Journals --Day 3 Boys

Day 3 June 23, 2006--On the Road

Today was one of the busiest days we ever had. We all came back to WSD later than expected because we all made a late minute trip to Cannon Beach down in Astoria. That beach is well known because that beach is the site of where the movie “The Goonies” was produced and directed. The Goonies is one of the most frequent movies that I love to watch along with my sister. For the most of the day, we visited at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Ilwaco, Washington. The main focus of this journey was to investigate and learn about Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the end when they saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

We all got up and ate breakfast and packed as usual. It wasn’t until about eight thirty that we left to start our journey to Cape Disappointment, Ilwaco. It is a little more than two hours of a drive from WSD to Ilwaco. We drove right by the Columbia River the whole time but this time we didn’t go upstream but downstream to the mouth of the river where it meets the Pacific Ocean. As we arrived at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center’s parking lot, we all waited for the shuttle to come and pick us up.

The shuttle brought us to a center where all of the historical information and displays were at. Inside this museum, there were several displays based on the starting points of the Lewis and Clark’s expedition. Each display had a number of miles that Lewis and Clark had traveled and a short explanation of why that place and date were important in this expedition. It was quite interesting to see these displays and pictures also because it just gave you the main idea how Lewis and Clark traveled and went through some difficulties.

By viewing these exhibits, I was able to visualize how Lewis and Clark actually went through. I cannot imagine how they felt when they tried to communicate with the Native Americans because there is no knowing that if they are friendly or hostile. It must have been a scary moment for those who went on the expeditions. Don’t forget that all of these men and one woman (Sacajawea) traveled through the forests, rivers, and mountains without any trails already set up for them. They had to do all of the traveling the hard way and I applause them for doing that because if they ever got lost or harmed then the course of American History would be changed.
After viewing these exhibits, we went into other room where we heard some presentation about the mistakes/difficulties that Lewis and Clark had to face. A Washington State Park Ranger told us all stories about how Lewis and Clark is just like us all and that they’re not superheroes with superhero powers. After hearing his stories and presentation, I was surprised and amazed because I never hear of these incidents throughout internet or books. These stories were mostly about the incident of Lewis getting shot accidentally by one of his own crew, and the simple error that both Lewis and Clark made by bringing about forty or fifty jars of lead bullets which were unnecessary because they didn’t use half of these jars on their whole expedition from and back to their home, and they also made a simple mistake by not bringing shoes. The group of men had to suffer traveling in thin-skinned moccasins on mountains and through the snow.

Afterwards, we all went to a lighthouse known as Cape Disappointment to eat our lunch. We had to take about a mile hike to the top of mountain or hill of a sort to arrive at where the lighthouse was. As we arrived there, our eyes were suddenly locked on the view of what we saw. The view was just exquisite and amazing because you can just see the mouth of the Columbia River entering the Pacific Ocean. It was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean in my life. I never imagined it to be more beautiful than the Atlantic Ocean and even the Caribbean Sea. Anyways, the reason that this site is called Cape Disappointment is because when in 1788, an English explorer named John Meares came to the area around Ilwaco, he expected to see a large or tremendous river but he only saw the Columbia River. He thought it wasn’t important and it’s worthless. He was disappointed with what he didn’t expect. He told an English captain named George Vancouver not to come or visit this place because there is nothing around there. Therefore, the name of Cape Disappointment has stuck with us ever since. For your information, this incident happened around twenty years before Lewis and Clark ever set foot on the Northwest. WSD is located in Vancouver which was named after George Vancouver. The other city of Vancouver in the British Colombia is also named after the English captain.

We all made a last minute decision to go to Cannon Beach down in Astoria. I was thrilled that we had an opportunity to go to Cannon Beach because that is where one of my favorite movies was shot. The Goonies, a movie made in the 1980’s is all about a group of kids who discovered a treasure map and attempted to find it to save their town from being evacuated for taxes reasons. This movie was produced and shot on Cannon Beach and I was amazed to see the places that were in the movie such as the Haystack Rock. This beach was really beautiful because in the background, you can see all of the forests, mountains, and rocky cliffs. We all took our shoes off and walked through the shallow portion of the Pacific Ocean just to chat and enjoy the view.

When we were done with the beach walking, it was about the time for us all to eat dinner so we all voted to eat at a pizza restaurant called Fultano’s. I was excited to eat at this restaurant because I want to compare the food in the west and the east. I must say that the pizza in the Northwest is different from what we usually eat back in the east. The pizza here is a little thinner but not thinner as what you think because the crust is a little bit different, it has some similar characteristics as a cracker does but not that crispy. This pizza has three different cheeses compared to the east which we mostly uses mozzarella cheese. I actually enjoyed the pizza. I need to start eat out more often because that way I can start tasting the food here in the west since that we’re cooking dinner at WSD the most. After eating, we went back to WSD.

I have noticed that in the past two days, my journals has been getting a little more longer and I’m typing like I’m going to write a book about the Northwest for y’all. Anyways, as each day passes away, I’m starting to learn more about the state of Washington and Oregon. Since that all of work that we have been doing, we are still having fun right here because it’s such a wonderful experience for us to be here. Au revior and sweet dreams to y’all.

On The Road Trip Day 3

We woke up at 7am and we were ready for learning and observing about Lewis and Clark’s expedition and their history. We are very excited to more and develop the observation skills!

