5 hours to Mammoth. [Yeah, with a pic of Orlando Bloom on my window LOL. Yep, I was a teenager :P] We drove through Yosemite! Some cool things were El Capitan, Bridal Veil Falls, Half Dome, Yosemite Falls, Yosemite Valley, and the beautifullness! When we got to our condo, the relatives were waiting. After we got settled in, we went to the pool and went to dinner. Our room only had 1 balcony, while the others had 2! Not fair! We couldn't even enjoy our balcony cause it was stacked with firewood! [How rude!]

Next day, Friday, we drove to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest! Now that was amazing! We didn't see the Methusala Grove, but we did see some old trees. One was more than 4,000 years old! [Methuselah is 4,852 years old, and is believed to be the oldest known non-clonal tree in the world. Its location is kept secret to protect it. They are amazing trees!] The bristlecones live in the White Mountains. Then, we drove back to Mammoth. Then we went to Tom's Place, a campground thing. We hiked around Rock Creek Lake and Ryan and dad went swimming! It was FREEZING! Mountain lakes are SO kool! You can see clear to the bottom, and they are snow fed. [All the lakes in Texas are brown, so I've always been amazed when I can see to the bottom of any body of water.] Ryan was worried about panning for gold. Like he would find anything! Then we drove back and went in the pool, then went out to eat

Next day, Saturday, dad and the others (Jack, Carl, Danny, Eric) went mountain bike riding (SCARY). While we were waiting [awesome alliteration alert!] for them to get back, me, mom, and Ryan went to take a look-see at some lakes. We passed Twin Lakes, Mary Lake, Lake Mamie, and the interesting Horseshoe Lake. Horseshoe Lake is scary because there was volcanic activity some years back and there was CO2 coming out of the ground and killing the trees! [Mammoth Mountain is a lava dome, and according to Google, that's still happening.] We got out of there speedy-fast! Then we took a rowboat out on Mamie Lake. It was so pretty! I even called grandma Streeter [now Mills] on my cell phone! When we got back we waited for the others (which wasn't long!). Oh yeah, also on Friday we went to Convict Lake. Dad had been there 30 years ago

Anyway, when the others got back, we decided to go to Mono (Moe-no) Lake. (Another lake?!) I was expecting it to be like all the OTHER lakes, but it was not. It is a saltwater lake, and it's HUGE! It is shrinking, because Los Angeles is taking water from it! (Why get it from a lake that's far away if you can get it from the ocean that's not?) The water left behind tufa towers, calcium rocks. There were also alkali flies that flew away from you (we need those in Texas!). And there are 2 volcanic islands called Pahoa and Nejit. [Ryan got some water from the lake in a bottle, and ended up taking some brine shrimp back to Texas! They mated and had babies, which was cool!] After that, we took dad to see the lakes we saw earlier and saw a bear, [it stole someone's fish that they had just caught! Yay, free lunch LOL] and then went out to dinner. We left on Sunday. *sob* We drove back to Fresno and got back to Texas. It was HOT, unlike the mountains, which was just right! (Only DRY!) Well, have a good rest of the day, Palmy!

Man, I really want to go back to Mammoth now!


13. Do you like when friends stop by unexpectedly? Sure, especially if I haven't seen them in a long time!

14. How old were you when you moved to your current home? I was 20

Today's trivia: Gatorade was named after the University of Florida Gators. A group of doctors invented the drink in a science lab on campus in 1965
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