Working on My Checklist

A couple of months ago, I posted a list of things I wanted to do in Miami before we move to Ft. Myers. Well I can check three of them off my list! Last week we went to UM. We stopped by the BCM to visit Martha, who was the secretary when I worked there and is really the only person I thought I'd see who I knew. But she ended up not being at work and then we ran into a guy I knew from FIU who works for the Catholic group at UM now.

Then Rob said the RSMAS was having a family day/open house, so we all went to that last Saturday. They had several stations where kids could do science experiments or see what creatures were being raised for research.

There were tiny corals under the microscope, but Caleb couldn't see anything. They were kind or hard to use.

One thing I think is interesting at RSMAS is the Aplysia farm. They have a big room full of tanks with these red slugs in various ages. At the front of the room they are really tiny and as you go farther back they get really big.

They ink when they get scared.

The University raises them and sells them to researchers. I think they may be used in teaching, but I'm not sure. Regardless they have big nerve cells and simple brains, so they are easy to study.

Here are some baby ones.

One of the main researchers called them "Sea Hares" because of the little bunny ears they have. She also gave Caleb a stuffed one, which he slept with that night!

They also had an area where they were farming Copia. They had 4 huge tanks full of tiny ones. The guy who gave us the tour said they sell them to someone in South America and are used for food. He said they are excellent eating fish.

I hope so because they get huge! These are only ONE YEAR OLD!

After lunch we took a break in the library where they had pulled some kid friendly science books. Caleb liked the volcano book; he's been very big on volcanoes lately and quizzes me endlessly about them. It's made me realize, I don't know that much about volcanoes!

The last thing they did was take a bus load of us to Crandon Beach and take the kids out to the sea grass with some nets.
Caleb wasn't big enough to handle a net, but he had a lot of fun seeing what everyone else caught and finding things floating in the water.

Also on the beach was this boat, which is an authentic Cuban refugee boat. Can you imagine, riding this across the Florida Straits? It's 90 miles to Key West, but over 200 to Miami.

And the third place was Pinecrest Gardens, which is where the splash and play is - where we took Annalise for her birthday.