FLAT STANLEY visited Alex's grandfather, Don Markstein, in Sarasota, FL, and we had a great time. Flat Stanley wanted to tell the 3rd grade class about his visit and about this state of Florida, but grandpa tried using the web site and failed, 'cause he is not technologically proficient, and Flat Stanley could not help him. So here's the story in this e-mail.
1. We went to the beach on the West Coast of Florida. The beach was not on the Atlantic ocean as it is on the East Coast of Florida. Rather, the beach here in Sarasota is on the Gulf of Mexico. Florida is a long thin state at the very bottom of the East Coast (the right hand side of the United States). Flat Stanley looked at a map of Florida and he said, "it looks like a banana." Bananas are yellow, and the bright sun in Florida is very yellow!
While you third graders at The Town School were having snow, any one visiting Florida could go for a swim. The day that Flat Stanley went swimming, it was snowing a whole lot in New York City, but the water in the Gulf in Florida was 80 degrees (Fahrenheit).
Flat Stanley and Grandpa walked the beach and Flat Stanley kept letting the sand run through his fingers and he picked up a lot of shells to show you. Unfortunately, you can only send words and pictures by e-mail, but not sand and shells or other physical objects. Grandpa made Flat Stanley throw the sand back on the beach and the shells back into the Gulf, where some sea creatures will crawl in them and make the shells their home for a while.
2. Flat Stanley was very lucky to be in Sarasota in the winter, because the famous Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, and some other circuses, make their winter home here. As a matter of fact, there is such a lot of interest in the circus in Sarasota, Florida that high school students have the chance to elect physical education in the school gym or at the circus tent, where they learn to perform circus acts, even walking on the high wire or swinging thru the air and catching another performer by the hands as that guy or girl lets go of their swing coming from the other side high up above the ground in the tent. Flat Stanley kept busy looking at the circus activity in all three rings, where all sorts of different act performed simultaneously in each ring.
Flat Stanley did a lot more than spend time on the beach and at the circus, but he told Grandpa that he will always think of Florida as the state where there are wonderful beaches and great circuses. That is why a lot of retired New Yorkers decide to move to Florida in their retirement years.
Bye,
Grandpa Donald and
Flat Stanley
