Surprisingly it was with very little trouble and complaint that everyone got up this morning at 4:30am. Even more surprisingly that everyone had checked out and loaded the bus by 5:15am. But most of all what pleasantly surprised Mrs. Rhodes and Mrs. Nicholas this am was how very nice our students left their rooms. Judging the cleanest room contest was hard but we finally awarded 1st place to Tristan, Jordan E, Stone and Brad. It looked like no one had lived there at all. Well-done gentlemen.
Our first hour on the bus was spent eating breakfast and then taking a short nap before Kristin our World Strides guide had us watch the informational Manatee Movie. After a short briefing by one of the Pro-Dive shop guides, everyone got fitted for their wet suits, snorkels, masks and fins. Putting on a dry wet suit is not an easy task especially for those who have never done it before.
A short bus ride took us to the Crystal River/Springs where our three boats and guides were waiting for us. Excited to see and to interact with manatees we set out for the Three Sisters manatee sanctuary. Unfortunately there were no manatees hanging out in the sanctuary. The weather has been fairly warm lately we were told and that means most of the manatees have migrated out towards the ocean. This in turn meant that it would be much harder for us to find, see and most of all be able to interact with a manatee. After about 15-20 minutes someone spotted a large male. We anchored, were told to find our “exit buddy” and got in the water without fins – it was too shallow – and a very small handful of us had the opportunity to actually see this guy. He decided he had enough and moved on. So we had to get out of the water and boy was it cold. Burr!! We moved to another area and right away we come across a mom and her juvenile calf. Once again we got in the water and this time a few more students had a chance to see a manatee, but it did not last long. They had enough and moved on as well. Out of the water for a second time and it was still cold. It took much longer this time before we got word of a small group of three manatees that were sleeping on the bottom. Luckily these guys tolerated us and actually hung around so that all students that wanted to could see a manatee or two or three and several of our students also had a chance to touch one of them. Hot chocolate to warm us up was a perfect end to our excursion.
Back at the Pro Dive shop we did some shopping and watched our Manatee video. Our lunch from Quizno’s was delivered – Yummy subs, chips and a chocolate chip cookie for dessert that we all ate on the bus on our way to KP Hole Park for our second snorkeling experience of the day.
By this time it had already warmed up quit a bit and it was not too bad to put on those somewhat damp and cold wet suits. Our guides were waiting with the boats at the dock of the Rainbow River to take us upstream 1.5 miles. This time we got to put on our fins before getting in the water. Zach, Mike, Phillip and the "new bee" Bill
guided us down the river to make sure we stopped at the interesting points such as the chimney hole, the blowhole vent where you can dive down and let the force of the water shoot you up to the surface, popcorn springs which make the sand look like its popping popcorn and the cave 23 feet down you can dive down to and go into.
We got to see lots of fish. The sand and rocks were so beautiful with the sunlight shining down into the water. Several of us saw turtles and many different kinds of birds. Mostly though everyone seamed to just enjoy the floating, swimming, diving and exploring. If you listened carefully enough you could hear many of our students say: “This is so cool.” “This is my favorite part so far.” “I just love this”. Priceless.
Once everyone had changed into some dry, warm, cozy and comfortable clothes we settled back in on the bus for our 6 hr drive to Key Largo. The first part of the trip was spent napping, relaxing, texting, checking Face book and email, and some of us even got the blog caught up. Half way there we stopped for dinner at one of the rest areas with where we had many different places such as Nathan’s hot dogs, KFC, Wendy’s, Baskin Robins and many more to choose from.
After dinner it was down to business again. First we did our daily Journaling for our scrapbooks. Next everyone worked in their World Strides Science in Motion Journals and we went over those pages as a large group. Finally it was time for a movie – The Lorax.
Arriving at the hotel in Key Largo around 10pm gave us just enough time to get checked in and settled before lights out at 11 pm. Today was a super great day and I am sure everyone will sleep well after spending all day in the water. And through all this Elizabeth’s hair stayed up in her very specially constructed bun. Amazing!
Back at the Pro Dive shop we did some shopping and watched our Manatee video. Our lunch from Quizno’s was delivered – Yummy subs, chips and a chocolate chip cookie for dessert that we all ate on the bus on our way to KP Hole Park for our second snorkeling experience of the day.
By this time it had already warmed up quit a bit and it was not too bad to put on those somewhat damp and cold wet suits. Our guides were waiting with the boats at the dock of the Rainbow River to take us upstream 1.5 miles. This time we got to put on our fins before getting in the water. Zach, Mike, Phillip and the "new bee" Bill
guided us down the river to make sure we stopped at the interesting points such as the chimney hole, the blowhole vent where you can dive down and let the force of the water shoot you up to the surface, popcorn springs which make the sand look like its popping popcorn and the cave 23 feet down you can dive down to and go into.
We got to see lots of fish. The sand and rocks were so beautiful with the sunlight shining down into the water. Several of us saw turtles and many different kinds of birds. Mostly though everyone seamed to just enjoy the floating, swimming, diving and exploring. If you listened carefully enough you could hear many of our students say: “This is so cool.” “This is my favorite part so far.” “I just love this”. Priceless.
Once everyone had changed into some dry, warm, cozy and comfortable clothes we settled back in on the bus for our 6 hr drive to Key Largo. The first part of the trip was spent napping, relaxing, texting, checking Face book and email, and some of us even got the blog caught up. Half way there we stopped for dinner at one of the rest areas with where we had many different places such as Nathan’s hot dogs, KFC, Wendy’s, Baskin Robins and many more to choose from.
After dinner it was down to business again. First we did our daily Journaling for our scrapbooks. Next everyone worked in their World Strides Science in Motion Journals and we went over those pages as a large group. Finally it was time for a movie – The Lorax.
Arriving at the hotel in Key Largo around 10pm gave us just enough time to get checked in and settled before lights out at 11 pm. Today was a super great day and I am sure everyone will sleep well after spending all day in the water. And through all this Elizabeth’s hair stayed up in her very specially constructed bun. Amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment