Indiana Dunes and Cuyahoga Valley National Parks

Spanish First, English Translation Below:

Un semana atrás nosotros iremos a la Parque Nacional de las Dunas de Indiana.  Esto era muy divertido, pero un poco extraña porque yo no sabia que era un Parque Nacional.  Un Guardabosque era muy simpático y explicado porque era un Parque Nacional. Después de esto nosotros iremos en un 1.5 milla caminata que se llama “El Desafío de las Tres Dunas”.  Era muy difícil pero divertido. Hay magníficas vistas y era divertido cuando ir abajo. Luego de la caminata nosotros regresamos a la RV y comer la cena. Después nosotros miramos a la final pelicula de los Parques Nacionales.  Casi cuando terminamos, mi Papá me recordó que quería ver el atardecer. Rápidamente nosotros en bicicleta a la orilla del lago Michigan. Era hermosa, y puedes ver la ciudad de Chicago en la distancia! Era un gran noche para un gran orilla.

El próximo día nosotros iremos a mi Tia y Tio’s casa.  Ellos era muy fantastica! Mis primos era fantastica tambien, pero dos de la tres era en colegio!  Mi otra, Alicia, está en escuela secundaria, entonces yo puedo ver ella! Cuando estamos en ellos casa, yo pastelitos horneados!  Se llaman “Pastelitos de Tierra” y tienen chocolate y Oreos!  Esto era muy divertido y deliciosa!

Después de dos días en ellos casa, fuimos a mi la casa de la primo de mi padre.  Ellos tampoco era simpática y tienen niños mi años. Nosotros ver un juega fútbol americano que la más viejo niño (el es la escuela secundaria) era en.  Después mi hermana juegan fútbol americano en la Xbox con los otro dos niños. El próximo día fuimos a un juego de fútbol americano real. Esto era muy emocionado!  La mejor parte era cuando mi abuelo ir en la campo porque él juega para los Michigan Wolverines porque había jugado en un evento del Rose Bowl! Después de la juega mi familia y yo fuimos a la cena con mi abuelo.  Yo tener chile y era muy bien. Después hablamos con mi abuela en la telefono. Esto ser muy fantástico.

Cuando regresamos a la casa de la primo de mi padre, Sra. Hailey y yo hablar sobre un parque de atracciones que se llama “Cedar Point”.  Esto era LA MEJOR COSA DE TODAS! Yo encantan los montañas rusas y los montañas rusas en “Cedar Point” era súper rápidos y geniales! Yo puedo hablar sobre esto para muchos días, entonces yo solo voy hay decir que tu NECESITAS VER!  Después de esto condujimos a la Parque Nacional de la Valle Cuyahoga. Esto también yo no sabia que era un Parque Nacional, pero ser muy bello. Fuimos en un 4.5 milla caminata que ir a un cascada. Era muy calmante, deslizándose por el acantilado en sábanas.  Finalmente, regresamos a la RV para un cena. La cena era fantastica, y se llama “bol de arroz y frijoles con crema”. Yo menciona la receta en la versión inglesa. Para la noche miramos un película de la sufragio femenino. Luego yo leer y dormir. ¡Estamos conduciendo a las Cataratas del Niágara ahora!

English version:

About a week ago we went to Indiana Dunes National Park.  Didn’t know it was a National Park? Well, neither did I. From what we understood from a very helpful park ranger, Indiana Dunes became a National Park mainly because it needed that title to help expand it.  As soon as they changed the title, they had almost double the amount of visitors. Shows how much of an impact a title can have on a place. We only stayed there one night and did one hike. The hike we did was called the “Three Dunes Challenge.”  Essentially you had to hike up 3 massive dunes, each one getting higher and steeper than the next. Plus they had a sign at the beginning with some helpful tidbits such as “every two steps forward you will slide one step backward”. After that rigorous 1.5 mile hike, we went back to the RV, made dinner and resumed the final episode of “Ken Burns:  America’s Best Idea” about National Parks. Towards the end Dad reminded me that I had wanted to see the sunset. Quickly I urged everyone to hop on their bikes and bike to Lake Michigan’s shore. So off we went, stopping only once to watch two racoons scurry up a tree. Soon we arrived, and just in time. We silently watched as the last of the sun set over Lake Michigan, illuminating the city of Chicago in the distance.  It was breath-taking.  

The next day we went to see our Aunt Beth, Uncle Jeff and cousin Alicia (our other two cousins are in college, one of them abroad in Spain, but we did get to meet the other one, Colin, for breakfast).  It was awesome to see them and to be in a real house again. I greatly took advantage of their kitchen and baked “Dirt Cupcakes”. This is where you bake chocolate cupcakes with Oreo buttercream frosting on top and for the final touch, sprinkle crumbled up Oreos and put gummy worms sticking out of the frosting (we used sour ones).  I thought the Oreo frosting would be too salty, but turns out it was just perfect. They were DELICIOUS.

After two nights at their house we went to my Dad’s cousin Mike’s house.  Mr. Mike and Mrs. Hailey were awesome and I loved spending time there. My second cousins, Jackson (15), Reed (13) and Michael (11) were all super nice and a ton of fun (despite them being all boys).  We saw Jackson play highschool football and make an awesome punt and we (well, mainly Hazel) played Xbox football with Reed and Michael (I tried and it didn’t go too well). I love watching football, but apparently virtually playing it just wasn’t my thing.  The next day we went to Zingermans for breakfast and then drove to see Ms. Barbara! Ms. Barbara is my great-grandmother and was super awesome! I enjoyed talking to her and she was really nice. She gave Hazel and I some beautiful bracelets. She even gave us gift cards to Barnes and Noble (real books!) and candy!  It was also really great to see her friend (also named Barbara). In general it was a really delightful trip! The final full day of our stay we went to a real college football game in the Big House. This was awesome and we got to see my grandfather, Papa, go out on the field! He had played football for Michigan in the Rose Bowl!  That was SO cool! Then after the game (Michigan 52, Rutgers 0) we went with Papa to dinner. It was nice to talk to him and my dinner was great (I had chili). I also made a bunch of origami whales with the paper that held my napkin together. Then we got to talk with Nana (my grandmother) on the phone. That was really great too.

Once we got home Mrs. Hailey gave me the low down on Cedar Point, which I had recently figured out I was going to!!!!!!! (I don’t know if you know this but I am a BIG roller coaster fan).  The next day we left their house and went to Cedar Point. It was expensive, the weather wasn’t super, and there were a lot of people, but I still had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! If you haven’t gone and like roller coasters, I recommend you drop everything and go RIGHT NOW (except not on Mondays and Tuesdays because they’re closed).  I could talk about it for hours but for now I will just settle with it was TOTALLY WICKED.

After that we went to Cuyahoga National Park near Cleveland, Ohio. This was another one that I was like, wait, really? But it was really beautiful and had a bunch of historic sites. We hiked 2.25 miles to a beautiful waterfall (family, baking, football, roller coasters and now waterfalls; I’m in heaven)!  After that we hiked back and went to the RV. For dinner we had Bean and Rice bowls with avocado lime crema. I love this meal, and I don’t even like beans. Basically it’s rice, beans, grilled corn, cilantro, lime and cotija cheese (optional) and for the crema it’s avocado, sour cream, lime, cilantro and maybe a little garlic or cumin (we experiment with this recipe a lot). I highly recommend it. After that we watched another Ken Burns film on Women’s suffrage about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.  Then Mom asked us some questions on the film as part of our school assignment. It was actually a ton of fun. Then I read some and went to bed. Now we’re driving to Niagara Falls!