By: Wats, Leanne, Mia

This morning we woke up to the pleasant surprise of a cleaning job sign up. We spent the morning hard at work cleaning every part of the dorms from top to bottom. We had to leave the dorms better than we found them, as the Spring Street students will be returning soon.

Once again, there was bagels and cereal on the menu for breakfast. We went through all the cream cheese (shocker!) it is a hot commodity.

Next we sat down to write many thank you cards to show our appreciation for the many people who were with us on this journey. It was an insightful reflection on all of our guests and the people we have met on this trip.

After working so hard on thank you cards, we replenished our energy with a final lunch. Many people chose to eat the leftover pasta salad. We then departed for a fun afternoon at San Juan County Park Beach, to loosen up for our presentation later in the afternoon. It was too cold to swim, so many of us chose to relax on the rocky bluff. When we were descending the rocky bluff, one of us tripped over a short king.

We then returned from the beach to collect our algae pressing that we made earlier in the week with Dr. Guenther. Unfortunately some of our pressings were moldy, but for the most part we were happy to see how they turned out!

Then we settled down for the final push on our projects, which we will be presenting at 5:00pm today to an audience of our cohort, families, and other guests we met during the camp. After that, we will be having a barbecue and then head to the beach for a final sunset together. There, we will sit by the fire, and roast marshmallows.

Thank you to Emma, Adam, Caroline, Tom, Cassandra, Riley, Cara and Misty. Thank you to all of our amazing guests who have taught us so much, and thank you to our fellow campers. We will all miss you so much and we hope you have a great rest of your summer!

By: Leanne, Mia, Wats

After three fantastic days of kayaking with the Crystal Seas Kayaking Guides, it was a relief to be waking up in a nice comfortable bed. We sat down to breakfast as usual and kicked off our projects. It was time to brainstorm because the project deadline is rapidly approaching!

Then, we hopped into the vans to begin our voyage to the Friday Harbor Labs (FHL). There, we met up with Dr. Rebecca Guenther, who is a renowned algae specialist and long time resident at FHL. First, Dr. Guenther gave us a briefing about the day, which included algae collection at the docks of FHL, followed by a lecture and then some algae pressing and cyanotype print making.

First, we headed down to the dock at FHL. We split into small groups, and fished up tires which lined the sides of the dock. On the tires, there were many types of algae growing, as well as many other marine organisms. The dock was shaky and we were fearful of falling in. However, no one did! We all remained dry.

After collecting sufficient samples we returned to Spring Street with hungry bellies. Some of us went into downtown Friday Harbor and got seafood at The Bait Shop, while others stayed at the dorms and ate spaghetti.

After lunch, Dr. Guenther joined us at Spring Street to begin an informative lecture about algae. We learned all about the many different types of algae, as well as how to identify them. We also learned about dichotomous keys, life cycles, and harmful algal blooms. Now that we know so much more about algae, we were ready to continue our deep dive into the world of algae through some artistic exploration!

We did two different kinds of art using the algae we collected earlier in the day at the docks. First, we made some algae prints using a wooden press similar to flower pressing for all botanists out there. We made some gorgeous art pieces by laying algae onto paper, then covering it with fabric and sandwiching it between cardboard and blotter paper. We loaded all of our pressings into a wooden presser and they will be done by the end of the week. We are excited to see how they turn out!

The next medium we explored was cyanotype printing. This works by exposing a paper coated in a special chemical to the sunlight, and then dunking it into a hydrogen peroxide solution. Dr. Guenther prepared pressed algae for us to use, and then we artfully arranged them on sheets of paper. The algae arrangements block the sun from reaching certain points on the paper, which creates wonderful silhouettes of the algae on the paper.

We are all hungry and excited for a nice dinner tonight prepared by some of our fellow students. After dinner, we will be watching a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream courtesy of Shakespeare Under the Stars. It has been a great first day back from the kayaking trip and we are ready for the week ahead.

By: Leanne, Wats, Mia

Our final day was our earliest by far. We woke up at the lovely hour of 5:30 am to have an amazing breakfast of oatmeal and fresh fruit at 6:15 am courtesy of Clark, Dylan, and Charlie. We broke camp, packed the kayaks, and began the voyage back to Jackson Beach. With two long days of paddling behind us, we were slow and tired, which yielded many breaks along the way. We briefly stopped at a small cove to rest and eat some snacks.

Our next stop was at the same island we stopped at for lunch on the first day, Turn Island. The rocks on the beach were incredibly sharp and painful, but somehow our three guides were able to walk on it barefoot. Thanks to Charlie, Clark, and Dylan, we were able to enjoy a delicious meal of pasta salad, along with some juicy apple slices and cookies. The recipe they used was Charlie’s personal family recipe. It was so delicious!

After having lunch, we jumped back in the boat. A second wind swept over us all and a final push to Jackson Beach felt like nothing relative to the rest of out paddeling. With the beach in sight, we raced the last bit and joyfully jumped out of our kayaks. We unpacked all of our gear from the kayaks and rode back to the dorms.

When we returned to the dorms, the wonderful people of Crystal Seas Kayaking gifted us each with a shirt! We showered and washed all our grimy clothes in the laundry machines. After that, we were gifted with free time, which many people used to get some meaningful rest. Some people chose to use this opportunity to explore downtown Friday Harbor, and run some errands.

After returning to the dorms, we ate a filling dinner and met Cassandra, the new dorm parent. We also met her daughter, Cara, and her cute dog. They will be with us for the duration of the program. We were sad to hear that Riley was leaving, but we were grateful for the time he spent with us. He also gave us some cakes courtesy of San Juan Bakery which were absolutely delicious!

After doing so much kayaking, we were glad to be back and getting some much needed rest. This experience was incredibly valuable, and we are grateful for the memories we made. Overall, the kayaking trip had moments of difficulty, but we all had so much fun!