California
First Stop San Francisco
On Thursday 5th April 2007 we flew from London to San Francisco. When we arrived in San Francisco we went through Customs and Immigration. When we came out of the airport we met our Aunt Jewy. We were soon in Aunt Jewy's car on our way to her house. When we had got into the house we met our Uncle Bob.
Muir Woods
Next morning we left to go to Muir Woods. When we arrived at Muir Woods It was Very misty and cold. We found out that in the Summer the only reason the trees grow is because the mist collects on the pines and the leaves and then falls to the ground which the trees drink. The giant Redwoods tower high over all the people who walk under them. We also found out that some of the Redwoods grow in rings, with one in the middle, because it starts with one tree and the other trees sprout round it. We did a 3mile hike up a hill with lots of trees. Redwoods can live up to 2,000 years old and Giant Sequoias can live up to 3,200 years. Giant Sequoias are the longest living organisms in the world. You can tell how old a tree is by cutting it in half and counting the rings, each ring represents one year.
De Young Museum
The next day we went to the De Young Museum, where went to the Vivienne Westwood Retrospective. There we saw how her designs changed in the last thirty years. WE then had a look at some African art, where there were lots of masks carved from woo and some of the headdresses were really bid and colourful. There were also some skulls with bones stuck through them. Afterwards we look at an Oceanian exhibit which had a sculpture of a Skelton about to fire an arrow out of a chariot.
In the modern art section of the museum there was a sculpture made from hundreds of pieces of burnt wood which came from a church that had been burnt down. They were arranged in a cube which was suspended from the roof so that it looked like an explosion frozen in mid-air.
The museum itself is actually made from copper. At the entrance there are some large stones and a big crack has been made through them and the floor to represent the earthquake which destroyed the old museum.
San Francisco Zoo
On Saturday afternoon we went to the Zoo, where we went on a private tour with a friend who works there. She took us to see the animals in the ARC (Animal Rescue Centre).
First of all we saw a Chinchilla which we stroked, the fur was really, really soft. We also stroked an alligator, which was hard and scaly and had been taken away from a family who had got it as a pet for their 3 year old daughter!
After the tour we had a look at all the other animals in the zoo which included Rhinos, Lions and Lemurs . The Elephant Seal display was empty because they had just been returned to the wild.
The Japanese Tea Garden
On Sunday morning we had an Easter Egg Hunt in Aunt Jewy’s Garden. All the clues were really hard! Afterwards we went to the Japanese Tea Gardens, where we saw lots of Japanese plants like the Bonsai Tree which looks like a normal tree but is tiny.
There was also a very steep bridge in the shape of an arch which had steps on which were vertical like a ladder at each end.
Once we left the gardens we went on a pedal boat on a lake nearby where we saw some Terrapins warming themselves on a log.
Point Reyes
The area known as Point Reyes has been moving north at the rate of 2 inches a year for the last few million years and so far it has moved about 300 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco (which is a good thing otherwise we would have had a very long drive). It is moving because the Pacific Tectonic Plate upon which it sits is moving north westward. The rest of California sits on the North American Plate. The fault line between them is called the San Andreas Fault.
In 1906 there was a huge earthquake in San Francisco which was caused when the Pacific Plate grinded past the North American Plate. We saw the effect of this demonstrated by a fence, part of which had broken away and moved about ten feet sideways.
At Point Reyes we saw some Elephant Seals on a beach. At the tip of Point Reyes it was cold and windy because it over looks Drakes Bay. It’s called Drakes bay because Sir Francis Drake sailed in to it while sailing around America.
