The Erie Canal - First few days

This is Erin. Hey everyone reading this we have had a great time on the Erie Canal. It is really neat. It is very small compared to the lakes. It is only 90 feet across and 300 miles long. On each side of the canal there is a tow path where the horses would pull the barges. (That was a long time ago.)

The canal was built in 1825 and it was all hand dug. Horses would pull the barges down the canal on now what are tow paths. People back then figured that it was easier to ship things then to send it by train. The train owners did not like that so they built a rail way bridge. instead of having the frame on the top of the bridge it was on the bottom.. So the barges carrying big loads could not get through. The railroad bridge looked really neat. You can see it in the picture above.
Hey there again long time no see! This is another post from Geneva! :
We are in the canal and let me tell you it’s not like the North Channel, everything is mucky. But on the bright side I got to go down my very first lock and take a cave tour of an old underground factory. Did you know that back then it took the Canal to be built around 8 years? That to make the huge caves of factories each time they only blew a basketball hole in the wall and did that over and over again? Well that’s not the job for me because my middle name is not patient. In the cave, I got cave kissed!!!! That is when the cave drips on you. Wow, I must have a lot of luck! On the tour of the lock and the cave there was an upside down bridge. The reason for this is because the train industry was losing lots of business to the canal shipping and needed a plan. The upside down bridge would not let any big shipping boats around causing everyone running back to the train industries arms! Wow even back then they were clever! Well that was my favorite thing and I will be writing more of my ingenious words so stay updated!!!!

Home sweet home

This is a post by Geneva!!! : Hey Peeps we just started our journey to the BAHAMAS!!!!! At home we got to see our friends and family, but most of all we went to band camp!!! I’ll get to that after I tell you about the awesome Stars party at Sulfur Springs. We got to go creek hiking and roast marshmallows over the campfire! Yum! At band camp I played the saxophone and Erin played the flute. The band directors were Mr.Luce , Mr.Chongris , …… But the best part of all we got to meet the one, the only Dr. Jon R Woods (OSU Marching band) !!!! He was a great director and I had a blast!!!! But finally it was time to say goodbye and leave for a whole new adventure. BAHAMAS!!!!

Mackinaw, back home for a few weeks

This post was by Geneva: Hey everyone!!! We have just come back from a awesome adventure with horse drawn carriages, shopping and more shopping…. My family and I had just gotten back from Mackinaw City and Mackinaw Island. In Mackinaw City they had over 200 shops in at least walking distance. One of the cool things we did in the city was getting to go in the House of Mirrors and let me tell you never ever walk in there with your hands at your side instead of in front of you. Erin and I even got to make soap; mine smells like Black Cherry, is purple and has a sea horse in it. Finally we got to the see the new GET SMART movie, it was “the bomb” ! The next day we got to go to Mackinac Island on the Shepler. The first thing we did when we got there was to rent a bike and ride all the way around the island. Not saying that it’s a huge island but, it was a long ride and traffic was terrible considering there are no motorized vehicles. We had a great lunch at Mama Mia’s pizza place. Now I wouldn’t say that Mackinac Island is the cheapest place saying that to stay in a “special” hotel a hotel room it’s 500 smackeroos. No I’m not kidding but that’s just The Grand Hotel which is huge.

This is Erin here. Not many people travel down the Michigan coast on a jetski considring the fact that the water is so very cold. Well the Water Warriors did. The Water Warriors are a group of 25 jet skis that traveled down the Michigan coast. They raised money for the Special Olympics. One lady rode in her jetski raised 50,000 $$$$. That is a lot of money for just riding on a jetski all day. It was really cool that we got to wave to the special needs kids. They had so much fun. You could tell by the smiles on there faces. I added their web site to our Blog ( http://www.waterwarriors.org/ ).

Okay, as you saw Geneva and I were in front of a HUGE wave that had splashed up on the break wall. You don't know how long we had to stand there to get a good picture of us and the wave.That day they had about 5-7 foot waves. They were not big, not huge, but
enormous.