Journals --Day 8 Boys

Day 8 June 28 2006--On the Road

The drive to Seattle is the longest of trips that we had in last six days. It took us all about more than three hours to reach Seattle, one of the U.S. cities that never sleep. While on the way, I slept for a long time until the movement of the van stopped. I rose from my sleeping position to see what was around. We stopped at a gas station because of some three old ladies need to cleanse their bladder several times a day. I went into the mini-mart and got myself some coffee and newspaper. The coffee was very refreshing and it actually kept me up. We all continued our journey to Seattle as I drank some of my coffee and read the sports section.

We immediately became locked on the city of Seattle that was approaching us. We started to see the Space Needle, Safeco Field (home of the Seattle Mariners), and Qwest Field (home of the Seattle Seahawks). The excitement got bigger and bigger as we entered the Sleepless Seattle. We all were relieved that our three hours journey was over! Ms. French, the “Super Bus Driver” drove around, trying to find the parking for the van. She drove until she found a perfect parking lot where the van can be able to be the center of different places that we planned to visit. We all got out and walked to the dock where we saw the Puget Sound. The smell of the sound was really annoying because I kept on smelling salt mixed with garbage. It wasn’t pleasant. Once again, we all went into Starbuck’s to empty our bladders. Then we all began our day by going to the Pike’s Market which was nearby.

The Pike’s Market had to be entered by stairs so we walked up the stairs. I swear that by each step that I got, I started to smell the food more strongly. We finally arrived at our destination. The first thing that I smelled from this market was the smell of fresh salmon recently caught. We were standing right by a fish shop. The smell was a little irritating because the fish partly smells like garbage. Suddenly, we started to see the workers start throwing the salmon around. We took many pictures as we could. Then one of the workers saw us and walked to us and asked Angelina to go with him behind the mounds of ice where all of these salmons were laying. Angelina stood there with burst of red on her face then the worker walked back to where he was right by a salmon. Then he took the salmon and threw it over Angelina’s head which other worker caught the salmon. We could see that Angelina was really scared. We took a good picture of the salmon going over her head. As the worker came back to us, he asked us if we wanted to buy some fish. Most of us said no but the teachers were discussing about it then decided not to because we don’t want to waste plenty of food that we have back at WSD.

We were so fascinated into the colors of the fruits, smell of the flowers, and the crowd of many different people here. We walked among the fruit stands and I started to smell the ripeness of the fresh peach. I knew that Ms. Zurek loved to eat this juicy peach and ran to her and let her know that she missed some peaches back there. We all went to see the peach and took a taste of it. I normally don’t like peaches but I took a taste of it. It was so juicy and sweet. The flavors just burst into your mouth. Nothing from the east that can surpasses this godly and flavorfully peach. I knew that my mom had missed out this opportunity because she loves peaches as well Ms. Zurek does. Mom, I’m telling you that this market is much better than all of these markets that we’ve visited. Everything at the market is fresh and delicious. There are millions of foods to choose from. You don’t normally find these fresh back in Connecticut. The food here is fresh daily. Aside from the food here, there are lots of flowers here, mostly of them fresh and beautiful. Smelling these flowers and the fruits are the best thing that I had smelled from this market. WOW! I must say once again that this place is amazing. The atmosphere is just electrifying and active. It is safe to say that this market can be compared to the fairs and festivals that we have back in Connecticut but the only thing about this market is that it’s open everyday.

Lunchtime was approaching so everybody had a meeting that everybody with partners can be able to walk around and find whatever they wanted to eat and meet back at the same place. Everybody agreed and went off to whatever they were looking. As I said before, I ate my way through Portland when we visited the market there; once again I ate my way through Seattle. WOW! Everything that I ate there were delicious. My group including Angelina, Lymaire, and myself went into a Turkish restaurant and bought ourselves what is called chicken donner kabobs on pita which is very similar to the gyros in the Greek cuisine but more delicious because of the kick to it. I ate the whole thing and was still hungry so we decided to stop at Jack’s to get myself some fried scallops and fries. The scallops had made me so thirsty so I got myself some homemade lemonade. Afterwards, I felt that I needed some sugar in my system so I got myself a Russian pastry similar to cinnamon rolls but “stuffed” with apples. Everything there was so mouth-watering but I decided not to get myself full while the day wasn’t over.

