Monday, May 21, 2012

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Humpback Whale Fin Display


A Whale of a Tale on Day Three

Hay, It's Nicole, Janet, and Christine here to tell you about our busy day. Today, we had an early breakfast then got on the bus to meet our awesome driver Roger for the long ride up the Cape from our home base of Brewster. We stopped along the way at Marconi Beach, which is located on the ocean side of the Cape or the "backyard" as the locals call it. The water was much more powerful and the waves crashed on the beach. We posted a picture of Ms. Palmer and the boys getting surprised with wet feet when posing for a picture. Then we walked and ran through the trails of White Cedar Swamp. We noticed the change in plants from the sand dunes to the swamp. The plants went from very short trees and bushes on the dunes to tall White Cedar trees in the swamp. We got lost on the trails that could have been better marked. From there we got back on the bus to head to Provincetown. Once we got there we walked around and shopped for a while. We boarded our whale boat at 12:30 and went about 6 miles out into the ocean to find the whales. The first whale we found was a very playful guy and breached in front of the boat. He kept slapping the water with his fin. We saw a total of 18 humpback whales, 1 minke whale, and 4 fin whales. Most of the whales were feeding on the school of sand eels that were swimming under the boat. Then they would dive down and showed us their tails. After 2 hours of being entertained by these marine mammals, we headed back into shore. We found Roger and headed down to Chatham Beach in search of seals but sadly we didn't find any.  From there it was a rush back to camp for dinner before the dinner hall closed.  Just before dusk, we played with an awesome Frisbee that Hazel brought that can fly super long distances. One more day in Boston ahead of us and then we will fly back to Buffalo tomorrow evening. This is Nicole, Christine, and Janet signing off. We will see you soon! :)  

Humpback whale showing us his flippers.

This is a humpback whale's tail fluke.
Leaving Provincetown Harbor on the Dolphin Fleet boat.

White Cedar Swamp Trail

Waves caught up with them!!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Day 2 at Cape Cod Sea Camp

Hi from Shannon and Ashley!  :)  We had a busy and really fun day today.  We started with a walk on the beach at 7am.  We found two horseshoe crabs and saved them.  Then we had a yummy breakfast in the dining hall.  Then the real adventure began with kayaking. Yes, it was tiring but it was a good experience for all. After eating our bag lunch from the camp, we went inside to the Salt Pond Visitor Center for a short film on sand and the geological history of Cape Cod. After that, we went to the Audubon, looked at oysters and took a walk to catch marine life like shrimp, horseshoe crabs, fiddler crabs, nine spine stickle back fish and mummichog fish. To finish off our day we had a lobster and steak buffet with chicken, potatoes, mussels, clams and chowder. Having a great time in Massachusetts, Ashley and Shannon.  :)

Our Day of Kayaking and Nature Walks

Thanks to everyone who has commented. We would love to hear from the rest of our families!!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Thursday in Wood's Hole

Welcome to Cape Cod

Good evening North Collins, this is Todd, Garrett and Kyle coming to you from Brewster, Massachusetts. This is Thursday night live!! After getting to Boston, we met our very interesting bus driver named Roger, who we later found out had Sicilian lineage. After traveling on the bus for about an hour and a half, we arrived to Woods Hole. After meeting up with Hazel and Jen we went to a variety of buildings all with many different species of marine life. Some of the buildings included the aquarium, a marine biology lab, and a museum. We then proceeded to eat lunch at Pie in the Sky, a small sandwich shop with delicious food. After that we headed on our way to the sea camp in Brewster. There we explored the camp and went off to do our own things. When we rejoined we went to dinner. There was baked chicken, pasta, rice, eggplant, squash, and of course cake. We returned back to our cabin where we wrote in our journals and worked on some homework. Fantastic day- check out our photos from today's adventures. So from our common hall in Brewster, this is Kyle, Garrett and Todd signing off and the girls will be writing tomorrow. -goodnight North Collins

Thurs May 17 6 am: Ready to go!!