martinzoo » Beach

One more….

Robin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:40:10 +0000

beach photo. This one cracked me up. It was a weird week. Because we had one day where GB could splash around in the ocean in his swim team jammer, and then one of the days he looked like this:

It was downright chilly that day!

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Duck…..

Robin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:32:44 +0000

Donuts!!

We love Duck Donuts! When we left here this past Summer, we told ourselves that we’d be back in the Fall and could once again partake of the delicious Duck Donuts: old fashioned, made in front of you, delectable donuts.

Our first day here we went out at 11:30 to get us some donuts. Alas, during the Winter/Fall months they have very limited hours and when we got there they had been closed for half an hour. So we vowed to return on the next day. GB was so disappointed.

The next day Gramma and I went out before GB awoke. I had to introduce Gramma to ‘real’ donuts, not those Krispy Cream or Dunkin’ Donuts. These are the real deal. When I told the owners of the shop how much we’d been anticipating these donuts they made up a special one just for GB.

It’s chocolate frosting on ones side, orange frosting on the other with white ‘webbing’ across the top, liberally sprinkled. He LOVED it.

You see those light brown ones in the middle? Those are my weakness, they are maple frosted donuts and they are to die for. I’ve never had maple before but they are SO good.

Our last day at the beach, the water was a bit choppy again but we enjoyed walking along the shore searching for more shells.

One last walk for the dog……

….and a last dipping of the toes.

And I did something quite surprising. I had been thinking, while at home in my shower, that I really wanted to be able to get some exercise. But between my plantar fascitis and my bum rotator cuff it’s been hard to get some exercise. A bike ride would be perfect, but my daughter’s bike was painful to ride and I couldn’t stand those brakes on the handles. I like brakes on the pedals. I know it’s old fashioned, but that’s what I like. Anyway, the only bikes like that are found at the beach. We rented some this past summer. So I thought I’d sweetly ask them if they’d be willing to sell me one of their depreciated bikes.

And guess what? They did! So I picked out a pretty green one and they added a new seat, I forked over a hundred bucks and I’m now the proud owner of ‘Ducky’, my beach bike. Gramma had to give it a whirl. I feel so much more comfortable on this bike. I can’t wait to ride around my neighborhood on it.

So off we go. Back home to normalcy. I’m glad we still have one lazy week left before we get back to the same old schedule. Fall Break is a great concept!

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Sand Candles

Robin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:19:45 +0000

Have you ever been to those beach shops and seen the candles with the sand and shells embedded in them?

I thought we could try to duplicate them.

First we dug a hole in the sand.

The candle in the middle was our lame attempt for a wick. I forgot to purchase wicks so I had to use a candle. Then we lay some of our beach finds around the edges of the hole.

And poured in the melted wax.

Then we relaxed on the beach while it hardened.

Gramma and I just dug our toes into the sand, but GB wanted to get into the ocean. You’d be surprised at how warm it is. It was 80 degree air temps and the water was fine.

So he had a good time splashing around. He felt a bit weird because he was the ONLY kid on the beach and the few older people there were all watching him. So he only stayed in about twenty minutes or so.

The water was a beautiful blue color, probably because the storm we’d had earler had cleared it all up.

Here is our finished candle. Didn’t it turn out cool?

.

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Beach Archeology

Robin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:52:24 +0000

One of the projects that I did for GB while we were here was to make a small homemade fossil dig.
You’ll need:
- beach sand
- plaster of paris
- several objects to be “fossils.” These can be shells, bones or bits of wood
- a smooth sided, disposable, container. I like using a large, plastic cup.
- a mixing bowl
- bamboo skewers or toothpicks and old tooth brushes
.

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Put enough sand into the cup to fill it 3/4 of the way full. Fill it the rest of the way with dry plaster. Pour the sand and plaster into the mixing bowl and stir it around to mix it. Add water to get a good pourable consistency.

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Put about an inch of the mixture back into the cup. Drop in one or two “fossils” and then add enough of the mixture to cover them. Add another “fossil” and then more mixture. Keep doing this until your container is full.

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Let the container sit overnight. The next day, the sand mixture should have hardened into a rock-like substance. Tear along the side of the cup to help you remove the ‘rock’.

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When you are digging real fossils, the rock is often as hard or harder than the fossils. This means that you must be very careful as you dig, so you do not damage the fossil. Paleontologists use a wide range of digging tools. Much of the digging is done with small, delicate tools, ranging from picks like the dentist uses to clean your teeth to pointed splints of bamboo to hammers and chisels, depending on the kind of rock that surrounds the fossil. Our “rock” is similar to a soft sandstone, so we will use bamboo skewers or toothpicks to scrape away the rock. Dig slowly and carefully to be sure that you do not miss anything or damage your fossils. Depending on how hard your “sandstone” is, it may take you anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours to excavate your finds.

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Even Gramma was working hard on her fossil. We spent a good hour or so on this project and it was really fun.

These were all of our finds. The mallets weren’t on my list of supplies, but I found them at the beach house and thought they’d be perfect for authenticating the dig atmosphere.

Good times!

I found this Fossil Glossary on the internet at the Utah State Office of Education

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A pumpkin at the beach

Robin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:42:48 +0000

No, I’m not talking about GB. Although, I could be…..LOL! He is MY pumpkin.

I’m talking about a real pumpkin. GB and I decided that since it is Halloween time, we should still carve a pumpkin even though we are at the beach.

We got a pumpkin from Walmart for only a dollar and I guess it must have been a bit old because it was really easy to gut and carve. But that’s ok because it’s not a long-term pumpkin, just a beach pumpkin.

We had a bit of indecision about the design. Our first one wasn’t scary enough, so we had to redraw it.

.

We had the only pumpkin on the street. And when we came home from dinner we were all delighted to see our lit pumpkin as we pulled into the driveway.

It’s the little things that lift your spirit!

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Guess where we are?

Robin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:30:33 +0000

At the beach!!!!!!!

I love, love, love the beach in the Fall. It’s so unpredictable, so deserted and peaceful. It’s like we have it all to ourselves. We always stay with my parents in the family beach house and it’s really nice to have time for GB to spend with my parents. They can really get to know him. And since we homeschool – why not?! Am I right?

We just finished up a quarter of our year, so the timing of the beach trip was perfect. I gave GB a report card this year. He got eight A’s and two B’s. He worked hard so we deserve some time at the beach. We’re also going to take another week off when we get home. We’re calling it Fall Break…LOL!

I think the look on GB’s face is hysterical. He gets quite annoyed with me sometimes for always wanting to get a picture. He loves taking Newton, my parent’s dog, for walks on the beach.

The surf was pretty rough this day. But it was exciting. There was a storm just off the coast that was really kicking things up.

GB and Newton had a great time running on the beach.

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