MY MAINE TRIP

I just went on an awesome trip to York Beach, Maine. I was there with all of my Havey family (Like cousins and grandparents). On my first  day we flew to Boston, Massachusetts. My Uncle Jay picked us from the airport. He and my Aunt Siobhan (Irish, I originally spelled it  like it sounds, "Shavan") were throwing a big party at their house near Boston in Glouchester. We stayed at a B&B in an old house called the Sally Webster Inn about 15 minutes from Jay's house in Rockport which was a seatown. I saw Nannie at their house too.We said goodbye and went to Salem before our "Maine spot".  Salem is known for being the place where they burned people they thought were witches. The museum we went to there was very interesting because they told us the history of witches in depth. We then went to our house in Maine which Grandee and Pepe got which was very nice. In York Beach in "Short Sands" there's a very cool arcade there called the Fun-O-Rama very near the cold beach (the water is freezing!). My favorite things to do at the arcade were skeeball and the gypsy woman (was like Zoltar in the movie "Big") . I got the rare 100 points while playing skeeball 4 times during my visit and it was awesome. I went to a place called Goldenrod's there which had salt water taffy, fudge and other types of candy. I loved the beach there but the water was very cold (#sickbro). One day I was at the beach for two hours and I was almost frozen when I got out of the ocean, my hands were tingly. I still loved bodysurfing though. At the house there was a dock on the river/bay and a big backyard and a fire pit where we made s'mores. We rented kayaks there and did it almost two times a day. There was a restraunt near by that we really liked called Cape Neddick Lobster pound.We took a day trip to a place called Oqunquick where we took a nice hike that went high above the cliffs and we also went to the beach. A really fun thing we did was an amusement park called York's Wild Kingdom. My favorite thing there was the go-karts. I got a tempoary.tattoo of a shark there, I really liked the family time there because I rarely see them. I really liked seeing my cousins, my Aunts, my Aunt Allison's fiancé and grandparents. A beautiful thing we did there was seeing Nubble Lighthouse and having ice cream nearby. On the way back our flight was delayed so we explored Boston where we saw graves of some historic people like Paul Revere. I really liked it and I encourage you to go to the coast of Maine.

MY SLEEPOVER AT FOLEY's

I had a big sleepover on Saturday. It was at my friends Foley house. For dinner,We had pizza and ice cream cones for dessert. We watched awesome movies called the Blues Brothers(jazz themed) and Strange Brew(beer themed).Afterwards, we settled into bed and listened to stand up of Bill Cosby.I didn't get good sleep so me and Foley woke up at 5:45 am. We first started our day watching the brilliant comedy piece by Mel Brooks "Blazing Saddles".Then we played an awesome game called Beat The Parents. I needed fresh air so we went outside to walk his two dogs Arrow and Lucy. I had a wonderful experience and I thank Foley and his parents for inviting me.

I will blog soon about my D.C TRIP

THE HISTORY OF DUTCHMAN'S CURVE

I just went to Camp Widjiwagen last week and I really want to blog about it. but it will take a while, so I will save that for tomorrow. But, I'm gonna tell you about something awesome I did today. 

Our friend Betsey Thorpe, who wrote a book, "The Day The Whistles Cried" was hosting a tour of the "Dutchman's Curve" at Richland Creek Greenland. It was about an event that happened 100 years ago (exactly on Monday) when two trains crashed into each other on July 9th, 1918. 

I learned several facts and here they are: 1) Near the same place where it happened 4 kids were scalped by a Native American because their families were taking over their land. 2) More Africans Americans died in the train wreck than white people because they were in the area closest to the front of the train behind the locomotive (the dangerous section). If it was modern day the death's (101) would have been more evenly divided. 3) I asked why they called it Duchman's Curve and our friend David Ewing who was there said that the people who built the railroad/bridge were from Germany and said in their German language that they were from "Deutschland" so the Nashvillian's thought they were Dutch and called it "Dutchman's Curve". It was really dangerous on that curve because the two trains couldn't see each other coming and collided head-on. It was the deadliest train crash in U.S history and it happened right here in Nashville. 

My Grandbobby actually in the 1970's or 80's interviewed survivors who were little when it happened (and old when he interviewed them) and it's very interesting. He put some of the interviews in a song he wrote with friend Rafe Vanhoy that is incredible called "The Great Nashville Railroad Disater" which G-Bob recorded and was also recorded by David Allan Coe. Hre's the link to Grandbobby's version of the song https://youtu.be/7ZauKqf3N7c  Betsey played it at her dinner event last night and some people cried because they heard the emotion in the recordings of the real people involved who were included in it. Grandbobby is donating the recordings to the Nashville Public  Library so people can hear that history.

I'd like to give thanks to Betsey Thorpe, Paul Clements (who led our tour and told us lots of interesting history about the area) and David Ewing.

