Today was a big day, the last day of Madison's Marine Science Summer Camp!
Today the kids saw raptors - not the dinosaurs, but the birds of prey. Not only did they get to see them... but they got to dissect owl vomit!
This is always a highlight of any summer camp, am I right? This was part of a quest to see what owls eat, and there were in fact a few skeletons discovered. Madison was using tweezers here, of course. The kids had a great week going on adventures, and this hands-on type of stuff is great for learning. Speaking of which, look what else they got to put their hands on:
This is an anaconda skin, which actually stretched on a good bit longer across the. These things are pretty ginormous, aren't they?
It was a shorter day for the kids today, one that they spent just at the science center itself. They walked the nature trail outside, and went to see the birds in the sanctuary as well. Much of their time was spent in classrooms and around the science center itself. Soon though, Mommy and Daddy joined her - as did all the parents - for a nice lunch together.
Here you can see the watermelon, carved out to resemble a sea turtle. The inside of the watermelon was made into watermelon balls, that look like a clutch of baby sea turtle eggs.
We all ate together outside on the outside deck, the kids sharing what they learned, or talking about the adventures of the week as we ate grilled hot dogs, and other items all the parents brought. Mommy assembled a vegetable platter this morning, and other parents brought drinks, chips, desserts and so forth. It was a nice time together. But we weren't done yet!
Right after eating, we all went inside, where the kids gave presentations to all the parents, volunteers and fellow campers. Madison is seen here with her partner, talking about the horseshoe crab.
She did really well, giving information she learned, as well as doing a bit of reading about the horseshoe crab - which isn't really a crab at all. It's an arachnid, which suddenly makes it gross. I mean, that's pretty much a ginormous spider underneath that shell. So one moment, you're thinking, "Aw, it's just a cute little crab scurrying along the shoreline." And now, thanks to this presentation, you're thinking, "OMG, that's the biggest spider I've ever seen under that shell! Let's get out of here!"
Fortunately, this shell was a dead one. It didn't scurry or anything like that. The two girls did their presentations - as did all the other campers. And then they each received their certificate for completing a great week of learning at the camp.
Here's Madison and Mrs. Shelly once again. She leads the camp, and runs it very well, keeping the kids busy and learning all the time. We saw here a few months ago at a sea turtle release, and Madison was happy to see her there, and happy to see her once again. She's making great memories here, and hopes to do so again next year.
Here's the whole group together for one last group shot at the end, just before dismissing. And that's when all the kids got one great parting gift - check this out:
They all got their own fishing poles! Madison was really happy to get one, and she even picked the color. She chose blue, based on her squad color for Summer Xtreme. Here she is with her partner friend, just before leaving the classroom.
Oh, there's always time for one more hug from Shelly. It was a great, wonderful week for the kids, who had just one more simple assignment: take the moms and dads around for a tour of the center.
Madison did just that, taking us to the care center, where we saw a gopher tortoise having his or her shell taken care of. And of course there were the aquarium tanks, home to eels, an octopus, and lion fish too.
And last but not least, we were taken out to where the injured sea turtles are recovering. Here's Madison and a few fellow campers looking over the sea turtle hospital.
Some of these sea turtles might be released very soon. They're kept in larger individual pools, and taken care of individually. We saw them being fed today, and they're all in various stages of recovery. Some will be released to the open sea once again, and others might not be able to go there, like our friend Tomoko, who we've been visiting each time for a couple years now. He'll hopefully go off to an aquarium and spend his time there in a larger tank. He's not able to see very well, so it's very much like an adoption process now, with sea turtles being fairly common, and who wants a blind sea turtle? It's sort of a sad situation, but we're glad to see him being taken care of here, and hopefully he'll find a good home.
We weren't done with the sea turtles, or Tortugas. We got home and rested a bit, and after eating some, we went out to yet another baseball game. This time, we were off to see the Daytona Tortugas!
As you can see, our seats were pretty epic, right there behind home plate! It was pretty ideal when we first arrived, as you can see.
Here's the group shot, with lots of leg room, all ready for the umpire to call out, "Play ball!" Daddy had just gotten back from the souvenir shop, where he got a new Tortugas hat, plus we got peanuts and some snacks for the ball game.
Like I said, the seats we had were pretty close to the action. The problems were a few: the biggest being the amount of traffic of people walking in front of us in order to get to their seats. It became so much of a distraction that we actually gave up those seats in order to move elsewhere to the side, and farther off. We were glad to make the move.
This stadium is called "The Jack," or "Jackie Robinson Stadium," which is named after the famous baseball player. His team was going to play elsewhere in Florida, but they didn't want him playing at those stadiums, so he played here first. Segregation.
Here's where we moved to, and you can see the view was much better here. As for the play of the game, the Tortugas were pretty bad tonight. They are in first place right now, but that was in no way apparent to a first time visitor like us. They were pretty dreadful. As much of a blow-out as we saw a week ago with the Gwinnett Stripers completely dominating the other team... this game was the reverse. The home team got trampled.
Here are some of the Daytona Tortugas in dugout, as their mascot looks on, hoping to get the crowd back into the game. It was a tough job!
Although he did have help! You can see his sidekick, Shelly, here above. She was walking through the crowd with Sheldon (that's the male mascot's name), posing for photos and having fun.
There were a few occasions for cheers. There were a few base hits and at one point the bases were loaded, although it was 9-0 at that point. Due to some errors and clever base running, the Tortugas scored a couple runs, and the crowd had something to cheer about.
"If they don't win it's a shame." It was still a great time at the ball game, and the temperature was just right - and look at the sunset there. We were directly under a big fan, and Madison was just fine watching the game again. She didn't need any distractions or anything - she was really into it.
We made some noise for the Tortugas, but in the end, it didn't really help much. They came back to win against the same team the next day, but tonight belonged to the Mauraders, which is such a great name for a baseball team. They're from Bradenton, which we had to look up where that is - it's below Tampa Bay.
Check out the old score board here. The scorekeeper kept busy with that step ladder, constantly bringing up new numbers to update the hit count, which by this point shows Bradenton at 13 hits. The end score was 9-2, and like I said, we still had a great time anyway. It was fun for everyone.
Here's Sheldon, riding around as they collect the bases, and wish everyone a good night. But one more thing before going home: fireworks!
Of course they were green fireworks! It was a nice show, one set to the music of Jimmy Buffett. That was the theme of the night there at the ballpark, as they played a lot of his music between innings, and even had a live artist playing that music before the game itself. There were Parrotheads there, something Daddy used to be himself a long time ago.
Anyway, we left afterwards, and it was an easy thing to do from that game - the traffic pattern was simple, and the journey home was quick. It's less than six miles from Nana and Ba-Ba's house.
What a full day! And what a full week too! It was a good one, especially for Madison, who kept busy with fun and learning all the time. She'll rest easy on the way home tomorrow. It was good to see the grandparents again, and spend a little more time with them. It's been a great time down here in Daytona.
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