Day 267, Year 9: Discovery Center, Aquarium, and Library Sing Along
Date: Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Weather: Overcast and Humid, but No Rain . . . Yet
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Jonah has been requesting a day in Woods Hole to visit the aquarium. Today was overcast and misty, so we made this our Woods Hole morning. We started out with M&M cookies from Coffee O and then walked down the street to visit the Buzzards Bay Discovery Center. The creature featured today was the scallop—the only bivalve in Buzzards Bay that can swim. It does this by opening and shutting its shell to propel itself through the water, and the scallops in the Touch Tank demonstrated this opening and shutting for us as we held them in our hands. After holding the scallops, a horseshoe crab, a sand dollar, sea stars, and a whelk, we walked through town to the Woods Hole Aquarium. We arrived just in time for the seal show and then we battled the crowds in the aquarium. I guess everyone had the same idea—ugly day, go to the aquarium. But Sam and Jonah had a great idea. We worked our way through the crowd of people and went upstairs to the Touch Tank first. Then when it got crowded upstairs, we went back downstairs. Sam, Jonah, and I have been to the aquarium many times, but I haven’t been there with Ollie since he was a baby. He loved it all, but as 12 noon approached, he was getting tired. So we walked back through town, got yogurt and watermelon at the store, and had a picnic lunch behind Redfield. This is the WHOI building where Jed works. Ollie and Jonah both went to sleep on the way home. After nap, we headed out again. The public library has programs for kids on Tuesdays from 3 to 4 pm and Heather met us there this afternoon. All three boys, as well as Heather and I, really enjoyed the Rock-It Science Sing Along. The presenter managed to be just crazy enough to keep the kids engaged and at the same time worked in a few science facts. He played different instruments and involved audience (kid) volunteers. I loved the Boomwhackers. These are tuned percussion tubes—hollow and light weight and tuned to musical pitches by length. But what the kids liked most was that you could hit yourself on the head with the Boomwhackers and make noises. Another big hit was the theremin. Named after inventor Leon Theremin, this device was one of the first electronic instruments, and the very first one to be mass produced. It looks like an antenna and as your hand gets close it magically starts making ‘music.’ Actually there are two antennas and they sense the position of your hands and control frequency and volume. After the show, he let all of the children come up and experiment with the position of their hands in relationship to the theremin to make crazy sounds. It was fascinating to see how the different children approached this task. Bravo to the Falmouth Public Library for presenting another great program for children.
Today’s rain looks like it is going to fall tomorrow, so I’m preparing for a quiet rainy day at home with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. Well, it might not be quiet, but we’ll immerse ourselves in rainy day projects and have fun. Mark went to work at West Marine today and that went smoothly. He’ll return to work on Thursday, but tomorrow he might stay on Windbird to work on a long list of boat projects.
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| 140715 Day 267 Cape Cod, USA–Discovery Center, Aquarium, and Library Sing Along |
