Team Strong

Today we were in Roatan. We went ziplining, saw wildlife, and snorkled. The ziplining was my favorite thing I’ve ever done. The people running it let me do flips and go upside down on it which was so fun.

It was so pretty there, and so green. Then we went and looked at the animals, which was so awesome. I got to hold a sloth. And a monkey.

He needs braces, don’t judge him.

This little dude fell asleep on me. I love sloths so much, holding one was a dream come true.

Then we snorkled.

The water and coral was so gorgeous! The water was the prettiest teal color and so clear, and the coral was all sorts of diverse colors. We saw tons of fish too. It was such a good day!

Today we got off the boat early in rainy Limon, Costa Rica. We found our tour guide after some time walking around the port, and we headed off to go zip-lining.

The trees in the rainforest were the brightest green I’ve ever seen, and we were so high up. The view was incredible. There was a series of 11 zip lines, and we did all of them. It was super fun. We saw wildlife as well, including sloths, monkeys, and iguanas. (Pictures soon to come). The only downside was that it was raining really hard, so it was kind of hard to see and we got soaked, but it was well worth it. I also met a dog.

After that we drove down to the river and boarded our boat for a scenic wildlife tour. We saw birds, sloths, monkeys, people, and more. It was amazing.

After seeing all the amazing animals that were so different from the ones we have back home, we headed to the beach, just before getting back on the cruise ship. Costa Rica was gorgeous. 

As we were getting back on the cruise ship, we saw some really cool cloud formations. Just thought I’d include that.

That’s all folks

This is my last post!!

 Yesterday was Bastille Day, and the Eiffel tower had a firework show. It was awesome!! Earlier in the day they had a fly over.

It was so cool!!! Also, we went out for pizza, and it was really good!!!

The firework show was beautiful!!! 

I had an awesome day yesterday.

Today we went to the Musee d’Orsay, a famous art mueseum.

And we saw paintings of cows,

Van Gogh,

And parasols!

And we ate mexican food!!

(My burrito was really good!!)

Then we went to Arc de Triumph!! We didn’t go to the top, though, the line was huge!!

And then we got crepes!!!

I am so sad to be leaving Paris, but this trip was awesome!!! I can’t wait for next year, and I had a great time!!!

-Violet Strong 

This is the palace of Versailles. It was so amazing there today!! The palace itself is gorgeous, and the gardens are so beautiful!!!! We took a lot of pictures, and our guide, Marie-Claire, was awesome!! We had a great day!!

The sky was blue while we were at the gardens. It just made everything 2x as pretty, although the grounds are so beautiful, it’s hard to imagine!!

The palace was amazing, and definitely fit for a king. The last three King Louises lived here in Versailles, and the palace had to be magnificent for them, as you can imagine! 

This golden clock was made for the king in the 17th century, under the rule of King Louie the 14th. Louie the 14th had a bit of an ego… So he asked the mechanic to make himself pop out on a cloud and ding a bell after every hour. As I said, he had a bit of an ego.

Also, the king made everyone watch him eat at the public eating ceremonies. It was considered an honor to be invited to watch the king eat. Pretty strange, huh!!

We also saw the hall of mirrors!! The hall contains over 460 mirrors!! For each window, there are 21 mirrors. (They didn’t know how to make larger ones.) It was awesome!

We had a great day in Versailles, and I can’t wait for tomorrow!!!

Bye for now,

Violet Strong

Today we just hung out and did a river cruise in Paris. Not much. But it was really fun and cool and we learned a lot today.

This picture we took from off our boat today. This is an old church. Our guide said it is the prettiest church in Paris.

Notre Dame!!! Yay! Notre Dame is the Paris cathedral. It’s really beautiful!

And this restauraunt is what the Disney movie Ratatouille was based off! The real restaurant is like 500 years old!!

And last we got to see the Eiffel Tower again. It was an awesome day, and I can’t wait for tomorrow!!!

Bye for now,

Violet Strong

 Welcome to Amsterdam! Here we have canals, bikes and cake!! 

Haha. We did see all of those things after we got off the 3 hour train ride from Paris to here. Once we got here, we went to our hotel and checked in. Our hotel is BEAUTIFUL! Our room wasn’t ready, but we dropped off our bags and went to find our tour guide, Rob. He was awesome! He took us around the city and we saw a lot.

The are 88 canals in Amsterdam, and all of them are beautiful. Also, 20,000 bikes fall into the canal per year! and only about 3 cars fall in a year. Pretty impressive, considering there are barely any fences. 

We saw an awesome garden that you have to be a girl to live in any of the surrounding houses.  

And we also saw Duck Trump! 

And Duck Vader! There was a rubber ducky store we passed as we were walking by, they had pretty much anything you could think of in duck form.

Like I said, EVERYTHING.

More canals,

And beautiful churches. Amsterdam is gorgeous. Then we ate cake. The cake was chocolate and was amazingly amazing.

After that, it was time to go home. We took a cab home and then napped. Then me and my dad went to find dinner. We tracked down a grocery store and a small pizzaria. The pizza was sooo good! The we went to bed.

