Arrival Day - Monday, November 16

On Thursday, November 12, I boarded the white envelope, which was sealed up, and departed for Dublin, California where my Cousin Matthew, Cousin Robert, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Steve live. It was a long way - over 2100 miles. I think that I must have been an at least one airplane as I felt like I was going up and down a lot. Finally, after my envelope was sorted and placed with the other mail going to California, I was put on a mail truck and headed out for Dublin, California. On Monday, November 16, the envelope I was riding in was put in the mail box of my relatives...and I couldn't wait until the envelope would be removed from the mailbox and opened up. I couldn't wait to stretch my arms and legs!

Finally, I was out! Boy, was that sun bright...and warm! My cousin Matthew came to get me and brought me into his house. My relatives live on a little street named Millbury. It only had four houses on it. Since Matthew had just gotten home from school, he needed to have a snack (which was a bag of Cheez-its...which he shared some with me) and then he started his homework. He has to read at least 30 minutes a night. He also did his spelling. When he was done, he had to go outside and pack his hockey bag (hockey in California? yep, both cousins play hockey).

Here we are outside. Look - their trees are just turning colors...and the grass is still green. Matthew told me that in the summer time it can feel like a desert here. They don't get much rain and the temperatures are very hot (like 80-115 degrees) and all the grassy hills around them turn brown (so they call summer the brown season). In the wintertime, they get a lot of rain and the temperature are cooler (mornings can get as low as 30 degrees and the afternoons are between 45-65 degrees), so the grass starts to get green again. After Matthew packed his hockey bag, he took me out into his back yard.

It was so cool. Matthew had an orange tree (photo on the left - oranges still are green and have not ripened), a grapefruit tree (not pictured) and a lemon tree (photo on the right - lemons are ripe). California grows a lot of the fruits and vegetables that we get in the grocery stores. In the springtime, cherries, plums, peaches and nectarines ripen in the valleys. In the summer times, green vegetable and melons ripen. In the fall, apples and the citrus fruits (like the oranges and the lemons) ripen. Matthew told me that he and his family go to the farmer's market on the weekends where he gets to sample a lot of the fruits and vegetable that the farmer bring to sell. Maybe we will go to one while I am here visiting.

Yawn...well, I am getting tired, even though it is 2 hours earlier here on the West Coast. When it is 8 o'clock at night in Minnesota, it is just 6 o'clock and we are eating dinner. That is kind of funny, isn't it. Well...time for me to take a little nap while cousin Matthew goes to hockey. Good night.