By Millie and Una

Hello Blog! What’s your favorite Cnidarian species? Ours may just be the stubby sea anemone we saw at Deadman’s Bay. In order to reach the fantastically biodiverse tide pools of Deadman’s Bay, we all hopped into the van after an 8 am wake-up. Then, we had to traverse the pebble beach, which proved treacherous for our Keene-wearing comrades. FOOLS! But the tidepools were worth every pebble-in-shoe situation. Highlights include a massive sea cucumber and a gumboot chiton (“surprisingly fleshy!” remarked Isabella. Indeed it was.). We learned some important new vocab via Intertidal Bingo. Did you know that segmented worms are Annelid Species? Caleb didn’t. I didn’t either, actually.

We then indulged in our packed lunches. My bagel was vastly improved by the sea cucumber residue lingering on my fingers. Yummy! Then we killed some time: those experiencing Ultimate Frisbee withdrawal tossed around sandwich containers, and others searched for excellent rocks (pictured below). After a discussion about the biotic and abiotic factors (spoiler alert: everything is a factor and everything affects everything!), we headed home because our disoriented minds needed orienting!! 

After orientation followed by 15 minutes of rest, our counselors Adam and Bea called us down for a scavenger hunt. We would have an hour and a half to explore the entire town! We were paired up in our assigned groups and off we went! There were crazy tasks. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room, a rubber room. A rubber room with rats. And rats make me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once.

Some of the tasks included taking photos next to an ATM, a photo of us petting a dog, and even attempting a handstand. They were worth different amounts of points, and points would be counted up at the end. The team with the most points would win a prize!!! Unfortunately, my team, “Team Won”, did not in fact win. But team “Popeye” won with an all-time record of 480 points.

We will see you soon! Hopefully tomorrow we will not get the insides of our boots wet when we go find eelgrass seeds. Bye!