Day 6 - Nature

* P.S  It has taken over 3 days for be to be able to publish this post!!  Blogger apparently hates me at the moment.  Sorry for the delay.*

We have come to day 6 of our trip, only 4 more days to go!

Today we were a bit nervous because the weather man told us that it was going to rain. We have been blessed with awesome weather so far on our trip and we were really bummed that it was going to rain. Today we went to Gooseberry Falls and the Split Rock Lighthouse, both of which are OUTSIDE.  We had the students pack warm clothes and jackets just in case it did rain.  Our luck held out though, it was a BEAUTIFUL day!  HA Mr. Weather man!

We got everyone up, had another awesome breakfast, and started out for Gooseberry Falls.  Gooseberry Falls is a National Park, north of Duluth.  When we got there all the students were whining and asking what we were going to do there. For those of you that don't know me, when people whine at me and ask me the same questions over 50 times, my sarcasm tends to come out...heavily.  So I was answering with, "We're going to climb a mountain for an hour!" or "We going to wander in the woods because Sheila and I think it would be fun!"  Neither of these suggestions were popular with the students.  We started out in the park and walked for about 10 minutes before we saw the first waterfalls.  We started at the lower falls and then worked our way down.  As soon as they saw the first waterfalls all the whining vanished and they were mesmerized.  They loved the fact that they could climb on the rocks around the water and touch the waterfalls.  I practiced skipping rocks with some of the students, found out I was a tad rusty.

Touching a waterfall for the 1st time

Group shot by the falls

Mom and Sheila taking in the sights

Climbing a tree because she can

While wandering to the upper falls we met a naturalist who had a little table set up and he taught the students about how Minnesota and Gooseberry Falls were made millions of years ago, with the glacier and all that jazz. We spent nearly two hours wandering the park and just hanging outside.  It was a lot of fun to watch them explore.  We had a due date with Split Rock lighthouse and still needed to get lunch so we had to leave, all too soon.

Listening to the naturalist

For lunch we went to Betty's Pies.  If you have never been to Betty's Pies then YOU are missing out! I love this place and the students are now park of the "I love Betty's Pies" fan club. We all had lunch and my mom, the generous woman that she is, bought each student a piece of pie :D It was a great lunch!

Next we set out for Split Rock Lighthouse, or where I THOUGHT it was. I lived in Duluth for 5 years and I could have sworn that Split Rock was outside of the town of Two Harbors.  Well I was right and I was wrong.  Split Rock is outside of Two Harbors, just in the opposite direction of where I thought it was!  Apparently there is ANOTHER lighthouse called the Two Harbors Lighthouse.  Color me surprised!  I had no idea that there were two lighthouses so close to Duluth.  My ignorance was hilarious to the students.  Honestly, I had never heard of the Two Harbors Lighthouse, which is sad because had I known I would have brought the students to that one as well.  Well, I learned something!

Eventually we made it to Split Rock Lighthouse, my ignorance and road construction made us a tad late, shocking.  The people at Split Rock were super nice about it and we started our tour in no time. Split Rock is a beautiful spot!  They pulled up all the materials for the lighthouse and the three houses with it up a cliff! It's insane!  The houses are so nice and even way back in the early 1900's they had running water! Sheila made a joke about this because a governor of Alaska was once quoted in saying that he wanted the honey bucket in the museum by 2000, it's 2011 and the village STILL have honey buckets galore.  So needless to say, Sheila was a tad peeved that they had running water way back then, on a remote cliff, and they still don't have it at home.

Learning how Split Rock was built

Lighthouse Keeper teaching them how the lighthouse works

Looking at the weight

The tour guide took us through one house that was set for the time.  We also went through another building and learned about what made Split Rock Lighthouse unique from the other lighthouses around Lake Superior and how it came into    existence. They also got to hear the sound of the horn that the lighthouse used but at only a tenth of the sound. The students got the tour guide to blow it twice, pretty hilarious.  Next we got to tour the actual lighthouse and a guy in there told the students what was required of a lighthouse keeper and the jobs that they had to do. They also learned what kept the light up and how it rotated. This section of the tour was really interesting. Sadly, it was cut a little short because we had to make the movie, which was a bummer because the movie was not very good.  Everyone, including Sheila, fell asleep. I think I was one of five people in that whole theater that didn't fall asleep...that's how interesting it was.

