Venice

Right now we are visiting Venice. It is a very interesting city because instead of having roads, there are just canals. So everybody either has a boat or walks.

We are staying in an apartment. It is really cool because it has an intercom. Near the door on the outside there is a button and a speaker, which is connected to a phone in the apartment. There is even unlock the door for whoever is trying to get in! Here's some more pictures of Venice:

Elvis and the rattlesnake

The other day when we were mining for gold dad heard and saw a rattlesnake, he cut its head off with one side of his digging bar... it still moved as if it was alive! That evening dad brought home the rattle.
Elvis is a California king snake. Dad thought we should call him "Elvis" because Elvis was the king of rock’n roll. We saw Elvis four days in a row around dad’s mining pit.

Ben

Abalone

So far my dad and I have caught 25 abalones total.
There are so many ways to cook abalone:
- You can fry it,
- You can sauté it in butter
- And you can make ab-relleno
So far I mostly like the ab-relleno and the fried abalone.

Ben

The trees

In bodega bay we went to "the trees". Over there it’s like the coolest jungle gym ever! I said I could survive there for ever only if I had my dad’s 22 (riffle) because you can see quail down the road. The only problem is that there’s no fresh water. Me and Eva found our own little places where we would sleep if we lived there. At my place I could hang my binoculars, backpack, water and hat. And we even had a picnic there.

Ben

The tide pools

Today we went to the tide pools. It is very cool there. There is lots of little
sea urchins, a sunflower starfish and a lot of little star fish, little fish, and dad found a not- very-lively Crab.
We got a lot of big mussels and sea urchins. But we found out the mussels weren’t safe to eat so we’ll use them for bait.

Ben

Blog written last Tuesday

Crabbing

Yesterday we went crabbing at the tide pools in la jolla. We saw some crabs but they were too small.
I caught a tiny fish. I even saw some fish about an inch
long. I wanted to catch them, but they were too fast.
We even saw a sea slug. I was the only one who touched it.

Ben

The science museum

I really like the science museum. We went with our new friend Isa. You can make movies, build with little rectangle blocks, make marble ramps and launch paper air planes. First we went to the science museum and then we had lunch. Then we went to the natural history museum. At the bottom it was mostly dinosaurs. On the 2nd floor there were animals, on the 3rd floor aerial pictures of the west coast and on the 4th floor there were
paintings. And after that Isa left and we went back to the science museum.
Ben

The living desert

When we were in Indio, at the beginning of the week, we went to the living desert. It was very cool. We saw all kinds of animals who live in the desert. We also saw poison dart frogs, a mountain lion, coyotes, owls, foxes , road runners, and other animals. We had lots of fun. We even got to play on African drums.

Ben

Fish and lobster!

Last night me and dad were hoop netting
and we cot 22 lobsters and 2 fish in
the hoop nets! All of the lobsters were too small to keep.We saw krill type things
in the boat. We could only keep one
fish it was a calico bass.
I’ll tell you what those krill things are when I find out. We saw some blue and turquoise glowing spots too.
ben

Huge bat ray!

Two days ago me, Eva and dad went hoop netting.
The first thing we cot was a small sting ray, later we cot another.
Then latter I hauled the hoop net and I said: “its heavy.”
And dad said: “your doing grate.” Once I got it up we were
getting splashed. We looked to see what it was… it was a huge bat ray!
ben

a job for Ben

Last month in malibu we wanted to go to the beach so Dad got some keys and locked the bus and we left. But when we came home the keys Dad took
where the wrong ones! So Dad put me on his shoulders and he told me:
"Go in the window but don’t bump the mirror, and give me the keys that are on the pop-up counter". so I went through the window and gave him the keys.
Ben

Man overboard!

Yesterday when I was sailing with Eva and our friend Ari, on the way back I
was standing on the bow holding the rope and I lost grip and fell into the water
but before our boat was too far I got hold of the side. I couldn’t climb back onto the boat so Ari helped me.

Ben

first fire

On October 27'th 08 we made our very first fire in the wood burning stove. We thought it would not work very well, but it did! Eva wanted to roast a marshmallow right away!but dad said:"not yet eva".so Eva did not talk about it any more. She took her purple tedy bear on a chair that was close to the woodburning stove and sat near it and injoyed the heat.

Ben

About the crabs

Here are some pictures of the crabs!
We couldn’t eat them because they where too small,
So we let them go. There were at least 12 crabs all together! I cot them on the beach with pliers, not a hoop net.
ben

bodega bay story

one day we decided to go to bodega bay. when it was raining and we were hungry we were in
bodega so we went to a restaurant. then we came home and went to bed. when i was in bed dad was driving the bus to a rv park. i wanted to see the rv park but it was too dark to see.
the next day i looked out the window and saw the bay.

ben

What I think....

I hope I have a good time in the bus. We will go fishing,
Hiking, explore and have a good time!
Ben