My time with the Radican Family-Part 1

Greetings Troop 2532!

I have landed in Washington, DC with a wonderful family called the Radicans. My new mom and dad are Steve and Casey. Casey was a former girl scout, whom has both her silver and gold awards! It’s fun to be with a family that knows how important girl scouting is! Here is a picture of them.

Casey works at a local research firm in Washington, DC and Steve is an airline pilot for United Airlines-he flies the big planes and goes over to Europe almost every week! I learned a lot while I was with them, and want to share some of my stories.

My first adventure with Steve and Casey was when I got to go along with them as they traveled to Lake Tahoe to visit some dear friends. I was so excited as I got to fly on one of Mr. Steve's planes and see the west coast of the United States.  Did you know Lake Tahoe is right on the border of Nevada and California? Here I am flying over Nevada in my very own window seat!

I got to look out the window as we fly by--look how high we are!! Steve said we were about 30,000 ft in the air!

Once we arrived in Lake Tahoe, it couldnt belive how beautiful it was. We were staying with Casey and Steve's friends named Mr. and Mrs. Bruce James. They were very nice. Their home is near Crystal Bay, Nevada and check out the view from their house! Mr. James was the former Public Printer of the United States, meaning he was in charge of all of the printing that the Federal Government does including the Bills from Congress! It was neat to talk to him and learn more about how I was printed:) He even gave me a Girl Scout Technology Event Badge. At The US Government Printing Office (GPO) where he used to work, they would host Girl Scout Technology Days where about 300+ girl scouts could spend a day at the GPO and earn their printing badge and learn about all the cool printing processes. It was really neat to hear all of his stories.

Here is another picture from when we got to go out on the boat in the middle of the lake! Did you know Lake Tahoe is almost 2,000 ft deep!!! I was glad I had a life jacket on. I did get to do a little swimming, but the water was really cold!

While I was staying with Mr. James, he had another family staying with us. They brought their kids along and I got to meet antoher girl scout! Her name is Eva, and we quickly made friends. She was so much fun to hang out with. She took good care of me and showed me around. Her brother Hondo, was also very nice.

(Hondo, me and Eva)

I had a great time in Lake Tahoe, but we were only there for the weekend. Soon we had to leave and head back to Washington, DC. We flew through San Fransisco, CA and Denver, CO too but I didn't get a chance to take a picture-I had to make sure I was keeping up with Casey and Steve and we caught our next flight!

The following week, I got to go on my second big adventure with Steve and Casey. Luckily I had arrived as they were getting ready to head on vacation to Iceland! I didn't even know where Iceland was, but Casey was nice enough to show me on a map. Do you know where Iceland is?

To get ready for my big trip, I had to get a US Passport as I would be leaving the United States! Casey and Steve helped me get one.

Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, almost closer to Greenland than Europe. It is an amazing country with wonderful people and beautiful sights! We got to stay with some friends of Casey and Steve named Sveinbjorn and Margret. Sveinbjorn has lived in Iceland his whole life, but travels all over the world often. Margret is originally from Poland.

While we were in Iceland, we got to see so many cool things! I will show you some of them below:

This is downtown Reykjavik, Iceland.

This is some of the scenery outside the city of Reykjavik. Iceland has beautiful mountains, volcanoes and valleys, and also hot springs (which is what are causing the white clouds in this picture).

A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth. You may see hot springs like these in Yellowstone National Park, back in the United States.

Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions on Earth. Recently, in the past two years, one of their volcanoes blew, you may have seen it on the news.

Because of this volcanic activity Icelandic landscape is breathtaking. There are also many glaciers on Iceland (some of the largest in the world) and so there are many beautiful lakes and waterfalls across the landscape as well.

This is one of the many volcanic mountains in Iceland.

Here I am standing in one of the old lava flow areas.

We also got to see a Geyser in action! Check it out! It's ready to blow! The video doesn't show it well, but the water goes up to almost 25 feet in the air! And its hot water!

I had such a great time in Iceland. I learned how to say a few things in Icelandic too. Let me teach you:

Hello or Hi: Hae (pronounced Hi)

Thank you: Takk

No Thank you: Nei Takk

Yes: Ja (pronounced Yeow)

Goodbye: Bless Bless

I hope you liked my pictures from Iceland. I am getting ready for my next adventure now. I am getting ready to go with Mr. Steve on a trip. Any ideas where I will end up? Guess we will have to wait and see. -Juliette