On the Schedule for Today:
- Tide pooling on the beach
- Time on spit
- Free time for laundry
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Report from the Science Committee:
Temperature (High/Low): 77.8 / 76.3
Altitude (High/Low): 160 ft. / 17 ft.
Weather Conditions: Clear skies and sunny, cooler temperatures
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Daily Report from the Journalism Committee:
Cleanliness
Meredith Carrel
28 June 2007
Many AGLP participants would consider June 28 a very relaxing and satisfying day. We got to sleep in and take our time getting ready. Instead of tide pooling in the morning as planned, we decided to tide pool at night when the tide would be lower. When we finished breakfast the vans loaded up to do laundry. Every laundry mat that we went to in Homer had showers. This gave us all the chance to clean our clothes and ourselves. “I felt clean. It felt good because taking a shower reminded me of home,” commented Matt Hazel. Thankfully, we all left smelling good.
Once we regrouped at the campground and had our usual lunch, we went shopping on the Homer Spit. The Better Sweater was a favorite shop among the girls. “It has a lot of cool homemade items and good prices,” said Sam Daily about the store. A worker at The Better Sweater donated money to the project due to our courtesy in her shop over the years.
Another popular store on the spit was the one adjacent to The Salty Dog Saloon, where a lot of participants bought souvenir sweatshirts and t-shirts. People also sauntered in other shops on the spit picking up last minute gifts for family members. A few watched halibut being loaded onto the docks off the charter boats.
Dinner was early because we had to prepare to go tide pooling. George Seifert made tortellini soup, which was delicious. After we put on our rain pants and hiking boots, we made our way over to the beach. The tide was out really far, which made pools collect in between the rocks. When the water collects animals get stuck. Everyone got split into groups by vans. There was a competition to see which group could see the most animals.
We saw sea cucumbers that bury themselves in the sand, sea anemones, shrimp, and worms. It is a tradition to lick a sea anemone. Kids will kneel down and stick their tongue into the water touching the anemone. Some will feel a sting, and others will not. It gives everyone a chance to take a walk on the wild side. “It felt weird cause it sucked at your tongue then numbed it,” said Michael Misiak about licking a sea anemone. Time passed quickly and before we knew it we were heading back to the campground. The day ended with an early bedtime and no hugs. We all had to get up very early the next morning for the exciting whale watching trip to come.
Tortellini and Tide Pooling
Simon Barroso
28 June 2007
Today we went tide pooling. It was great. We didn’t go until later in the day, to get a low tide. After we ate a fine tortellini soup prepared by my van, we headed to the shore to see what we could find.
For a while my group didn’t see anything. We went a little farther down the beach and more things started to pop up. We decided to lift up a rock, and a bunch of tiny things emerged from underneath. They looked like a cross between a roly-poly and a shrimp. We later found out that they were called Beach hoppers. We found tons more during our exploration. We also discovered that the rocks are very slippery and barnacles are sharp.
One of the coolest things we saw was the sea anemone. The tradition is that you lick the first one you see. A lot of people were not going to follow tradition, but I didn’t want to miss out on this. I found a good one. It was a nice size. I bent over and stuck my tongue in the water. I got a very strong taste of seawater, but I didn’t let that stop me. When I felt the anemone on my tongue I held it there for a while (I don’t know why) then I took my face out of the water. I felt a tingly sensation on my tongue from the shock of the anemone. We continued our walk along the beach, and on the way we saw sea cucumbers, some crabs, a few eels, and of course more sea anemone. I thought to myself, be a champion lick another one. So I did. It was awesome. Later I found out that some people were a step ahead of me. They licked more than two. Yep, that’s right, three or more. They are champions too.
Another thing we discovered is that sea cucumbers squirt water when they get squeezed. So on the way back people bent over and poked them so they would shoot out water and dig deeper into the ground.
In my personal opinion, tide pooling was really cool. Though we didn’t get to see a starfish, but we were all still pretty satisfied with what we saw. I will end with this: tide pooling is pretty sweet. |