Mum: "how long did it take to get to the mammal centre?"
Beth: "18 minutes?" (Took 80 minutes over the golden gate bridge)Mum: "Is 18 mins long or short?"
Beth: "LONG!"Mum: "What did we do at the centre?"
Beth: "See those seals...remember?"
Mum: "What do they do to help the sick baby seals eat their food?"
Beth: "They put the fish in a machine and put water into it and mash it and trick the babies to eat stuff that is good for them."
Mum: "Did you like the drive to get there?"
Beth: "No it was boring."
Mum: "What did you like most Savannah?"
Savannah: "Listening to the guide talk about everything".
Esther: "specifically...."
Savannah: "Listening to all her answers"
Esther: "and what was one of the answers????"
Savannah: "ummm, how all the fish are disappearing and that the food chain has been interrupted and sick one year old seals are coming to the centre, the weight of their birth weight".
Mum: "What were the animals you saw there"?
Savannah: "Seals, elephant seals and otters."
Esther: "Hyrum. What did you learn from going to the mammal centre?"
Hyrum: "Not telling you!"
Mum: ".....Hyrum!"
Hyrum: "that seals can be endangered".
Esther: "how can they be?"
Hyrum: "By bow and arrow, fishing rod, trash, nets, by to many fish gone...."
Esther: "What do you mean, gone?"
Hyrum: "the tour guide said there is not enough fish in the water at the moment and they aren't too sure why."
Esther: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Hyrum: "Scientist."
Esther: "What type of scientist?"
Hyurm: "Inventor.....ummmm, I might be a marine biologist...something that makes lots of money."
Mum: What did you learn about the food chain?"
Hyrum: "That Sharks and dolphins are on the top of the food chain."
Esther- "What is at the bottom of the food chain?"
Hyrum- "Those little fellas you can barely see and you need a microscope to see them."
Esther- "When you see the seals lying on the rocks are they being lazy?"
Hyrum- "No. They need to rest from getting all those fish. They shed their skin and get new ones."
Esther- "Like snakes?"
Hyrum- "Mummmm. Noooo! Not scales, fur."
The kitchen where they get the food ready.
Where the sick mammals stay.
A life-sized adult elephant seal. (Scary.)
Savannah and Hyrum did Isaac's hair that morning...mohawk style. Hyrum mentioned that we should do it like this every day.
I actually had a better photo but this photo says so much. We have so many photos of Isaac trying to squirm his way out of a photo..........I think he has already caught on that I am taking a lot of photos for my blog!
Getting his own way....with attitude!
This excursion out with the children was great. It has just recently opened and has had a $23 million renovation. These summer holidays are long and it is nice to know there are great things to do to stimulate them (and me!) It really left an impression on the children to be more careful about our marine life. The children got to see a vet give a seal an injection in front of them which they loved. They didn't like hearing that about half the animals brought in from across the Califronian waters end up dying.
