Travel Section 4 Kids: Guerneville Is 4 Kids!

Guerneville is a small town in Northern California- it is between Napa and the ocean. It is a great place to visit for kids. I have been there every summer since I was born. What makes this place so great is the scenery. There are a ton of redwood trees, pine trees, cedar trees- basically it's a big forest that's close to San Francisco. It takes 10 hours of driving to get there from my house in San Diego. But it is worth it! After driving through a bunch of trees you get to an amazing river. It is called the Russian River because Russians discovered it a long time ago. On the river there is Johnson's Beach. Which has kayaks, canoes, surfboards, and everything that floats you can imagine. I go to Johnson's Beach though to skip rocks. They have a lot of good flat rocks to skip.

My 'Gompa' and 'Goma' live on the river and have a dock on the river. I dive and jump off of it. The water is warm in the summer. There is a dam downstream that keeps the water higher so it's deep enough to jump in. There is a little 'path' on the dam that fish can swim up to get around the dam.

If you don't feel like swimming, you can go to the 5&Dime in Guerneville like I did today. The 5&Dime is cool because it has lots of toys, candy, inner tubes, coloring books, gag jokes, and all kinds of stuff you need to have fun at the river- like a Magic 8 Ball!

My favorite thing at night to do at the Russian River is play Pee Wee Golf. It has been here since my mom was a little girl. It's a great course because it's challenging and has video games, a juke box, and some of the holes are a dinosaur, cannibals, there's a loop to hit your ball in, an ant hill, and they even put in a new hanglider above the course. Seriously.

Or maybe you like nature, then check out Armstrong Woods. It is a forest made of redwood trees. Some of the hikes are challenging, others are not. My Gompa has taken one trail that's super steep. Today me and my family got lost! Because my brother, Goma, and Gompa ran ahead.

Now that I'm old enough, I can play a real golf course like the one called Northwood. I like this course because it's pretty- it's surrounded by redwood trees and the grass is really green. At the end of the course, there is a restaurant called the 19th Hole that has the best hot dogs!

There's one last thing I want to talk about the Russian River and Guerneville. If you follow the Russian River west, you will hit one beach at the ocean called Jenner. There are a bunch of seals at the river mouth so that probably means sharks are nearby because sharks like to eat seals! Jenner is cold and one time we made a fort out of branches that had floated downstream. The really cool thing we and my brother do on the beach at Jenner is balance on old railroad tracks. I think they got there because they built a jetty to help direct the river to the sea. To wrap things up, Guerneville is a great place for kids!

Apple Syrup Art Gallery: Yard Sale!

My teacher Mrs. Jones was teaching us about photography this year. And something hit me- I love photography! So here are some of the pictures I have to share from my yard this week. I hope you enjoy them.

If you like any of these photos, they are available for purchase!

Video Game Review: Pilot Wings for Nintendo 3DS

Today's video game review is Pilot Wings Resort for the Nintendo 3DS. This game let's you know who's the boss of flying! From jet packing to hang-gliding to flying in squirrel suits to super sonic jets; if you like all of this- then this game is for you. Once you get to the beginning of the game, you go into the member store and sign a waiver and your member card. Then, there are 2 choices: 1) 'I've Flown Before.' 2) 'I Haven't'. Pick 1 and you go straight to the mission mode. Pick 2 and take a one minute flight.

There are 2 modes- mission mode and free flight mode. (My favorite is free flight). Mission mode is where you take challenging missions with the plane, hang-glider or jet pack. One course on the hang-glider you can fly from an island (Crab Island) to Wuhu Island. As you move along you unlock special mini games- like instead of your regular jet pack you turn into a super jet pack. And the plane turns into a super sonic jet. And the hang-glider turns into a pedal glider (it's hard)!

On free flight mode, pick any vehicle you want and fly around Wuhu and Crab Island. Collecting different trophies or rings lets you unlock idols. Hang-glider has rings, jet pack has idols, and with the plane you can collect stunt rings.

While you're flying around, you may notice some 'i' icons (the i stands for information). Collecting one of these tells you about that specific place. Collect a few to get cool items.

In conclusion, I give this game 10 out of 10 Apples- I really like this game!

Behold the Nintendo 3DS!

Behold the Nintendo 3DS! it's the new DS that you can play in 2D or 3D. It has all new buttons like the circle pad and a home button. The apps that come with it are a camera, sound system, Mii Maker, Mii plaza, AR games (that come with cards for the games) and Face Raiders.

With the camera you can take 3D or 2D pictures. With the sound system you can record a sentence then change the sound of your voice. With Mii Maker you can make Mii characters just like the Wii. There is also a Mii Plaza. If you're walking around town with your 3DS and come across someone else with a 3DS, your Mii can show up on their 3DS! And the more people you have in the plaza, the more people try to rescue the king who got kidnapped. AR Games is a new feature. You can play games like archery and AR Shoot (it's like a ball you try to shoot into a hole). What's special about AR Games is that you get an AR card and you point the 3DS camera at the card and the 3DS recognizes the card. It then unlocks a game for you to play. And the cool thing about the AR card is that it projects real time images on the screen of the picture you shot. Face Raiders is when you take a picture of someone then they come to life as an emperor that tries to attack you! You then need to blast him with balls.

There are a lot of games you can buy for the 3DS. My favorites are Mario Kart 7, Starfox 64 3D, and Madden Football. Mario Kart 7 let's you race on land, air, and sea. It's cool because instead of you just riding on land and picking your vehicle, you can customize your vehicle and your kart is equipped with a hang glider and a propeller for going underwater. I give Mario Kart 7 a rating  of 10 out of 10 Apples. I love it!

Starfox 64 3D is Starfox like you've never seen before. You can to battle new bosses and your enemy Starwolf. The game is like Star Wars but better because when you turn on the gyro controls it feels like your actually driving a space ship! And the new things you can do with your ship is that you can turn into a submarine or a tank (the tank and submarine only work on some levels). I give Starfox 64 3D a rating of 9 out of 10 Apples. I don't give it 10 out of 10 because it's a little too challenging.

In Madden Football it's like Madden '11 for the Wii but what is different is that you can play it in 3D. My favorite team to play as is the Chargers. You can play 5 on 5 or 11 on 11. I give Madden a rating of 8 out of 10 Apples. I don't give it a 10 because I think the computer plays a little too hard!

I'd like to get more games for my 3DS like Super Mario 3D Land, Kirby's Mass Attack, and De Blob 2. But I can't have them because my mom won't let me!