Cub Scout Field Trip

I've been Ben's Bear Cub Scout leader for a few months now and we have had some fun times!  We started with six boys, but one turned 10 in December and moved up to Webelos.  We lose another one at the end of this month, but get two more in February.  My assistant, Whitley and I have decided to go on a field trip once a month.  The boys love getting out and it's so much easier on the planning side.  This month's adventure was to the Poulsbo Marine Science Center.  We met at my house first and waited for everyone to arrive.  The boys were having so much fun on the play structure that we probably could have stayed at my house the whole time.  (Maybe an idea for a future field trip?)

The Bears:  Jake, Ian, Hyrum (in the "toilet"...gotta love 9 year old boy humor!), Blake, and Ben

The Marine Science Center is down on the Poulsbo waterfront, a small, but wonderful place.  For one thing, it's absolutely free to get in!  And it's run by amazing volunteers who know just about everything there is to know about marine life. 

This gentleman could answer any question the boys had and was able to explain things in a way they could understand.

This tank was neat because they could see the underside of the sea creatures who were stuck to the glass.  There was a huge sea cucumber with hundreds of little suction feet "cleaning" one side of the tank.

Close up of some of the beautiful creatures.  I love the different colors and patterns!

It was hard to get a good picture of the jelly fish tank since it's so dark, but I thought this was really cool with Ben's reflection and the jellyfish right above his head!

After they were done touching the creatures and looking in the tanks, they settled into the movie room to watch "The Twilight Zone," not the Rod Serling TV series, but a documentary about the creatures that live in the depths of the sea where very little light reaches.  You know the ones with the huge eyes and gigantic teeth and weird light things dangling from their heads.  Very cool and a little scary!

They could have stayed and watched the movie longer, but the place closed at 4:00, so we had to leave.  If it would have been nice out, we would have walked down to the waterfront, but it was pretty cold, so we just hung out and ate brownies in front of the building.