Alligator Bites for Lunch, and Pelicans on Posts

On the way to our hotel outside Charleston, South Carolina, we stopped to eat, and saw brown pelicans. This is a picture of one of them on a post near us. Pelicans have very large stretchy beaks, and they hold lots of fish in their beaks until they swallow them.

I had real alligator bites for lunch. They were fried. They tasted okay, but were very chewy. I also had a stuffed deviled crab. It was very good. I would rather eat alligator bites than have an alligator bite me!

Ferry Boats and More Wild Ponies

We took a small ferry to an island in North Carolina's Outer Banks called Ocracoke. This is a picture of the tower where the captain steers from. It  is very skinny so there is a lot of room for cars on both sides of it. Ocracoke is the island where Blackbeard the pirate was killed.

There were wild ponies on this island as well. The ponies in this picture are in pens. These ponies are directly related to wild mustangs in Spain. They have certain features that only the wild mustangs and these horses have. That is because their ancestors were some of the ones that came over on the Spanish Galleons in the 1500s.

Later we looked out at the surf washing up on the beach, and we saw porpoises surfing and playing in the waves. They were very cute!

Then we took a very large ferry boat from Ocracoke Island to Cedar Island, also in North Carolina. A lot of seagulls chased the boat because they wanted people to feed them, so I fed them bread.

Bridge Tunnel and Monster Truck

Today we went across a really really long bridge over Chesapeake Bay.

Then, all of a sudden it became a tunnel under the bay.

Then it became a bridge again, then a tunnel again, and then a bridge again! It was so big there was even a gift shop, restaurant and fishing pier on the bridge!

The reason the bridge had two tunnels was so that huge boats would be able to sail over the tunnels. Some of the boats are too big to sail under the bridge, so they have to sail over the tunnels.

Then we had to stop here

To buy a very special boy a present! The store was open this time. Just as we were driving out of the parking lot, the trailor truck came back bringing the monster truck home from another show.

When we got to North Carolina, we drove up the beach to see the wild horses here. The horses are really big here, not little like the ponies on Assateague, and they like to bite because they are wild. You aren't supposed to get near them. It was pretty dark when we drove down the beach though, so we didn't see the horses.

We drove the truck on the beach in Virginia too. My truck is beginning to think it is a dune buggy!

So far, we have been finding lots of presents for three very special kids!

Wild Horses on Assateague Island

Way back over 400 years ago there were lots of shipwrecks off the coast. They think that some of the horses swam ashore from shipwrecks on big boats called Spanish Galleons and survived on Assateague Island in Virginia and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother bought me a book about a horse named Misty, who lived on Assateague Island.

Grampy and I are near Assateague, on an island called Chincoteague, and took pictures of some of the wild horses who are still living here now. They are smaller than the big horses you see, more like ponies.

These are some of the ponies in a pen. We were feeding them. When we come to your house, we will be able to tell you a bed time story about them!

Flat Corrin is on her way to School

This morning Flat Corrin had Strawberry Mini Wheats with Grammy. It was still raining and foggy, so Flat Corrin couldn't go out and play. Instead, she sat next to Grammy and played Angry Birds while Grammy printed this blog out, and got everything ready to send back to school with her.

Then they went up and Flat Corrin said goodbye to Gramma Sal. She was sad to leave, but really excited to be going home at the same time. She has so much to tell her teacher and classmates, and she misses Real Corrin.

Grammy is sad because she enjoyed taking Flat Corrin every where she went, and showing her around the island. Now Grammy thinks she will keep this blog going so that sometimes she can share stories and pictures with Real Corrin and her brothers.

Flat Corrin is getting Homesick

Flat Corrin misses Real Corrin, her teacher, and all of her classmates. She is very excited about getting home and telling everyone about her trip. Tomorrow, Grammy is going to try to print this blog, and put some treasures in the envelope to send back with Flat Corrin.

Grammy, Grampy and Gramma Sal will miss her very much, but we hope we see her again when we go out for a visit!

Flat Corrin sees the Bridge and the Causeway

 

When they went to Pumpkin Island Light, Grammy and Flat Corrin went to see the bridge and the causeway. It was too rainy and foggy to take pictures of those too, so Grammy used some pictures she took from an airplane.

Flat Corrin really loved the bridge. It is very high and one quarter of a mile long. Before the bridge was built in 1939, there was only a ferry to get on the island. When they got back to Gramma Sal's house, she told Flat Corrin all about riding on that ferry when she was little.

