Luke's Flat Stanley in Arizona!

Flat Stanley went to Arizona and had a great time with the Gonzales family!  He arrived in Apache Junction in January and has been having some fabulous adventures.  Apache Junction is best known for the legend of the Lost Dutchman and his gold mine in the Superstition Mountain.

 

This is Superstition Mountain, the place of the legend of the Lost Dutchman!

Prospector Jacob Waltz, the "Lost Dutchman", is said to have found a rich deposit of gold in the Superstition Mountain in Apache Junction, Arizona.  The location and Jacob were lost and neither have been found since.  Every year many treasure hunters search the mountain, but no one has found it in over one hundred years.  WOW! 

Arizona became the 48th state of the United States on February 14, 1912. Yes!  Right on Valentine's Day!  Phoenix is the state capitol. FUN FACT: Did you know Arizona is the 6th largest state in the U.S.?  Every year thousands of people visit the Grand Canyon.  

Other places in Arizona are Sedona, known for its Red Rocks; Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation for its Plateaus, and many other locations.  FUN FACT:Did you know the London Bridge is in Arizona?  It crosses the Colorado River at Lake Havasu.

While I was visiting the Gonzales', we went to the 52nd annual Lost Dutchman Days.  About 8,000 people attended the parade.  After the 2 hour parade, we went to the carnival and rodeo!  They had real cowboys and girls, bull riding, music and dancing.  They did that every night for 4 days!  You can also adopt a horse or burro there!  Luke's Grandaunt Marie and I rode a very large rocking horse.  

 

Luke's Great Nana holding Flat Stanley.  They are having breakfast before the parade!

Luke's Great Nana with Flat Stanley and Great Uncle Brad at the Lost Dutchman Days parade!

We also stopped to see the fish in the big red tool box aquarium at Frontier Ace Hardware and meet Luke's second cousin, Matt.  He runs the store!

Luke's second cousin Matt Boswell, General Manager of Frontier Ace Hardware.  Here he is in front of all the Craftsman tools aquarium with Flat Stanley.

At the Gonzales' house, they have 7 chickens, a dog, a cat and two desert tortoises.  They also leave food and water out for the birds and rabbits that visit.  We also saw a Javelina one night!  

Now, Flat Stanley is on his way to California!  Many thanks to the Gonzales family!

Griffin's Flat Stanley in Massachusetts and Florida!

Griffin's Flat Stanley has been enjoying himself with Griffin's grandparents!  First they went to see where the Patriot's Football team play: At Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts!

            Then, they went to Logan airport in Boston!

 They had a fabulous time on the airplane and landed safely in Florida!  They continued their fun vacation at the Jet Blue Park in Ft. Myers.  Look who Flat Stanley got to meet!! It's WALLY THE GREEN MONSTER!  Yay Flat Stanley!

 

They also took a sightseeing cruise in Punta Gorda, Florida.  Flat Stanley had a great time with Griffin's grandparents!

Hanna's Flat Stanley travels to the OTHER Portland!

Hanna's Flat Stanley has been having such a great time with Else Sheeran in Canada!  They are very adventurous and decided to take a day trip to Portland, Oregon.  They went to the Columbia River Gorge and checked out Multnomah Falls and Latorell Falls.  Look at the beautiful pictures below!

 Here is some information about these fantastic waterfalls!   
 http://www.columbiarivergorge.info/waterfalls.html

Flat Stanley is on his way to Europe!  Many thanks to Else!

Kayden's Flat Stanley is in Guam!

Flat Stanley is having a great time with Kayden's family friend, Vance Eflin, on the American island of Guam, which is located in Micronesia in the Western pacific near Japan.

 Guam is a very small island that is located far, far away from the USA. We are so far away that when it is Saturday in Maine it is actually Sunday here on Guam! The people of Guam are very nice and friendly and are mostly Chamorro people. Chamorros are much like American Indians as the Chamorro people lived on Guam for thousands of years before being discovered by European explorers. Chamorro people love to have large fiesta parties with many foods from the ocean. Flat Stanley loved going to those parties!

