Coastal Carolina

 Our homeschool theme study for the month of October is the ocean, so we just took a fieldtrip to the coast.  

Stop #1:  The Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center.

All five of us had a good time learning more about coastal wildlife and how coastal areas are maintained.

 One of the kids said, "Look!  Nana would love that deer!"

(Their Nana loves feeding deer in her yard, and she actually talks to them and they understand her.  Which is why she is "The Deer Whisperer. :D)

 Stop #2:  The North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

Since our last trip to this aquarium, they've added a new turtle rehabilitation section, where we learned how sea turtles are being rehabilitated and released back into the wild.  It was SO COOL!  First, the kids each picked-out a plastic turtle and took it to a diagnostic lab.

Every little turtle is different, and the kids see how their turtle checks-out when it is given a physical exam.  One turtle might be diagnosed with an obstruction, while another might be diagnosed with an infection or an injury from a collision with a boat.

Next, the kids took their turtles to the rehabilitation lab.  There, they would watch a video where marine biologists told them what was wrong with their particular turtle, and how to treat the problem. 

The lab would have replica medicine and tools, and the kids would be shown in the video how to use them.  Christopher even had to perform surgery on his plastic turtle! 

Of course, not all of the turtle rehabilitation at the NC Aquarium was make-believe.  We were able to visit the actual turtle rehabilitation lab, where real sea turtles are being restored back to health.  Once given a clean bill of health, the marine biologists simply take them over to the beach and set them loose in the water.  I bet that would be wonderful to see...

We also saw lots of other ocean creatures...as well as a few freshwater ones, too.  Arguably the cutest critters we saw were the otters in the exhibit "The Otter Banks."  Get it???  We were at the Outer Banks and the exhibit was called "The Otter Banks"!!!

 And John - my shark lover - got his fix of shark teeth at the aquarium.

Fun day of learning for our whole family.  And I have to mention a great little restaurant right outside of Nags Head that we tried for the first time:  Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe.   I had the shrimp, which was good, with root vegetables which were great, and the parmesan-spinach grit cake which was AMAZING.  That grit cake was one of the best things I have ever eaten.  Seriously.

Those root vegetables were actually grown on-site at the restaurant's extensive garden which is grown right on the Pamlico Sound.