8th Grade Going Great

Sorry, for not posting lately.  Much has been going on this year with school, friends, family and martial arts.  My eight grade team is the All Stars with Mr. Sears PD1 Soc. Studies, Mrs. Schauppner PD 2 Algebra, Ms. Angerson PD3 Science, and Ms. Biscotti PD4 Lang. Arts are my core subject teachers.  My three other teachers are Mr. Lentz for PE, Mr. Cummiskey for Chorus, and Dr. Ferch for Spanish 1.  I just have to say great teachers and so far my 8th grade year has been going great!

Meet Olivia

I just wanted to put some photos up for those of you who may not know Olivia.  And also to get the teeth photos out of the way so you would have something nicer to look at.

And heres the famous, 'Just let me lean on this here couch'!

Me on the Water

I was followed by my mom and sister today when they went and took an adventure on the dorky Annapolis Harbor Queen trying to take photos of me sailing.  For being so far away from me it was impressive they figured out which boat I was on and that they managed to take a few nice pictures.

I'm in boat 2 as the crew, wearing the blue life jacket.

And same here in this photo.  Also in boat #2.

Sailing Days 2, 3 & 4

Sailing is so much fun.  It is hard to find time later to post, but I will try to catch up.

Day 2- We learned capsizing and tacking down wind.  To practice this we played follow Melissa, which involved tacking continuously and turning to judge the wind direction.

Day 3- Everyone got a turn to be the skipper and the crew.  We got free time to practice our sailing skills.
Day 4-  Today we learned the correct way to gybe.  We sailed figure eights around two buoys and practiced gybing and tacking.  Two people capsized today.  They were completely overturned and it took them awhile to turn back over.

Sailing Camp

Today was my first day of sailing camp.  This is my first sailing camp ever and really my first sailing experience by myself.  I am sailing a Club 420.  It is from 9:00 to noon at the Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis.  In my class there are 12 students and 2 instructors named, Fletcher and Melissa.  We didn't do much sailing today but we did go out on the water for a quick swim test and a capsizing drill.  It was really hard to right the boat using the correct scoop recovery method, involving climbing on the centerboard,  to upright the boat and scoop the other sailor in.


Internet photo of scoop recovery method, but you can picture me pulling the boat upright.

Pool Pool , ehct

I'm receptive to ideas for kids suffering with extreme boredom.  I am having a nothing day with nothing to do.   Also, I had one of my last bagels for two years.  Yesterday I got my spacers on for braces to come in a week.  Um fun fun.  As you may know.  So now I'm sitting and thinking of my fun life in a few weeks with nothing sticky, chewy, hard, or crunchy to eat for two years.  Yep that's it but here is my hysterical comment of the day about pools.  (Every one) , if someone ever tries to get you to the pool, and you don't want to go, tell them this and that you think it's silly.
"Pools are just expensive holes in the ground filled with cement and water.  You have to slap on chemicals to not get burnt, and sit in the sun just to jump in the hole with friends."
I have to say I would rather sit here writing to you about this boring day and how it is now 63 in bar harbor and feels like 101 here.  Yep that's LIFE.  Live it.

Boston Adventures

We had a blast walking around Boston.  We took the "T" from the Cambridge hotel into Boston.  Also took a freedom trail tour of the many historical sites in Boston.  Driving out of Boston we passed many awesome places like Beacon Hill, the Public Gardens and Fenway Park.

Not your normal 7-Eleven.  7-Eleven in Beacon Hill.  You don't see that everyday.

Cambridge Hotel

We are staying in a hotel in Cambridge looking out at Boston and the Charles River.  I tried to take a picture to show you the spectacular hotel room view, fro the 21st floor, but it just looked like blobs of light.  We are right beside MIT, and directly across water from the area of Boston my parents used to live in.  We'll be taking the T into Boston tomorrow.  More on that soon!

Hiking Gorham Mt.

