Around Berlin July 30- August 4, 2009

In Berlin, we took the trains and walked everywhere. We went to a lot of museums and saw a lot of buildings in the city. I loved going into city and eating blue sky donuts at dunkin donuts, going to the craft market to see paintings, posters, embroideries, decorations, etc...

Nefertiti's famous bast at the Berlin's Egyptian Museum was a special treat. The picture gallery at Potsdamer was also wonderful with famous painting of well known artist - my favorite was Lucas Cranach on the fountain of youth. The Potsdamer mall is also a well know place in Berlin where movie starts go to to open their shows. Lord of the Rings was opened here and Peter Jackson came here with the cast.

We saw a poster of Michael Jackson around town for his concert but he died before he could do it. See my sad face. I have been singing a lot of Michael Jackson songs but especially like "Thriller".

Street lights have this famous go figure- very Berlin.

Pergamon

The Pergamon Altar was my favorite exhibit at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. I like the marble frieze of different Gods vs. the Giants. Also liked the Ishtar Gate and was amazed at the hermaprodite statue in the Greek Garden sculptures.

Wittenburg Germany

There were a lot of mosquitos in Wittenburg (pronounce W like a V) so we said, "We were bitten in Wittenburg." This was the place where Martin Luther lived and taught. We went to the church where he posted his 95 these, his house and looked around his hometown in Eisenach. If you are going there, bring your mosquito repellant. The audio guides were more for adults a nd not that exciting but I asked my dad and mom to explain it to me. It wasn't as kid friendly as the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. I do love the doors they have at the Melanchton's House which can open on the top or the bottom half.

July 28th - Germany, our first stop

Wartburg Castle is where Martin Luther hid after speaking against the wrong doing of the Catholic Church like indulgences. Indulgences is when people can buy forgiveness of their sins. The corridors were small and I also remember Luther's bedroom where he translated the bible to German and also started the protestant church. St Elizabeth also had a room in the castle. She was the one that did the Miracle of Roses. One day she was carrying a basket of bread under a blanket to give the poor people, and her husband, the King, didn't like her doing that. So he asked what is in the basket. She said, "Roses" and when he opened it, there were roses instead of bread. Her room was mosaiced in gold colour and was very beautiful unlike the plain simple one Luther had.

Lake Geneva Wisconsin

Tubing was fun but I was scared in the beginning but when I saw Bailey and Lauren doing it, I decided to give it a go. We had to wear lifejackets, goggles and our togs of course to go tubing.

My dad tried it too and he fell off and got back on again and fell out again. The water was cold but not freezing. After tubing, we just swam around the dock.

Springfield Lincoln Museum

Lincoln Museum was the best museum I've ever seen. The exhibits were informative, nice movies, and it helped you imagine what it was like during the time of Lincoln. It was sad that he lost two of his sons. He was hero to the nation. He ended slavery and he could done more if he wasn't assasinated.

There was also a room where you can dress up like the people in Lincolns time and they had toys and people to tell you what it was like then. Lee Shafer spent some time telling me about the way kids lived in the past. There was a section in the room where they had a butter churner, fireplace where you cooked with a big pot, and a bellow to blow air into the fire. Fun!

St Louis Botanic Garden

We went to the St Louis Botanic Garden. I saw tropical plants that had unusual plants with unsual flowers and fruits. There were plants that eat insects, a chocolate tree, and a lot of healing plants inside the big greenhouse. There were also a lot of statues and scuptures around the park. It was beautiful.

Magic House in St Louis, Missouri

A Week at the Burn's

We went to Bow's playground in memory of the Burn's friend's son, Bow, who died in a car accident. He liked dungeon and dragons so they made a playground with a castle, dragons, knights, trolls, monsters and gargoyles. I am on top of a gargoyle looking evil! We stayed at the Burn's for a week in Carbondale, Illinois where my dad grew up. They live in a forest that is called Burns Woods. We saw skunks, tortoises, deers, frogs, fireflies, birds, squirrels, butterflies, mosquitos and other insects. Their house was very big and beautiful. They have a three story house surrounded by trees which was devastated by a storm and some of the big ones fell on the house on Mrs. Burn's room and a deck outside. The road towards the house was littered with huge trees but they cleared it already. I love visiting with Mrs Burns because we had so much fun. I had sleepover in her room and we talked all night about girl stuff like clothes, jewelry, books, a book club, and my friends in New Zealand. We even watched Harry Potter together and covered my eyes when the scarry parts came up.

Sunday in the Park -July 21, 2009

This was at the Museum of Art in Chicago. This is a famous painting called Sunday at the Park by George Seurat who did famous style of painting called Pointellism because of all the dots like pixels in the digital camera. There are several colours in one area but when stand away from it, it looks like one. The woman in purple on the picture was painted by Pierre-August Renoir. His paintings are very dreamlike and the colours so soft. These are some of the pictures I like. There were hundreds that we took but I like these ones. The 1st picture is called the "American Gothic"
and some of the shapes repeat itself like the woman has a oval face like her button on her shirt and also the dress. The man has the pitchfork and the shape is repeated on the shirt, the face and the window on the house.

Millenium Park - Chicago

This sculpture was in a shape of a bean and it was like a big mirror. There was also a water structure that has a big face on it that moved and sometimes spit water at people playing in the water. There was also a big outdoor theater in the middleo if the park and a small botanical area. It was very nice to walk around and see the city and it's buildings.

Harry Potter Exhibition

My mom and I went to the Harry Potter Exhibition before we watched the new movie. I tried the sorting hat on and a replica of Harry's wand and also saw all the things they used on the making of the movie. They had one model of the pixy that they used for the computer to make them move and to make it look that there were a lot of them. They were just made of what looks like plastic. It was like Universal Studios where they make it look real in the movies.

I liked the dining hall and the candles hanging up in the ceiling. They also had the flying car there. The movie was sad because one of the main character died (I won't tell if you are going to watch it). My dad thought it was slow but I thought it was okay. I liked it.