My trip to America

When my family and I went to America to see our cousins we went along the east coast, touring large and small cities such as Raleigh, Durham, Baltimore, Washington DC and New York City. Overall we went to six States and one district. These included North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. The one district was the capital of America …Washington DC. Going through all of these States and cities was a real adventure. We explored and learned through all of them. I hope we go there again soon.

North Carolina

We finally arrived in North Carolina after a horrible plane ride that definitely made me sick. There were two main reasons why I disliked the plane ride. The first reason was that the plane ride was nine hours long and that felt like nine years. And nine years is a very long time. The second reason was that this plane had no TV screens. When you go on long flights there is usually always a TV but not on this one. This ride was extremely long. Can you imagine what it would to sit in an airplane for nine hours without TV? Just getting bored the whole way? Well I can tell you that you wouldn’t like it. So I was really thankful when we landed. My family and I were really excited because we were going to meet our new cousin Hamish who had just been born. When we met him he was serious face. The next day we went for a walk. My cousins lived in the middle of a big forest. We walked quite far and on the way we did races, played pooh sticks and saw two baby snakes. My dad is really scared of snakes so he tried not to look. When we came back to the house we talked to one of my aunt’s friends. I never talked with them so I never knew what they were talking about. But I did find out one thing. Instead of saying ‘you all’, they say ‘y’all’. Then I took a few minutes practicing saying that. We got up early the next day and went to the North Carolina Basketball Museum.. I was extremely amazed at the height of the real basket and imagined people jumping that high. I tried but failed doing a slam dunk but I would be really small compared to the real basketball players. After that we visited my aunt’s office. She teaches Chinese history. Her office was rather small. But her name was printed really nicely on the front door. My siblings and I all got to get one souvenir to remember North Carolina. On our final day in North Carolina we went to the Science Museum. This museum was unlike others because most of it was outside. We were supposed to go the day before but we couldn’t because it was raining. Luckily the day that we did go was nice and sunny. The first part reminded me of the Zoo because it had a farm like London Zoo. With pigs and goats everything a farm would have. After the farm we walked along to the fossil digging where you could dig for fossils. My greatest discovery was a shark’s tooth. It must have been a small shark as the tooth wasn’t very big. But my favourite part of the museum was at the end when we sailed boats with remote controls and did the bungee jumping. The bungee jumping felt weird because you jumped really high which made it quite shocking too. The next morning it was goodbye North Carolina and hello Maryland.

Maryland

Even though the flight to Maryland had no TVs it wasn’t so bad because the flight was only forty five minutes. When we arrived at Baltimore/Washington airport my cousins were still in school. Their Easter break or Spring break like they call it ends on a Wednesday. So my Uncle, who is my cousin’s dad and my mother’s brother, took us home. On that night that my aunt had arranged with my cousin’s coach that I could practice with my cousin Kai’s soccer team. The training session was really fun because after only about twenty minutes of practice we got straight into a match. The first thing we did the next day was actually play the Wii which was really fun. Then we visited Fort McHenry, a famous place where the Americans held off the British from breaking into the city of Baltimore. A few weeks before the British attacked Baltimore they had destroyed the city of Washington DC and the people of Baltimore knew that they would be next ones to be attacked. The Americans eagerly built a wall to keep the British army out of the city. The people guessed right as the British army first attacked by land. Militias were sent to Baltimore to help protect the city. If the city was lot, all America’s boats would be destroyed, as they were kept in Inner Harbour in Baltimore. The Americans first sent a little militia to try and stop the British army. The little militia killed the British General who was leading the attack and that was a real shock to the British. But that didn’t stop the British, easily killed part of the militia as the rest retreated. Then the British proceeded forward but could not break through the American defences. So they needed the help of the Navy. The Americans knew that the British navy was known as the best Navy in the world. But that didn’t stop the high courage of the one thousand men in Fort McHenry. Now the fate of Baltimore lay in the hands of Fort McHenry. If the British defeated Fort McHenry the city would definitely be lost. For 25 hours the British fired cannons with rapid speed. The Americans responded with a few cannons of their own. After the 25 hours the British army retreated. Watching the battle from boat was a man named Francis Scott Key. He was on the American’s side and set out to negotiate with the British. His job was to try and free a doctor, one that the British had taken prisoner. When he saw America’s flag still in Fort McHenry he knew that the day had been won. From that battle and victory he created the Star Spangled Banner which later became America’s national anthem.

