AND NOW THE FINAL ISSUE OF…

FROM THE JOURNAL OF KATIE STEIDER

Friday August 2, 2002

Happy Friday everyone! Well my events have been swum so here are the results. Our relay did quite well. Our time was a 2:01.63 and finished 52^nd and we were seeded 56^th . In the 50 Backstroke, I didn’t do a best time but I did place 61^st out of 137 swimmers and I was the second fastest twelve year old. There were 1,113 athletes at this event and that is a lot of swimmers to fit into one place during four days.

The animal reserve was excellent! The woman at the door was very helpful in telling us what we needed to know. There was an inside “trail of knowledge” about bird migration, problems and animals in different areas of the world, and information about endangered species. I liked how in each exhibit of the problems and animals in different areas how you could turn knobs and slide things so that an animal or other item would pop up from behind a bush. Also you could try to identify birds by their calls, animals by their traits, and at one point you could try to follow a female scent like a deer would. In the endangered species exhibit, they had information on the animal, a model of it, and its surroundings.

There was also an observation room where you could look through binoculars and see wildlife through a window. We saw deer and ducks. At four o’clock there was supposed to be an osprey feeding so we saw three of them sitting on a tower waiting for food.

Since the best way to see the feeding was to go on a trail, we decided to go on the Loop Trail and see the feeding. On our way, we saw butterflies, dragonflies, and Canada Geese. I got some good pictures of butterflies on thistles dragonflies on the road, Canada geese, a fence post with flowers near it, and the osprey. It took too long for the men to put the food on the tower so we just went on the short trail instead. Then it started to drizzle and later rain but it was very refreshing. Anyone would love to go to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

On the way home, we stopped at the Cunningham Falls State Park and saw the falls. We took the lower falls trail to see the 78-foot cascading waterfall. Also we heard and were near a place where people were looking at what was possibly the venomous copperhead. One guy was poking at the snake and many where going right up to it. Therefore, we left after a few minutes.

What a great day, but we still have a long ride home so I’ll see you next year at Nationals. If you would like to see some team results, go to the website for Nationals. Until next year then.

Swimcerely,

Katie Steider