Yesterday, we did an all day nature tour across Kachemak Bay with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. They have a field station which is on a wooded isthmus between Peterson and China Poot Bay.
We were thrilled that we were the only ones on the tour! Private tour for the cost of a big group tour. We had our own nature guide, Kent, who was knowledgeable and great with our kids. We took a boat across to Peterson Bay where their field station is up on the hill in the woods. We landed on their dock, then had to cross on a hand pulled ferry. Kids thought this was very cool! We had to use some muscle to get to land!
They have two high tides and two low tides here in Alaska, so we arrived about midway between low and high tide, so we hurried over to Otter Rock to do some tide pooling. We saw a couple lion mane’s jellyfish that were on land as we headed to Otter Rock. I did not realize they still can sting even if they are dead(this one was still alive, but got stuck when the tide went down).
Kent taught the kids about Kelp, otherwise known as seaweed to people like me. He asked the kids if they had ever eaten Kelp and they said no. He asked if they had ever eaten ice cream and if they had, they had eaten Kelp. Kelp is used as to thicken products such as ice cream, salad dressing, jelly, toothpaste, gel. He cracked us all up when he squeezed some of the goo out of the kelp and put it in his hair. He said he was needing some gel! 🙂
Our kids were excited to see if they could find anemones, sea urchins, sea stars(not starfish, they are not fish 🙂 ), octopus, etc. Unfortunately, since it was not right at low tide or minus tide, we did not get to see all the creatures that you might normally see, but it still was fun! We saw a brown bear print in the sand on way to Otter Rock. In the tide pools, we saw little fish that live in the tide pools, christmas tree anemones, barnacles, kelp. It was awesome to explore the tidal pools with someone trained in environmental education. Great science lesson for the big kids also!
After tide pooling, we headed up to the field station for lunch. Then we headed out into the forest to hike over to China Poot Bay for a little Geology Lesson. Our guide truly amazed us with his knowledge of all the plants, trees, and berries. The kids ate their way through berries on the hike. We found and tried these berries on our hike: trailing raspberries(Kane’s favorite till he tried the red currants), watermelon berries, red currants(they look similar to poisonous baneberry-kind of scary), black currants, high bush blueberries(Kat’s favorite), salmon berries and crow berries. It is no wonder that we passed fresh looking bear poop on the trail about 5 times. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the bear. We also passed lynx poop(kind of reminds me of a cat hairball). It is kind of funny, but we get excited about spotting poop and trying to figure out which animal it came from. 🙂
One of our stops on our hike, was at China Poot Bay. It looks out to Kachemak Bay State Park. It is soo very beautiful and serene! Our guide gave our kids a short geology lesson on the rock, chert, that is found there. His lesson included using an Oreo for demonstration purposes which the kids got to eat afterwards, so the were very in tune! 🙂 As we turned around to look back out to the ocean, we saw a sea otter about 15 feet away and 4 harbor seals farther out.
We loved seeing our kids excitement over moose poop, to a berry they had never tried, to hearing a bald eagle call(it was amazing to hear its call-it is so dainty, not like it is portrayed in movies), to a being able to hold a dragonfly(our guide rescued a dragonfly from the pond and Kane wanted to hold it). Our kids got to touch the sea creatures in the touch tanks after our hike. Kids were excited to be able to see sea stars, sea cucumber, and crabs and actually be able to hold them. What a day! Priceless!! We say “Thank you God” every day for this time together.
