Day Five: Reviews... and the funnest the of all!

Today was the review day. It was also the IM turns, and starts, and cap contest day. We reviewed a whole bunch of drills, and started our IM turns. During the recent days of my turns, Beth said my turns were perfect! And so they were for the IM’s too. I was having difficulty with the back to breast, but after I watched someone and tried how they did it, mine turned out good! Next were the starts. My favorite one is the relay track start. You would get into track position, and the when the relay person in front is at the “T” in the pool, you swing your arms back and around and back up front (my favorite part, basically just swinging your arms back) and that momentum drags you forward and you spring right while you push with your legs, and whee! you go far!! My second favorite is the track start. But I do like the other start, where both feet are on the edge. Oh, they all work for me.

The cap contest was up next. Well, I didn’t do much. I just decorated my cap with the Peanuts, Snoopy, Charlie Brown and all of them. I drew them well, as I always did. That is all I did. And I did not regret it, watching all of the others, like when one person turned it into an octopus, a lady, or a duck. The duck was quite cute, actually. There was only one other person who decorated it, which was sad because I was lonely. When they were handing out the prizes, there were going to be sixteen winners. Eight lanes, eight coaches, eight first places, eight second places, that was it. So when I saw one of the coaches holding my cap- with my Snoopy, my Charlie Brown- I was completely stunned and astonished, and I got a second place! I couldn’t have asked for a first place, no, that would be too much. Even a second place for me would be too much (by the way, I drew them, not trace)! But of course I wanted to keep the ribbon and my cap. A happy end of the day!

Well, the end was the relays. I did my perfect relay start and swam fast, but with technique (swimming with technique does make me faster). And my lane won! The second win! Hooray! This was a good swim camp, especially since I got to go home every day! Home sweet home!

Day Four: Butterfly

Surprisingly, I have to say my butterfly is the best. It is almost as fast as my freestyle, which is weird because barely anyone likes butterfly! But today, I loved it. We did a worm drill, which would rotate our body up and down. I was good at it, and it was fun. My favorite part of the morning was the underwater dolphin contest. This time, I just didn’t have enough air!!! I was only a yard or two away! That wasn’t fair! But I was in a good mood, so I wasn’t too bothered. And when I swam, the coach said I was good! Like, really good! I only had to work on swinging my arms out- I needed to keep the momentum. I was happy, and worked hard the rest of the morning!

Lunch was alright, but it really happened when we went back. Boy, I was tired! Four days, and the last day had to be butterfly? They tired us out. We didn’t video tape, we worked on turns. Push offs after our turn, actually. But we all were relieved when we got to go home. The problem was, we had a cap contest tomorrow…

Day Three: Breaststroke

Today, I was excited! Today I could swim my favorite, and hopefully improve so I could swim it more during meets! But, I want to talk about my favorite drill first. It was called the Ducky Drill. I had to sit on a kickboard and use my arms only. Using breaststroke pulls only. It actually was fun, even though my arms got tired. My legs got to relax, and I could sit in a swimming pool! Our lane liked it so much; our coach let us have a Ducky Drill Relay!! The first person wasn’t too fast. We lost some precious time, and I was second so they of course all counted on me to catch up (with the other lane we were racing against). I was fast. A pretty fast ducky drill person was what they needed, and it was what I was. I not only caught up, but I gave my lane a not bad head start. I was proud! We did win, but it was a tight finish, we touched and then they touched. Still, we did a great job! But when we were videotaping, I found out that my breaststroke could use a couple tips to go faster. Like to not lift but push my head up for air. And I could glide longer.

A nutritionist talked to us during snack time. She said Gatorade would be good after a couple events. She told us what foods to eat before, during, and after a meet, which was useful. But then I started to look at my snack and think that I hadn’t packed the healthiest thing. But I did have fruit, which was good too. It wasn’t very fun but it still taught us.

After snack, we went in the pool. More and more drills, I wanted to do relays! It happened that when I was diving, my goggles fell, and I was having a tough time seeing. So I don’t think I did that good. Oh well, I guess I could still look forward tomorrow, even though I would be so sore after a whole day of butterfly. But I would love it!

Day Two: Backstroke

Backstroke is my least favorite and weakest stroke. Not that I didn’t improve at camp. One of the most useful drills for me was the cup drill. It was when I had to balance a cup on my forehead so it would make me try to keep my head straight and still. It was actually quite difficult. Not really when I was just kicking on my back, but for some people their head was too far back or too far forward which stopped them from gliding. But when we started rotating which we did for backstroke, it was more difficult. My head would tilt with my body, which would slow me. So using the cup helped me keep my head still and in the right position. I also got a lot of help from the coach when I got videotaped and reviewed on how my backstroke was. I turned out better!