Washington DC

On the last day of our stay in Maryland our cousins took us to see Washington DC, the capital of the United States of America. We got to Washington by the Metro train. The first place that we visited was the National Archives Museum, home of the Constitution of the United States of America, The Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. These three documents say that the Americans are free from the British and have their own government and run it their own way. But first my mum took us to see the Magna Carta exhibit, where one of the four original copies were. I explained to my cousins that the idea of the Declaration of Independence came from the Magna Carta. After that we saw the three extremely important documents. There was a very long queue to see the documents. Because of that there was a maximum amount of people allowed to go in at a time. Most people went straight for the documents. I was quite surprised to see that documents were in very good condition. Lights had to be quite dim otherwise that would damage the writing and it would slowly fade away. We left after we saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Next our cousins suggested going to the International Spy Museum. Sadly we found out that the queue was too long and by the time we got in it would be time to head back. So from there we ventured to the White House, home of the president of the United States of America. As we were coming closer to the White House we heard music. I thought that the president was having disco or a party. When we got to a point where we could clearly see the White House we saw that there was stage and a music radio but nobody around. When we had taken a good look at the White House, which was indeed white, we headed towards the Washington Monument. That day I learned something about the Washington Monument, each side faces an important building. One of the sides obviously faced the White House. One the Capital building. The other two faced two memorials. One side faced the Jefferson memorial and the other the Lincoln memorial. Each of these presidents did a good thing to the country. Thomas Jefferson wrote up the Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln said no to slavery in America. Overall I had a really good day touring Washington DC.

Pennsylvania

My cousins and I together went to Pennsylvania where our grandparents lived. It was a two hour ride and some of the car trip was through Delaware. Every time we go to America we always go to our grandparent’s house to be together with all of our cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents. When we got there our second cousins were there along with their parents and their grandparents. So basically our whole family was there. Because our family was there including our second cousins we did the Easter egg hunt on that day, which was Saturday instead of Sunday. The children played in the basement, while parents hid Easter eggs outside the house. Then the parents called us up and we each got bag where we would put our Easter eggs in. The younger children got a head start in finding the eggs, then went the medium aged ones, and finally the older ones went, the group I was in. Each child could find twelve eggs then sit down and see what you received in the eggs. Most of them were very easy to find, but others were quite hard. When everybody had found twelve eggs they sat down and opened their eggs. I received a variety of chocolates and sweets. Including Twix, bubble gum, Skittles and lots of other things too.On Easter day we started off by eating delicious pancakes with maple syrup. Then we found out that we were doing another Easter egg hunt. Our second cousins had left the day before, so it was just me and my cousins doing the Easter egg hunt now. This time the children stayed in the room my family were sleeping in, while the parents hid Easter bags inside the house. Then the children started searching the huge house our grandparents lived in. Most houses in America are big because the country is huge which means there is more room for the houses. Hamish the baby’s bag was found first after my brother pulled it out of a small cupboard when he wasn’t supposed to. When you found somebody’s bag you weren’t supposed to tell them that you found it or where you found it. You should just keep quiet and let whoever’s bag it is find it. So we kept searching. Before finding mine I found other people’s bags. But finally I found mine upstairs, in a big cupboard, in a long bag. It took me quite a long time to find it. But at least I wasn’t the last one finding mine. It was one of the best Easters ever and it was the first Easter I had spent with all my cousins.

