Dinosaur National Monument

I have been looking forwad to going to Dinosaur National Monument since we got to the USA.

Our first activity was the Dino Discovery Trail. This was our first chance to spot fossils on the side of the path. We saw an Ichthyosaur and other vertebra, a femur, and lots of unidentified bones.

Next we went to the fossil quarry. When I walked in all I could see was bones. I’d never seen so many fossils before. It was breath-taking!

This is only 1/7th of what used to be here. Some of the names of the dinosaur fossils I saw were Allosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Stegosaurus. I learned in my junior ranger book what some dinosaur names mean. For example:

Allo saurus = other lizard
Camara saurus = chamber lizard
Stego saurus = roof lizard

I made up my own dinosaur name: pachy ceras giga saurus meaning thick horn savage giant lizard. Would you be scared to meet this dinosaur?

Lots of complete skeletons have been found here and sent to museums around the world.

These are some of the dinosaurs on display at the quarry. To get my junior ranger badge I had to spot nine types of dinosaur behind the Allosaurus picture starting on the left. I really enjoyed the activity because the mural was so detailed.

Joshua Tree National Park

Yesterday I went to Joshua Tree National Park which is in two deserts – the Mojave and the Colorado deserts.

Joshua trees are actually a type of yucca.

The park is named after the Joshua trees that grow all over the Mojave desert but not the Colorado desert.

I decided to do the Junior Ranger challenge. I had to fill out the Roadruner activity booklet including trying to spot all these animals and I also spotted these cacti:

Cholla Cactus
Prickly Pear Cactus
Barrel Cactus

We spotted ground squirrels, a cactus wren and a lizard. We didn’t see any tarantulas but we did see lots of tarantula holes.

This is Skull Rock . It was formed by erosion caused by wind and rain over time which made it look like a skull.

At the end of the day I had completed enough challenges to get my Junior Ranger badge. I’m hoping to get some more badges at the other national parks.

Vasa museum

Sorry I haven’t done a post in a while. The reason I haven’t done a post is because I’ve done a lot of traveling. I’m now in Stockholm in Sweden.

So now let’s get on with the post…

Today I went to the Vasa museum. The Vasa is an almost 400 year old ship that sank in the 17th century. It is famous because it was brought up to the surface in one piece 333 years later. It is in almost the same condition now as back then. It’s first voyage only lasted 20 minutes before it sank.

Today the boat looks like wood but originally it was colourful. They ground up plants and minerals to make paint to decorate the boat.

Segovia

Last week we went to Segovia on a train. When we got there , we saw an amazing aqueduct that stretched 17 kilometers from the mountains. Once the water got to the city it was transported underground to everyone’s homes .

Next we went to the Alcazar. Inside the Alcazar we went up an 152 stepped tower! At the top there were amazing views over the town.

There was a great armoury at the Alcazar . We saw:

crossbows with ivory patterns inlaid in them,
suits of armour for knights and horses,
mortars for firing flaming rocks,
halberd -a spear with an axe head

Armoury at the Royal Palace in Madrid

It’s really hot in Madrid at the moment the temperature is 37 degrees today. To avoid the heat we went to the armoury at 10:30 (we weren’t allowed to take our own photos so we got this one off the internet)

Editorial credit: Michele Buzzi / Shutterstock.com

Did you know in Spain kids who were 6 had armour to start training (sounds tough for them!)

I liked the weapons that they had. These are some of the weapons that I thought were most deadly:

Mace
Rapier
Longsword
Flamberge blade
Lance

To protect the horse while going into battle they also used flexible horse armour.

Now we are off to our rooftop pool!

Guggenheim museum

Yesterday I went to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain.

The Guggenheim museum is made of stone, glass and titanium. The architect is Frank Geary who never took his pen off the paper when designing the building.

Outside the museum there was a dog made out of flowers, these metal balloons and a metal spider.

When you walk inside you see amazing metal sculptures that twist and turn. The sculptures were made by artist Richard Serra. When you walk through the metal passages it makes you dizzy.

Pompeii

About 2000 years ago a volcano called Mt Vesuvius erupted covering the city of Pompeii in volcanic ash. The volcanic ash flew so far it made it to the sea covering the beach and filling in the bay.

When the ash fell it covered this dog and set hard like rock. Over time the dog rotted and left a hollow inside.

This is how the cast of the dog was made:

Step one – drill a hole through the ash to the hollow

Step two – pour liquid plaster in the hole

Step three – wait for the plaster to dry

Step four – break the ash off the cast

Gladiator school

In Roma we went to Gladiator school. First I got to try on some heavy Gladiator armour.

Second I got taught how to use a Roman sword. Here are some ways to use it: Hack, right neck, left neck, right leg, left leg and shish kebab which is stabbing someone in their stomach.

Last we went to the Collosseum where Gladiator fought. Sometimes they fought animals such as : lions, tigers, leopards, hippos, and even giraffes!

Singapore Science Centre

Yesterday l went to the Singapore Science Centre. When we got there we saw there was an exhibition on called Dino Quest so we queued up in the line to get tickets.

There was a Tesla coil demonstration.

My very stupid mum made my sick dad go in a cage that was about to get zapped by 3.5 M volts of electricity-I think she wants the life insurance!🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

We had to wait for 45 minutes till we got a place in Dino quest. We had a card that we swiped at different stations so we could uncover our dinosaurs. My dinosaur was a Koolasuchus, the worlds biggest amphibian.