Lunch was luckily in the shade. I picked a shady spot to sit under a tree. Sadly, we didn’t play Drip, Drip, Drop. We still got to sit in the shade though. It was nice to jump back in the freezing water, even though it felt way too freezing and I thought I was going to get hypothermia. For snack time, we had a gym teacher come in and give a little pep talk. What we did though was not fun. We exercised. He said that the Manchester United team was in his workout room working out. So we did push-ups, sit ups, and other exercises. Two of the only things I got out of it were, exercise all parts of your body, and…Manchester United was here in the US!!!!!!!! All right, that was a bit exciting, I have to admit.

It was nice to jump back in the freezing water, even though it felt way too freezing and I thought I was going to get hypothermia. We did an underwater dolphin contest, to see who could streamline the farthest. So the first person to go was Kuba. We were waiting for him to set an example to how far we should go. He thought he would go the farthest, so he had wanted to go first. So when he pushed off, we all waited. We waited for a while actually. Actually, no, a long long long while. We started getting scared. Finally he surfaced. But where? It took us a minute to find him, he was so far away. He was at the other end of the pool! Well, no one could beat that! I’m not sure if I could even hold my breath that long! So Olivia promised to beat him for us, so we left her last. When I went, we all ended up two thirds of the way. Not bad actually, that was where the average was. And when Olivia went, we were all screaming for her to go! And guess what? She ended up right next to Kuba! I was proud that Kuba couldn’t brag (he liked to brag)! It was fun, and when we videotaped, I waved to the camera! When I got reviewed, the problem was that underwater my arm wasn't bent enough, so I wasn't exactly catching water to push myself forward. Beth said that after that, I would be much faster.

Backstroke turned out fine, actually. But breaststroke was my favorite!

Backstroke was alright, I guess, but tomorrow was breaststroke, my favorite!

First day: Freestyle

Today I got up early to go to swim camp. Again, just like last year. But this year, it was different. Last year, it was an overnight camp. This year it would be a day camp, which was better because I got to go home, but not so much better on the drive to Harvard every day there and back. So, I got up early in the morning and we were off. My dad had to carpool, so we went to a supermarket parking lot and picked up the other kids. Their names were Allison, Bonita, and Elise. The way to Harvard was not bad. But there still was traffic even though not much. When we got there, I was surprised. Probably because I never thought of it so I was surprised.

We swam at Blodgett Pool. The Harvard University pool was being borrowed by us. And boy, it is huge! You can’t even ask how many lanes there were! I’ll try to explain it. So when you first walk into the door, you see eight lanes going horizontally. Then there was a deep end about the size of half a regular pool, and another eight lanes. Incredible, isn’t it?!

 The water was fine. My coach or counselor was Beth. She was nice, and directed us on the drills. The water was fine. But then came the nervousness came. We were going to get videotaped, then “criticized” on by the coach. So I swam meanwhile thinking of doing the right body positions. When it came to watching me, the coach told me to work on rotating more on my right side, and I would be fine. So when I got back into the water, I worked on it. And in my next video during the afternoon, it did improve! Now, about lunchtime…

We ate our lunch outside in the burning hot sun. I wore flip flops, which wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t join in the Frisbee game they were playing, not that I wanted to. So I went with the other flip floppers and went to play Drip, Drip, and Drop. It does sound a bit like Duck, Duck, Goose, doesn’t it? Well it’s just like it. So someone has a bucket of water. They go to the first person; they can drip it on them. They keep on going around dripping it, until, hmm; this person looks like they should get wet… SPLASH!! They are wet! Ha-ha- wait, you have to run! They are chasing you! Phew! You are safe when you sit down. So it is just like Duck, Duck, Goose. I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t get dropped on- getting dripped on was enough cold water. Besides, the drips were quite big. So, I was getting dripped on. But then, someone decides to dump water on me! I am furious, I chase them, but water squeaks in my flip flops as I attempt to catch them. It doesn’t work. I dump on someone, and then we have to go. There is water dripping everywhere I walk. It feels nice to get in the pool, instead of being half wet, I am completely wet which is more comfortable. This time, when I got videotaped, I look much better!

At the end, we have relays. They are fun, just too many people. I swam as fast as possible, but the lane next to us seemed to have better technique, so they won. But we still had the rest of the week to try again. I was a bit tired, and definitely ready to head home, feeling satisfied about what I learned. Oh no! Tomorrow’s backstroke, my least favorite!

