Cumberland Island

Day 2 of our field trip began with a very early morning breakfast and then about an hour drive to the place where we would get on the ferry to head over to Cumberland Island. The ferry drive lasted about 45 minutes and then we finally arrived. Ya'll - this island was beautiful. The island is full of these live oak trees that just make a canopy over the island - it reminded me of the rain forest.

This was a really long day and we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the ferry dock. We walked about 4 1/2 miles and saw a lot of stuff including several different kinds of crabs that I had never seen and many wild horses. Fortunately we did not see any of the snakes that they talked about or alligators or anything like that!

We started off by walking to the beach and dredging the ocean floor to see what kind of creatures we could come up with. That was just a very cool experience to see all of these kids out in the ocean with this huge net working together to bring up any treasure they could find. It turns out that the coolest "treasure" that we found was caught in a bucket closer to shore by one of the other moms. It was a moonshell crab that had been taken over by a hermit crab with two sea anenomes on it and in between the sea anenomes was the tiniest baby crab I have ever seen. Very cool. I had no idea that there were so many different types of crabs... ghost crabs, huge horseshoe crabs, moonshell crabs... you name it - it was crazy! I have never seen a ghost crab before and guess what? They are white and blend in with the sand, like ghosts. Hahaha!

So, from there we walked and walked and walked down the beach looking for washed up treasure and shells. I have to tell you that we didn't find too much, but there were a ton of horsehoe crabs in various stages of death and decay. We walked over the sand dunes until we got to Dungeness. I think that is how you spell it. There was a ton of history involved in that house and the outlying buildings. Since I am not much of a history buff I will just tell you that if you want to know more about all of this, ask Kayla. She is my history girl! Once we got to the house, and I use that term lightly - mansion would be a far better word, there were wild horses all over the yard area. It was amazing how close you could get to these creatures. Apparently, the Carnegies were the last family to live there and it was in Mrs. Carnegie's Will that upon her death the horse should be let go to roam the island freely.

All in all it was a good day, but very long and tiring. We got back to camp that night and after dinner we did the fireside circle. The guides that did this little program were hilarious. They told funny stories to the kids and sang crazy songs. The kids loved it! Ask Kayla to sing you the song about the moose and to tell you about... The Boyscouts of America....

Up next... Day 3 and the snakes!