After lunch, we all took a long walk to Klondike National Park took us a while because once again, we were lost then eventually found our way to the museum. We arrived at the museum and looked around everything about the Klondike gold rush back in the 1850’s. It was really interesting because Seattle took part of that gold rush because everybody met in Seattle to start their journey to Klondike in search of finding gold. There was cool machinery which weighed us as if we were full of gold and calculated how much we were worth in the past and present. Myself, I’m worth over three million dollars of gold if I even sold myself full of gold today. Today, one ounce of gold is worth five hundred eighty-three dollars compared to how much they sold one ounce for twenty dollars and seventy-six cents in the late 1800’s. A ranger showed us how the men in Klondike collected the gold from using a pan to shake everything off and leaves gold on the bottom of the pan. In the process of shaking the pan, the gold would sink the bottom because gold is very heavy and have twice more density than lead does. It was shocking to found out that this museum just opened last Monday. We all had to leave early so we can be able to arrive in time for the Underground tour.

We all went to an old building where we got into a room full of people. We waited until a tour guide arrived and explained what this underground tour was all about. Seattle originally was under this old building because long time ago in the 1850’s, about thirty blocks of Seattle were burnt from a fire. The water used to stop the fire came four hours late because the pump didn’t get any water because it was low tide so the high tide came four hours later. People didn’t have money to rebuild everything so they built everything on the top of these buildings. Adam, our tour guide brought us around to many places and described how Seattle looked like in the past. It was really interesting because you can see the old streets and sidewalks down there. Adam gave us a little background about the history of Seattle in the past. It was quite interesting to found out that Seattle got most of its profits from prostitution. Seattle was also a logging city. Being under the present day Seattle was a little scary because under there, everything isn’t safe and the ceiling could collapse down any moment.

Afterwards, we all took a bus to Space Needle. We could have used the train but the metro system had shut down because of an accident. It would be reopened by 2007 but we will be gone by this Friday. The bus stopped a couple of blocks away so we got off. We walked a couple of blocks until the Space Needle came closer and closer. We knew that we were going the right way. As we arrived at the site of the Space Needle, we all had to look up because the building was so tall. I didn’t expect Space Needle to be that tall. We bought tickets and went into an elevator to reach our destination at the top of the Space Needle’s viewing site. The elevator moved about ten miles per hour and it took us about a minute to reach the five hundred twenty feet viewing center. The building itself is actually six hundred five feet tall counting the pole/column at the top of the viewing center. As we got off the elevator, we just practically ran to outside because we waited all day for this event. WOW! The view is extremely beautiful. You could see a perfect three hundred sixty degrees view of Seattle. Not to mention that we had the most beautiful view of Mt. Rainier. It was hard to believe that view of Mt. Rainier was so real. The view of this active volcano looked like something of a painting or cartoon because you just stand there, look at it, and still believe it’s not real. It’s very real and active right now. We also saw everything from Safeco Field to ports to buildings. It is fair to place the Space Needle among with the elites such as the Empire State Building in term of a perfect three hundred sixty degrees view. It was quite interesting inside the viewing center because there were timeline about this building. Seattle was chosen for the 1962 World Fair so the city decided to build a bizarre, strange looking and modern building to take part of the world fair. The Space Needle was built in time before the world fair started.

It was around eight in the night that we decided to scramble down the tower and into the city to find ourselves a restaurant. We walked until we saw a restaurant called The Old Spaghetti Factory. We all ate well and talked for long time. It wasn’t until Ms. Nutt realized that it was around ten o’clock that we all stopped eating and paid our check. We walked to our parking lot and got into the van. We all left Seattle, the not so Sleepless Seattle since that being in this city had made us really tired. On most of the trip back to WSD, the kids including me slept while the teachers chatted. Finally at 2 o’clock in the morning, we all arrived at WSD and we immediately got into bed. What a day! I’m still pretty tired right and I better say good bye to y’all until we all arrives back home on Saturday morning. I’m going to miss Washington really much but I think I might won’t because I’m considering to spent two years at University of Washington, right here in Seattle. This trip to Washington has really opened my head up and brought many new interests to me. It will be hard for me to leave this state and head back to home but I want to see my family and continue on my life. Hopefully, I can be able to go back here and maybe attend the University of Washington. Y’all, take care until we all get home safely.

On The Road Trip Day 8

I moved back to my old room where I slept before because the colder room seems to have made me sick. The warm room is perfect for me because it can make me sleep well and heal my sickness. Afterward, I put my things to the warm room and I was really like to sleep alone.

We went on the van to go to gigantic city, Seattle and we rode for three hours. That was so long ride to arrive to Seattle and I was a little tired. I have my sweatshirt and I got tightened hood until only show my nose. I was just put out my nose and I thought that was so funny! We saw Space Needle and tall building for businesses by the view from the van. We were excited to get there. I noticed that Seattle have big, steep roads to the ocean and it was very odd! I don’t know why that Seattle has that. Soon later, we get the parking and we got off. We felt a little hot and very breezy.

We wanted to go the Pike’s market and we walked a lot of up stairs and we walked as the hill climbing. Finally, we arrived to Pike’s market and we saw a lot of giant salmon. We saw the monk fish with jaws opened and I thought monk fish was killed. We saw the men threw the fishes to other men to clean them and sold to people who want them. I was really felt want one but I don’t know if they wanted for tomorrow night dinner.

A man got Angelina to near the butcher and a man threw the salmon to other man who catches the salmon. At that time a man gave back to that man who threw the salmon. All of the sudden, someone threw the fake salmon to my head and I was not pay attention. My head is okay but I felt my head have little bumpy. I don’t care about that.

 Soon after that, we were just walking around the farm market and I notice I smell the peach. I don’t like to eat the peach in the East but I was trying to eat the peach in the West and it was very juicy and tasty because it was very ripe. I smelled very ripe cherries which I don’t like them because it was tastes like a grape. But most of all, I smelled everywhere very sweet flowers and bunches of the fruits. I was really love to smell the flowers because they are more fragrant than in the East. I saw a lot of people who were very enjoying with people who are buying things but I hate to see some people who were trying to convince to buy their things because they are trying to take advantage to get people to buy.

After the market, we went to the underground tour and get tickets because we will go that place later. We were very curious about this tour and we have to remember the questions for later. After that, we went to Klondike National Museum and it was still connect with National Park. We were just looking around and we learned a lot about the gold rush! I was very fascinated about the weight of the gold and past time, there were not much value for the gold but today, there were really very valuable. One ounce of the gold is worth $583 dollars. I was really like to find the gold right now because it was very valuable for me.

 At that moment, a man showed us how to find the gold by using the pan. He scooped the trunk and there was water by imagine the river. He wanted the sand get off the pan by shake it off. It seems get long time to do it to find the gold. I don’t want to have a hard time to find the gold and I prefer to use the box of the screen to keep the sand and rocks get away from the gold because I want to be lazy.

We went to underground tour of Seattle and we were listen a woman presented about the history of people who was very well known in the past in Seattle. It was very fascinating to heard the stories of them then we went to outside to go to old house which have one floor of old house but it was covered by other house on it! Adam who presented us about the underground explained about some buildings which that cause old building to be underground. We did a lot of walking and we did have a lot of observe about this tour because there were some pictures which we have to imagine about this being in underground. I was very surprised that many burned house was covered and I feel I should really applaud to Bill Spiedel who was very concerned to conserve the underground houses. He became to be a successful man because many people were very curious and wanted to see the underground tour. After that, we went to the gift store and there was nothing to buy. Well, there were a few things, but I prefer to keep some money for few days.

Later on, we went to the Space Needle and we were very exciting to see it. I was very happy that I did touch the Space Needle. I was very afraid with the height and only for slow motion but in fast motion which I don’t afraid about this. When, we were on the elevator and it went to 10 mph which it still make me more nervous to look down. When, we got off the elevator and we were rushed out of the elevator. We went to outside to get best view of Seattle and we took the pictures of Day 8. I was very awkward to walk because I was very scared to look down and I felt that the floor was a little tilted. We can see Mt. Rainier and almost everything. But I can’t see people walking the sidewalk or whatever. I was really enjoyed to read the neat facts about the Space Needle and we went back down to the ground.

We wanted to eat dinner right away and we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was seems like old building but very fancy inside of the building. I ate salad with honey mustard dressing and chicken with penne which I was really love it because the tomato sauce was flavorful! I was lucky to pick the right dinner and I was thrilled about this. I was really love to taste wild salmon because it was very tasty for me and it was better than the salmon in the East.

After that, we went to WSD for about 3 hours and we were sleeping all the way from Seattle to WSD. But I was really tired that time and I can sleep quickly but I got struggle to sleep then I tried hard. It works. Yay! Good night!! Have a wonderful time to read our journals!
         