Day Fifteen: Home sweet home!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Today is our absolute last day, today is the day when we get on the airplane. Today I am sad, because I will have to say goodbye, but today I am happy because I will see home! I had smores for breakfast to finish up our marshmallows, and we were ready to go. We dropped off our RV at the rental, and we took a shuttle to the airport. About the airplane ride…to make a long and unpleasant story short, I’ll just say that it was long and boring. And when we got off, it was great! But all of my family groaned when we heard it was ninety degrees outside. Yeah, there was not that much warm weather during vacation, but still, I was toasted outside! At first I forgot we were outside so I thought there was something wrong with the air conditioning. Stupid, huh? Well, I’m pretty sure the heat got to my head. I was glad to be somewhere familiar in Boston, with people bustling through the crowded airport and, oh, the noise! The noise was something I was not too fond of, but I was familiar with it in Boston. The ride home was relaxing. But when we got home! I was so happy! I ran in my house, around every room, every hallway, and I got a warm happy fuzzy feeling that I knew this place, but then I didn’t. I finally relaxed on my cozy couch to write this for you all to read. Thank you to all those who have followed my blog every day!

Day Fourteen: Our last day... :(

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

I started out with a little excitement today. My dad was dumping the dump at the dump station. There was a river right next to us, so I went over and sat down on a rock, and Jasmine followed. I stuck my toe into the water, and screamed. It was freezing! Jasmine followed, and she too screamed. So, we took turns, sticking our toes into the water and then screaming. It was actually fun! And when my mom walked over, I had a wonderful idea. “Hey mom! Surprising for a river, this water isn’t cold!” I yelled. Jasmine, who is not that good at tricking people, had to yell, “Yeah! It is really hot!” And then I had to slap her and tell her to be quiet. My mom came over and asked if that was true. I told her that it was true, but she didn’t trust me. So, very painfully, I stuck my foot into the water and held it their while it froze. Luckily, my mom came over and believed me. I took the camera and got ready to catch her face when she felt the water on camera. And, not very surprisingly, she screamed while I got a good picture. Jasmine and I started laughing a lot, and I was happy that I convinced her that the water wasn’t cold. It was a great way to start my day in a good mood!

Pretty flowers and pretty waterfall! We saw lots and lots of pretty flowers on the way to the falls. Red flowers, yellow flowers, white flowers, pink flowers, purple flowers, they were all so cool and beautiful! Right after we got to the falls (which were small, but energetic) it started to rain! Luckily, we had taken all our pictures so we could head back. It didn’t pour which was good; it only started when we started eating lunch back in our RV.

On our way to the campsite, we saw a magpie. He was hopping around on the rock, and squawking. And, believe me, his squawking definitely was not pretty, unlike his beautiful black and white feathers. He was very pretty!

Right now, you should be very sad. This is the last post of vacation. Tomorrow, we will depart on our plane and fly home. No more pictures of really cool things! But, like anyone else should be, I am glad to be home. Bye vacation! You were so nice to us!

Day Thirteen: Elk Refuge!

Monday, July 04, 2011

Today we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. I was excited, because I had a feeling that there were going to be bighorn sheep, which there were. Jasmine and I ran outside with binoculars to see them. I soon found out that they were baby ones, with tiny horns. They had very wooly wool. Their horns weren’t curly yet. Jasmine went back and I decided to stay and listen to the program about them. Some of the facts I found out were:

• The number of rings on their horns could show you how old they were

• When they head butt each other, the force is sixty times the force needed to break the human skull

• They come down from the mountain to eat mud in the valley so they can get the vitamins

• They have four stomachs

• Three to four day old babies can take leaps over cliffs

• Their head weighs thirty pounds

• The sheep’s heart rate almost doubles just when they hear the sound of a car, but when they take death defying leaps, their heart rate doesn’t change

I thought most of these facts were really neat, and I sure learned a lot!

After that, we went to a trail in the tundra. I was looking out for bighorn sheep, but I didn’t see any. But I did see lots of wildflowers. We climbed some rocks, which were easy since I was used to getting dragged along to climbing with my dad. But the real surprise came on the way back. There were lots and lots of elk!

There was a mama elk making weird noises. She was probably calling her children. One baby, two babies, three babies, that should be it. But no, there were lots more. Eight or nine of them. I was really surprised because I didn’t think that mama had all of them, but I didn’t know where the other mamas were. The mother kept calling until all of them came. Then they crossed the trail, which was when I noticed the other mamas coming over. One of the babies drank her mama’s milk, which was so cute! I was wondering where the fathers, or the males were. Soon, that would not be a mystery.

