The Saga Continues
Okay, it's time for another round of "Lengthy Science Bowl Trip Report!" Seriously, I'm sorry these are so long, but we have done a lot of stuff over the past few days.
Last time on the Science Bowl Trip:
We were in Aiken. We were about to go out to eat and everyone was taking a nap.
Well, for supper, we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant. It wasn't just any Japanese restaurant though. It was one of those cook-in-your-face entertainment meals. There was the grill that we all sat around and he cooked and did cool tricks. It was awesome.
After that, we went around in the car and looked at some of the fancy houses. We also saw some horse race tracks. In my humble yet frank opinion, it was lame.
Wednesday!
The next day was pretty awesome. As with the previous days, we started out by going to some rather sleep-inducing tours/lecture-type things. That's not to say that they weren't interesting (they were; we got to see some mass spectrometers and stuff); it's just that we were tired and didn't have any physical activity to keep us very awake.
Then the coolness began. We went to do some ecology stuff with this completely awesome guy named Tony. He was like the crocodile guy in terms of his enthusiasm, but it was really cool. We went out to the forest place and first looked at the drift fence traps. Basically, there are these fences that herd insects/small animals into buckets where they can be counted and released. We found some six-striped runners (a type of lizard), toads, some centipedes, and large wolf spiders.
There's an interesting story he had to say about the toads. There were these glands behind their eyes which he said were poison sacs. I asked how the poison was excreted, and he said it was through the skin and told an interesting anecdote. Apparently, some youth in the state had been licking the backs of these toads to get high (the poison acts like a hallucinogen). So, the government passed a law prohibiting the licking of the backs of toads. Pretty strange.
So, after we checked some more of those drift fences and met some more gopher turtles, we went over to this pond to check on some underwater traps. There were a snake, a few turtles, and some small fish. Also, there were a few leeches. Tony (he's probaly around 45) spotted them and said something like, "Cool! Leeches!" and just lunged and grabbed them out of the water. We put them into some plastic bags. Then we went to lunch and ate with some of the scientists who worked there.
Next, there was even more coolness. We went to the actual Savannah River and got on a boat. Our objective was to find and catch some Brown Water Snakes. After going on for a while, Tony found one in the bushes. It took us a while to see it (especially me) even we were looking right at it. After a little tight maneuvering, we got right next to it, and he grabbed it! He got bitten a few times, but the snake isn't poisonous so it was OK. Later, I spotted one in a tree (mostly out of pure luck), so Tony was impressed. Michael had asked to catch the next snake, so he got his shot. He grabbed the snake's middle with his bare hands and got bitten just like Tony, but he still got the snake and put it in the snake bag. Excellent. Perhaps in return for finding the snake (the purpose of the snake-finding is to help a student with his thesis), I was allowed to drive the boat around. I took it up to almost its highest speed. It was most excellent. I wish I had a boat of my own to drive around the river. Anyways, we didn't find any more snakes.
Later, after supper, we went up to the Savannah River Site again. We looked at some snakes that they had in captivity, held some baby alligators, fed some larger alligators, and went to see Stumpy. He is a monstrous huge alligator with one foot off (hence his name). We tried to feed him some of the dead mice, but he didn't notice. As we walked back to our car, a guy drove up with one of the boats that we were to use on L Lake, where we were to see the alligators. He popped out of his truck and pulled a dead squirrel out from the back and said something to the effect of "Time to feed Stumpy." He put the squirrel on the end of a long wooden pole and let Stumpy at him. It was awesome. I have some good video footage of it. After that, we drove to L Lake (the artificial lake created as a cooling reservoir for the L nuclear reactor) to go gator-hunting. Meredith, Adam, and I first took a quick ride on an airboat, which was a boat with a giant fan on the back. I clocked its speed with the GPS device and it measured about 45 mph. It was really cool. Next, we switched off with Mrs. Jones, Adam, and Felix. We went on the other regular boat to do some gator-hunting. By this time, the sun had just set. The key to hunting gators is to shine a spotlight parallel to the water and look for the red glint that comes off their eyes. We spotted two gators through the blanket of bugs that had just suddenly appeared. We couldn't get one, went to the other, couldn't get the second, went back to the first, and found a small boat of some other people who had been around with the gator noosed and a line on him. We watched them close his mouth and duct tape it throughly. Michael, Meredith, and I went to the nearby bank to wait for the arrival of the gator.