Corrin was also excited about the causeway. You can see the causeway up above the bridge. The causeway is a road built with rocks and sand that goes over a sandbar to get to the rest of the island. When you ride across it, it is almost like being in a boat. It is very low, and there is water on both sides of you. When there is a storm, you can't go across the causeway, because it is covered in water! Real Corrin can tell you all about the causeway.

Flat Corrin sees Lighthouses but no Seals

Today it was rainy and very foggy. Grammy took Flat Corrin to see some lighthouses, but it was too rainy and foggy to take pictures, so Grammy had to show some pictures she already had. This one is Pumpkin Island Light. Flat Corrin wished it was a nice day so she could have gotten out of the car and played on the beach near the lighthouse.

Then Grammy took Flat Corrin to see Mark Island Light, but it was so foggy we couldn't even see it. Grammy told Flat Corrin that we have so many lighthouses because we have so much fog here it is the only way to keep boats safe. The little thing next to the lighthouse is the fog horn. Flat Corrin could hear this foghorn all the way to Gramma Sal's house. Grammy told Flat Corrin that she took this picture of the lighthouse from Peter's and Susan's boat when they took Real Corrin and her family out for a boat ride last summer.

Flat Corrin was also sad because she couldn't go out and see these seals that Real Corrin saw on the same boat ride last summer. Even though she was sad to have such a rainy day, Flat Corrin had a good time playing with Grammy, Grampy and Gramma Sal today.

Flat Corrin goes to a Granite Quarry

Tonight Grampy and Grammy took Flat Corrin to see a granite quarry. There are lots of quarries on this island, and a lot of the other islands here. The granite from Stonington was used in a lot of famous places like Rockefeller Center and the Brooklyn Bridge. The quarry we went to is where President Kennedy's grave stone came from.

They don't use this quarry anymore, but this is the old powder house where they used to keep the dynamite.

This is part of the cable they used to use to haul the stones.

This is called a wedge. They used to hammer these iron wedges into holes they drilled in the stone in straight lines to make a crack so the stones would be straight when they blasted.

This is Grampy and flat Corrin high up on the hill at the quarry.

Flat Corrin was getting very tired, so Grammy helped her sit on a rock and rest before the long walk down the hill.

Flat Corrin sees lots of interesting stuff laying around

These are corks. They are made of real cork from trees. In the old days, fishermen used them to float the tops of huge nets they used to catch herring in.

Over 100 years ago, men called tinsmiths used to go to canning factories to make cans out of tin and lead solder. This is a tool they used to make the cans for the clam factory.

This is called a mooring ball. It floats on the water and has a rope which is tied to a chain that goes down to a huge rock under the water called a mooring. The lobstermen tie their boats up to it, and the rock works like an anchor. The rusty metal thing is called a grappling. It is used to tow along the bottom of the ocean and find things the fishermen lose, like lobster traps, scallop drags, and mooring chains.

These are two kinds of old fashioned lobster traps. One is round, and the other is square. (It's really a rectangle, but the fishermen called them square traps). On this island, they used the round ones more than the square ones. These traps are very old and broken down.

This is an old broken scallop drag. It used to have a long bag made out of heavy net and large rings. At the bottom there were two wooden and iron bars that kept it closed as the boat towed it along the bottom. Then, when it was full, the scallop men pulled it out of the water with a mast and boom and opened the bottom so the scallops could fall out into their boat. If you are ever in Maine, the word scallops rhymes with "ball ups". If you say scallops the way they do in New York, the fishermen will laugh at you!

Flat Corrin sees a Lobster Boat on the Beach

Flat Corrin was very surprised to see a lobster boat on the beach. She wondered why it was there. Grammy explained that sometimes lobstermen have to ground out their boats, (put them on the beach), to repair the bottom, or to scrape off the barnacles that are growing on the bottom of the boat.

On the side of the boat you can see a wooden thing that goes under the bottom to hold the boat straight up. This is called a crab. I don't know why they call it a crab.

This is the crab that held the boat up.

Flat Corrin Finds More Treasures on the Beach

Today Flat Corrin went back to the beach at low tide with Gramma Sal and Grammy. She saw seaweed growing all over the rocks. It was attached to the rocks, and very hard to pull out. One kind of seaweed was really rubbery and had little bubbles of air in it to make the seaweed stand up when the tide is high. The other kind of seaweed had big things full of something that looks like jelly, and smaller bumps with air in them. This kind of seaweed wasn't as rubbery, and Grammy showed her how Real Corrin would squeeze the bumps with air in them, and they would pop like bubble wrap.

Then Flat Corrin saw a big flat thing that looked like huge seaweed, and Grammy explained that this was called Kelp. Kelp lives in deeper water than seaweed.

