Saturday, May 3, 2008

Tall Ships Expedition

The adventure begins

Ellie is exhausted from talking for 2 hours straight.

PLEASE no one let them steer the ship!

Finally boarding the ferry to Catalina Island.

The ship, underway.

The boat was chilly. Rebi bundled up in Jenna's jacket. Thanks Jenna!

My Evan, pulling faces? Never happens. . .

The awesome crew.

The "Sexy Piggly Something or others" I will have to find out their group name and re-caption this photo.

Oh yeah, baby! Time to snorkel! They were able to pet sharks and dive to the ocean bottom for shells. They saw sea cucumbers, sea hair, sheep crabs, sea urchins. . .and lots and lots of fish.
And probably 90 other things I don't remember. . .

A huge pod of dolphins. Although difficult to see in this photo, the kids said there were hundreds of dolphins playing around by them.

Evan and Floppy. Or Yako. I can't tell them apart.

The ship motoring into the dock at Long Beach.

Back on dry land. But they were listing sideways. . .and they all rocked back and forth through dinner.

On the way home, they talked non-stop and most of it was about new knowledge. They learned to set and strike sails, all about lines and how they differ from ropes, loads of oceanography, the correct way to use snorkel gear, the beauty of neoprene, and even a little astronomy and history. THEY TOOK NOTES!

At one point, Rebi said it was once of the most amazing things she has done so far in her life. All of them want to take the 20 day trip over the summer. At $3500 per kid, that would take a miracle. I'll just place a little "donate via Paypal" button at the top of the blog, shall I? But if I can swing it, they are going. 3 weeks without them? A little slice of heaven. . .

4 comments:

Mom said...

Sounds like they had one great trip.

Anonymous said...

Ok so did you take them to Dana Pointe to catch the ferry to Catalina? I've been there ... and planning on going back this year ...love Catalina.

sounds like your kids are really having some great adventures ... cool

Cathie

frizzlefry said...

They actually caught the ferry out of Long Beach and then sailed back into the harbor there.

I have never been to Catalina, so maybe we could arrange to meet out there at some point this summer!

Anonymous said...

The name was "Sexy Piggly Sharks"(thank you Evan...xP)
And that is NOT Floppy they look completely different. that is Iako(not Yako)(and its pronounced yakoo just to clarify) ok that's all