July 19 and 20, 2011 Garden Gnomes, Planes, Cars, and Houses

First of all, I'm apologizing for the inconvenience of typing/posting this a day late. Yesterday was spent travelling and packing up. Then again, who was actually waiting for me to write a post??
Anyways, after we finished packing up, the owner of the hotel/motel was nice enough to let us leave our luggages in his garage while we went to the botanical garden. After a relatively short walk to the garden we picked up a map or two. It turns out that there was this activity for "children" going on that was open to all. For this activity, you have to pick up a special map and use a clue to help you find the first gnome. Once you find the gnome, there is a door next to it which has the next clue. The first gnome is actually 3-D and made out of metal while the others are just doors which you open. In the doors, you find the clue and there is a gnome pasted next to the clue. When you find all ten gnomes (which we did!), your quest was over. This was pretty interesting considering they led you to awesome places. My favorite place you had to search for the gnome door was in this huge pine tree. The tree's roots came above ground and some branches were very low. These served as obstacles so you had to jump and crawl around or above them to find the door. This added to the awesomeness. Even though this activity was meant for little kids, I did enjoy the hunt and that's all that matters. Plus, without the activity, we would have just been walking around looking at bare branches and trees because it was winter and not many things grow during this season.
After a few hours, we came back to the hotel/motel, hopped on a shuttle, arrived at the Christchurch airport, and eventually got through checking in our bags and security. At that point, we were running a little late so we raced to the gate with little time to spare. The first flight was to Auckland, New Zealand and was about 2 hours. Since there was nothing to do on the flight due to my lack of books, I just slept a bit. Once we arrived in Auckland we had a two hour layover, meaning that we had to wait in the airport for two hours. These two hours passed in a snap and before I knew it, my family and I were on the plane to LA. This flight was about 12 hours long but because it was international, they had screens which let you listen to music, and watch TV episodes and movies for free!
Finally, we arrived in LA and we had a four hour layover. Yay... The next flight was about 2 hours and it had screens even though it wasn't international! The screens were kind of useless since you had to pay money for any good shows or/and movies but it was good enough. I also got to sit in economy plus with my mom since I'm considered a minor and I shouldn't sit by myself. We didn't even have to pay extra for the upgrade!If you do not fly often or have never flown higher than economy, I shall explain what economy plus is. Economy plus is basically the same thing as economy but you get a little more leg room. The following is a diagram explaining the luxury of the seating in an airplane.
-First Class This is the best one but is also the priciest one. If you have to sit next to someone (or if you don't) depends on the size of the aircraft.
-Business Class This is not always available in airplanes but it has a bit less leg room than First Class and you have to sit next to someone.
-Economy Plus Class This one is not always available. This class has a lot less leg room than Business Class and you have to sit three to a row on most rows.
-Economy Class This class is always available and offers the least amount of leg room. This is the cheapest one.
Please remember that this is based on my experience only so it may not be exactly right. Once we arrived in Denver, we had to rent this car and drive to Boulder, Colorado (which is where we are staying). This drive was about 1 or 2 hours and very uncomfortable since I had to sit in the middle because my brother's guitar took up the other seat. The headrest was rock hard so it made it very hard to sleep. We eventually arrived at the house we're renting and brought ou stuff in.
Hmm, since we left Christchurch on Tuesday night and landed in Denver on Tuesday night and we have been on a plane for about 14 hours, it's like we time traveled because of the time difference! Anyways, here is the picture of the uncomfortable (and impractical) car!

Also, the house has very....... artistic decorations and the room I'm sleeping in has the same flowery border as I had! This room is SUPER girly (ugh) but has a bunk bed! Wel, my hands are aching. I guess this is good-bye.
Wait! I have to say one more thing! The next few blogs will be considerably shorter because this is practically my second home (Boulder, not the actual place we're staying at) so we most likely won't do the touristy things/attractions. Bye for real this time!

July 17th, 2011 Professer Adrian's Family

My family went out for a big delicious breakfast. Wait, how would I know?? My parents let me and my brother sleep in while they went out. Here's a picture of a latte the restaurant made.

After that, my dad's colleague picked us up at 1:00pm and brought us to his home. This home was a beautiful two-story house that was built in the 1800's (I wish I could say the same thing about my house) and had a huge backyard with lush vegetation and a trampoline. Professer Adrian's family consist of (like mine) an eleven year old girl named Lucy, a fourteen year old named William (Billy for short), a wife name Sian, and a cute perky springer spaniel named Charlie. The dog in the picture is not actually Charlie. We forgot to take a picture of him. Charlie actually has longer fur and the black dots are in different places.

Once we took off our shoes and jackets, the parents began talking and sent us away from them. So, the four of us scurried upstairs and began playing some video games in separate rooms. Billy and my brother bonded while playing some zombie shooting game on the PS3 while Lucy and I bonded while screaming at the infuriation of driving off the side of a course in Mario Kart. Anyways, Lucy and I played a little bit of Mario Kart and then her parents called us all down to eat lunch.
For lunch, we ate delicious spaghetti and homemade sauce, soft bread and butter, great salad, and water with raspberry and strawberry in it. We finished eating and raced upstairs to play more video games. Lucy and I soon began playing another Wii game called Hasbro Family Game Night Vol. 2. When we finally realized this game was a bit to complicated and hard for our liking, we ran downstairs, received a slice of irresistible chocolate cake, and raced back upstairs. Next, Billy and Ty went downstairs for cake and then came back upstairs and we played more of the Family Game Night game.
Before we finished the game, all of us went to the park with Charlie. At the park, there were many other dogs and some exercise equipment things. Later on, we went back to their house and played this strange game that consist of Billy throwing a ball to us when we're on a trampoline and we must hit it before it touches the trampoline or else. Soon, we had to leave.
Well, that's basically my day! Bye!