Then Grammy and Flat Corrin looked under some seaweed and found little green crabs like the kind Real Corrin and her family catch when they are here. Just then, Gramma Sal came over with another green crab in her hand!

Grammy explained that these green crabs never used to be in Maine. They came over in the bottoms of boats, and now there are lots of them. The kind of crabs we eat here are big and orange.

 Then Flat Corrin found some scallop shells and a sea urchin.

After that, she found a starfish, a sand dollar, and another broken sea urchin. Grammy told her that they are all related. When the sea urchins are alive, they have long green spines that look like Christmas tree needles. They actually use these spines to crawl on the bottom of the ocean with.  The Japanese eat sea urchin eggs, which are called roe. The sand dollars are dark purple, almost black when they are alive, and they have tiny black spines on them which they walk with.

The sand dollars, sea urchins and starfish all have a hole in the bottom of them which is their mouth. The starfish can actually wrap himself around food like mussel shells and pry them open!

Then Flat Corrin found a mussel shell with coral on it. This coral isn't as pretty as the coral in Florida.

After that, Flat Corrin asked what all those little white bumps are on the rocks. Grammy told her those are barnacles. At first, Barnacles are really tiny and swim, then they find a nice place to land like a rock or boat bottom and attach themselves with a very strong glue. The barnacles look like little volcanoes, and have two little things called plates in the hole in the middle. When the water is over them, they open the plates and feathery things that look like rakes come out. They use these little rakes to catch tiny things called plankton, and drag them into the shell for food.

Real Corrin called this morning and asked Flat Corrin to bring back some smooth brick and some sea glass so her classmates could see it, so Flat Corrin picked some up to bring back with her.

Then Flat Corrin was very tired, so she sat on a rock for a while with Gramma Sal and rested.

A Message to Real Corrin

Hi Honey, I will be able to print this whole blog out to send back to you with the pictures and story so your teacher and classmates can see it. If the teacher wants to see it online, Daddy can tell her how to find it.

Flat Corrin sees real lobsters!

These lobsters have very heavy elastics on their claws called bands. The reason these lobsters have two bands on each claw is because they are called selects. The selects are very large lobsters. Most lobsters have only one band on each claw. The bands are so the lobsters can't pinch you.

Lobsters have two kinds of claws. One is called the pincher, and isn't very strong. They use it to rip open their food. The other claw is larger, and is called the crusher claw. This claw is really strong. It is used to crush shells. Some lobsters are right handed, and some are left. Flat Corrin was a little bit afraid when she saw the size of these lobster's claws!

Flat Corrin was really excited when she found out that Stonington catches more lobsters than anywhere else!

Then Flat Corrin and Grammy had to go home because it was almost time for Grampy to get home from work.

Flat Corrin on a real lobsterboat

 Lobsterman Ron Alley took Flat Corrin on his lobsterboat. He was tied up at the bait shed getting bait. The hooks you see are hanging from the bait shed, and are what they use to lower the boxes of bait onto the boat. You can see Ron's bait box behind him.

These are two boxes of bait  ready to go into Ron's boat. The bait is fish called herring. Herring is what you are eating when you eat sardines from Maine and Canada.

Here is the bait being loaded into the boat. Flat Corrin thought the bait was interesting but gross!

Flat Corrin waved goodby when Ron put his boat back on the mooring. She watched Ron's sternman, (a sternman is a helper), go out to get Ron in the outboard.

Flat Corrin Inspects Lobster Traps

Gramma Sal, Flat Corrin and I went down to look at lobster traps and bouys.  When the lobsters go into the traps, they go into a door with a net in it called a head. The first door goes into a part of the trap called the kitchen. Lobster bait is hanging from a string in a net bag called a bait bag.

After the lobster gets into the trap, there is another net door (head) that is easy to crawl through, and the lobster goes through it. This door goes into the second half of the trap and is called the parlor. It is difficult for the lobster to get out of the parlor.

The colored thngs next to the traps are called pot bouys. (Sometimes lobster traps are called lobster pots). The bouys are attached to the traps with rope and float on the surface of the water. Each lobsterman has different colors on his bouys. That is how he knows which traps to haul.

The box next to the bouys is called a bait box. This one is upside down so it won't fill with rain water before the lobsterman puts it in his boat. The bait box is on four legs so the lobsterman can reach the bait easily. The bait goes into the bait box, and the lobsterman takes handfuls of it and puts it into the bait pockets.

This is a bait pocket.

Flat Corrin looked over from the lobster traps and saw the beach and the building where Grammy's and Gramma Sal's shops are. The building used to be a clam factory, where they canned clams way back in the 1800's.