After the movie we took everyone outside to take a group shot in front of the lighthouse and to take pictures with the cut outs, you know, the board that stands up and you can put your face into the scene. The students LOVE taking pictures with these. After going through the gift shop we headed back to Duluth. I wanted to take Sheila through the scenic drive back to Duluth but it's under construction! Talk about a let down.  So we took the quicker way home.

We only had about an hour before we had to be to dinner so I took everyone to Park Point so that they could swim in Lake Superior. For our entire stay in Duluth the students have learned about Lake Superior and ridden on top of it but they hadn't touched it yet. We had to fix that. This was my favorite part of the day. They had so much fun and were so excited that they could now say they have swam in the largest fresh water lake in surface area and one of the great lakes :D  It was cold and there was a lot of squealing going on but they all said it was worth it. I had a lot of students running back and forth between the beach and the cars to quickly change into swimsuits and some that just ran in fully clothed. All in all, perfect ending to the day.

Going in fully clothed!

It was COLD!

Burying themselves in the sand

Playing in Superior

We finally got everyone out of the lake about an hour later and went to the Duluth Grill.  This restaurant is amazing!!  They promote organic food and try to buy as locally as possible.  They are as green as a restaurant can be.  They also promote local art and have a garden on their lot to bring more green into the city.  Truly brilliant!  They even took all the students on a tour through the kitchens to show them what they are about and what they are trying to promote.  The students loved it and they loved the food too.  It was all so good and again, the food really helped to expand their palates and to not focus on the same familiar food.  The Duluth Grill even worked out a budget so that all the students could get a dessert.  They were really wonderful and we were so glad that we got to enjoy dinner there.

That night was full of swimming, as usual.  The water park closed at 9 so they didn't get to go to the water park but they did get to swim in the outside pool, which was OK with all of them. I did get my camera out there this time and shot a few pictures.  Oscar was seal hopping into the pool and shooting the students up out of the water.  They were having so much fun!  Sheila and I watched from the hot tub, the perfect place in my opinion.   We got kicked out of the pool at 10 and all the students reluctantly went back to their rooms.  We had everyone journal in their rooms and we handed out post cards of Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse.

Oscar seal hopping into the pool

One thing that we have been making the students do each night, well some of them do it without being told, is we have them journal about everything they learned that day and what they saw and heard.  We're trying to improve their writing and also help them remember everything that they see that day.  So far it's been a lot to take in and we know that they'll forget a lot of it unless we get them to write it all down.  Also, we have to give a presentation about the trip when we get back to Kong in the fall for the entire village and the LKSD school board, if they ask for it.  It's a way to show the village and the school board that this trip was not just a pleasure cruise but that the students did learn something.  Hopefully these journals will also be something they can read later on and remember all the cool things they got to do on this once in a lifetime trip :D

A lot of people think I'm being "dramatic" by this statement but unfortunately it's true.  Most of our students will never come back to the lower 48 or leave Alaska.  A large portion may never leave the village.  This isn't a sad statement but a true one.  Sheila and I did not take these kids on this trip to try to persuade them that village life is bad and this life is good.  We did this to just help open their eyes and allow them to connect to all the information that they've been taught in school.  Now when someone asks them about the great lakes they have information to pull from. If a standardized test asks them a question that involves a road trip, they have background information to pull from that wasn't there before.  Most of the simple experiences that we've had they've never encountered.  Their life is rich in many, MANY ways but when it comes to the average life experiences that are included in state standardized tests and books, they are lacking.   We're hoping this trip will give them a leg up and also one heck of a good time :D

Another aspect that we started is Sheila or I, and sometimes my mom, will buy each student a postcard of the places we've been so they can have a picture of the places they've visited.   Each student needs to get their journal OK'd by either me or Sheila before they can go do other things.   Usually before they can go swimming they need to journal and get it OK'd

That was it for Day 6.  We had the students go to bed pretty early, I think around midnight, because the next day was going to be a LONG day.  We are headed for Minneapolis and the Mall of America!!  Stay tuned!