The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum had their home schooler day this week and we had a wonderful guided tour. Everything was very hands-on and life-size.
The kids learned how to gather oysters with these heavy claw-like tongs. They had to be lowered into the water and scraped along the mud then pulled back up.
Success! Those big black lumps are oysters. We did not get to keep them though.
Then we learned about blue crabs. The kids saw the crab tank.
Our guide told us how blue crabs shed their shells. In order to make the delicacy "soft shell crab", they keep them in tanks when it is the season for shell shedding. They watch them constantly and pull them out right after they shed their shells and put them on ice. They have to be quick because the shells reharden within a 24 hour period.
The museum had many life size boats for the kids to climb in.
This one is a real oyster and fishing boat that was donated by its captain when he retired.
Our guide told us about how they can oysters. There is only one cannery he said, but those oysters are canned then sold under many different company labels even thought they come from the same place and are processed in the same place.
Huge map of the Chesapeake bay! we played on in the map exhibit.
Learning about the Native Americans who lived here prior to white settlement.
My favorite part was climbing around in the light house. The living quarters were much bigger and nicer than I expected.
We learned about the light house keepers over the years.
I love this old dry sink.
We climbed up more stairs to get to the bell ringing floor and then another flight of stairs to get to the light itself.
The kids favorite part of the museum was this retired oyster buyboat. When brother M was "driving" he discovered that he could turn on the engine and rev it up. The first time that he did it, the other three kids ran out from below decks, afraid that they were somehow going out to sea.
They loved putting on the fisherman clothes and playing in the boat's kitchen and sleeping quarters.
They did not like this 1951 six-sleeper as much because it did not have a kitchen and they could not turn on the engine or ring any bells or anything.
They had a big building for constructing boats from scratch that I didn't get a picture of. It was load in their. This warehouse displayed retired vessels.
We had some time before we went to pick up daddy at the airport. It didn't make sense to go home for a few minutes and then back out the airport so we went to the Chesapeake Children's Museum to hang out while we waited. We were very pleasantly surprised and the kids keep asking to go back.
The kids petted a bearded dragon and a chameleon.
They had different rooms set up for imaginary play. The kids favorite one was this doctor's office.
Brother M was the patient. Dr. A and Nurse L examined him. Brother S studied his lab results.
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