Homeward Bound

Miss Palmer here sitting in the airport reflecting on an amazing week. We saw so much every activity packed day that it seems like we were gone for a month not a week. These trips are a lot of work but so rewarding. (Hazel is just one of former students who have gone on to pursue an aspect of Marine Biology after the trip) North Collins students are a pleasure to travel with - energetic, well behaved and respectful.

I hope you have all enjoyed following the blog. This truly is an amazing opportunity for these students. Thank you to the parents for your support in making this possible. We are very fortunate to live in a district that still recognizes the value of these trips.

I could not do this with out the help of the other chaparones. Lisa Brosnick was my right hand in preparing the last 8 months for this trip. I am glad that her husband Randy could help out as a chaparone on yet another trip. Former NC grads and MBC alumni Rhonda Brinkman and Hazel Wodehouse were great with the students as well.

It will be a challenge to be back to the hustle and bustle on Monday after living on "island time". Crazy as it seems, I will be starting to plan next year's trip this Tuesday with a new group of eager students - Mother's Day Plant Sale next week!!

Thank you again chaparones and students for a fantastic week.

A Fantastic Friday

Hello! This is Kayla and Hannah here with our last update. First off, we would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Emma Kron from Kayla and the crew. Today was a beautiful day as always, mid 80's with a nice breeze. We started off the day with a trip to the Marina on the bus. While we were there, we saw some nice sail boats and climbed to the top of the light house. After, we went to Androsia which is the clothing factory. Unfortunately, the factory was closed due to the Good Friday holy day. Luckily, the store was open so we still got to take a look around and buy some cool stuff. Then we went to Sommerset Beach for lunch. Here we chilled and played frisbee. After that, we made our way to the last stop of the trip which was Church's Blue Hole. This was about 10 times as wide and three times higher than Uncle Charlie's Blue Hole. We all jumped off the 15 ft high dock into the water. It was a great swim as well as a great experience. It was also a fantastic way to end our entire trip. Now onto a bonfire with the other school that is staying here and all of the counselors of Forfar.

A Land and Sea Day

It's Tammie Rae and Shannon speaking! Today we started off at Morgan's Cave, crawling through dark, tiny, sandy caves. Then we continued on to Morgan's Bluff. Morgan's Bluff was really beautiful, the view was unforgettable. It was actually the highest point on the island; a whopping 40 feet. When we finally climbed back down Morgan's Bluff, we hopped back into the "party van" and jammed to some good tunes (well, at least the girls did!) as we made our way over to Conch Sound to snorkel. Once we got in the water, we swam over to some blue holes and saw a school of Atlantic Spadefish along with a sunken boat. At Conch Sound, we were able to swim right up to the mangroves and look for other living creatures. Hazel, the lucky one, was able to spot a barracuda swimming through all the mangrove roots. Ms. Palmer, the "unlucky" one dropped her camera while snorkeling around the blue holes. FORTUNATELY, one of the guys came to her rescue, spotted it, then dove for it. So don't worry, the pictures are safe. For lunch, we went to Regatta Beach, and had a sand castle contest. Boys against girls, and Noah participated with his own castle, too. The counselors, Mark and Molly, were the judges. The girls masterpiece was called "Turdle Palace" and the guys was called "Chill Mountain." They ended coming up with the decision that everyone won. But we obviously know that Noah won, and the girls came in second place! :) Our last stop of the day was Money Point. It was low tide, so we looked under rocks for invertebrates. Crabs were the most common find on the search. Noah and Tammie found a baby shrimp! Some found a tiny sea cucumber, and Justin made a sea hare ink! For dinner tonight, we didn't eat in the lodge, which we usually do. Tonight, we walked down the street to a restaurant called "Love at First Sight." We ate conch fritters, chicken, fish, and some amazing mac 'n cheese. Now, I'm (Tammie Rae) not a coleslaw eater, but I must say, I went up for seconds!
This is Tammie Rae and Shannon, signing off from Turdle Palace!

