St Catherine's Island Trip

This week started out with us meeting at Horton's seafood on Friday morning at 9:00 and a trip to tour Georgia Sea Turtle center at Jekyll. What an amazing place. Here they treat turtles that will hopefully be released into the wild or placed into captivity. We then left for lunch in Darien and onto the dock at St. Catherines (SCI) to begin our work. We left on the boats for SCI at 2:30. We arrived on the island and was given a quick course on how to work the gators that would be our vehicle for the week. Late that afternoon we went to North beach and found four hatchlings that had not made it out of the nest. What an amazing site. We went ahead and released them since it was so late in the afternoon. We headed back for dinner and then crashed for the night.

There are so many amazing animals on SCI. Not only are the sea turtles special but there are lemurs, alligators, heartabest, zebras, hornbills, and kudus. The pictures above show one pack of lemurs. There are 7 groups on the island.

Each morning we got up and arrived on the beach between 6 and 7. That means we were up at 4:45 or 5:45. Now for those of you who know me you must know how hard this was for me to do. I am not a morning person. It helped that we would be spending our time on the beach. We ate a quick breakfast in the dining hall or on the way. I usually was paired in a gator with Lindsay. My group leader was Ginger and my team was April, Anna Susan, Lindsay, Leslie, Steve, and Mirium. I loved my group! They all worked hard without complaining. Each day we rotated to a different beach. There was North beach closest to the compound and the smallest beach and then South beach was divided into North South Beach and South South Beach. SSB was where their were so many pretty shells, but most of the nest were always predated. North Beach has the most nest and the most activity.

Each day we were assigned a beach and then check for new nest, emerging nest (ones that babies have crawled out of), and predated nest (ones that ghost crabs or raccoons have destroyed). I found a new hatred for ghost crabs. I know they are part of the food chain and circle of life but there are so many of them. When we found a nest we checked to see if it was in a good location. If it was then we left it covered it up and marked the nest with a green marker. If not then we moved the nest and covered them and marked them with an orange marker. We usually finished up by lunch time.

After lunch we were free to do as we wished until 4 when it was debriefing time. Some days we went to the pool, took a nap, or went exploring on the gators. After debriefing we had dinner. Dinner was cooked by us researchers. We picked a night to cook and clean. We ate like kings and queens. After dinner one night we got to explore the Button Gwinnett House. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was amazing to see such history in this house. It is now owned by the family who owns Life Savers. Another night we got to tour the mission. The mission is the oldest church in Georgia. What is left of it is nothing. Where the support columns used to be have been replaced by planted palm trees. Our last night we got to go on a pirate boat ride. We went at dusk and road the boat. It was beautiful.

If we had baby turtles to release that happened at night too. Our second night we released over 250 turtles. Babies have 1/1000 chance of making it to adulthood. The odds are so stacked against them. My favorite story is a baby we found on the last day that was left in an emerged nest. I found him so I got to take him to the ocean. you see you cannot do it for them. You have to put them down twenty feet from the tide line. They have to align themselves with the magnetic field so they know which current to take. I let me little guy go and he started crawling. He would get tired so he would stop and take a break and then go again. Our team was cheering him on. When he finally reached the water he tucked his head down and paddled as fast as he could. A wave hit him and pushed him back. He did not get discouraged, he waited for another wave and tucked his head and went again. He finally made it into the ocean.

I have to say this trip was an amazing research trip by far the best I have ever been a part of. It also was a trip that proclaimed God's amazing glory. That a baby so small would know which way to go to meet the water, that a mom would come back to the same shore to nest time after time, and that a mom can dig a hole that is so complex without looking and with her back flippers. Try that next time you are on the beach. It is hard work. But God put all this into motion and all for his purpose and glory. Sea turtles are amazing and I hope to go back next year to be part of such an amazing trip.

Beach Trip SSI for the 4th of July

This week could not have come any sooner. I worked really hard to get all my school work done before we left but things never turn out the way you imagine they would. We had been planning a beach vacation for a while. We originally were going to the gulf until the oil spill. Instead we decided to go to on of my families favorite destinations. SSI that is St. Simons Island. We love that place and have been going there since I was little. The last time we traveled there we had just moved up to Cleveland so it had been a while. We asked my grandmother to go with us to get her out of the house. I really think she was planning to go that is until she had to go to the hospital. I was so worried. This was the first time she has ever told me that it was bad. So Wednesday night we headed that way to stay at her house even though she would not be there. Kind of weird staying at her house without her there. On thursday we got up to head down to SSI. We were going to swing by Savannah to visit her in the hospital. Little did we know that she would be coming home that day. I even got to go to the hospital to pick her up and bring her home. Once we got her home and settled our little family headed back the same way I had come that morning to the beach.

Thursday turned out to be a dreary day so we let the girls swim for a little bit in the condo complex and then we headed to Spanky's to eat supper. I don't know if you have ever been but it is another fav place of my family. They are famous for their spuds, chicken fingers, and fried veggies. Yum. Needless to say supper was wonderful.

Friday turned out to be the chaos day. Our air conditioner at the condo had to be repaired before we got there but then the toilet started to overflow and it did several times that day. It is hard to spend a day somewhere without a bathroom. We had to use the pool bathroom, then the ones at the beach, and then finally at 9:45 at night after a day of chaos we got to use the one in our condo. Boy was I glad that day was over. Even though we spent the day at the beach and at the pier. Then we ate at another one of my favorite places Barbara Jeans. They are know for their crabcakes which you can order online www.barbarajeans.com.

Saturday turned out to be the first day of real fun. We finally could focus on enjoying ourselves. We played and played at the pool and went to each at Mullet Bay for dinner. We went back and made homemade ice cream.

Sunday was the 4th. We spent the day at the pool and cooked dinner. We then headed to the pier to watch the festival. SSI fireworks are the best. They lasted almost 1 hour. Just when you thought they were ended they would begin again.

Monday we had to head home. We spent two hours in the pool before we said our goodbyes. For the first time I was not ready to go home. I could have stayed another week. We love SSI and can't wait to go back.