Allison and I just got home from a 2 day sailing trip on the Chesapeake Bay with the Girl Scouts! It was put on by an organization called Living Classrooms. The crew sailed the boats, cooked the food and provided educational programs for all the girls. We spent 6 hrs on the Bay Saturday sailing down to our GS campground, spent the night and then sailed back home. We had to hurry since each day we were under tstorm watches and warnings which turned into tornado watches on Sunday. Fortunately they timed the sailing and we arrived back in Baltimore before a big tstorm blew by. Our sailboat was the smaller of the two, a skipjack which was originally used for harvesting oysters in the bay. The boat is over 100 yrs old. We had 23 girls and 7 adults and 4 crew members on our boat, The Sigsbee. The other boat, The Lady Maryland had at least double that amount. We did lose about 15 girls Saturday night when they decided to call their parents and ask to be picked up. The camp had a bit too many bugs-primarily ticks-which some of the girls there have already had lyme disease and did not want to chance getting it again. That is actually why most of my girls did not join Allison and myself. But Allison was able to work with the other girls-all ages from 10-16. They learned about all the creatures that live around the bay and even caught a few in a trolling net, they talked about navigation and how to sail a large boat, looked at creatures under the microscope and checked for ph levels and salinity levels since the bay is brackish(half salt, half fresh). So we saw quite a variety of creatures, everything from crabs to sting rays. I just can't believe how hot it was this past weekend. We hit 80 degrees by 8am! We had a strong south wind blowing, but the storms were coming in from the north west. All the storms that produced tornadoes through Ohio and southern Michigan. Glad to hear Indiana beat the storms since Stacey and her friend Alex from Germany went to an outdoor concert. I was also happy we beat the storms-I don't think I would enjoy a tstorm sitting on a sailboat, not to mention a water spout. A few years ago a surprise storm hit the harbor and flipped over one of the pontoon taxi boats that ferry people around the Baltimore harbor. Several people died as they were trapped under the canopy of the boat. I was glad we did not have to deal with any quick moving storms. So we survived and Allison said we don't have to do that again. She wants the next sailing trip to focus more on the sailing.
I also had to cancel my horsebackriding for the girl scouts once again since the tstorms were around all weekend. I will get them out riding some day. Last year at this time we were camping with a large service unit from a nearby town at the Boy Scout campground. Of course it rained then too and I almost got my van stuck in the mud roads! And Allison was almost eaten alive by ants that had crawled into her sleeping bag. The joys of camping. The girls are actually looking forward to an upcoming GS premiere of Twilight. We get to see the movie at midnite one whole day earlier than the rest of the country. They are working on getting the first two movies and turn it into a Twilight marathon. They will also have giveaways and raffles-and Allison is turning it into her birthday party so the girls will be spending the night. Lucky Tom will be out of town that week in San Fran.
As a matter of fact he was out of town last week in Chicago this time. I was glad he beat the storms home too although he said flying was pretty bumpy.
I spent the week trying to get packed up and ready for our sailing trip and our trip to Indy next weekend for Stacey's wedding. Allison has been busy finishing up projects for school. She will have High School Assessments and Finals in the next several weeks. We even had to ask for formal permission for her to take off a day to to travel to Indy for the wedding so she doesn't miss any of her deadlines. Scott is heading to the end of his school days. He had a full week, but not much in the way of homework. Thank goodness.
Allison also is playing Field Hockey on Monday and WEds nights-in between the rain drops. Scott is finishing up his gymnastics class for the year. He enjoyed it so much, he asked to take one week of summer camp there too. Of course, they are also spending a day at the bounce house and playing laser tag, so what is not to love?
I will send some photos of our sailing trip when I get Tom to download them in my computer!
Kathleen