Emerald Coast (day one)
The stars, planets, and Harvest Moon all aligned this year to enable us to return to the Emerald Coast of Florida to celebrate the 15th wedding anniversary of a wonderfully sweet couple. In fact, our school district had a four-day weekend for Columnus Day (some call this Fall Break) which allowed us to not miss any time at school. Picking up the kids in the car line on Thursday, we headed straight to the airport to at least fly two-thirds of the way to Florida and drive the remainder, catching some excellent views of the Harvest Moon. Of course being the educational mom that I am, the girls had the opportunity to work on Junior Ranger booklets on the plane for part of the flight – even after the full day at school, the activities in the booklet were still enticing! (Just another way we get the MostPerMile out of our educational opportunities!)
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If plans go accordingly, we should be able to let our girls earn three Junior Ranger badges on this trip. There is a possibility the park ranger office will be closed on Monday, which is Columbus Day, but we printed these in advance just to be on the safe side:
- Wilderness Explorer
- Gulf Islands National Seashore
- Junior Ranger Underwater Explorer
These come from the Gulf Islands National Seashore website, but more information can be found about the Junior Ranger Programs at the National Park Service website as well. These programs are age appropriate, and teach not only our children but us adults about many aspects of our beautiful parks as well! Printing these in advance gave us not only something to do on the airplane, but also gave a great introduction to the area we were about to visit as a family.
So here we are, ending our first full day in Fort Walton Beach along the Emerald Coast. Actually, as I peck this out on my cell phone (left the laptop at home), the kids and my better half are scouring the beach with flashlights looking for crabs to observe their nightlife activities. But I digress. Day one was full of excitement! With a red flag on the beach, kids and families cautiously jumped in the shallow waves, built sand castles, relaxed under umbrellas, visited with friends flew a kite, played sand volleyball with a beachball, and just let their hair down to have fun and enjoy life! Children love the beach, and of course we applied sunscreen and had our SPF rash guards (although we always have one who still likes to push the limits and took her’s off for a little while).
About 80 people are here in Florida to celebrate the 15th wedding anniversary of friends in he very place they exchanged vows. This anniversary celebration occurs every five years, so we can safely say we have been looking forward to this weekend since 2012! Today was spent on the beach before attending a private group dinner at the local Fudpuckers. Yum! Many of their coworkers are in attendance as well, so it is fun to get to socialize outside the work environment and have the opportunity for spouses to chat. As always, my fifth grader has a deck of cards with her and is immediately teaching newfound friends a new card game or two! Who needs technology when you have a deck of cards?!? Children can be resilient in creating new games as well as teaching newfound friends games as well!
Our three-bedroom condo is excellent with plenty of space, and the wifi and televisions allow us to keep tabs on this unwelcome visitor named Nate heading towards our vicinity. Luckily at this point Tropical Storm Nate should be further west when making landfall, supposedly as Hurricane Nate at that point. We have previously pondered checking out early, but that means still driving back to the same airport to return the car rental in the path of the storm. At this point, we feel we are best to remain where we are and ride it out. Stay tuned and see how we make the MostPerMile in this adventure and learning opportunity! As an educator, I strongly feel the world is an amazing classroom and we safely take advantage of the weather systems that may come our way.
And as as I end this, sitting contently on the balcony in the fresh air, happy voices are coming through the door well after 10pm from watching crabs on the beach with flashlights, wondering if that seashell chocolate candy from the cake at dinner is anywhere to be found. I had nothing to do with it if the chocolate seashells are missing, I promise!
Possible Curriculum Correlations in Texas:
** Hurricane Nate added some learning opportunities to this three-day trip!
(7) Earth and space. The student knows that the natural world includes rocks, soil, and water that can be observed in cycles, patterns, and systems. The student is expected to:
(A) observe, compare, describe, and sort components of soil by size, texture, and color;
(B) identify and describe a variety of natural sources of water, including streams, lakes, and oceans;
(8) Earth and space. The student knows that the natural world includes the air around us and objects in the sky. The student is expected to:
(A) record weather information, including relative temperature, such as hot or cold, clear or cloudy, calm or windy, and rainy or icy;
(B) observe and record changes in the appearance of objects in the sky such as clouds, the Moon, and stars, including the Sun;
(C) identify characteristics of the seasons of the year and day and night; and
(D) demonstrate that air is all around us and observe that wind is moving air.
(8) Earth and space. The student knows that natural events and human activity can impact Earth systems. The student is expected to:
(A) predict and describe how different types of catastrophic events impact ecosystems such as floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes;
(B) analyze the effects of weathering, erosion, and deposition on the environment in ecoregions of Texas; and
(10) Earth and space. The student knows that climatic interactions exist among Earth, ocean, and weather systems. The student is expected to:
(A) recognize that the Sun provides the energy that drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents;
(B) identify how global patterns of atmospheric movement influence local weather using weather maps that show high and low pressures and fronts; and
(C) identify the role of the oceans in the formation of weather systems such as hurricanes.
(11) Organisms and environments. The student knows that interdependence occurs among living systems and the environment and that human activities can affect these systems. The student is expected to:
(A) describe producer/consumer, predator/prey, and parasite/host relationships as they occur in food webs within marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems;
(B) investigate how organisms and populations in an ecosystem depend on and may compete for biotic and abiotic factors such as quantity of light, water, range of temperatures, or soil composition;
(C) explore how short- and long-term environmental changes affect organisms and traits in subsequent populations; and
(D) recognize human dependence on ocean systems and explain how human activities such as runoff, artificial reefs, or use of resources have modified these systems.