                 PHOTOS:

    

MY SUPER FUN WEEKEND WITHOUT DAD

Me and my mom had an amazing time together while Dad was in the greatest city in the world (N.Y.C). We had so much fun one whole blog can not even hold my whole weekend of fun. But, I will try to tell some of my highlights of this past weekend in bullet point form

• We went to Bellevue so Mom could do an audition for a show at Chaffins Barn Dinner theater.When we were there, we met up with our adult friend Leslie. We were originally planning to go to Loveless Cafe (copyright) but because it was too crowded we went to a place called City Limits instead.

• I went to a jump place called Above All with my friend Foley.My favorite part of it was the Ninja Course which was a foam pit obstacle area. Afterwards, we went to the Maryland Farms YMCA to make up for a day we went there where it thundered. Foley wanted to go to the indoor pool and I was okay with it because we played aqua basketball in peace.

• I went to Fulins (sushi/Chinese place) with my friend Scarlet and her family. I loved the Godzilla roll because it was fried and my mom is a health mom and we don't usually order something like that. After, I hanged at Scarlet's  house for a few minutes while my Mom shopped at Target. I loved it.

•  I went to a Tex Mex place with my Mom and grandfather called Uncle Julio's. My favorite part of the restaurant was the table side guacamole. Then we went to an iced cream place next door called Jeni's. 

In summary I had a pretty fun weekend. We also went to see the Inredibles 2, but I will save that for another post/review. Next week I am doing camp which is awesome. Now I want to stop blogging for the day and go do something fun. Have a nice weekend, see you next time! 

Nashville Public Library Reading Challenge

I just entered the #NPLSUMMER reading challenge. You need to read 600 minutes over the summer and you can win prizes through reading or activities like me just now posting this hashtag...even as an adult! It's super fun and if you're in Nashville you should try it too!

My review of "Won't you be My Neighbor'

 Last Saturday I went  to a movie about Mr Rodgers at the Belcourt theatre. I thought it was a quite amazing documentary. I wanted to see Incredibles 2 but my parents really wanted to see "Won't You Be My Neighbor". I am seeing Incredibles 2 on this Saturday with my friend Foley by the way. I'm really impressed how a simple man named Fred Rogers changed history by just being on public television.You see instead of  just singing songs about tying shoes his show actually talked about deep issues in our history. For example, one thing that was a big deal in the 60's was racism and people were doing radical things to keep African Americans seperated. A couple of black people were in a motel pool and a white man put chemicals in it to kick them out. I felt that was a horrible thing and no one should be treated like that. Mr. Rodgers didn't like it himself and did a statement to show how we should treat everyone with kindness. He did it by inviting a "policeman" on the show named Officer Climmens to a wading pool and they had a fantastic time together putting their feet in it. He also was the man who saved public TV. Nixon and his White House buddies were trying to stop public TV from being funded more. They had a big hearing to hear people who don't want their plan for public TV to happen. Mr. Rodgers came there because his life was dedicated to helping kids through public television. Kids needed public tv and so did Mr. Rodgers. His speech was so good he changed the mind of John Pastore who was the one who decided if they'd get the money or not.  If you want to see this press the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7ljRr0A . I really think you should see this film because it's really educational and tells the life of a remarkable man.

Recap for most of my week(Mon-Wed)

I would like to share with you what I have done these past few days in bullet point form.

-I went to a jump place in Cool Springs (Above all Extreme Air sports) with my friend Zachary and his sister who was in Annie with me this Spring. My friend's mom suggested we go to lunch at a place around the corner for lunch, she'd never been to that place before but thought they'd have something for everyone. The place was called "Twin Peaks" and it made me laugh when I walked in and saw the waitresses because they were dressed kind of inappropriately for kids but we were already there so we stayed. 

- I had a play date with my friend Foley at his house. We played a game called Beat the Parents which was fun. Mom also wasn't there for most of the time too. It was a good step for independence and I really need it.

-I got invited to the CMT awards by my Aunt's ex boyfriend who's the bandleader of the show. They met at boarding school. I went to the Palm before the CMT awards. We ordered Calamari which was delicious. We also saw a lady we know who is a friend of mom's named Sandra Lee.

The CMA's were hosted by Little Big Town. I met my Aunt's friend and her buddy there who are in town from London.

 I saw Blake Shelton perform there and that was awesome because he's a great family friend and I haven't seen him since I was a baby. He won two awards there too. I also saw Kelly Clarkson and the Backstreet Boys and Chris Stapleton.

 Some of my favorite performers were the newer ones who were on the Ford stage because they were super close to me and I got to give them high fives and fist bumps when they walked by.

                     Here a picture with my "uncle" John Bohlinger (who was the bandleader) and mom and dad after the CMT awards: