Star of the Week-Amaru

Hello, my name is Amaru, and I really enjoy going on vacations with my family.   Let me tell you about my vacation last Summer when we went to Big Trees, then California Caverns and then the beach at Point Reyes National Park.

	First, we went to Big Trees.  This is one of the biggest redwood trees I saw there.  There were many interesting trees to look at, along with many signs that talked about the history of the trees.  When I saw some of the tall trees it made me feel as small as a grain of rice!
	This was one of the trees that fell down.  Instead of taking the normal path, my sister and I went right through the log to get to the other side.  It was fun to walk along the inside of a tree!
	This is the root of a fallen tree.  It has many roots because it was very tall and needed all the roots to support its weight.  I felt dizzy looking at all the roots!
	This is me near a small river.  I liked to watch the ripples go by in the water.  My sister, my dad and I made boats out of leaves and twigs.  I think mine went the fastest!
	My mom and I climbed a tree.  This is a picture of us up in the tree near the small river.  It was high, but I wasn’t afraid.
	Then we visited California Caverns.  We had to wear helmets in order to go deep inside this cave.  It looked pretty dark down there, but I was brave enough to go down and explore.
	There were so many different types of crystalline formations!  To me, this rock and stalactite formation looked like a monster with several jaws and long sharp teeth.
	This stalactite formation looked like we were inside the mouth of another monster.  But I wasn’t scared, even when they turned the lights out to show us how dark it was!
	To me, this one looked like a long smelly elephant foot!
	And this stalactite formation looked like the tooth of a huge saber-toothed tiger.   I am so glad we got to see so many different crystalline formations in this cavern!
	This is when I was outside of the cave, and we got to pan for crystals and gems.  This an amethyst I found.   This trip was so much fun!
	On our way to the Point Reyes beach, we saw some Tule elk by the road.  They were huge and ran very fast!
	This is my sister and I playing at the beach.  We were running away from the big waves.  The water was cold but the sand was very warm.
	This is me holding up against one of the big waves that had just passed.  My face got soaked!
	Some of the waves hit the rocks and I heard a ginormous splash, crash and whoosh!  Sometimes the waves were so loud I didn’t want to get too close.
	We saw a lot of wildlife at the beach.  This is one of the jellyfish that we saw on the shore.  I sure didn’t want to touch it!
	This is another creature I saw.  It is some sort of small crab.  I liked the way it walked.  It was really fast!
	We also saw a DOLPHIN in the water!  It was exciting to watch the dolphin swim past us right along the sea shore.  I had never seen a dolphin in real life before, so I was very ecstatic.
	My dad and I found piece of tree trunk floating in the water.  We used it like an island and stood on top of it when the waves crashed.  We also build a sand fort around it.  I thought it was interesting that the tree trunk floated perfectly in the water, but was really hard to lift and move around on dry land.
	My sister and I buried ourselves in the sand and waited for a wave to come.  It was so much fun when the wave crashed right down on us!   This picture was taken right as the wave crashed.
	I had a fun time at the beach with my family. I hope you get to go to Point Reyes beach some day, too!
Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope you enjoy your family vacations as much as I do! Good bye!