We were driving when we saw a bunch of cars parked along the side of the road. When we stopped, we saw elk! Not females, but males with antlers. They were just grazing by the side of the road. My mom said they were young college elk hanging out. It was funny, and one of them actually used their antler to scratch their bum! I was happy seeing all the elk, they were so majestic!

I saw a fat yellow-bellied marmot! He was so fat! That’s about the only thing to describe about him.

Jasmine and I had a bit of a snow ball fight. I only got hit once, which was lucky. But Jasmine? Well, let’s just say not lucky at all. There was also a snowman that my grandma built, which was nice!

I was ready to go back and sleep. My mom and I took a walk around the RV camp, and we were heading back. The confusing part was that there was another RV exactly like ours. Unfortunately, my mom started walking towards it, with me dragging her saying that the other one was ours (truthfully, it really was). She didn’t believe me, and I started laughing because I never knew my mom could be my stubborn. My mom was dragging me to the door, yelling, “Daddy! Your daughter is trying to kidnap me!” By then, my stomach was hurting and I was laughing so hard. When we got to the door, I thought my mom was going to open it, but she stopped when she saw a man standing at the stove, whom she didn’t recognize. Then she dragged me away from the door. I was laughing so hard by then, and my mom was saying oops, uh oh, why do you have to be smarter than me? And when we got into our RV, my dad stared at me, like, what was so funny? And it was the funniest of the whole day.

Day Twelve: Wonderful Wind Cave

Sunday, July 3, 2011

In the morning, we drove out of the Badlands. We stopped at Pinnacle Overlook, and bird watched for a few minutes. We saw a mountain blue bird, which was so pretty! He was a bright blue compared to the gray behind him. Sitting on top of a tree, he looked very majestic. He flew away, and we had to leave.

My family was heading to Wind Cave. We drove for about two hours and we finally got there. We watched a video about Wind Cave National Park. I learned that there was a guy named Alvin Macdonald who was the second man who discovered the cave, not including the Native Americans. The first brothers were the Bingham brothers. They had heard wind whistling from a small hole in the ground, and they went to investigate. So on that hot summer day, they found cool wind blowing ferociously out of a hole in the ground. The Bingham brother told other people, but didn’t worry much. Alvin put the cave in the center of his life. He explored the cave, mapping it out by hand. He crawled through tunnels and made money by giving tours. But people took samples of the rock. So they created the first national park with a cave. I was happy I got a chance to see the inside.

The largest natural entrance was small. I didn’t think we were going down there but I didn’t know where else we were going to get in. But we soon found out that we were going through an artificial door. The first thing I noticed when we got in was that it was dark. And there were lots of stairs going down. A little while later, my eyes got used to it, and I saw tunnels going through the side, and low hanging rocks. Once a couple drops of water dripped on me. I saw these yellowish-whitish bumps on the rock which looked like popcorn, which was what it was called. It was cool. When we stopped, Don, the ranger, told us to look at the ceiling. It was way cooler than popcorn! There were like box works, but you really need to see it for me to explain. It was because stronger limestone seeps through the cracks. Then the softer limestone got eroded, leaving the crack fillings. Jasmine called them spider webs and I called the really awesome.

A little while later, we had to get out because our tour was over. I was sad to have to end my cave exploring, but it was getting colder. So we took the elevator out of the cave and landed back out in the sunny, hot sidewalk again. Breathing fresh air again was nice, but seeing the cave was really exciting!



Day Eleven: Scary, cool, and cute all in one day!

Saturday, July 02, 2011

We drove all morning into the Badlands National Park. We even passed through a ghost town, abandoned, desolated, and creaky old houses. They were all on sale with animal skulls for decoration. Spider webs hung in the window; the shutters were falling off and were swinging in the wind. Cool, but scary! And the town was called “Scenic”.

Finally, we arrived in the Badlands National Park. And, yes, it does look and feel exactly like it sounds. It was completely dry, sandy, and rocky. The worst was that it was hot too. We had to go on a trail in the hot sun with completely no shade. Not one inch of it. The rocky and sandy mountains were right by our side making beautiful scenery but giving no shade. And then of course my dad wanted to climb it, and of course he has to drag Jasmine, who is braver than me and my mom. So they climbed up, and I followed, which probably wasn’t a good idea. My dad made me run down, and I tripped when he wasn’t looking. It was dusty and I didn’t get a big scratch. And you can probably guess I didn’t try it again, and I stayed with my mom who had never thought about trying.