They dragged the gator over to the bank, where we helped pull him up. They hog-tied his hands and legs and measured him. At this point, the air boat had arrived and the rest had showed up. They proceeded to mark him and take a blood sample. Then they released him into the water. The whole process took about an hour. It was now about 11 o' clock, so we went back to the hotel.
Thursday!
Thursday was basically a travel day. We woke up late (10 AM perhaps) and left for Charleston. It was a long drive, so basically everyone but me and the adults slept. I finished up A Beautiful Mind. It ended up being pretty interesting. Anyways, we got to the hotel, which is completely, totally awesome. It has a restaurant built into the bottom floor called Tristan which advertises "eclectic, creative cuisine." If that doesn't sound expensive, I don't know what does. Anyhoo, next we traveled out to an adjoining island for a so called "Dolphin Watching and Sunset Cruise." We saw some dolphins, which was cool, but it was three hours before sunset. That strikes me as kind of stupid. Next, we went to dinner at this restaurant nearby. It took forever for our food to get to us, and in my case it wasn't that good at all, there was very little food, and it was horribly overpriced. Stinko.
Anyway, after about 2 hours we went back to our hotel and then went on a nighttime walk around part of the city. We looked at part of the open market and found some pretty cool souveniers. Whatever. Then we played 360 (80 with nine decks; it was insane) and went to bed.
Friday!
Okay, today was tour guide day. We got up and went on a carriage tour that took a couple of hours. Next, we went souvenier shopping in an open market. After that, we went to this awesome seafood restaurant called "A. W. Shuck's." I had a superb, bigger, tastier meal for 1/3 of the price of the one I got the previous night. Michael got one of their advertising T-Shirts that says "Big Mussels, Great Legs, and Fantastic Tails: A. W. Shuck's Seafood and Bar." Very funny.
We went to the beach and goofed around for a while.
We went back to the hotel, ate out at an excellent steak/seafood place called T-Bonez, and then went on an interesting "Ghost Tour" of the city where we became acquainted with some of the local myths. Anyways, afterwards, we went back to the hotel to discover that we were sunburned rather badly despite our liberal appliance of sunscreen. Ah well.
Saturday!
It's Felix's birthday! And I am going to sleep!
Last time on the Science Bowl Trip:
We were in Aiken. We were about to go out to eat and everyone was taking a nap.
Well, for supper, we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant. It wasn't just any Japanese restaurant though. It was one of those cook-in-your-face entertainment meals. There was the grill that we all sat around and he cooked and did cool tricks. It was awesome.
After that, we went around in the car and looked at some of the fancy houses. We also saw some horse race tracks. In my humble yet frank opinion, it was lame.
Wednesday!
The next day was pretty awesome. As with the previous days, we started out by going to some rather sleep-inducing tours/lecture-type things. That's not to say that they weren't interesting (they were; we got to see some mass spectrometers and stuff); it's just that we were tired and didn't have any physical activity to keep us very awake.
Then the coolness began. We went to do some ecology stuff with this completely awesome guy named Tony. He was like the crocodile guy in terms of his enthusiasm, but it was really cool. We went out to the forest place and first looked at the drift fence traps. Basically, there are these fences that herd insects/small animals into buckets where they can be counted and released. We found some six-striped runners (a type of lizard), toads, some centipedes, and large wolf spiders.
There's an interesting story he had to say about the toads. There were these glands behind their eyes which he said were poison sacs. I asked how the poison was excreted, and he said it was through the skin and told an interesting anecdote. Apparently, some youth in the state had been licking the backs of these toads to get high (the poison acts like a hallucinogen). So, the government passed a law prohibiting the licking of the backs of toads. Pretty strange.
So, after we checked some more of those drift fences and met some more gopher turtles, we went over to this pond to check on some underwater traps. There were a snake, a few turtles, and some small fish. Also, there were a few leeches. Tony (he's probaly around 45) spotted them and said something like, "Cool! Leeches!" and just lunged and grabbed them out of the water. We put them into some plastic bags. Then we went to lunch and ate with some of the scientists who worked there.
