Frostburg

Hi Ms Rodes’ First Grade Class!

My latest adventure took me to the mountains of Maryland, in a place called Frostburg. It was not snowing here, and it was actually quite warm and sunny (90 degrees) and then it got cold! Think I will be glad to hop in the mail tomorrow! They are under a frost warning tonight!!

My new friends are Kyle, Karl and Colin Vogtman. They are 3rd grade, 1st grade, and pre-K students. Kyle did a Flat Stanley project with his class last year. Kyle and Karl were in a play (I missed it) called Flat Stanley, Jr. They put on parts of their costumes and took pictures with me. They also acted out their scenes.

Dr. Dan

Kyle was Dr. Dan, the doctor who diagnosed me (or the play me) as being flat. He was really funny about it. He talked very loudly and kept calling me Andy and my mom Mrs. Porkchop! At one point during the exam, I kicked him and he fell over! I laughed really hard when Kyle and his dad acted that part out for me.

The Sneak Thief

Karl was the “Sneak Thief”. He was going to steal a famous painting from a very large art museum in Paris, the Louvre. But I was able to disguise myself as a painting (I had to wear a Little Bo Peep costume) and called for help just in time. But the sneak thief called me “one uggggly girl!”, which was also very funny.

Mrs Vogtman works as a Physics Professor at a college (Potomac State College of West Virginia University). They held their graduation ceremony on Saturday and she took me along.

I got to sit on stage at a real college graduation ceremony.

The professors tried to get me a diploma, but the Dean (the person in charge of making certain everyone follows the rules) wouldn't let them. But I had my picture taken with lots of the professors. Some of them have pretty crazy outfits! It is called academic regalia. I thought the hats were funny, but I tried not to laugh out loud at them!

On Sunday the boys shot off rockets in the field by their house. The rockets went up really, really high!! I wanted to ride on one, but Mr. Vogtman told me no. He was afraid the wind would blow me into a tree and I would be stuck. Something like that happened to Flat Stanley in the play. Some other kids turned him into a kite and he got stuck in a tree. So Mr. Vogtman thought it was better safe than sorry. 

On Monday Colin took me to his pre-K class. It was “z” day there. So I had to think of some “z” sharing. There were lots of zoo animals and zebras. Can you think of any other z’s? I thought it was a tough letter. I like “s” better. I can think of lots of “s” words, like Stanley!

I also got to play catch with the boys, play in their tree house, meet their pets (a cat, a dog, a Guinea pig, three hermit crabs, and a fish bigger than me!!!). It was a lot of fun, but I think I am ready to head home.

Cupcake the Guinea pig

hermit crabs

Dena the dog

Mr. Tigger Nibbs the cat

giant goldfish

Young at Heart Chorus at the Academy of Music

Do you know what the phrase "young at heart" means? It means that no matter how old you are on the outside, you still feel young on the inside. Maybe you have lots of energy, or act a little goofy. Maybe you're 85 years old but still really love playing with kids. All these things are part of being young at heart.

The Young At Heart Chorus is a singing group that's only open to people who are older than 73 years old.  Their oldest members are over 90! They still have a great time singing together, and they are a big part of Northampton. I got to see them in concert with Dane and Rowan!

Here I am at the Academy of Music, one of the best theaters in Northampton. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, so these photos someone else took will have to do!

This is what it looks like from the inside at the Academy of Music. It's beautiful, and the high ceilings make all the sounds coming from the stage sound gorgeous.

The Young at Heart Chorus sang lots of great songs - some were old, some were new. They danced a little bit to each one. Don't they look snazzy here?

I had a great time listening to the music. Sometimes, we even got up and danced. I can't wait to see what my next Northampton adventure is! 

Northampton and Herrell's Ice Cream!

Whoa! Hello there! Sorry it's taken me a little while to get my feet on the ground in Northampton; I had an unexpected visit to the wrong mailbox before Dane and Rowan, my Northampton hosts, were able to get a hold of me. Everything's okay now, and we're having lots of fun.

After my long trip, I really needed a sweet treat, so they brought me to Herrell's Ice Cream!

What makes Herrell's so special? Well, back in 1973, Steve Herrell decided he wanted to make ice cream more exciting. He knew people loved to put toppings on their ice  cream, so he took it one step further - he had his workers smoosh the toppings into the ice cream. Yum! His idea was so good that many ice cream stores do this today.

Here's me with all those toppings at Herrell's!

