Day 4

I am blogging from CT, it took over four hours to travel what normally takes about three hours. The horrible weather that we have been having all week was waiting for me on the trip. It was until I hit the CT border and I hit about 4 or 5 different storms. Visibility was reminiscent of being out in the Merrimack...little to none.

(I apologize for not having pictures today, as I didn't want to soak my wife's camera in the deluge of rain that we had)

Our day started out rainy as usual today. We set out to go fishing for flounder. I was pretty excited to drop line. I enjoyed our time fishing today, even though I did little more than feed the fish. I had three different fish (or the same one 3X) on the line but could not close the deal. I was thankful for the rain pants that Rob lent me. It rained the hardest that it has all week. I can say that my spirits were not dampened though. I enjoyed a few good laughs with Rob and Marissa about Mike 93.7 and our anticipation of the upcoming Bruno movie...you have to love Sasha Baran Cohen, he is hysterical..."Very Nice"! Rob caught a real nice flounder, and I am sure that he has already eaten it for dinner this evening. We pulled in our lines and headed back for base.

Myself and the others in the class went to a coffee shop on Pleasant St. and spent a good hour and a half. I had an excellent cup of coffee and the others had some fancy looking desserts. The bathroom was a welcomed sight, my hands smelled like sea worms dipped in clam bellies. We shared conversations about the class, teaching, retirement and we got a chance to share some of our experiences. It was a real nice experience.

We headed back to Boat Camp and had our lunch. Scott gave a great slide show of some our his meetings with several different whale species. He had some great photos, especially the one of the whale excrement that he thought was the whale. The samples of baleen were impressive, even though they made Rob and Marissa squeamish. It was pretty funny when they made the other young girl working there (I apologize for not knowing her name) move the baleen to get the projector....and they informed her that it was bad luck after she touched it. I got a good feel for the morphology of both baleen and toothed whales. I thought the depiction and explanation of the nostril was particularly interesting. The way the jaws sort of unhinge and can swing to be almost perpendicular to the top jaw was amazing . I never knew that certain whales had white mouths or white fins as opposed to similar species in the Pacific. I found the whaling pictures of the indigenous people to be fascinating and the polar bear story was interesting as well. I plan to share some of what I learned about whales with my class.

They say "you learn something new every day" and over the past four days I have learned a lot. I had a good base of ecology and knowledge about marine systems prior to this week, but the hands on mentality is what really brought it home to me. Having the touch tank animals around must be great with high schoolers. To teach about polychaetes, then pass one around is great. To talk about the carapace of a lobster or sexing a crab then having samples is what brings it home for the kids, especially since I teach at a vocational high school where many of the students are kinesthetic learners. I think my wife is getting annoyed (or jealous) from my stories about class every day. I can't think of a better way to pick up PDP's and credits by physically doing things. I had a great experience this week. I plan to spread the gospel of Boat Camp to my colleagues and friends. I look forward to bringing much of this stuff back to my students and I hope to bring them up to see Rob and Kate in the near future. I really have appreciated this week. It is nice to see people who are passionate about their life's work, and finding a way to spend as much time on the water and in the classroom spreading and sharing their interests with students of all ages. Thanks again.

Marty