Recent Recommendations (Books)

Carretara - Julio Iglesias

This song gives me the chills. It brings to me a flashback of when I was peering up at the stars on the way home from Costa Rica, the mountains seeming to run away from me. And the ride home from Niagara, among other trips.

Great song for those with a traveling heart.

So I'm in the Lobby...

This lobby is magnificent. The roar of the falls echo through the doorway and a staircase resembling that of Titanic winds its way beside me.

Wifi is free only in the lobby so I've decided to take this time to post pictures. 

It's been an amazing trip so far, filled with wonder and awe.

Day 1, we visited the falls. We didn't take the helicopter ride, but other than that we had the honor to view her majesty from every angle.


Behind, below, in front, above.


We rode the Maid of the Mist III. 


Snuggled in my poncho, I held firmly onto the hood and peered out into the mists. The camera was in my right hand, I felt like a ship captain bracing myself against the currents as I lifted my lens and snapped.

Two ponchos did not feel like enough. The mist was thick and blanketed your lungs, making my eyes shine and my teeth clench.


Or perhaps my breath was just taken away, I don't know.


I remember clearly though, that moment of pure awe as I viewed up close the seventh wonder of the world.


Niagara Falls.


I snapped as many photographs as I could of her, that cascading water that felt as if she could crush us all whenever she pleased.


I almost felt honored to approach it.

After the Maiden docked, we headed up the steps, wet but silent in our moments after seeing it. My family was just quiet, as if the wonder of it just struck us.


Well, except my grandfather. He can't stop his adorable chattering for hell itself.


We got some frozen yogurt at a stand nearby.

We then decided to head to another attraction, to relish in Niagara's magnificence from behind.


We walked through these dimly lit tunnels, stopping at openings to view the falls in a most unorthodox way.


The water sprayed into the tunnel from the viewpoints, and I struggled to take video and snap photos, if any at all.


And then turning, we noticed people walking up from these steps, soaked and shocked, and shivering.


Beautiful.


I wanted to experience that perspective, too.


So we headed down these slippery, algae covered steps onto a balcony, and the camera and I persevered and managed to snap this photo:

You could feel the weight and power of the water crashing beside you, the sound was deafening.

The camera was soaked...

...as was I.

And then as I was taking in the awe, my family pulled me to another attraction.

The 4D experience, the story of how Niagara was created.

I must admit, it was lame at first.

There was this 3D character, some sort of sabre-toothed beaver and a white, wise owl that was obviously made to appeal to the younger members of the audience.

But then these doors opened in front of us, and we were all urged into this room where we had to grab tightly onto the railings and brace our feet onto the floor.

The doors closed behind us, and this screen lit up.

Snow began to fall on us, and before I knew it I was shivering in a virtual blizzard.

And then the floor shook, and glaciers were falling and the ocean was falling on us.

And then lightning flashed and the floor shook more with every crash and flash of electricity, and rain poured on all of us.

And then we were under the falls as the story unfolded in a very creative way.

I was very impressed.

It helped me to realize the wonder of how Niagara came to existence.

Shivering and wet, we left the room and proceeded to a candy store called Pop and Lolly's. It was very hip, pink, and smelled yummy.

We bought some macaroons and candy sushi and munched on those for a good few minutes.

Toffee and coconut flavored.

Very yummy!

And then, we had to see one more thing:

Niagara Falls Whitewater Rapids.

We went down this elevator and met George, the world's coolest elevator operator.

"Thirty years operating this old beat-up antique of an elevator and the most I've seen of this place is the boardwalk." George said, a smile stretched across his face. "You guys know the rules: no deer or moose huntin', and no swimming! It's a bad idea!"

We all laughed as the door opened, and we proceeded down another dimly lit, wet tunnel heading towards the rapids.

The boardwalk was lush and calm...

...contrasting to the raging rapids below.