Hey mom its Kali, Hannah, Kayla, Brett and the rest of the MBC crew just wanted to wish you a very Happy (29th) Birthday. Brett said you dont look a day over 23 :) Love you and have a wonderful birthday be home in a couple days :)

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

This is B-Mart and M-Dub reporting from the beautiful Andros Island. Tonight we have our special guest "Lil' Zack" We hope you are enjoying your 30's with snow as much as we are enjoying our not 30's with snow. We started the day off with the Tongue of the Ocean. By that we mean the part where she drops to 6,000 feet. We dropped a conch shell until we couldn't see it anymore....it disappeared after about 400 feet (33 seconds). The waves were huge and some people got a little sea sick.(Cerne puked three times, but he is a-ok now.) Next stop was a Barrier Reef. Here we got some ink fresh out of a squid. Then, we saw a rum-running ship wreck. Sorry parents, we didn't find the treasure, or the gold. We got some grub and then headed out to Pigeon Key for a little lab experiment. Here we grabed some coraline algae and searched for the organisms that live inside of them. We found some crabs, brittle stars, and an orange eel. After some frisbee, we headed back to the homestead for a camp soccer match with Chad the superstar. We had the best din din of the week and we shall end this day with thy weaving of the baskets. This is Brett, Mitchell, and Zack saying snow? What is snow?

A day in RED(as-our-sunburn)BAY

OKAY guys it's our turn to rock the blog! Celine and Robyn reporting from the always sunny and hot Andros Island! To start out the day, we went to a dock down in Red Bay where local sponge fishermen were out and about. Then we traveled down the road to Amelia Marshall's house. This island's midwife/medicine woman has delivered 85% of the island's children! That's a lot of babies! She shared many stories with us and showed us all of the awards that she has received throughout the years. After that, we went over to Otis the sponge fisherman's house where we all bought sponges super cheap; Chris got the best deal! Then we went to world renowned woodcarver Henry Wallace's house. He shared with us his story ,including the process in which his work ended up being displayed in the Smithsonian, and that he knew Bob Marley four years before he died...Yeah Mon'! Jumping back on the bus we headed over to Nicolls Town where we anxiously awaited our lunch of fried conch. After what seemed like forever the food arrived, and was VERY delicious! With full stomachs we got back on the bus and ventured over to Uncle Charlie's Blue Hole. Bursting with excitement, Celine was the first to make the eight foot dive. Everyone enjoyed the fresh water, only to find out that we were swimming with a dead guy...WHAT!?! The blue hole was named after a diver who died trying to explore this blue hole one last time. The long day's history lesson concluded with visiting some Bahamian shops, chillin down with ice cream cones, and a basket weaving session. Robyn and Justin can probably find a use for their baskets, whereas the rest of us.........just forget it! Day number 4 has been amazing! We miss everyone! This is Beans and Brain saying.....keep building snowmen for our sandcastles! =D (Pictures are still hard to upload..but we'll keep trying)

All Day Snorkel Event

Hey Everyone, its Sean and Andy speaking! Day number three in this tropical paradise. Today’s adventure was full of long hours in the water, due to clear skies and 85 degree weather. Everyone is loving the tans we are getting. We got up early and went on three snorkel dives. During the first two dives, we saw the invasive Lionfish, multiple stingrays, all the coral, and a shark to boot. We were then off to our next destination, an uninhabited island. Here we ate lunch, walked the beach, and collected sand dollars and conch shells! We finally set course to the Turtle Reef, where we sadly did not see any turtles. We did get to see many other fish, and swam through tunnels of coral. We finally got some downtime before dinner, and soon we will leave for our final dive of the night, literally in the night. We hope all is well at home, LET’S GO SABRES!!!!!!!!!! This is Sean and Andy, over and out. (Images are hard to download at night, we will post as soon as internet connection is faster)