When we woke up, we are a little tired because we stayed up a little late last night. We ate breakfast and I ate cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and bagel with cream cheese. I just drank orange juice and it makes me feel ready for today. After that, we have to make our sandwiches for our lunch and packed them in plastic bags. We needed to leave about 8am because there will be about 2 hours and 15 minutes drive to Lewis and Clark Interpretative area.

We are ready to go but not our teachers so we have to wait for them to be ready. When we got on the van and still waited for our teachers to have to talk with people who need to know that we are leaving but it took us a long time to wait! Finally, the teachers came back from discussing with people and we arrived to Lewis and Clark Interpretative area at around 11:15am! We entered the building and we just looked around. There have some really fascinating information and messages of Lewis and Clark. I really love to read Lewis and Clark’s journals because I want to know some funny happenings about them. At 1:30pm, we listened to Washington State ranger present about the theme of “Blood and Butts” and he was very animated to present the actions!! It was really funny when Lewis got 4 holes in a shot on his butt from a man by accident! I really felt very bad that Lewis lose a lot of reddish blood!

We were very hungry and we walked about a ½ mile to the lighthouse, Cape Disappointment to eat outside with best view of the mouth of Columbia River. It was really awesome that we can see the river and I felt that Lewis and Clark were almost the same as me. But they didn’t eat sandwiches, chips, and drink Snapple! After that, we took the pictures of us near the lighthouse and it was very crisp day to take the pictures! We went back to the building to buy something in the gift store and I didn’t buy anything because there was nothing that interested me.

On Cannon Beach, we noticed that the beach was very beautiful but the water was very freezing because the Arctic Ocean is sending down the fridge water to the Pacific Ocean. We saw the big famous rock, Haystack and it was third largest in the world! I got very wet on my shorts by running on the high water and I felt very cold on my legs and I felt a little goofy! Then we took the photos of us and I got wetter and dirty from the sand. So I really suffered from the scratch by the sand and I am okay though. ?

We wanted to eat dinner and we made a choice to eat pizza in a restaurant! The pizza was very delicious and it was just really different than East’s because the crust was very thin and more cheese on it!! I was really lucky that I did taste west’s pizza because my parents never ate the pizza in the West. Then, we wanted to eat ice cream but the ice cream store was closed so we forget about it. Finally, we went back to WSD for about an hour and half because we drove to Cannon Beach for an hour so it “reduced” our time to sit down on a van. We are very tired and we have “knock-out” brain so it will be easily to go to sleep!! I was really have very wonderful day! So I want to say GOOD NIGHT!!

DAY Three June 23, 2006 On the Road

Wow, I must have to say that today was much longer than yesterday! We knew that we will come back to the Washington School for the Deaf late at the night. There were lots of information that I had learn tons of things that were interesting today in the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center which is in town of Ilwaco in Washington. We also went to the famous Cannon Beach in Oregon.

Anne woke up Mike and me at seven in the morning to get ready for the day. The girls’ turn to research their project. After we ate our breakfast and made our lunch bag, we were waiting for the teachers to get ready to take off for the day. Whoa, as soon as we arrived at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, we felt like we are now into Lewis and Clark’s life. One thing that I don’t know about Clark was poor at English writing. That’s what I have noticed from the journals from Lewis and Clark’s had written in the journal. There were lots of mistakes of words in the journal. Ms. Zurek told me that a long time ago; there were few schools or colleges. However, there rarely had an opportunity for students to get in the colleges or schools for an education. Well, I must have to say that I am impressed with the wonderful timeline that I had learned lots about Lewis and Clark expedition. I also forgot to tell you that the boys’ duties were to take our visuals.

Ms. Zurek suggested us to eat our lunch at the lighthouse, because by the lighthouse have the amazing view of the Pacific Ocean so we completely agreed. So we started to hike uphill to get to the lighthouse which is the one of the older lighthouse in the town of Ilwaco, Washington and view the huge and amazing Pacific Ocean. I have to be honest with you, the Pacific Ocean is much better than Atlantic Ocean because I can see way out to the sea! Now I have remembered what the Pacific Ocean looks from last 1998 where I went to CA to visit my Aunt Cindy. We started to eat lunch and chilling at the lighthouse. We were eating our lunch and stared at the beautiful ocean at the same time; it was like at two in the afternoon. We felt really tired and needed the food to get our energy back. As soon as we finished our lunch we asked a family to take pictures of us by the lighthouse which it was so friendly of them. Then we discussed with the teachers if we can go to back to the van and drive all way to the Cannon Beach.

We went to the Cannon beach which is so beautiful and have the “Haystack rock” on the beach. I was trying to compare the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is much bigger than Atlantic which is obvious. And the water was more freezing colder and darker blue. Meanwhile, we stayed in that beach; we did have tons of fun things to do. We were running, walking, fooling around, laughing, observing, and much more! Then our teachers wanted us to say “day three”. During that time, Angelina had the better idea to do for our day of the picture. She suggested that the boys carry the girls on their back as they were giving them a piggy-back ride. The teachers took the pictures of us and hope it would be clearer to show us to sign “day three”.

Dang it, because time is run out, we had to leave the beach. We decided to have dinner together at the pizza restaurant so we don’t have to eat dinner at our cottage late at night. That pizza which we ate was medium extra-cheese and it was so delicious and was a bit different than we have the pizza back in Connecticut. We drove back to Washington School for the Deaf. While we rode on the van, we wrote the journal in the van to save some time instead of typing late at night. I had a blast time today and really am exhausted!!! Tomorrow, we will have another exciting event. That’s it, please stay tuned…