Today in the Florida Keys, the students had a very lazy morning and got to sleep in. Since the day light saving happened today, it was the perfect day to sleep in and not be late for anything. In the afternoon, we drove to Long Key State Park for some tanning at the beach. This had to be the crappiest most run down beach that I have ever seen! (actually, because it was a State Park, it is at a very natural state...no beautifying and commercialism) To get to the water, you had to truck your feet through thick, thick mud. In the mud there were dead jellyfish who unfortunately missed the tide when it went out. Despite the mud, the students had fun by having a mud football game and doing a mud slip and slide. A few students took it upon themselves to do some garbage cleanup since it was low tide.  They collected quite a pile that they brought out to the road so the rangers could haul it away.  After the beach was over, we washed off all the mud and piled back into the vans back to the house. Around 8:30 , Dr Mark Butler and 6 of his grad students came and talked to the group about all the work they are doing with saving sea sponges. His talk was very informative and interesting, and let the group know of the threats to the sea sponges. Over all it was a great day and we are exited for the rest of the week.

Today the delinquents and I went to Indian Key, a small quaint island off somewhere in the Atlantic, super fun. But we didn't just GO there, we kayaked there, all the way there, and it was epic! So we started off driving to Robbie's Marina and little tourist market place in which you could rent kayaks, which we did. We promptly began kayaking under the blistering sun with nothing but open waters surrounding us. Open waters that were extremely shallow to the eye, but if you put your paddle down to the sandy bottom, it sunk a foot! Anyways we paddled some and arrived at some Mangroves which in case you didn't know are these huge trees that can control their roots and grow all funky like and make tunnels, which we went under. It was super difficult to navigate through them because your paddles would get stuck but that's ok because the wildlife was amazing! Little crabbies hanging on branches, fishes chilling in between the roots etc. We came across a really chill crocodile that did not care that we were there and didn't move at all, so we got really majestic pictures off it. After that we went in for lunch, goofed around the market a bit then got ready to go to Indian Key. WE paddled for what seemed like ages and then arrived to the forest covered island. There's a lot of history to the island (can someone else insert that I'm to lazy or just google it). Some children went snorkeling where you could see some of the following creatures: donkey dung sea cucumbers, crabs, queen conchs, sea urchins (black pointy balls of death), fish (obviously), nurse sharks, fireworms etc.
All in all an amazing day full of wonder and spectacularness and an experience that I will never forget!

Safe Arrival in the Florida Keys!

Hello to everyone back at home! Our bus ride, plane trip, and van trip down to the keys on Thursday were all smooth sailing. After being driven to Pearson Airport in the morning by Derrick Rempel, we zipped through baggage claim and security and before we knew it we were up in the air! We arrived at Miami airport and quickly rented 2 big vans and started our 1.5 hour drive south. We stopped to get fresh fruit smoothies at a delicious fruit stand called Robert is Here, and ate dinner. By 7pm we had arrived at J.N. Roth Marine Biology Station and got settled in to our house on stilts! Last night we caught a scorpion fish (google it) right out by our dock! Today, Friday March 8th, we are headed to the Keys Marine Lab. We are being taken out on 2 boats on the Atlantic side of the keys and we will be snorkeling at Alligator Reef! We'll keep you posted!!!! Here's a picture of the scorpion fish that we caught..and then set free!