They like rice and fish, octopus and crabs, and shrimp cooked in coconut milk.

On Guam it is summertime all year long and it never gets cold. Flat Stanley enjoyed scuba diving and jungle hiking with Vance, and also a little relaxing on the beach! Guam has beautiful white sand beaches, lush green jungles and beautiful blue ocean waters. The ocean is full of extremely colorful tropical fish and there are also have sea turtles and many, many sharks. When Kayden's friend Vance was younger he often used a spear to catch his dinner. He grows bananas, limes, oranges and guava at his home!

Although year-round summer, Guam has two seasons, rainy and dry. For six months they have heavy rain with many storms and sometimes typhoons. In the dry season they have sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine! Many of the people of Guam have brown skin from being outside in the sun. They are now in the dry season and the rainy season will start in July.  Flat Stanley had fun in the sun!

Being a small island, Guam does not have many animals living in the jungles. They do have Philippine deer, wild pigs, big coconut crabs and giant lizards. They used to have birds on Guam but sadly snakes accidentally came to Guam and ate all of the birds. Vance does have one bird friend who comes to live in his yard every winter. The bird is from Alaska where it gets very cold in winter so the bird flies all the way to Guam (1,000s of miles) where he stays warm with Vance. When springtime comes he will fly back home to Alaska, an amazing journey for a small bird.

Vance certainly enjoyed meeting your friend Flat Stanley. They drove around Guam together and he showed Flat Stanley some of Guam’s pretty sights. They even went to the beach together one day. Flat Stanley enjoyed Guam very much and he hopes that  someday we can join Flat Stanley and come and visit Guam. I think you would be amazed at how beautifully blue the ocean is out here in Micronesia. Flat Stanley even got to meet some Japanese tourists who were visiting Guam. Guam gets more than 1.3 million tourists visiting every year. Most tourists are from Japan but we also get tourists from Korea, China and even Russia!

 Flat Stanley is on his way to Japan where he will visit a Japanese friend of Vance's in Tokyo.  Flat Stanley will then travel from Japan to Seoul Korea where he will meet friends in Korea. Sounds like fun!  

Many thanks to Kayden's friend Vance for such great information!

Will's Flat Stanley is in Spain!

Will's Flat Stanley visited the city of Toledo, Spain!  Toledo is the city of 3 cultures. Flat Stanley visited a mosque built in the year 999.  WOW!  He also went to a temple and a beautiful cathedral.  He walked up 60 flights of stairs in this hilly town outside of Madrid.  He got some great fitness!

 

Hanna's Flat Stanley in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada!

Hello Hanna, Mrs Sturgis and all of the second grade students!

Flat Stanley has arrived in Victoria, British Columbia on Canada's west coast and we spent the day showing him the downtown area. 

Flat Stanley at the inner harbour. He enjoyed seeing the boats and thought it looked a little like Maine!

Flat Stanley in front of our parliament buildings on Government Street.

 Flat Stanley loved the beautiful flowers of every different color!

 

The city of Victoria is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island just north of Washington State (in fact we can easily see the Olympic Mountain range on a clear sunny day). Victoria is a great place to live. Our city has yummy places to eat, lots of festivals and markets (especially in the summer) and so many wonderful beaches, lakes and parks to enjoy. Click the link below to see a little bit more about Victoria! 

 

                  http://www.tourismvictoria.com/

This weekend myself, my husband and our son Ashton are taking a little road trip to Portland, Oregon so we will bring Flat Stanley along as it we know he loves to travel!

More updates coming soon 

Rebekah's Flat Stanley Enjoying Alabama and Florida!

Rebekah's Flat Stanley has been visiting with Eric, Naomi, Tyler and Matthew in the beautiful state of Alabama! He even went to Florida for spring break! Alabama is a great place to live and it is even close enough to drive to the Florida beaches.

Flat Stanley enjoyed the beautiful beach in Florida!  He sent us some shells that look just like the shell on this postcard!

Flat Stanley loved this pretty beach and wore lots of sunscreen!

Flat Stanley had fun at Auburn University!

He even got to go to an Auburn vs. Florida softball game!

Stanley had such a fun time!

Stanley especially enjoyed taking a short road trip to Birmingham, to visit the largest state park in Alabama, Oak Mountain State Park.  It was a beautiful day for a hike.

While Stanley was in Birmingham, he got to go to a Harlem Globetrotters game!

 

Will's Flat Stanley in Arizona!

Greetings from Will's Flat Stanley! After a fun trip from California, Stanley stopped in Arizona on his way to Europe! He enjoyed these spicy peppers!

 

James' Flat Stanley in Lubbock, Texas!

Hello from Lubbock, Texas. I am James Johnson’s great aunt, Quita Melcher, and I work at Texas Tech University. His grandfather graduated from TTU. Below is the seal at the entrance.

Texas Tech is a public research university. We gained recognition as a Tier I research university with 40,000 enrolled in 2015. Texas Tech was originally known as Texas Technological College, founded February 10, 1923.At Memorial Circle, on the campus, is a statue of Will Rogers on his horse Soapsuds. This statue is wrapped in red crepe paper prior to each football game. The inscription reads:

“Lovable Old Will Rogers on his favorite horse, Soapsuds, riding into the Western sunset”

The Masked Rider is the oldest and most popular mascot of Texas Tech University that still exists today. Originally the Masked Rider started as a dare in 1936 and was then called the ghost rider, because no one knew the rider's identity. These ghost riders circled the field at home football games and then disappeared.The Masked Rider did not become an official mascot until 1954, when Joe Kirk Fulton led the team out onto the field at the Gator Bowl. Fulton, wearing Levi's, red shirt, a black cape and mounted on a black horse awed the crowd as the team made one of the most sensational entrances ever.Today the Masked Rider, with his or her “guns up”, leads the team out onto the field for all of the home games. The Masked Rider is one of the most visible figures at Tech.

Another Texas Tech mascot is Raider Red. Raider Red attends events where the Masked Rider is not allowed or would not be appropriate.

Also at TTU, is the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. HSC began in 1969 as Texas Tech University School of Medicine. Today it is a seven-school university located in Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas/Ft. Worth, El Paso, Lubbock, Midland and Odessa.

Alex's Flat Stanley Visits Cape Cod!

           Flat Stanley visited Alex's Nana on Cape Cod! He had a great time!

 

He saw the train bridge that goes over the Cape Cod Canal.

He also went to Hyannis to the Steamship Authority.  That is where you can catch a ferry to Nantucket.

         Next stop: Nantucket to visit Alex's Uncle Peter!! Have a great trip, Stanley!

Hanna's Flat Stanley Visits Nova Scotia, Canada!

The Hill Family from Enfield, Nova Scotia Canada visited with Flat Stanley!  He met Melissa (Mom), Leslie (6), and Lachlan (4). They enjoyed having Hanna’s Flat Stanley and showing him around. He went to Halifax, which is the capital city of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is on the east coast of Canada. You can read more about Nova Scotia here!           http://www.novascotia.com 

Flat Stanley went across the Halifax Harbour on the MacDonald Bridge (Pictured below) and took a trip to the top of Citadel Hill. The Citadel is a Fortress from the war and info on it can be found here….  http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/halifax/index.aspx  

 

 

He also stopped and had his picture taken with a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Info on them can be found here… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mounted_Police 

 

 Thank you Hanna for letting him come stay with us. He will be off to our friends in Vancouver, British Columbia on the west coast tomorrow! Hope he has fun there!

-The Hill Family