I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Bye for now,

Violet Strong

Yesterday we got on the plane to Paris, France. It was a 7 1/2 hour flight. The plane flew over night, and we got to Paris at around 7am. We made our way to our apartment, and it is so beautiful! It is very modern and our host had left us a bagette and some fresh croissants. It was perfect! Although, we were all super tired so we just went to bed. We woke up at like 5pm and we were all super hungry. We decided to leave the apartment to track down some food, but our apartment complex is super confusing, so it was pretty hard! We eventually found a mall that was really close to our apartment and it had restaurants and a big grocery store inside. We got some bread and cheese, and a few other essentials. We made some dinner back at the apartment, and then we went to find dessert. We went back to the mall, hoping to get ice cream, but it was closed for the night. We found a frozen yogurt store and got some. It was so good!!! There was live music, food trucks, and giant chess! We came home, and we are now going to bed. Tomorrow, we go to the Louvre, a big art museum, and to the top of the Eiffel tower! I can’t wait!! Bye for now,

Violet Strong

Today, I did another three hour drive to get from my house in Tuscany to my apartment in Rome.  It was really long, but we stopped halfway to go to this little town that was awesome, where we had great pizza at a little restaurant.  It was really good. I had pasta and some of my Dad’s pizza.  We had to take a funicular up to the town.  The town’s name is Orvieto.

Then, we took the funicular back down and got back in the car for another hour.  I was meditating in the car, and Mom took a picture!  

It was funny. After that, we finally got to our apartment building.  The apartment is really big and has an awesome terrace.  We are on the top floor.  I had a lot of fun.  We ate a few biscuits and then after that, we walked around Rome at night.  But, it was super crowded. 

There were too many vendors selling things, such as selfie sticks.  Annyoing! So, we went to another awesome restaurant back in our neighborhood, Borghese.  I had strawberries and fresh whipped cream for dessert.  When you ate them together, it was so good. 

Then, when we came back.  I went to bed in my super duper comfy bed.  It was really nice.  Thank you for reding my post.  Tomorrow I’m going to the Rome Zoo! 

Today, I went to a museum to see the most awesome statue in the world, David. It was really cool. He had so much detail, it was incredible. Then, we looked around and saw some other statues. Then, we left and went to this cafe after walking around this old church.

It was really cool.  Then we went and got gelato. After that, we went to another art museum, but this one had more paintings. We saw the Birth of Venus and Spring by Botticceli.

After that, we looked around at some other paintngs.  Then, we went back to the little town we have our house in.  We went to the store and bought more bread and cheese. I also played with  my favorite pup, Boo.

He is chewing on some straw, formally known as a stick, but this is all that’s left of it. I’m going to play with him again tomorrow. I can’t wait.  I might also go swimming and the pool water is really cold.  It’s freezing so I’m a little nervous to swim tomorrow.  Thanks for reading my blog.  I’ll write another post tomorrow.

Ok, so I have had so much fun on this trip, and I’m still having fun, and I’m only halfway done.  Yesterday was so fun.  I didn’t do a post because I was so busy.  My birthday was amazing.  I couldn’t believe how fun the waterslides were. 

That’s on the cruise ship! I also went out to dinner at a French restaurant and had cake and chocolate fondue. Now about today. Today, I started by going to Pompeii, which was fun.  I learned a lot! We had a guide named Charlotte, who was an archaelogos, and she showed us awesome mosaics, the Roman baths, and the public toilets (yuck).

After that, we were walking down the main street to get to the ancient market and this little puppy walked over and started licking my feet! Then I started petting him and he got all happy!

Then we went to this ancient bakery, and you won't believe this! When the archaelogist who dug this up looked inside the oven, there was a stone covering the front opening, he pulled away the stone and….he found 81 loaves of bread that had been perfectly preserved because air couldn’t get past that stone!

After Pompeii, we drove to Sorrento. The water, you could see the bottom even in the deepest parts.

PARADISE!!!!

After that, we drove to the Amalfi Coast and the town of Positano.  We went to this amazing restaurant for the best lunch.  We had three courses, first mozzarella, eggplant parmesan, olives, broccoli, bruschetta, bread, and zuchinni.  After that, we had pasta - ravioli, gnocchi, and a zuchinni pasta dish.  After that, we had dessert! We had cherries and chocolate creme cake.  Every single thing there was homemade.  And the view was spectacular.  They had chickens that laid eggs and gardens for the kitchen.

After that, we saw this cute little green lizard.

CUTE!!!!!!!

Then, we went down to the town of Positano, went to the beach, which wasn’t that great, and then we drove back to the ship.  Now, I am going to go eat dinner and then I am going to exchange my arcade tickets for a prize.  Tomorrow, I am going to our house in Tuscany.  Thank you for reading this blog!  Bye!!!

Today, I had so much fun doing all of this stuff. I’m really really happy I got to find a few more pieces of seaglass. I’m really excited for tomorrow because we have an all day tour of Barcelona. Mallorca was very fun today, even though we didn’t have a long day.

The ice cream I got in Soller was the best I’ve ever had.  

I loved it! We also road an awesome hour long train through the mountains.

I can’t believe it was still running! Next, we got on a trolley which took us to the shore, where I found my sea glass, my shells, and my super super smooth stones.

This was the view from the trolley.  We found this little park and I got to swing and play on it for a while.  Here are a few pictures of me on it.

After that, we went back the same way the tain went, except in a car. Yeah, that was really fun. Next, we went home to the boat. That was cool because there was a lot to see on the drive. When we got back on the boat, I drew.  And then, I went to Kids’Club.  Now I am getting ready for bed.  Goodnight everyone!

Ok, this is my post.  That is a picture of me eating gelato!  YUM! I had so much fun today in the five villages, Cinque Terre, I saw a bunch of old, cool buildings.  

After the first village, we went on the train to the fourth village, and that picture of Gelato is from the third village, Carneligia.  I had so much fun today.  We drove through Tuscany.  After that, we went to the leaning tower of Pisa.

The Epic is one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, I’m having so much fun on it.  There is the most awesome Kids’ Club, which I am going to go to in a few minutes (after I go to the buffet).  I can’t wait.  Posting has been really fun for me.  Thank you for leaving comments.  I’m very excited to write again tomorrow.

Kamryn and Ben, thank you for your comments!  I loved reading them! 😄

(Say hi to Nico for me!)