So this weekend I went with Mrs. B's 4th grade class to Burnt Island, a tiny 5 1/2 acre island in Boothbay Harbor. MiBee (as the kids call her) and her family spend much of their time here so we knew we were in for a great time.
Here is a little munchkin on the bus, being adorable:
After a 2 1/2 hour ride, our first stop was at the Department of Marine Resources Aquarium. I was very impressed by the blue lobster (a one in a million chance!) and behind him was a bi-colored lobster (a one in a gazillion chance!).
Some anenenenenenenomes:
Tons of seastars/sunstars/fishies:
More fishies:
Whale bones (though this one's a little small; perhaps a baby whale or a dolphin?):
The Big Daddy lobster was very impressive. I'm sure he has a name-- I should have asked. His left claw was the size of an oven mitt.
Moon Jellies are very fun to watch--they just blob around:
The touch tank was a huge hit. Mibee has brought in a small sample tank to her classroom so the kids had learned all about seastars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, horsehoe crabs, etc. They knew right what to do when they got to the tank: dive in and start touching things!
Here comes the Novelty to take us to the Island. The backpacks and freight (kindly referred to as "The Stuff") all rode with the over-18's in the Resourceful, though I rode on the Novelty for crowd control.
(Insert Gilligan's Island theme here...)
"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale/ a tale of a fourth-grade trip/that started from this Boothbay port/aboard this tiny ship....")
In our 15-minute ride over the kids were very impressed by all the things in the harbor. They spied masts and rigging!
My favorite quote on the ride over: "Whoa... they build houses right on the shore? Don't the houses get wet?"
Our first glimpse of Burnt Island...
A bit of history here: No, the island isn't burnt now! It got its name before it had the lighthouse. In the 1700's, people had lots of sheep, and a perfect place to put them was on an island: the sheep couldn't wander off anywhere, and there was plenty of grass to eat. (Sometimes the sheep had to be separated from each other, and the males were put on a different island from the females, so you can guess how Ram Island got its name!) However, just like now, the raspberry prickles and other bushes would grow out of control, so once in a while they had to be burned so that the good grass would grow. Thus, it got its name as Burnt Island.
One of my favorite things about islands is ingenuity. This is a fabulous contraption for hauling the Stuff up the hill to the bunk house: a huge wooden box attached forklift-style to a tracker, which Elaine wielded with ease up the hill.
The bunkhouse is exactly the kind of building that I imagine on an island: tucked into the trees, huge, open but cozy, rather barn-like, with submarine-style bunks.
The kids were very impressed with the "outhouse" (though it has plumbing):
So now that we are settled in, next up is Island Bingo and Living History...
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