After that we were walking at a different place. Signs around the place said, “BEWARE! RATTLESNAKES,” and I hoped to see one! But instead, we saw something way cuter on the fossil trail. A bunny rabbit! It was so adorably cute! He was sitting by the trail, just sitting. But when I looked closely his mouth was twitching and he was eating while standing. He didn’t use his hands, just his mouth! He was the cutest ever, and even my mom said she wanted to catch him so he would be our pet! But when I asked her if we could have a pet bunny she said no. We walked, and saw so many more! One of the had a leaf sticking from his mouth and dangling down, as if he had a green tongue and he was sticking it out at us! So so so cute! I loved bunnies!

The bunnies reminded me of the beloved prairie dogs. We were driving along, when there was a sign saying prairie dogs. Prairie dogs! We could see them! I saw them scurrying through the grass. They were chirping at each other and I saw some sharing food! Cute! Whenever they chirped, they popped out and stood up then sank back down into the grass. So sometimes you saw prairie dogs pop up and down from the grass. We had lunch listening to them chirp, which was fun!

Our day was hot, but fun, and I was ready to end it and begin another fun day tomorrow.

Day Ten: Adventure and meeting famous people!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Life is an adventure! Especially when we walked around Devil’s Tower and around the boulder field. The boulder field was the true star of my day! I wanted my dad to go into the pool with us that night, so I promised him that I would climb the boulder field with him if he got into the pool. He promised he would so I went. So you might be thinking, stepping on rocks? Not a big deal. Well, I was scared of it, because there were loose rocks, you could lose your footing, and sometimes you could hurt yourself. But seeing the people climbing Devil’s Tower which was probably straight, gave me a little courage. While climbing, I took slow and careful steps while Jasmine rushed forward, meanwhile getting a couple scratches. When I got to the top, I was perfectly un-scratched, which I was proud of. Jasmine was definitely not happy when we came to a sign that said, “If you step behind this post, you will have to pay $125.” So to make a joke, we all stepped behind it and said, “Oops, there are three of us so we have to pay $375,” which we didn’t pay. The way down I felt more comfortable, even though everyone still called me a chicken little, which I suppose I am. My mom should have been called that. She didn’t even step one step off the trail.We were all tired and we went back to the RV.

Mount Rushmore! Why must you trick us? Disappointing was what Mt. Rushmore was. Disappointing, I was almost angry with it! Why were the faces so small?! They looked way smaller than in the pictures. Soon, I found out that we were too far from them. I was relieved when a park ranger told us we could go closer, way closer so they would not seem so small. We kind of tagged along a tour, and learned that this guy called Gutzon Borglum was the one who sculpted the presidents. One of the most fascinating facts was that more than ninety percent of the sculpture was by dynamite! Even though it still took fourteen years to complete it. I couldn’t wait for the lighting ceremony tonight.

Walking in the dark? Not so fun. But I wanted to see the lightening ceremony. There was a show about how important the presidents were. Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. I waited for the lighting up of the presidents. We sang the national anthem and waited. Then all of a sudden the presidents’ faces started glowing. No one in my family knew how they did it, or what they did it with but we all knew it was cool and we were so lucky to see the famous Mount Rushmore. I was happy, delighted, and satisfied when we went back.

Day Nine: Not so devilish Devil's Tower!

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Driving, driving, and more driving! Oh, no more please! But I guess the one thing that we could look forward to was… a swimming pool!! The joy of my life! Yahoo! Jasmine and I did a record time of changing and getting to the pool. I dunked myself into the pool, which was my style of getting used to the water. We splashed, and did an ultra-mega fight which was not too fun. I swam in the deep end, and Jasmine followed, I swam to the other side of the deep end, and then she was tired so she tried to follow. We played Fishy Fishy Cross My Ocean! It was easy when I was the fish because I could swim, and when I was the shark. We were really sad when we had to get out, but my mom told there was a movie called Third Encounter which was filmed here at Devils Tower. So Jasmine and I got out of the pool and ran to the RV.

Aliens! So that was what the movie was about. Well, if you think that’s not scary enough, what about the fact that we watched it at night? There was alien activity going on around Devil’s Tower and Roy had visions of Devil’s Tower. It was creepy having Devil’s Tower right next to us. About halfway in the movie, lightning started. So there were flashes of lightning and people being all frightened in the movie. After the U.F.O. ship passed in the movie, a car passed by and you could only see its headlights, like it was an U.F.O.! The movie was quite short to me, I wish there was a second series to it even though my mom said it was two hours. The aliens turned out nice, and Roy got to meet them. It was a happy ending though it still left me in suspense when Roy left with the aliens. I was sleepy so I decided not to question anything further as we walked back.