Staff Day, Barbeque and Hula Hoops OH MY

Hello Harbor Explorers!  This week has been fantastic and jam-packed:  Monday was staff day, then Tuesday and Wednesday I got to explore Georges Island with tons of kids and to wrap up the week, I have tomorrow off!

The week started off with Staff Day, which includes an annual trip to Spectacle Island for some fun in the sun and lunch on Bruce and Patty's boat.  While some staffers headed up to the fields to play (what I heard was) an intense game of kickball, I stayed right on the beach.  A nice swim followed by a ranger-led kayaking excursion with Thi, Sarah, Iris and Jennifer was lots of fun, especially since it was the first time I had gone kayaking this year!  Thi and I got a little competitive but I proved myself the fastest kayaker this side of the Charles River by the end of the day.

Me, Thi and Vinh enjoying the waves

Tuesday and Wednesday I was on Georges Island with All Access.  We had an exceptionally great week -- we took out over 700 kids between the two days!  I also got to see something unusual on Tuesday:  leader extraordinaire David Coffin invoked his barbeque rule while we were out on the island.  According to David, if he can smell barbeque, he can have some barbeque.  While I had never heard of this rule before, the other visitors to the island must have been familiar with it, since they gladly offered him his choice of what was grilling.  David even manned the grill for a little while, but was removed from duty for bad behavior.

David made some friends!

Wednesday we were lucky enough to have the 2013 summer interns for Blue Cross Blue Shield join us on Georges for their day of service.  They helped clean up trash from the beach and trails around the island -- a big thank you to all the kids for their hard work, especially the Save the Harbor staffers that are from Blue Cross!

Hard at work...or hardly working

All in all, a great week out on the harbor islands, and a long weekend for me to enjoy!  Next week the whole staff will be gearing up for our 3rd annual Beach Bash and Splash on Thursday, so more cool pictures and stories to come!

-- Carolyn