Raking of the sand part 2

Onward to Sunday! as well as part 2 of the raking of the sand. Now part 2 takes place in constitution beach in East Boston which was near Orient Heights on the blue line, but enough of that onto the actual event itself. Now in this event there were more staff as well as a bunch of sand rakes and people who wanted to participate despite it feeling like my skin is melting off, it was fun. (INSERT PHOTO OF SAND RAKE PICTURE HERE)
Though It was still very hot and wearing two shirts at the same time was not the best idea, but that's just me being the lazy blob of sweat and heat that I was in that moment. There was a snack bar-like place that served slush, which I got blue raspberry but the slush was arguing with the black coffee and the huge amount of ice that I consumed, and the result of that little war inside my stomach I felt incapacitated. There was also another big project that the big man artist guy wanted to do however... It was hotter than the sun and the tan lines I have before are getting slowly worse. So we were given the option to leave and unfortunately I wanted to leave but I wanted to stay for the sand rake as well.

My First Experience at Piers Park

It was the first day at Piers Park, at least for me, and it was a roller coaster of a day. The moment I got there it wasn't too rowdy and I felt a bit more relaxed than I had at the other sites I've been to, but then we got to the dock and apparently I wasn't told about the area restrictions since it was very windy that day, and so I was dragged out by the current and couldn't paddle my way back with a small paddle. In the end I was dragged back by a motor boat and felt kind of bad about not knowing the area restrictions. Afterwards the horrible game of capture the flag began. It wasn't a fair game. The kids kept going into "time out" or "I'm not playing," to then being in "time in" or "I'm playing." When they got near the flag. in the end, Luke got it and I couldn't get him since I'm not nearly as fast as him. Even though I don't like this game a ton, it's a Piers Park novelty, and it feels good to be a part of it.

Kent

Football!

The third day at Piers Park was the day after Amanda's birthday and it was fun in many ways, like the football/rugby game that was played in the morning which left my body aching for a few days (still aching while writing this). Besides my hurts, the rest of the day was filled with the abnormal. On the dock, the rod that I left out for a kid to use caught an old fishing rod that had a ton of sturdy muscles on it. After catching the rod, Sean and I went to work on mussel cracking, opening them with pliers. There were a few defects, defects meaning they were just filled with muck since something else already ate the insides, but the ones that were full looked amazing and the inside of the shells were smooth and white.

Football at Carson Beach

Over the past few weeks that I've been at Carson Beach, I've been really working on how to improve the athlete side of me. Catching footballs is one thing, and throwing them is a different game. I almost never catch the ball standing up, but for me, sitting down is a different story. Catching the football seems so much easier while sitting down (I don't know why but it just makes it easier for me!). Sometimes Joe or Preston would call "hands!" to Bridget and the best is when she has one hand holding her coffee while shielding herself with the other hand (sorry Bridget but it was funny). We have all learned that coffee is the one thing Bridget will not drop for the hands game. It is her morning priority! Recently however, Bridget has started to be able to catch with one hand, which is amazing, while I haven't progressed at all unfortunately, here's a picture of Preston with his hop game on point.

Now the 'hands' game at the beginning wasn't too bad the warnings were given before the person threw the ball in many cases would be Preston, however throughout the few weeks I've been at Carson things got a bit more extreme with Joe joining in. Now the warnings were given right before the ball hit you which was hilarious when the person receiving the ball couldn't catch it with the small amount of time given to them, but when they do catch it, it was amazing especially when the person receiving caught the ball with one hand which was what Bridget has been doing lately. In the end I'm still bad at catching, I still don't know how to throw a football correctly and the same goes for frisbee, but that's a different story.

festival of the seafood

it's the seafood festival in Boston with wonderful seafood that's way over priced for the portions with the cheapest thing there was a sushi roll for 3$, free samples were not there when I got there however the free lobster chowder from no name restaurant was amazing. Other than that what I did was fish printing on paper and shirts (shirts are 5$) surprisingly we got a few people to get the shirts although I wasn't there at that moment to witness the amazing shirts that were produced from the fish print but it's nice that we did have some takers

The secret to removing mud, Sand

Through this past week In Carson the tide was low, low to the point where it looked disgusting even felt disgusting. Besides that it was an opportunity to go clamming in the area where it was low tide. I decided to tag along with Joe and Abel although I was the only one wearing shoes and with black jeans as well. It was hard to move in that area with the kids flinging the mud and clay everywhere with the tools they were given to use. After only a few minutes the kids found a clam while Abel and I found a broken piece of a clam, here's a picture of Joe holding the clam that the kids found.

A few minutes later we decided to tread deeper into the area which was where I had to leave due to the fact that my shoes made me feel like I was walking in quicksand. The question of how to clean my shoes then came and I honestly didn't know what to do, but after running up to the beach the sand covered all the mud on my shoes and after a few minutes all the mud was gone and what was left were a few marks of mud but that was easily removed by more running through the sand. In the end It was fun that I got to join in on the clam hunting but what I kinda still regret was that I had my shoes on.

Fun and Exhausting

In just one amazing Tuesday, I got to interact with more kids at Blacks Creek than they'd ever had in one day. Some faces were new and some were familiar, with different ages and different personalities. But they all have one thing in common: They have an insane amount of energy! Their energy makes  me feel like I'm about to retire! I wish I woke up with half the energy these kids have. Here's a picture of the many kids we had, being silly and having fun.

What I did with the kids was play catch. During this, most of them learned that they got the skills to pay the bills! We also brought\back an old game of "taps" that I haven't played in years! Of course I was one of the first people to be eliminated after trying to dive after the ball. At least the effort was there. While I was playing catch with some of the kids, the others were out catching crabs, hermit crabs, snails and minnows. In the end, I had a lot of fun interacting and actually befriending a bunch of the kids by bringing out the sillier side of me.

Sand Raking is Life

Recently at Carson, it was low tide and the sand looked like it would be amazing to do some sand raking on. So we brought out the four sand rakes, and I ended up participating with the children. I enjoyed making the mushroom from Mario and I also added a stick figure body to him. Here's a photo of me lying next to my mushroom head, proud of my creation.

While I was making my artwork, one of the rakes broke (not me, a child did it). And then another was  getting loose, which was an easy fix. Then the kids started using the rakes to dig a little pond and a pathway down to the ocean. They were seeing if they could put more water in and watch it go from the "pond" back into the ocean. Here's a picture of Joe and one of the kids digging a hole with the sand rakes.

Sand raking is life - Kent

Black's Beach & Carson Creek :)

This past week, I have been at both Black's Creek and Carson beach, While at black's creek, we caught hermit crabs, snails and other types of crabs with the kids. Of course we released them back to their habitat at the end of each day. We then played some games with the kids, and even though it wasn't the best weather, the day was still fun.

Moving on to Carson Beach! At Carson Beach, I got the chance to kayak for the first time. Despite the fact I was far behind the others, I had fun. I was also the only one who took out a kayak on my own. Afterwards, I tried to do some sand raking with some of the kids in the afternoon, which was fun to do. At the end of the day, we actually lost a part of one of the sand rakes .. Oops! Despite that, I had fun interacting with the kids and joining them in few of the many activities that were going on at both Carson Beach and Blacks Creek.

Until next time, Kent