New York (The City)

Our final days in America were spent in the huge city of New York. New York is split into five boroughs. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. We rented a house in Brooklyn. But we mainly toured Manhattan because the Sky Scrapers and famous museums are. The reason why we went to New York was because two really good friends of my parents lived there. One was named Nancy and the other Jen. They were both girls and had just got married a few months ago. My mum and dad were invited to the wedding but because we lived in London and my mum had work to do they couldn’t manage to go. On our first full day in New York we walked around and visited Manhattan. We got to Manhattan by the Subway which is what we call the tube. This is not to be mixed up with the place where you go to eat food. Our first stop was at the banks of the East river. On the Brooklyn side of the river. We went here because this was one of the places to have a view of Brooklyn Bridge. Brooklyn Bridge is a famous bridge in New York that crosses from Brooklyn to Manhattan. We could also The Statue of Liberty in the distance. So after a good few minutes of looking at that we jumped back into the Subway and went across East River to the island of Manhattan. We then stopped next to Central Park and the Natural History Museum. Sadly for us we couldn’t go inside the Natural History Museum because the line to get in was way too long. So instead we walked through Central Park. Central Park is mostly park partly zoo. My mum told us that she did a ten kilometre run around Central Park when she was living in New York. Because there was so much to do we didn’t walk for very long in Central Park only a few minutes then we went back into the Subway which took us to Times Square. Now my first thoughts of Times Square was that it was definitely better than Piccadilly Circus. It was an amazing sight with hundreds of people hurrying around heading to work and shops. But what was so amazing about it was that all of the buildings were covered in adverts and screens. I spotted a Toys Rush store with a Ferris wheel inside. Immediately, I was attracted to it and told my mum that it was there and she let me have a short look inside. What met my eyes first was the Ferris wheel which was as high as the three huge floors in the shop. In my memory I couldn’t think of a bigger toy shop than that. After looking at the Lego section, which was really cool because the Lego toys were so big, much bigger than the ones in London. Next we headed to the Rockefeller centre because my dad had got tickets to have a view of New York City from Top of the Rock, which was a lot like the Shard. It was a lot like the Shard because we were all very high up in the air looking at a big busy city below. But my brother hated Top of the Rock. He’s really scared of heights and complained that he wanted to go back down. I really enjoyed it as I got to take a lot of pictures and a really nice one of the Empire State Building. When we went back down, which was a big relief to my brother, we headed towards John’s Pizza. John’s Pizza is my dad’s favourite pizza place and a well-known pizza place in New York. At John’s Pizza we met up with Nancy and Jen and then ordered. I love Pepperoni pizza and chose that. I never ate because after about two huge slices I started feeling a bit ill. But the pizza was extremely nice. After that we ate some ice cream at an ice cream shop which was just down the road from John’s pizza I had chocolate chip and chocolate ice cream. It was delicious. But I did spill some and got really messy. After getting really messy we went back to the house that we borrowed and took a shower. Finally after a day of lots of walking we went to bed.On our final and last day of our trip to America we visited Coney Island, mainly to eat Nathan’s Hot Dogs where the International Hot Dog eating contest was held. Again we took the Subway which was the main transport in New York. But first we met up with Nancy and Jen because they were coming with us. Finally we got to Coney Island after what I felt like was a very long train ride. When we headed into Cony Island we saw an amusement park but before we went there we ate our Hot Dogs. I actually didn’t eat a Hot Dog because I don’t like them, so instead I had some Chicken Tender. After we finished munching away our food we headed towards the Amusement Park. As we walked along we see extremely scary rides such as the Sling Shot, which through you high up into the air while doing forward rolls. Then I found something that I wanted to do and it was called Tickler. Well it was basically just a small rollercoaster. So me and Nancy went on because my mum thought that if she went on, she would ill. The ride started slow, but got faster and faster. On the first turns you really felt like you were going which made it a bit scary. But when you just went down you can feel a shocking sensation. But I loved the ride and hoped that I could back one day and go on the Wild River ride, which I wasn’t allowed to do because I would probably get wet. After we got off my brother immediately wanted to do a shooting. Where you had to shoot at a target with a water gun. Nobody else wanted to go with him so I did. The winner was the person who gets their light to the top when you were shooting. There was no trigger on the gun so just had to aim and let the water come out. I won and won a little toy minion. I then gave it to my brother who gave it to my sister because she really wanted it. That was basically the end of our holiday because as soon as we got home we left for the airport. Then had I ride back home. I would like to thank all of our family and friends living in America for making our holiday, a splendid one.