First Day at the Reef

Hey guys, Ryan and Justin here just enjoying another beautiful day in the Bahamas. We woke up and walked straight out onto the beach for an amazing view of the ocean. Right after breakfast we went on a botany walk and learned some things about the local and invasive plant life on the island. Then, we all piled into some vans and went to the New Hope Baptist Church for the Palm Sunday service. It was a very different experience with singing and dancing with some very friendly people. After a quick lunch break we headed out on a boat excursion to a patch reef where we had our first reef snorkel. We saw everything from lion fish (invasive fish) to sting rays to hundreds of kinds of coral. Our next stop was at a mini blue hole where underwater caves push freshwater and salt water together, creating a very different environment filled with sea life. A giant sting ray chased Ryan and I around for a bit (see video). Then we went back to Forfar for a break, dinner, and a fish and inverts lecture. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday (but not before, the Bahamas is too nice). Have fun with your New York weather, we heard you had snow hahahahaha. Love Kibbles and Brinkman.

Dear Parents:
We are having internet issues...will upload photos as soon as we can. Mrs. Brosnick

Day Numero Uno (on Andros)

What's up? This is Chris and Clayton.
Let's start with the plane ride......awesome! We rode on a charter plane, like the one on Jurassic Park 3. Chris really wanted a window seat, but got stuck with the ONLY seat without a window. From the plane we could see the different depths of the ocean based on the color of the water. When we landed, we rode to the station, in vans, on the left side of the road. We got to the station, got our rooms, then chilled on the beach for a few minutes before our first snorkel experience. Snorkeling was really fun, we saw some cool algae, the Mermaids teacup and experienced some strong currents in the nearby creek. When we were done snorkeling, a group played catch, and the other group just hung out. Then dinner came.....TACO NIGHT!!! After dinner, we had a 10 on 10 game of volleyball, with kids from the other school that is here from Vermont. Sean was the ball boy during the game and played his little heart out, even going so far as to dive in the water to save the ball. We got summoned by the counselors for the orientation meeting. Scotty Z, you will be happy, you are a legend at Forfar! They idolized you in the presentation with a picture of you hanging a towel on the clothes line. It is about 86 degrees here and sunshine is plentiful. Well, that's all she wrote for today, this is Cerne and Zymowski wondering what's going on in your neck of the woods?

Friday in Florida

Hello Families,
Kali Fyock and Cindy Nelson here. Day one has been a long but very eventful day. We started off with waking up at 3 a.m. to leave for the airport. Our flight was very smooth. Kayla Kron and Mitchell Williams enjoyed their first plane ride. Once we got to the Florida airport, we got our luggage and all headed to the La Quinta hotel. We dropped our bags off and headed straight to the Everglades. There we went to two different trails. The first being Anhinga trail and the second was the Gumbo Limbo trail. At the first trail, we saw a double-crested (bird) Cormorant sitting on the railing. Walking further down the trail, we saw many alligators gently gliding through the water. We saw a Blue heron and two Florida Soft Shell Turtles. We saw many Anhinga (bird) which the trail was named after. One thing that caught our eye was two simple black crows pecking at the ground and pulling out what we think were lizard eggs. Then they would fly back into the woods and bury them in the trees. On the second trail, we saw a lot of different tree. The first was the Gumbo limbo tree that shed red bark The trail was named after this tree. Zach Hyde also picked out a crocodile. These are very rare to see. We also saw tons of lizards, all different sizes and colors, scurrying from tree to tree. Finishing the Gumbo Limbo trail we headed to the bus and went back to the hotel. We then quickly freshened up and headed out to dinner at T. G. I Fridays. We are all safe and sound and having a wonderful time. Can't wait to get to the Bahamas were the real fun begins!

Parent Meeting: Wednesday, April 6 at 7 pm

The meeting will take about 1 hour. Topics to be covered include our proposed daily itinerary, flight schedule, emergency contact information, suggested spending money and a packing list. If there is any thing else you feel you will need, you can contact me via email or simply bring your questions with you.