Mindy grew up in Wyoming and went to high school with your teacher. Now she lives in California. Mindy works as an editor, which means she reads reports checking for commas and spelling. She lives in a house with two roommates that is five minutes from the beach. She loves where she lives, and she was very excited to show me around.
Mindy had to work during the week, so I took the chance to catch up on my summer reading.
On Saturday, she took me to the beach. Our first stop was a park.
At first it looked a lot like Casper, which Mindy says is why she likes to go there so much. But then we went around the corner, and I could see the ocean.
When I turned the other way, I could see part of Upper Newport Bay (http://www.newportbay.org/bayintro.htm).
I also saw a bunch of little lizards and birds that hid in the bushes when I got too close.
And then it was time to go to the beach. We parked the car by an elementary school just like Sagewood…except this school had its playground right on the beach!
Recess must be pretty cool for those kids.
After putting on sunscreen, it was time to play in the ocean. There were lots of kids joining me.
Later in the day, we walked to the pier to get lunch.
Oh, did I tell you about the shells we found? There were lots of colors—orange, pink, purple, white.
I brought a bunch back with me to show you. We stayed at the beach to watch the sunset [18]. I didn’t want to leave, but Mindy said we needed to take a nap because she had something planned that would keep me out past my bedtime.
Mindy is an editor, which means she spends all day in an office, but sometimes she does something very non-editorish by helping her company look for grunion. Grunion are little fish that lay their eggs on the beach during the high tide (http://arachnid.pepperdine.edu/grunion/whatis.htm). The night we went to look for them, high tide happened at 11:00 p.m. I was glad I took a nap. But I got to see them! The fish look weird flopping around on the beach as they wait for the next wave to take them back to the ocean [19, 20].
When we got home, it was very late, and I was happy to curl up in bed to sleep.
The other thing we did was go to Disneyland. It was awesome! We spent the whole day there. First was Buzz Lightyear, where you get to defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg [21] (You can see the top of my head in the picture).
Next was Space Mountain, which is Mindy’s favorite ride in Disneyland [22].
It’s a roller coaster in the dark. We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones. There was so much to see and do, it’s hard to describe it all. I’ve brought back a lot of pictures to help. After spending a while in Disneyland, we headed across the way to California Adventure. My favorite ride there was Soarin’ Over California, where you get to see (and smell) all of California [23].
Mindy likes that one, but her favorite there is California Screamin’, a roller coaster that flips you upside down [24].
One of the coolest things we saw was the Mr. Potato Head outside of the Toy Story ride. He was talking to people in the crowd—all by computer. We left in the afternoon to rest for a while, then we went back and did it all again. It was a great day.
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Some great activities I can do here are: swim in the ocean, go to Disneyland, watch the Los Angeles Angels play baseball, surf, visit Hollywood, see lots of art museums and science centers.
Some special places to see in this state are: Hollywood, San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge), Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, San Diego beaches, Napa Valley, Death Valley.
A historical even that took place in this state is: the gold rush of 1849. Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, which lead to thousands of people migrating to California.
Famous people of the past that are from this state: Shirley Temple, Robert Frost, Richard Nixon, Ansel Adams, Julia Child.
Famous people of the present that are from this state: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jeff Gordon, Mark McGwire, Tiger Woods, Tom Hanks.
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