Next, there was even more coolness. We went to the actual Savannah River and got on a boat. Our objective was to find and catch some Brown Water Snakes. After going on for a while, Tony found one in the bushes. It took us a while to see it (especially me) even we were looking right at it. After a little tight maneuvering, we got right next to it, and he grabbed it! He got bitten a few times, but the snake isn't poisonous so it was OK. Later, I spotted one in a tree (mostly out of pure luck), so Tony was impressed. Michael had asked to catch the next snake, so he got his shot. He grabbed the snake's middle with his bare hands and got bitten just like Tony, but he still got the snake and put it in the snake bag. Excellent. Perhaps in return for finding the snake (the purpose of the snake-finding is to help a student with his thesis), I was allowed to drive the boat around. I took it up to almost its highest speed. It was most excellent. I wish I had a boat of my own to drive around the river. Anyways, we didn't find any more snakes.
Later, after supper, we went up to the Savannah River Site again. We looked at some snakes that they had in captivity, held some baby alligators, fed some larger alligators, and went to see Stumpy. He is a monstrous huge alligator with one foot off (hence his name). We tried to feed him some of the dead mice, but he didn't notice. As we walked back to our car, a guy drove up with one of the boats that we were to use on L Lake, where we were to see the alligators. He popped out of his truck and pulled a dead squirrel out from the back and said something to the effect of "Time to feed Stumpy." He put the squirrel on the end of a long wooden pole and let Stumpy at him. It was awesome. I have some good video footage of it. After that, we drove to L Lake (the artificial lake created as a cooling reservoir for the L nuclear reactor) to go gator-hunting. Meredith, Adam, and I first took a quick ride on an airboat, which was a boat with a giant fan on the back. I clocked its speed with the GPS device and it measured about 45 mph. It was really cool. Next, we switched off with Mrs. Jones, Adam, and Felix. We went on the other regular boat to do some gator-hunting. By this time, the sun had just set. The key to hunting gators is to shine a spotlight parallel to the water and look for the red glint that comes off their eyes. We spotted two gators through the blanket of bugs that had just suddenly appeared. We couldn't get one, went to the other, couldn't get the second, went back to the first, and found a small boat of some other people who had been around with the gator noosed and a line on him. We watched them close his mouth and duct tape it throughly. Michael, Meredith, and I went to the nearby bank to wait for the arrival of the gator.
They dragged the gator over to the bank, where we helped pull him up. They hog-tied his hands and legs and measured him. At this point, the air boat had arrived and the rest had showed up. They proceeded to mark him and take a blood sample. Then they released him into the water. The whole process took about an hour. It was now about 11 o' clock, so we went back to the hotel.
Thursday!
Thursday was basically a travel day. We woke up late (10 AM perhaps) and left for Charleston. It was a long drive, so basically everyone but me and the adults slept. I finished up A Beautiful Mind. It ended up being pretty interesting. Anyways, we got to the hotel, which is completely, totally awesome. It has a restaurant built into the bottom floor called Tristan which advertises "eclectic, creative cuisine." If that doesn't sound expensive, I don't know what does. Anyhoo, next we traveled out to an adjoining island for a so called "Dolphin Watching and Sunset Cruise." We saw some dolphins, which was cool, but it was three hours before sunset. That strikes me as kind of stupid. Next, we went to dinner at this restaurant nearby. It took forever for our food to get to us, and in my case it wasn't that good at all, there was very little food, and it was horribly overpriced. Stinko.
Anyway, after about 2 hours we went back to our hotel and then went on a nighttime walk around part of the city. We looked at part of the open market and found some pretty cool souveniers. Whatever. Then we played 360 (80 with nine decks; it was insane) and went to bed.
Friday!
Okay, today was tour guide day. We got up and went on a carriage tour that took a couple of hours. Next, we went souvenier shopping in an open market. After that, we went to this awesome seafood restaurant called "A. W. Shuck's." I had a superb, bigger, tastier meal for 1/3 of the price of the one I got the previous night. Michael got one of their advertising T-Shirts that says "Big Mussels, Great Legs, and Fantastic Tails: A. W. Shuck's Seafood and Bar." Very funny.
We went to the beach and goofed around for a while.
We went back to the hotel, ate out at an excellent steak/seafood place called T-Bonez, and then went on an interesting "Ghost Tour" of the city where we became acquainted with some of the local myths. Anyways, afterwards, we went back to the hotel to discover that we were sunburned rather badly despite our liberal appliance of sunscreen. Ah well.
Saturday!
It's Felix's birthday! And I am going to sleep!
posted by Seth at 6/27/2003 11:48:00 PM
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