Year Four!

 Hello all, 

    Aidan is returning this summer for the fourth installment of my annual blogging about my job at SHSB. For anyone new to this side of blogger, this is my fourth year working at save the harbor, preceded by my sister, who isn't working this year (she's starting teaching), and followed by my brother, who is on his third year working. This year, for the first time in nearly three years, we've returned to our normal work format by being outside and teaching people about the harbor through relevant activities. This means no more zoom days on Mondays and Fridays and more time in the sun.

Last week was the start of orientation for us, which followed the same pattern as previous years. On Wednesday we visited Spectacle Island, where we searched for sea glass and hiked the nature trail. Once we were done with that, we went swimming on Spectacle's beach. Thursday we went fishing on the Belle, a fishing boat we've been using for a long time. I couldn't catch anything on the rod, but I did haul up a lobster trap brimming with adult spider crabs, with appendages nearly as long as mine. Friday, we went to Carson Beach in South Boston for one of our beach bashes, and this one was packed. Lines for the kayaks were filled, and the water was constantly splashing. As a token of appreciation, our staff got tickets for a free lunch at a nearby Caribbean food truck, where I got spicy chicken and fried plantains which were delicious.

This week was about introducing us to our sites. However, for me this week started at Spectacle again, since it seemed All Access needed more staff for that day. From here on, I'll be spending this July working with Boston Children's Museum until August, when our teams shuffle up again. Our first day at BCM was a breeze since we still needed to get our equipment situated for the upcoming weeks. On Friday, we had to go to Langone Park, where we spend about 2-3 hours with a group of kids fishing and playing fun games. I'm especially looking forward to Fridays now because next to Langone Park is a beautiful community pool, which we can use so long as we schedule a timeslot to use it.

And so that wraps up my first blog for 2022. I'm looking forward to a true summer with SHSB this year, and to work like this again is truly a privilege.

Until next week,

-Aidan