Everglades Photos

The group leaving Flamingo, Florida, after our canoe trip in the Everglades This is Andrew fishing at one of our campsites

This is the sunset at our first campsite when we came off the Chickee
This is a piece of wood we found when exploring on an island in the Everglades.
This is a dolphin that swam up to our canoes.

Photos By David Hollander

Sea Urchins
by Andrew Berry

This is what Andrew discovered about sea urchins during his last expedition:


Sea urchins by
Andrew Berry

Sea urchins are spiny, purple and red. They are in the echinoderm family. They live on the seafloor and they eat kelp. They are slow and lazy. They fight seals and sea lions with their spines. They lay eggs and you can eat them in Sushi!

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Scuba diving with Jon Adkins:


Jon's scuba skills

Hello my name is Jonathan and I’m going to be discussing how my friends and I got scuba certified.
It all starts with learning the basics. Some of the basics are learning how to use a dive chart. A dive chart is what all scuba divers use to accommodate time spent at certain depth and residual nitrogen in our bodies after each dive and dive plans. We also had to learn safety checks for all equipment, safety rules, buoyancy and more. We had to learn how to do everything in a pool before we went into the water.

It’s important to understand the signs used under water such as the following:

- out of air
- - low on air
- - I’m ok,
- -get over here, etc.

You also need to know your partner’s preferences on equipment, time management, what to do in a emergency, and what you are going to do in your dive plan.

The Florida Keys experience by Dylan Smythe

The Florida Keys were more than I expected. The water was clear with 30-foot visibility, the weather was hot and the fish were colorful. I didn’t expect the warm weather in the middle of January.

When I first stepped out of the van at Camp Sawyer, at 10:37 P.M., I was surprised by the dramatic change in temperature! It went from 10° Fahrenheit to 70° then to 90°! Even at 10:27 P.M. at night, it was at least 85°+ degrees!

After I got my hammock and everything was cleaned up, (yes, mom, I slept in my hammock the whole two weeks!), we were finally allowed to go coconut hunting; we collected at least 50 coconuts before our time was up. The next morning, we were allowed to sleep in until 9:00 A.M. because of our 4:00 wake up the previous two days in a row. We explored our site and the near by sea.

I was sad to leave (my Irish skin liked the humidity). I started to turn my head into the direction of the Everglades for our next expedition. I hope the bugs aren’t as bad as they were in the keys. I wonder what kind of fun this experience will bring my group this time.

Thoughts about Rick Riordan

by
Michael Strange

Rick Riordan is one of my favorite writers.
The reason I like his books so much is because it makes me want to know more about what happens throughout the book. He keeps you turning the pages. I think his last book was amazing. The Battle of the Labyrinth was an exiting adventure filled with fighting and major battles. Soon there is a new book coming out called The Last Olympian (May 5, 2009) I’m so exited to read it I can hardly wait!


I’ve read the following books by Rick Riordan:

The Lightning Thief
The Sea of Monsters
The Titans Curse
The Battle of the Labyrinth



Facts about the Author

Rick Roydon was born June 5 in1964 in San Antonio Texas. He is the fantasy writer of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series. He published "Maze of Bones" for Scholastic which is the first in The 39 Clues series of books.
Here are some of the books by Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief (June 28, 2005)
The Sea of Monsters (April 1, 2006)
The Titan's Curse (May 1, 2007).
The Battle of the Labyrinth (May 6,2008).The Last Olympian (May 5, 2009).

the peace of the keys

Fishing in the Keys

Andrew’s Fishing Adventure in the Keys.

The Florida Keys are a good fishing spot. I consider the fishing good because people can catch big fish there. Our group caught pen fish, barracudas, groupers and yellow tail. We saw a nurse shark and a needlefish.

It’s important to bring an extra fishing pole with you when you go fishing. Mine broke but luckily SOAR had an extra pole I could use.

We kayaked four and a half miles to our fishing spot near No Name Key.
We spent about two hours fishing.

Fishing is AWESOME!


Here are some links to fishing in the Keys:

http://www.florida-keys.fl.us/fishing.htm
http://www.islamoradasportfishing.com/

Florida Keys Expedition 2

David Hollander

On our last expedition we went to the Florida Keys. While we were in the Florida Keys we all got scuba certified. Scuba diving is one of the coolest things I have ever done. Breathing under water is kind of scary at first, but once you trust yourself it’s an amazing experience. In order to get your open water certification you need to do a pool dive then four open water dives. An open water diver has the authority to dive with another open water diver, but a skin diver can only dive with an instructor. At first I thought that the pool dive was awesome but then I dove in the ocean, which was a million times better. I had a great time scuba diving in the Keys.