The 5th Grade group that went to Catalina Island from the Odyssey Prepatory Academy.
Charlee and Friends on the boat called the Catalina King.
Charlee with a squid on her eye. GROSS
Another part of the Squid - she is so brave.
January 28th, 2010
Yesterday some 5th graders left at 11:45 {15 min till mid} for Catalina!!! There’s not very much to tell, except that the bus driver stopped to go to the restroom, HIM ONLY!!!!! {We had a restroom inside of the bus}. At about 7:00, in California, we ate at McDonnell’s. Then, finally we got to the boat. HURRAY!!! While we were on the Catalina King {it’s the name of the boat} I saw 5 wild dolphins, 2 seals and 1 whale!!! I think it was an orca!!! Now, how cool is that!!! When we got to Catalina, they showed us where we are sleeping, the girls in the Bald Eagle, and the boys in the Barracuda. Then they went over a bunch of safety rules. BORING!!! Their buildings were made around the 1900’s! Then we had lunch. Went back to where we first were, and met our new instructors\ lifeguard. My group’s instuctor was Kelly!!! The kids in my cabin were Emma, Caylee, Miranda, Sydney Hoff, Nickeya, and Liana {Le- on-a}. The kids in my group were Emma, Caylee, Nickeya, Tristan, Ben, Kevin, and me. {There were some boys in my group}.At 1:30 we went snorkeling, and I saw a shovelnose guitarfish. It was tooooo cool!!! Then we ate dinner, had some freetime {30 min}. After that, we washed our hands. Then I went to bed. While we were in bed I read a chapter from the book “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA” Then fell asleep. That was the first day of my trip to CATALINA ISLAND!!!
January 29th, 2010
Today is Friday my first full day at Catalina!!! I was soooooooooooooooo excited!!! I can’t believe that I had to wake up at 7:00am! By a bell, nobody in my cabin heard it. Caylee woke up because she heard some snoring, she said everybody snored. When we all woke up we all started talking, then a chaperone came in a said ‘Hurry up, you need to get dressed now. It’s almost 7:25’. Then everyone said ’what? That can’t be right’. Then I said’ Hey, I’ll get dressed to see if it is true’. Then they all said ‘OK’. I got dressed went outside to check the clock and it said 7:20. I ran back inside and they asked what time it was. I said ‘7:20. Hurry up or we’ll be late. I still had to brush my hair. Then when it was 7:24 we all ran outside. Everyone was already lined up, and he was there too. My group got lined up, and was the last to be dismissed, for breakfast. When we were done we went back and brushed our teeth then lined up again, and went to Algae Lab. I learned a lot about algae, like its holdfast is its roots and hold it where it is or make it sink to the bottom, while its air bubbles make it float, because all plants need sunlight and water. I also learned the stipe is the stem, and their blades are their leaves. We have been eating algae our entire life, like in ice cream and whipped cream. After Algae lab we went to Shark lab and got to touch small leopard sharks, small horn sharks, bat rays, round rays, shovelnose guitar fish{a type of ray} and I don’t remember what the other one was called. Then we lined up and got dismissed for lunch. At 1:30 we went snorkeling {for about 30 min maybe 1hr}.We had free time for everyone {30 min}. Then we lined up and instead of our instructors, we had batman and rainbow girl! They told us that our instructors got kidnapped by the giant evil squid!!!! They said that we had to help them get research on squids. We had small ones though! We helped them. They told us how to identify squids, if they were boys or girls. We had to choose partners for this though, And I chose Emma. Our squid was a girl, because it had fewer things then the boys and a place to hold their eggs.Then we lined up and got dismissed for dinner. Then everyone went back to their dorm and got into their pajama's. I read another chapter from “The Phantom of the Opera”. Then finally fell asleep at about 10:00. Boy was I tired the next day.
January 30th, 2010
Today is Saturday. We are leaving tomorrow. I’m not happy; this place is toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fun to leave!!!!! We got dressed and lined up to get dismissed for breakfast. When we finished breakfast we went back to our dorms and lined up for our program. After that program we went to lunch. We all had free time {30 min}. At 1:30 we went snorkeling. We went under the dock and then got on the thing that people get on when getting on or off the boat, took off our snorkel goggles, and jumped off it! Then we went to dinner. After dinner we went rebel rock-climbing {about 1-2hrs} I was the first one to make it up the easy ones. Even though, I was the 5th one to climb it. Then got to the 2nd part on “The Beast” {it is the name of one of the rock climbing walls, because it is so hard}.After that, we had a bon-fire by the beach {I call it a beach bon-fire}. We roasted marshmallows {mine was always burnt}, and sang camp fire songs. After that we went back to our dorms and went to bed. I didn’t even read, because I was soooo tired!!!
January 31st, 2010
Today is Sunday and we are leaving today. I don’t want to leave at all. Before we left we went to a lab. Inside that lab we got to observe an octopus!!!!! TOTALLY COOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!! Then Kelly put a glove on and picked up a lobster in another observing area!!!!! To bad they were all female; we didn’t get to see a male lobster. Then we got to touch a sea slug, it was gross, but at the same time it was cool! It was very squishy. Then we got to touch animals like sea stars and sea cucumbers and sea snails {it is the same thing as a snail, but lives in the ocean}. If any of those wouldn’t move then they were attached. Right before we were about to leave the lab, Kelly feed the octopus a crab, it didn’t eat it so I guess it wasn’t hungry. Then we left the lab and went to Plankton Lab! There are 2 types of plankton, phytoplankton {plant-like plankton} and zooplankton {zo-plankton which is animal-like plankton} it was so cool we drew the plankton we saw up close the microscope!!!! The sad part is that we left right after that {we did get our things though}. On our way back we saw a whale up close next to the boat!! This time, it was an orca!!!!!!!!!!!! We watched movies and slept on the boat; if we were sleeping somebody would wake them up when we got to land. On the Ioat I watched Brother Bear 2. On the bus we watch the movies UP and Willy Wonca. I will always remember the trip and Kelly, Matt, Peter and Cori!!! Mr.McNett, Mr. Burden, Mrs. Clements and Mrs. Hill.
I WANT TO GO BACK FOR
SUMMER CAMP!!!!