A 16-year old girl had died here last year, so when I slipped on the boardwalk, my mother freaked out as if I had just plunged to my sudden, untimely death.

Is death ever timely?

--------------------------

Sorry if this is a rushed post. We're working on a tight time frame here trying to follow this ridiculous itinerary.

We saw the Bird Kingdom today, the world's largest indoor aviary.

I was very impressed, I'm happy to say, and although the facility wasn't very organized, nor clean, it was impressive.

There were a variety of species there, my two favorites being the Victoria crowned pigeon and the silver-cheeked hornbill:

Surprisingly large for a pigeon, this species takes your breath
away at first sight. However, the individual I met
wanted nothing to do with me.

Despite the fact no one else paid mind to the silver-cheeked hornbill,
I was so enthralled by his inquisitive gaze and large size.
To me, he seemed more awe-inspiring than even the crowned pigeon.

After the "Lorikeet Landing" cage and the rest of the walk, we finished our tour of the facility in the gift shop. There, I purchased a around five post cards, one of them having the hornbill on it, while my sister got a bracelet.

We also headed into a souvenir shop afterwards and I got, for Vinnie, a miniature canoe with a loon on it (on his visit to Canada for boy scouts, he remarked on the loon's beautiful call, so I thought it fitting to give him something with a loon on it) and a desk top accessory with a wood duck on it for Mr. Smith, the world's coolest social studies teacher.

And then there was the IMAX theatre.

The very large movie on the very large screen told us the remarkable legend of Lelewala, or The Maiden of the Mist.

A young girl is forced to marry the man she doesn't love, so to not shame her tribe and her family, she leaves the village on her canoe. Little does she know she is heading towards the falls, and she plummets into the water below.

As the legend goes, the thunder beings that lived in Niagara carried her to safety in their arms, and she became one with them.

Then the movie proceeded to tell us the story of the dare-devils who went over the falls, and the unfortunate who accidentally met the same fate.

------------------------

After all of these things, the amazement, the adventure, we headed to a quiet little rich town known as Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The lake resembled more an ocean than a lake.

A breathtaking floral haven with shops already prepared for the Christmas season. stores already stocked with warm pumpkin coffees and frosted donuts, and old-fashioned European hats awaited us.

We visited a variety of stores there, and surprisingly not everything was ridiculously priced.

If I am ever blessed with wealth one day, there will be my future home.

I could scarce take in the beauty of the town, the warm feelings I got inside as I walked down the cobble walks and the lanes of bricks, lined with benches seemingly overgrown with flowers as butterflies and the smell of Starbucks drifted through the air.

And then there was the skunk.

It was definitely a memorable moment of my life, my sister and I watching a small, pampered Yorkie drift from its owner to bark at some flowers.

Dogs don't bark at flowers.

And then, at its owners call, he left the plants, which were rustling and tipping and trembling in a way that even disconcerted me, a girl used to venturing through the woods and running through the trees.

I walked up to the mass of flowers and shrubs and saw a little round, white fluffy animal rolled up in there.

At least, it seemed round, the manner in which it stood. But the long, silky white and black hairs were unmistakable.

(Not my photo)

My sister exclaimed "It's a baby panda!"

I could not believe my ears. "No, Sophia, it's a skunk." I was relatively calm at that moment, but I knew by his calm stature he wasn't exactly about to spray us.

Suddenly, when my dad walked up, the skunk backed away and then leaned its tail up against the wall, displaying his striking coloration, and now it was time for us to back away as well.

A cornered skunk can turn around and spray anytime he pleases.

Then it ran off and headed to the public restroom where it made a group of girls scream, and nearly spill there coffee as they laughed and remarked on how cute it was.

I was laughing pretty good.

The next day was a day of magic shows and lame Canadian fireworks. (sorry Canada, but they just are much better in the states)

I'm Ecstatic!

I've just been told by my 10th grade English teacher (Mrs. D'Alessio) that I received the highest score on the English portion of the HSPA of my entire grade!

That's going to look wonderful on my college application.

"Dark" Supermoon Tonight!

Tomorrow night  Tonight the new moon will make a close approach to Earth, giving rise to the second supermoon of the year—but this one will have the power of invisibility.

Because the moon's orbit is egg shaped, there are times in the roughly monthlong lunar cycle when the moon is at perigee—its closest distance to Earth—or at apogee, its farthest distance from Earth.

"A supermoon occurs when the moon is at perigee and it's in either a full or new phase," said Raminder Singh Samra, an astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

In March sky-watchers were treated to a full moon at perigee, which made for the biggest full moon seen in 18 years.

(See "Supermoon Pictures: Best Shots of Biggest Full Moon.")

A new moon happens when the lunar orb positions itself between Earth and the sun, so that the side of the moon that faces Earth is unlighted.

"The upcoming moon on September 27, 2011, is set to be at perigee and at the new phase," Samra said, "so we won't be able to witness the event, as the moon and sun will be in the same region of the sky" and the lunar disk will be entirely dark.

Supermoon to Affect Earth's Tides?

Because the size of the moon's orbit also varies slightly, each perigee is not always the same distance from Earth.

When at perigee, the moon is about 18,640 miles (30,000 kilometers) closer to Earth than its average distance of roughly 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers). When perigee occurs during a full moon, the lunar disk can appear about 14 percent bigger in the sky, Samra said.

Tuesday's dark supermoon will be just 222,175 miles (357,557 kilometers) away from Earth.

Some people have speculated that this lunar proximity can have unusual gravitational effects on Earth, triggering dramatic events such as earthquakes. (Take a moon myths and mysteries quiz.)

But the truth is that there's only a very small correlation between full or new moons and seismic stresses, said Jim Todd, planetarium manager at theOregon Museum of Science and Industry.

"Stronger tidal forces caused by the alignment of the sun and moon may put added stress on tectonic plates," Todd said.

"However, seismologists have found no evidence connecting lunar perigees to heightened seismic activity. Instead the Earth constantly stores up energy and releases it any time the built-up energy becomes too great."

Lunar close encounters are well known to cause slightly higher ocean tides, so any localized flooding during a supermoon would be most noticeable around beaches and other low-lying areas.

(Related: "Hurricane Irene 'Looking Bad' for U.S.—Moon May Make It Worse.")

But linking the supermoon to effects beyond that is far-fetched, the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre's Samra said.

"While the supermoon is thought to provoke various natural disasters on the Earth," he said, "such claims are exaggerations, as there is simply no scientific evidence for them."

                                                         © 1996-2011 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Things of Fortune

Either I am cursed with bad luck, I've lost God's favor, or I'm having a daily lapse in common sense.

I was so into Sea that I lost my gym class and ended up getting locked out of the school.

A story about a young girl dealing with her own traumas,
helping tsunami victims in Indonesia.
Comes with romance :)

...only me.

This book has gotten me in a bit of trouble.

And then, as I read at the desk at the library, I was so caught up in the story that I hadn't noticed two people were waiting in line for me.

...again...only me.

Thank goodness Dave is here working this period with me, or else I'd be twice as tensed right now.

I'm embarrassed as it is.


Anyway, on Wednesday I am leaving immediately after school for Canada.


A trip to Niagara falls sounds wonderful right about now. 


And it's a good four days, too. Plenty of time to take photographs to post here, and plenty of time to soak in the sights.


Best part is, I only learned of this trip a week ago. Somewhat of a surprise I suppose.


I will be posting many photos for you guys, need not worry. Knowing myself, I'm pumped for a taste of adventure, even if it's just a 9-hour drive up north.


Plenty of M&M's for the trip.


-Ashley Marie

Action Alert: Lear's Macaw

Prevent the Extinction of the Lear’s Macaw - Global Action Atlas - Explore Projects Around the World: