Flat Niamh and Flat Clara check in from London, capital city of England and the United Kingdom

Flat Niamh and Flat Clara have happily arrived in London and are having a brilliant time! We all went to Piccadilly Circus today, and we saw the River Thames, and the Tate Modern Museum with some very weird art in it. They told me to send you a big hug and shall be returning shortly xx

Dear Flat Niamh and Flat Clara,
Please do try and go for a cream tea so that we might live vicariously through you.  


Sincerely,
Niamh and Clara xoxo






Editor's note: Piccadilly Circus is not the sort of circus featuring lions, and tigers, and dare we say clowns (ack!) but rather is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminister, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. Circus, in this context, comes from the Latin word meaning "circle", and is a round open space at a street junction.


Photo credit: Tara Sinclair

Aloha from Haiku, Maui, Hawaii!

Aloha from Maui,

We arrived safe and sound on Sunday, October 16th via the magic of the Internet. Not quite sure how that happens, but are having a great first day visiting with Uncle Gordon & Aunt Ree.  (That would be Grampa's Sister and her Husband) They are visting here and live in Ladera Ranch, California and are very nice!

Kind of busy right now having fun, but will take pictures and write more later.

Big Hugs to all you Main-Landers in the Americas.

Flat Niamh & Flat Clara

Flat Niamh and Flat Clara check in from Sonoma County, California

The Flat Branigan sisters check in from SRJC (Santa Rosa Junior College). It is sunny and warm here in Sonoma County.

Photo credit: Jacque

An update from Céire's cosmetics bag....in rainy, rainy Ireland

Well we knew it was bound to happen sometime! Read Céire's journal entry to see what they got up to! We should not be surprised that the girls are keeping themselves entertained indoors as it is raining heavily in Ireland right now and there is some flooding going on. 

The two girls were up to abit of mischief this evening. Look at what they discovered in picture 1!

 

The girls had great fun looking through Céire's makeup bag.

Flat Niamh deciding what colour blusher to wear.

 

 

Flat Clara getting her lipstick on!

Photo credits: Céire Cudden

Flat Niamh and Flat Clara have arrrived home from Seattle!

Flat Niamh and Flat Clara had a fabulous time in Seattle with Sabrina's family and her class too.  They were sent home with some nice new hats that are suitable for the cool weather in the Pacific Northwest.  Have a look!

Don't they look great? Thanks again to their hosts!

Photo credits: CTLS

Journal Entry from Seattle, Washington

It's been a great week with Clara and Niamh.  Because it's fall and the boys are in school, things are pretty busy during the week.  The girls did not do any touristy stuff but they did get to participate in our day to day routines.

They were very tired when they first arrived so one of the first things they did is lay down and listen to Cyrus read them a story.  It was a very exciting book, Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. 

Kelsey also enjoyed spending time with Clara and Niamh.  He actually invited them to play World of Warcraft, a game his mom absolutely despises.  Kelsey doesn't even let Cyrus hang out while he is playing WoW so the girls felt kinda special.

The weather here is getting chilly so after a cold morning watching Cyrus' soccer game, we went shopping and they each picked out a hat.  They can't wait to show them off when they get home.

Even our cat, Olive, had a nice time sitting in a sunny spot with them.
(Editor's note: We were unable to locate a photo of Flat Clara and Flat Niamh with Olive the cat, and therefore used one of Olive with a hippo on her back.)

Niamh and Clara will accompany me to school tomorrow to meet my third graders and then they will be on their way.  

Thanks for letting them come visit.

It looks like Flat Niamh and Flat Clara had a great time on their visit, which is hardly surprising! We will post an update soon with their new hats! 


Photo credits: The Kovacs-Storlie Family

Journal Entry from Bonny Doon, California

Well there's more to report from Bonny Doon.  Have a look at what Flat Niamh and Flat Clara have been doing during their visit with Paul and Robin.


We dug a big hole in the hill next to our house. The Flatties join Robin for a photo op.

Niamh and Clara admire Robin's woodpile.

Flat Niamh and Flat Clara took a walk out to the edge to see the ocean, now they're coming back.

We were playing tunes this morning and Flat Niamh and Flat Clara each joined us for a look-see.

We played Greek tunes.

Clara doesn't weigh so much.

Photo credits: Robin Petrie and Paul Hostetter

Updates from Buncrana, County Donegal: A Gaelic Football match and a trip to the cinema!

 Flat Niamh and Flat Clara went with Céire to support Odhran's GAA team, Buncrana, play a league match. They were great supporters and danced about after Buncrana scored a goal.  

They were impressed by Odhrán's 4 points and celebrated Odhrán's victory with the loudest cheer.

Besides all of that excitement they also got to go along to the cinema with Céire and Odhrán.  The cinema is a mere 12 miles away from Buncrana, in Derry, which is technically in a different country: Northern Ireland.  For the purposes of this blog we'll be both neutral and concise and just say that has not always been so, and that many people have varying opinions about those relatively recent changes. 

Here's a Google Earth Map Niamh drew showing the distance between the two cities (as the crow flies-Irish roads aren't generally that straight!)

Niamh and Clara had great fun at the cinema. They are now stuffed after all the popcorn they ate!

Photo Credits: Céire Cudden

Flat Niamh and Flat Clara's Journal Entry from Olympic National Park: A Really Big Cedar and the World's Largest Spruce Tree

I am pleased to share my adventures I have had with Flat Niamh and Flat Clara!

The ladies have pulled a trick on you and have done some adventuring off course. We decided to go back packing in the Olympic National Park in Washington state! 
  
We flew into Seattle, WA on Oct 4th and drove around the Olympic Peninsula on HWY 101, stopping along the way to see all the different regions in the park.We did get some exercise every day by hiking to our campsites. We ended up putting in a total of 23 miles on foot. Luckily the girls didn't get blisters like we did.

We saw different sections of the park; the forest, the coast and the rain forest. This diversity is what makes this park so special. The weather however, ended up being about the same in all the areas.

Even though it is known for a lot of rainfall, the sun managed to shine on us every day.

Here's a really big Cedar tree:

And the world's largest Spruce tree........

And now, they've all headed back to Chicago....wonder what they'll do there? 


Photo credits: Dacia Lange and Mike Calabro

Fáilte go dtí Bun Cranncha!

Fáilte go dtí Bun Cranncha! 

(that translates from Irish Gaelic as "Welcome to Buncrana!")

Down by the beach, the tide was far too in for us to take a walk along the water. We hope to go to the beach next weekend.

Map of Inishowen: Buncrana is situated on the Inishowen pennisula. It is the biggest town, with a population of  approximately 7,100. On the West of the pennisula is Lough Swilly and on the East coast, it is Lough Foyle.

The girls were busy reading the town map to locate many interesting sites.

Céire along with Flat Niamh and Flat Clara beside Castle Bridge which was the entrance to the O'Doherty Keep, home of the O'Doherty Clann. It was used as a defensive tower for the town. The girls were all wind swept, it certainly is typical Autumnal weather.

Niamh and Clara beside the plaque to commerate Wolfe Tone. During the 1798 rebellion Wolfe Tone was held in O'Doherty Keep and he was captured after the British French naval battle on Lough Swilly. He was taken to Dublin by the British government. 

Flat Niamh and Flat Clara were introduced to Odhrán's neighbours. Sheep farming is very common in Donegal due to the natural environment and poor soil which is unsuitable for tillage farming. 

Photo credits: Céire Cudden and Odhrán Doherty

More clues from the mystery location......

Hmmm.  Curiouser and curiouser.

But wait, here's something a bit more concrete:

Louisiana Children's Museum? Louisiana?

That architecture looks quite distinctive doesn't it? Could it be.....................

possibly............

the French Quarter? They must be in New Orleans!  Wow!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

On to the Rainforest-Flat Niamh and Clara's Journal Entry

Another wonderful thing about this peninsula is the rainforest. When I hear the word rainforest I think of a hot jungle. But not in this rainforest! No monkeys here! Instead it was 55 degrees and there were herds of elk and black tailed deer that come down from the high mountains in the winter to escape from the snow to eat tons of moss.

Moss was growing everywhere. Because it rains up to 18 feet a year here, everything grows like crazy. There were new trees growing on top of dead fallen trees. There is supposed to be more living things in one square foot of earth than anywhere else around. Basically it is the opposite of a desert. The trees grow extra big especially in this area because of all the water and nutrients they get from the soil.

I was ready to get rained on and had on all my rain gear to hike up to Pony Bridge along the Graves Creek but was disappointed because the sun came out.

I thought this was a Rain forest! But I guess this time of year it doesn’t rain as much. We ended up seeing the sunshine every day on our trip.



It was still really magical. Flat Clara and Flat Niamh liked it, too. Watch out for the slugs on the trail!!!