I decided to skip the ice cream for today and get a tasty drink called an egg cream. What do you think is in an egg cream? If you guessed eggs and cream, you might be surprised - there are NO eggs and NO cream in this drink.  Instead, an egg cream has milk, chocolate syrup, and plain soda mixed together - kind of like a bubbly chocolate milk. 

Egg creams were invented in the 1930s, when there was very little money for fancy things like eggs and cream, so people invented a simple drink and pretended it was as fancy as eggs and cream. At Herrells, they make their egg creams with 4 big spoonfuls of chocolate syrup. How many spoonfuls of syrup would YOU like in your egg cream?

On to Northampton, Massachusetts!

I had a great week in Nashville! Now it is time to hop back in my envelope and head to Northampton, Massachusetts.

I'm really getting to visit a lot of places that Presidents of the United States have lived on this trip. I started in Washington, DC, where the President lives when in office. I already posted an entry about my trip to the White House. Do you remember who the current President is? If not, here's a link to that post.

Then it was on the Nashville, home of two Presidents and one Vice-President. Do you know who they were?

Here's the first one:

Andrew Jackson, U.S. President 1829 - 1837

Just a few years later, there was another President from Nashville:

James K. Polk, U.S. President 1845-1849

And here's the Vice-President:

Al Gore, U.S. Vice-President 1993-2001

And now I'm headed to Northampton - home of another President! In fact, long before he was President, he was on the Northampton City Council and then the mayor of the city.

Calvin Coolidge, Northampton Mayor 1910-1911, U.S. Vice-President 1921-1923, U.S. President 1923-1929

Country Music Hall of Fame

At the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, I visited the Hall of Fame, learned about Elvis, Roger Miller's Grammy Awards, guitars, gold records, jukeboxes and road shows. Taylor Swift did the Red Tour recently and Charlie Daniels and friends toured with Leonard Cohen back in the '60s.

Cheekwood Gardens

There was fun to be had at Cheekwood Gardens. I visited 100,000 tulips, hunted Easter eggs, played games - and even came in 1st place in the Bunny Hop. (I had a little help from a friend.)

Musical Instrument Petting Zoo

Sally and Dave took me to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Petting Zoo. I helped other kids learn about playing stringed instruments and percussion items. I got to ride on the party bus to get there and I played a banjo!

The Nashville Symphony

I had a big night out with Emanuel Ax at the Nashville Symphony - started with Jazz at the 'Horn (Schermerhorn Symphony Center), then a warm up on the podium, a shift in the percussion section and a look at the crowd.

Next stop: Nashville!

I had a lot of fun in Washington, DC. But I couldn't stay there forever! So Emily and Stacy put me in the mail, and now I am on my way to Nashville, Tennessee.

I'll be visiting Sally and David. They love living in Nashville and have promised to show me some really neat places when I visit.

U.S. Botanic Garden

For my last set of pictures from Washington, DC, I'll show you around the United States Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden is a museum made up of plants.

Photo courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol

Photo courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol

Since it was kind of chilly outside on the day that I went to the Botanic Garden, I stayed inside and walked around the Conservatory. That's the big glass building in the pictures above.

The first thing we looked at was a special exhibit called Exposed: The Secret Life of Roots. Have you ever wondered what the underground parts of plants look like? This exhibit shows you!

Photo courtesy U.S. Botanic Garden

Here I am getting a good look at the roots of some of the plants that grow on the prairie in Kansas.

The roots of the plants are specially treated so that they don't dry out or break easily - and so that visitors can touch them!

In the main part of the Conservatory, I saw many plants that humans use for food. Here's one that I bet a lot of you like. Can you guess what it is?

Here is a hint: the scientific name of the plant is Theobroma cacao. Does the second word look like any other words that you know?

Maybe...cocoa?

Yep, that's a chocolate tree! The cocoa beans are inside of those orange pods. There are a lot of steps between harvesting the pods and having a finished chocolate bar, so the Botanic Garden doesn't make chocolate out of these pods.

Photo courtesy of US Agricultural Research Service

 I also took a walk in the Jungle Room at the Botanic Garden. The Jungle Room has a walkway that lets you walk through the treetops!

I also found this very strange cactus.

I thought that all cacti lived the desert and had prickly spines. But I learned that Rhipsalis grows in tropical rainforests! Emily told me that there are even cacti that grow in Michigan. Here is a picture of one - it is called a prickly pear.

Photo courtesy of University of Michigan Herbarium

I saw many more plants at the Botanic Garden, but there was one plant that I didn't get to see: the eight foot tall titan arum. The titan arum is also known as the corpse flower because it is smells pretty rotten. Even though I missed it, I was able to find a video showing it bloom: