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We are back in Seattle now. Nate and Noah are very happy to be home. Will put in some highlights of the end of our trip soon. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the summer. So long London!

Horseback Riding in Hyde Park

Today I went horseback riding.

It was really, really fun and really, really terrifying. The fun part was I was actually on a vehicle that could think for itself. Plus, it got to be like minecraft when you are riding a cow (because there aren't horses in minecraft). The terrifying part was I kept thinking that I might fall off because the horse was really shaky. Plus it was very uncomfortable. I had to hold on with only four fingers. The pinky held on to the saddle. The saddle itself was really uncomfortable. There was a big lump in the middle that was really hard.

I went around Hyde Park on the horse with my instructor. My horse was named Sherman. I also got to feed a carrot to a horse named Thomas.

I might want to try more horseback riding in Seattle.

Math probability

Me and my Dad made this program for math probability. For those of you who don't like math; don't worry - all you really have to do is watch.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18668734/coinflips.py

Dan says for parents: if you have a Mac, download this file and save it to your desktop. Open up the Terminal program in the Utilities folder, and type in "python Desktop/coinflips.py" and press return. This program will ask you "how many trials." This means how many times do you want to flip coins. Type a number (less than a million or it will take a really long time), and press return. It will flip four coins however many times you ask it, and then print out a table showing how many times you get each outcome. What do you think is the most likely outcome? You can do this on Windows too but there are a few more steps.


UPDATED by Dan 7/10/12: Here's a new version of the program you can run right in the blog: Just press Go! You can also change the number of coins being flipped.

How many coins?



How many trials?

Horrible Histories

Yesterday, I went to see Horrible Histories Live. At first when we came in, I wasn't sure what the show would be like. We sat for a while and then the curtains opened. I thought it was going to start. Music started to play, but nothing happened. Then I realized the show hadn't started it was just getting ready to start.

But when it did start, two people came onstage and starting talking about Britain's horrible history. They called it "Barmy Britain" (Barmy means crazy).

One of my favorite parts was when they did a disco dance as King Henry VIII. Another part I liked was when they sang about what happened to all his wives.

I learned a lot about history from watching this show, but still had fun.

Oh, I almost forgot, there are two other favorite parts I have from watching it. One is called the "Tyburn Jig." If you want to know what that is, see the attached video.



The other skit that I liked was for the "Woeful World War" (WWI). I learned from it that for every cm of land gained by the England, they lost 2 men. (This was in one particular battle called the Battle of the Somme.)

I bought some of the Horrible History books. They are really fun to read. I'll bring them back for you guys to read if you like.

Dublin

My family and I went on a trip to Dublin.

I'm going to write about the last day first because it was the most fun. I'm going to skip to when it was fun so I don't do too much and go on and on and on. To the point, we were going to a beach, but instead we ran into a carnival and went there instead. The first thing I saw were these big see-thru plastic balls that had people in them. Somebody was in it walking around on top of water. "I want to do that,"I thought to myself.

Then I saw bungee jumping. I hesitated for a moment and then I said, "I'd like to do that please." So I went on the trampoline bungee jumper. Once I started it was like I was in the Spiderman musical in New York bouncing off the walls.* When I jumped really high I could put my legs up like Spiderman and jump to the side. It was a little uncomfortable and after a while I got a little nauseous.

*(Read earlier blogpost about seeing Spiderman.)

Then I asked to get off and went into the plastic balls. At first it was really tight. Then a really loud noise of air filling it up. I had to cover my ears. It was really huge. Then, I started crawling around in it. I felt like a hamster. After a while some other kids wanted to get in one. I started playing bumper balls with them. Then finally, I actually was able to stand and I started running at them. Then my time was up and my whole family went on the bumper cars. That was really fun. My brother wanted to go on it again, but my parents said no. We went in the plastic balls again, this time with my brother. But I'm not going to write about it because I will take up too much paper. (or memory in computer sake)

The other things I did in Dublin that I enjoyed were:

The Aqua Zone at the National Aquatic Center.
Mini Golf
Brittas Beach
The Lake at Glendalough

I did not enjoy anything else.

Some highlights of the places I enjoyed: Minigolf was in an indoor rainforest themed place and I won.

It was at a mall and there were also big blow up slides and jump houses. They were really fun although my socks got very cold and wet.

We went to the beach and the lake on the same day. The beach wasn't really a favorite, but I went in the very cold water and got demolished by a huge wave.

Then we drove to a lake. I thought it was kind of boring, but there were some good photos I could get.

Then when we drove home, we went through Sally Gap. At first, the scenery was happy and pretty with a waterfall. I called it "The Land of Happiness and Life." Then the scenery changed abruptly to "The Land of Death and Destruction." For 20 miles it was just "death" (moors).

One of my favorite things we did was go to the Aqua Zone. It was an indoor waterpark place. My first favorite part was the waterslides. There was a waterslide that you took a tube on. It twisted you around, but luckily I found a way to stay forward after a while. My second favoritye thing was this thing where you were on a boogie board and you had to try to stay on it. It was called "Surf" something. I really liked it.
Other photos:
Dublinia

More great Harry Potter studio tour info

There was lots of other cool stuff we saw on the tour. I just skipped to the end because it was my favorite part. Now we'll go back.
In the big room with all the indoor sets they had Gryffindor Common Room, Harry's dorm room and Harry's cupboard under the stairs. We also got to see Dumbledore's Office, the potions room and The Burrow kitchen. There was also the Ministry of Magic including the fountain of wizards on top of muggles ("Magic is Might"). The had Umbridge's disgusting pink office. There was also a section on Special Effects.

The section with Special effects was really, really cool. You got to go on a broom in front of a green screen. It was really bouncy and they played scenes of places from the movie so it seemed like you were really flying. I got a picture of myself flying over Hogwarts.
Next we went outside and got butterbeer. It tasted like vanilla whip cream on top of cream soda. I liked it a lot.

 Outside there was also the Knight Bus, the Weasley's flying car, Sirius' motorcycle and some buildings.

I got my picture in front of Number 4 Privet Drive and the Potter's cottage in Godric's Hollow.

Then we went back inside and saw the creature shop. In the creature shop, the first thing you see is about 20 creature heads-house elves, goblins, merpeople, etc.

Then you go into a room with Buckbeat, Aragog, the basilisk and a miniature horntail dragon.

Then we arrived at Diagon Alley. the first thing I saw there was a store for cauldrons. the second thing I saw was Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. the hat lifted off the statue of one of the twin's head, but no rabbit. We asked about this and were told that the rabbit was digitally added later.

All and all I thought it was the coolest thing I ever did. I bought a Gryffindor t-shirt, The Monster Book Of Monsters and a Chocolate Frog. Then we went back outside and left Warner Brothers Studio.

The End

For All You Harry Potter Fans

The Harry Potter Adventure (written in multiple parts)
Today (6/20) I went to the Harry Potter Studio. The first thing I did was to go on a bus. I know it soundes (sounds) boring but it was rilly (really) fun!

Then wen (when) I saw the studio I knew it was going to be HUGE! 

And it was but it looks like I'm done so see you next time!

Then we went inside and had lunch. I was rilly ancshis (really anxious) to go in. I kept asking to go in. Then wen (when) we did go in thay (they) showd (showed) us a move (movie). On the skren (screen) they shode (showed) Daniul Radclif (Daniel Radcliffe), Rupert Grint and Emma Watson in front of the Grate Hall (Great Hall). Thay (they) talked for a littl (little) bit. Then thay (they) went throo (through) the doors.

Then the screen liftid (lifted) and thar (there) were the doors thea (they) just went throo(through)!

Evrebody (Everybody) got up and entrd (entered) the Grat Hall (The Great Hall). It had all the houses tables plus what robes looked like from each house.

We then got to go by ourselves into a big room with lots of sets from the movies and little knick knacks (like Salazar Slytherin's ring) and big knick knacks (The Goblet of Fire for instance).

(We did some more things which I will write about later.)

My favrite (favorite) part was the end. Thar (There) was a giant replaca (replica) of Hogwarts! It...was...
AWESOME!