I had a slow lazy morning with yummy treats from the Morning Glory Bakery.  We avoided the hot 80 degree high-noon heat.  Haha.  So then we hiked around 3:00.  It was a good 2 mile hike with lots of rocks to climb up.  There was a nice breeze most of the way up and more so near the top.  You could see sand beach.  But the rest of the ocean was hard to see because of the fog like you will see in the video.

Enjoy the video.

And a photo of the most enjoyed view.

Kayaking at Great Long Pond

Kayaking was amazing.  We had a solid two and a half hours of fun paddling around the great long pond.  The pond was huge, very long, and I didn't even see all of it.  We rented two tandem kayaks to explore in.  Great views here too, nice scenery, mountains and trees in background.  See photo for a shot I took >

                                 This is the amazing view I got kayaking today!

Extreme Tide Change

This morning when we walked across the sand bar that connects Bar Harbor to Bar Island at low tide, I noticed how much the tides change.  The difference between high tide and low tide average 10ft and sometimes as much as 12ft as you can see in the two pictures.

Look at both of these pictures.  Top is at low tide and bottom is at high tide.

This is the sand bar that gives Bar Harbor it's name.

Low tide.  At low tide many people walk, and drive to Bar Island across the water.

High tide.  Taken in the same spot seven hours later.  Now that's a lot of water!

Whale Watching

Today we went whale watching.  It was so much fun.  A great day here for it too.  This was my first time ever going whale watching.  It took a while until we spotted a whale but it was awesome when we did.  The kind of whale we saw was a humpback.  The naturalist tour guide had seen him before and was calling him Churn, because of a mark on his tail.  We followed him for a while, and came across another humpback whale.  It was so much fun.  If you are ever in Bar Harbor you must go whale watching!

Here is a short video of the whale we saw:

Bar Harbor FireWorks

The fireworks were amazing.  The show lasted for a solid 30 minutes.  Tons of people sat on the hill to get a great view.  We came half an hour before the show started and it was hard to find a spot.  It was nice that they turned off the street lights on the hill and on the pier so it was in complete darkness.  Also, we were only about 75 yards away from where they were being shot off.

There were so many people sitting on the hill looking out at the harbor.  I took this 30 minutes before the show started.  And lots more people kept coming! 




I know fireworks are fireworks and everyone has seen them, and know you know what they look like, but here are a few Bar Harbor fireworks shots I took last night.

Bar Harbor Updates

We've been having so much fun it's hard finding time to write these posts.  I'm going to try to somewhat catch up for yesterday when I did not post because of tiredness.


Here's the trip so far:


Day 1:
Yesterday Morning

We stopped for an early breakfast at Purple Cow about 90 miles from Bar Harbor.

The Purple Cow sign outside and Purple Cow picture directly inside.

They had great pancakes.  Except they were hard to finish because they were so big.  We just had to take a picture because they look unbelievable (even more so then the picture)!

They each were about as big as a plate!   

Here is the picture of the huge pancakes.

Midday
We had time to spend before we could go to our rental house, so we decided to go to Acadia National Park (5 minute drive from Bar Harbor) and walk down to the well known Thunder Hole.
I researched geocaches nearby and with the GPS tried to hopefully find a geocache.  This was not easy.  Loads of boulders everywhere and lots of places to look.






Here was the view of part of the walk down to Thunder Hole.






Day 2:
Morning-Evening

We took a shuttle from Bar Harbor to Jordan Pond and went hiking on a trail around the pond which was about 3.5 miles.  The water was very clear and you could see the rocks on the bottom for a good distance.

Picture during our hike.  We're about half way around Jordan Pond.
(My mom took this same photo of us six years ago when we last visited.)










Fireworks later tonight over the beautiful harbor.  I will try to post a picture and more about this tomorrow.

The Bar Harbor Vacation Begins

I'm sorry, I'm suffering from extreme lack of sleep.  So this is all I'm posting today.  We're off for a nightly walk, hoping to find a geocache near the piers of bar harbor,  and then to bed for a good nights sleep.  I will certainly post more tomorrow, also with pictures.

Today I Was Mr. LawnBoy

                                                   Did I do a nice job on the lawn today?  Today I had to mow the lawn before we leave for vacation tomorrow.  Notice the crisscross pattern and naturally green grass.  Now the lawn will look good for my last day of the coffee stand this year.

I even tried to make a straight edge along our driveway.

Geocaching

Have you ever heard about geocaching?  Maybe you have but don't know much about it.  I didn't know anything about it until one of my friendly customers and I were talking about it this morning at the Coffee Stand.  Geocaching is kind of like a treasure hunt that you can use a GPS to get you near a hidden geocach.  Geocaching is a fun thing do do if you are hiking or exploring outdoors, and are looking for something to do.  You enter the coordinates of geocaches to locate yourself near the treasure and then you look for it.  There is sometimes a log book to sign saying when you found it, and you can take something from the geocach, but make sure to leave something of equal or greater value so others will still have something to find.  If you ever find one and look at it make sure to put it back where you found it.  Check out the website where you can get coordinates for geocaches and tell others you found it.  They have a cool video with more info. about geocaching and what to do.  Link is below.  Hope you enjoy>

http://www.geocaching.com/

NOOK

The NOOKS newly lowered prices have made it more affordable for me.  I just got a NOOK and am excited to use it on vacation and for early morning reading.  I also got a case that protects it nicely and has a wonderful feel.  I'm excited to read the Bar Harbor newspapers electronically and explore in the vast electronic library of many choices.  It has many features i'm still finding out about.  Check out NOOK for yourself.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook

A Fancy Book

I've recently been saving some of my earnings to buy myself a NOOK. If you don't know what a NOOK it's an eBook reader. NOOKS are sold by Barnes & Noble and are a basic way to read books digitally. They have an online eBook store where you can download books for less than a real one. Some are even free. You can sample before you buy to see if you like it. The local library website offers some eBooks that can be checked out by a few users at a time. I'm not an intense reader, but for but for someone who wants to read a little it's a nice thing to have. I recommend NOOK if you are looking into an eReader.

What To Do With That Old iPhone

If your'e thinking about purchasing a new iPhone 4 what becomes of that old iPhone? I’m guessing it becomes an iPod Touch. A GPS. But will there be any problems syncing it after setting up the new iPhone 4?

As soon as you activate the new iPhone, the old iPhone will indeed behave like an iPod touch. It's body will just be a little bigger. You will hook it into your Mac or Windows PC and, same as before, you will be able to sync all media, personal information, and apps to it. It wouldn't be able to make or receive calls, send or receive TXT/SMS messages, or do any data browsing over EDGE or 3G connectivity.

If you only want to use it as a GPS don't buy a voice plan, just a data plan. In the app store you can find many GPS apps, you can download. These apps will work over the AT&T network (unless unlocked) and you will be able to get directions, current location, and other cool features.

But you will still have an additional option.

1) Pass it along. Share the wealth and give your old iPhone to a deserving friend, relative, or institution? After you have your iPhone 4 set up properly you need to delete the data on your old iPhone. The person you give the phone to will then set it up as a new iPhone or brand new if they’re not an AT&T customer or as a transfer account if they already have that AT&T account.

A Coffee Stand Disaster

Going on 3 years of running a coffee stand curbside nothing disastrous had ever happened. As usual I borrowed 2 coffee carafes from relatives to use to keep the coffee hot. Well yesterday was a disaster. I woke up as usual at 5:25am and brewed the daily first pot of coffee. Soon after that my mom saw business was picking up and brewed a second pot. When ready I quickly ran up and back making sure not to miss any potential customers. Customers kept coming. Another. And another. HHmmm looks like a third pot is needed. Well it's 9:00 time to pack up for the morning. So I gather materials and carefully toss used napkins and coffee trash into the messy cooler. I pick up both coffee carafes and begin to step down off the storm-drain platform I use as a surface for the stand. SPLAT.... there goes both carafes I was using. It happened like that very quickly. They were crushed to bits inside. Completely unusable. Worst part, they weren't even mine. Now, of course this was not supposed to happen!