Hello from Sunny California!

Hi First Grade!

We got here on Saturday morning. We were on the plane for 5 hours, and when we got here, it was still Saturday morning! How did that happen? Did you know that it is always 3 hours earlier on the other side of the country than it is in SC? When you are eating lunch, the people in California are eating breakfast. When it is your bedtime, the kids out here are eating supper. That is because the earth is turning slowly, and it takes 3 extra hours for the sun to shine on the west coast the way it shines on the east coast.

On Saturday afternoon we went out to look around the city. It is interesting to be here.  Kamiya asked about weather, and Mia asked about plants. Most of California skips winter. (In the high mountains that is not true.) Here in the city of San Francisco, the leaves stay on the trees all year. The summer doesn't get very hot, and the winter doesn't get very cold. It does rain more in the winter, but the temperature stays nice all year long. When you go outside, it always looks like springtime. Look at the picture - Rock Hill plants don't look like this in February!

We went for a walk in Golden Gate Park (the biggest one in the city) and here are some things that I saw:

 

The fancy white building is made of glass. It is called the Conservatory. It's filled with beautiful plants and flowers. Do you see some trees out front that look like some I saw in Africa? What are they called?

 

 

That's right - palm trees. They grow in hot places all around the world.

 

 

Most old-fashioned windmills like this are found in a country called Holland. Many years ago,  Queen Wilhemina  of Holland gave two windmills to the people of San Francisco, and they stand in Golden Gate Park.



 

We went inside with a park ranger, and she talked about how windmills can catch the energy of the wind to make power to get work done for people. Wind power doesn't make smoke and pollution. It helps keep the air clean. I think that is nice.

It was a little bit dark and spooky inside there because the windows are very tiny. 

 

The best part of any park is the playground! We stopped there to check it out, because Ziggy wanted to know what boys and girls like to play with. They had swings, slides, and sandboxes like Cherry Park in Rock Hill. One very different thing that I saw was this climbing structure that looks like a giant spider web made of rope. It looked like fun to me!

 



 

 Mikhaila asked about the animals in San Francisco, It is a city surrounded on three sides by water, so there are a lot of water-loving animals here.

 

I saw these birds swimming in Stow Lake.

 

 

They are called coots. They look a little like ducks, but are gray with black heads, and they have pointy beaks. There are loads of them here. They float in the water, and always come right over when they see people, because they like it when folks throw bread on the water to feed them.  Do you ever feed the ducks and geese at Winthrop Lake?

 

 

We left the park, and went to the waterfront.  Natanael said, "Did you go fishing?" That's a good question, because the Pacific Ocean is on one side, and San Francisco Bay is on the other side. That's a lot of water to fish in! No I didn't go fishing myself, , but I did see many boats like this one that take people out for fishing trips.

 

 

 

 Here is another animal that is easy to find:

 These are sea lions. They look a lot like seals, but they have little ear flaps on the sides of their heads. They live in the ocean, and love to come out to get warm in the sun. They climb onto docks, rocks, boats, and the sand. It's fun to watch wild animals up close.

 

 

 

I know that you can recognize this bird. It looks a bit different from the ones that we see in South Carolina, but it is still a sea gull. The feathers are darker, the feet are black, not yellow, and the beak is so dark orange that it looks like it is wearing lipstick!

 

That's all for today, but I hope I will be able to get out in the city again later in the week so I can have more adventures, and share them with you.

 

Your friend,

Flat Stanley