DAY Eight, June 28,2006 On the Road

Whoa, there were a lot of things to tell you about my Seattle day. We went to the Underground, Space Needle, Klondike National Park, and Pike’s Market. There were many displays for us to view and learn a lot. I think we did deserve to learn the most important parts of the city of Seattle in Washington.

In the morning, I had to wake up earlier because Ms. Zurek told us that in Seattle it probably has the worst traffic than New York City, NY. We were shocked and got ready for our longer day! Many of us were a bit tired because of dull driving for approximately 3 hours. I hate two things about our driving through the highway and arriving to Seattle: Seattle highway road has the frequently bouncy bumps and when I became drowsy, I can sleep right there in our van, but one problem was not very snug cushioned chair to sleep on. My legs were very achy and needed to stretch out. Grr!

The Mountain Rainer appeared to us before we saw it. Wow!!! It’s way higher than the Mt. Saint Helens. That Mountain has the rounded peak and I think it should be erupting soon because it’s still active. Again, I wish, I would visit Mt. Rainier, just like the Mt. St. Helens where we went.

As soon as we arrived in the Seattle, there were loads of building and markets. We were like surprised and one thing that we think in the Seattle have no pollen around the city which is way better than in Hartford, Conn. Mrs. French was consequently hilarious because she was frightened to park in the filled parking lots of the cars and trucks. After we got out of the van, we felt it is warmer than the newspaper forecasted. We were in progress to walk along the sidewalk and look out; we were like incredible to be in the wonderful city of Seattle in Washington.

We went to the most recognized Pike’s Market. In Pike’s Market has tons of people traffic around me, I felt like an ant. The funny occurrence was about Angelina, because she was sent by the fisherman. The fisherman threw the huge and nasty fish over Angelina’s head! We laughed very hard and took some pictures of this event. The majority of this city of Seattle is to sell the most delicious and juicy vegetables, fruits and colorful flowers.

We walked heading to the Underground Tour and got the tickets, it will start later at 4pm so we went to another national park, the Klondike. The ranger gave us a lecture about the people went to Alaska to get the shiny gold in around 1890s. It was so miserable a trip because many people wanted to get the gold and become wealthy. I felt as if I don’t need to become too wealthy, I am content with my superb life.

We got back to the Underground Seattle Tour. We were in paid attention to the man’s speech and tour through the old city of Seattle. The most interesting thing about this tour was, when the Seattle city burned by a mistake made by a young gentleman trying to melt glue in his cabinet store. The Seattle people decided to build the buildings about 12 feet above the burned city. It got my attention and made me curious and asked the man who lectured the questions.

We got on the bus to get to the Space Needle, which was my favorite to visit. It was something different from other building, and for example, it has the tall spire. When we got in there, my jaw dropped and wished to visit it over and over again! After Mrs. Nutt got the ticket, we got in the elevator and went up and up and up. WOW! We got an EXCELLENT view over the city of the Seattle. Once we got to the top of the Space Needle, I ran around the Space Needle and reminded myself when I went to the New York Empire State Building before. I felt like I had been touched by the fresh wind than bottom breeze. The view over the city of the Seattle was delightful! Wow, the foods and soft drinks were so expensive to pay! All of the sudden, it’s ALREADY eight o’clock! We felt like we did exaggerate out our time and hurried back to the bottom by riding on the elevator.  We shopped around the store and I bought myself the shirt to show the proof that I DID go to the most recognized landmark around Seattle! I felt like I was already proud of myself.

Finally we walked and our legs were already aching and needed to be rested but we were stubborn because we did not have any food to fill our stomachs. We decided to go to the “The Old Spaghetti Factory” restaurant. I had the nice chicken parmesan. We chatted to each other and talk about our history, Camp Isola Bella, and much more.

We started to become drowsy while we were on way back to WSD. We thought today events were worth to visit. I became sleepy and started finding a place which I can sleep and be comfortable. Then when we arrived at WSD, my result of my sleep was like a bear-hold. Ms. Zurek tapped me so gently to wake up. The odd thing is because I walked as if I sleepwalked and I fell down because of that. Finally, we went to the bed and had a sweet dream. I must say that, our day was so AWESOM E and just as before at the Mt. St. Helens and it was like unbelievable!!!!