Real Friends

The crab lover.

Have you ever been to Red Rock Beach in Lynn? Ever wondered why it's called Red Rock? Well I did, and this past weekend I discovered the answer to both of these problems. I decided to take on the Kids Day Festival at Red Rock Beach. Now, walking into this event I wasn't really at the height of happiness, but that quickly changed. The vibe coming off of everyone attending the event was very hard to ignore. Between the upbeat music and the balloon animals flying through the air, I couldn't shake a smile off my face if I had tried. It was funny at first when the pirate newsletters kept blowing away in the wind. There would be a huge gust and then I'd have to chase the papers down the hill. At one point, all the kids who were near our table went running down the hill with me after the papers. When our senior harbor educator Jenn, and Jahari came back up with the first refill of water, they brought with them a molting crab, a hermit crab, and a baby crab. The baby crab is always a hit for the little girls. They're always afraid to hold crabs because they think they'll get pinched. But once I tell them that the baby cant hurt them, they put their palms straight out and I lay the baby in their palms. Then they always put their little noses right up to the crabs' nose so that they can look them right in the eye. One little boy was obsessed with feeling the crab shells. No matter how many times his mom pulled him away to another table, he always came waddling back looking for a crab to pet!

This past Monday, I was at Community Boating instead of Piers Park. This way new to me, but nonetheless, fun. Max and Henry were using the fish nets to see if they could catch any little fish swimming in the shallow waters, but none seemed to be swimming into the net. Then all of a sudden I heard a yell from the dock. Max had spotted a giant catfish swimming in the shallow water. From that point on, there always had to be one set of eyes on where that fish was seen. At one point, I came so close to catching it; I thrusted the net into the water and that huge fish got halfway in it, then backed himself right out. Overall, it was a great day at community boating that included many laughs and inside jokes.

My "Real Friends" on our lunch break.

Until the next adventure,

Patrice 

Kids Day Festival!

Happy faces all around

This Saturday I had the pleasure of working at the Kid’s Day Festival at Red Rock Beach in Lynn. Early in the morning Jahari, Patrice, Jennifer, Kimberly, and myself loaded into my car and stopped at the Courageous Sailing Center. Our first order of business for this event was to collect crabs from the traps we have at Courageous. We picked a few lucky green crabs from the traps and took them on a lovely car ride to the festival. When we arrived, we set up a large touch tank with the crabs we collected earlier. While Jahari, Kimberly, and Jennifer were collecting ocean water for our tank, they also found a handful of periwinkle snails, a few small hermit crabs, a small bright green crab the size of a quarter, and a crab who had just molted. I had never seen a freshly molted crab and was very excited to examine his soft exterior. We placed the new-found creatures in a bucket next to our tank and soon enough, the children came rushing in.

Patrice helping a little boy pet the crab

Tiny green crab

It was a very windy day, but the wind could not blow away all of the excitement. There were bubbles in the air, balloon animals floating about, and Disney songs pouring out of the speakers. Because our table was right at the beginning of the park, we were constantly busy showing the kids our cool collection. A lot of children loved the tiny green crab because he was so small and had tiny pinchers. Still, there were many brave children who jumped at the chance to hold a large crab for the first time. Even some adults got over their fears and held a squirmy crab. We had a few crab races on the table and the hermit crabs became bold enough to run around as well. One hungry baby thought a periwinkle snail looked pretty delicious, but we saved the little snail from becoming a snack!

Spiderman and a one-clawed crab

Once we were done at the event, it was time to release the crabs back into the ocean. A few kids volunteered to help us and had a great time saying bye to our ten-legged friends. We also took a couple minutes to explore the tide pools before it was time to head home. Even though this was an event for kids, I had a fantastic time. I guess I am still a kid at heart!

Sea you out there,

Jennifer Leiendecker