Let it snow!

From Vancouver we flew on Thursday to Rapid City so I could see Mt Rushmore and the presidents. That trip meant we had to fly to Denver in Colorado then to Rapid City in South Dakota (two more US states for me!) with the second flight on a much smaller plane. We looked around Rapid City that afternoon. I discovered a TV series of Star Wars - The Clone Wars that goes after the newest movie. We woke up the next morning to find it was almost 10 o'clock - the time Mama said we had to get going and we all rushed around and got out of the hotel. It was really foggy when we got to Mt Rushmore and it was really really really really really really really really really cold. We went to the front desk and found out about a junior ranger program and I got a booklet that I had to complete all the pages with a badge on them to get a junior ranger badge. We were told to go along the Presidential Trail, so we did. We started along the Avenue of Flags, which is a path with poles lining the side, with inscriptions and flags of each state - what number they were and when they joined the union.

Then we got along the Presidential Trail. Mama and daddy were really afraid that we'd come all that way and we wouldn't see anything because the fog was so thick. But when we got along the Trail to the first platform we saw George Washington's head through the fog. Then we went along to the next part and we saw Washington and (tadah) Jefferson's head. There were information things at each part about each president you could read to learn about them. Then to the next bit where we could see Lincoln's head, then Teddy Roosevelt, who's actually in between Jefferson and Lincoln but he's in a dent in the mountain so you see them in a different order. It was really freezing and the steps along the Trail were icy and we nearly slipped all the time. In the right angles they were all grouped together like in the postcards. Then we went to the museum and I sat and filled out the junior ranger book. While I was filling it out, daddy said 'look outside!!!'...... and there was MY FIRST LOOK AT SNOW!!! and I raced outside and danced in it! (It was daddy's first sighting of snow, too.)

I filled out all the badge pages and found out about the turkey vulture - which the ranger said I could get help with, being an Australian - and then I got my junior ranger badge!!!

In the museum I found this exhibit that told us that 90 per cent of Mt Rushmore was carved with explosives but the best part was that you got to push a button and push down the plunger thing and on the screen you could see Mt Rushmore exploding. Once I got to explode someone's eyebrow! By the time we looked a lot at the museum we'd been there a long time and we'd all been learning lots of the history about the mountain and the presidents.

We were driving back to Rapid City and daddy had to drive in the snow - which he'd only seen for the first time that day - on the wrong side of the road. He was pretty worried. But we got back to Rapid City.

Early the next morning (Saturday) we got up to go back to Denver and then on to Toronto, back in Canada, then daddy drove for two hours north to get to where I am now - in a cottage on a lake surrounded by trees that are all the colours of 'Fall' - orange, yellow and red. The lake is called Lake Muskoka and a lot of people have cottages here.

On Sunday morning it was Canadian Thanksgiving. I had pancakes for breakfast and a bit later I had another first in my life - a boat ride, on the lake. The cottage belongs to friends and they say the weather here is amazing for this time of year - on that day, it was about 25 degrees C. A bit later I had another boat ride to play in a Thanksgiving touch football game and I was the centre who had to hike the ball and start each play. The other team won and daddy starred and they want him back to play next year.

That night we had Thanksgiving turkey, a ham sausage thing wrapped in bacon, corn and there were a couple of other vegetables I didn't eat, and the best part was the best mashed potatoes I've ever had!!!

People with cottages in this area have to move things away for the winter and yesterday on the actual Thanksgivingt holiday we helped do that. We had to take the boat out of the water and it gets stored with other boats. We had a lazy day and daddy and mama played tennis.

Now it's Tuesday night. Like I mentioned earlier about the people in this area leaving their cottages for the winter, that happened this morning with our hosts - but they let us stay here until tomorrow. Mama woke me up early to say goodbye to them (well early for how early I've been getting up at the cottage) and then I went back to bed until nearly 11! We did some washing and Mama and I went for the first time into a real North American supermarket where they have lots of food, some of which we don't have at home. We went for a drive this afternoon and we went to see some relatives of the people we were staying with who had invited us over during Thanksgiving dinner. They had a friendly little dog that looked like a chihuhua but I didn't find out what it was. But it's name was Demi - meaning half a dog! They had a big screen and about a billion channels and Demi and I became close friends on the sofa.
Oh, I almost forgot ...
MILKSHAKES
In Keystone - a town at the bottom of Mt Rushmore - daddy bought a milkshake. More of a thickshake as Australians would know it, but very nice. I gave it 5/7 stars. Daddy gave it 5/7.

At Rapid City, we went to a sports bar/restaurant called Boston's and the waitress gave me icecream mixed up with topping. It wasn't a milkshake and it wasn't a thickshake - just thick. Ineligible.

At Denver Airport we had a shake made from Ben and Jerry's icecream. It was a thick, thick shake, extremely rich. Both me and daddy had one but technically I had about a third of one.
It was too much. 4.5/7 stars. Daddy thought it was fine (finished mine too) - 5/7 - and says I don't seem to have his sweet tooth.

Looking forward to big results in New York soon.
Mac