A day on the O'Neill Sea Odyssey with the Pisceans

I had so much fun yesterday that I wanted to share!!

My 10 year old daughter Valentina's Fifth Grade class went out on the O'Neill Sea Odyssey Catamaran and I was lucky enough to be able to take a day off work to come along as well!

For those that don't know...our incredibly talented resident artist Sean "Piscean" Walker's wife Laura is also crazy talented AND the Education Coordinator of the O'Neill Sea Odyssey, a program that takes 4th-6th graders out on the beautiful O'Neill Catamaran for a day of learning and fun on the water followed up by some awesome lessons in their lab back on shore.

Laura saw one of my FB posts about Valentina's fifth grade teacher, recognized her name and told me that their class would be on the trip on 10/4 and that I should come out if I could and that she would tell Piscean as well!

 

The whole day was SO FUN and I was super impressed with the quality of the experience provided by Laura and the rest of the O'Neill crew!!

Valentina was lucky enough to get picked by Laura ( ) to lead a group of her classmates in pulling up the sail and I caught a little bit of it on vid:

https://instagram.com/p/BLKVsthh_1k/

The kids all had a blast, Laura and the other teachers are SUPER patient with the kids, and it was awesome to be able to be on such an amazing sailboat with my daughter and my buddy Piscean.

Back in the lab my mind was BLOWN when Laura put a drop of water the kids had collected on a slide under a miscroscope and projected it onto a TV screen...

It was TEEMING with life!! Crazy critters that looked like they were straight out of a Sci-Fi movie!!

I knew there was plankton in the ocean but really did not comprehend how many different kinds and how MUCH there was in the water that I swim in all the time!!

After the day was done and the rest of the kids had left in the school bus, Valentina and Piscean and Laura and I hung out next door at the Crows Nest for a bit to enjoy some cold beverages and chocolate mousse. 

Very grateful to Laura and Piscean and the O'Neill Sea Odyssey crew for such a great day!!

 

If you have a child that is going on this trip I encourage you to do your very best to join them for the day, and if your kids' school does not participate in the program you should tell their teachers to apply!!

http://oneillseaodyssey.org/what-we-do/

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Those are some fortunate kids!
Thanks for sharing that, Jim.

That's awesome!  I would've loved that as a kid

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Fantastic!

Great post, Jim!  'didn't even know this program exist, 'glad to find out!  I have quite a ways to go before my kid can be in the right age group, but my brother and nephew would love this!

Fantastic trip and a great share.  Thank you! 

Super trip, right on! I wanna go!!!

that was a fun afternoon for me too! It is always a pleasure to chill out with the Russell clan!

I hadn't seen the whole program in its newest curriculum form and it was really impressive.
Laura has really worked hard to dial in all three education stations, and now with the stations also having classroom time as well the program is really running on all cylinders.

they teach Marine Ecology (with physical examples and a watershed model), Marine Biology (with a plankton drag and the microscope), and basic navigation (with compass bearings, triangulation, electronics, and charts).
All this plus a trip aboard one heck of a sailing catamaran.  It really is an amazing program, and covers a huge amount of stuff in a short time period.

the program itself runs on a few grants and a lot of private donations. It is completely free to any schools that apply and are accepted (it is very popular field trip these days and usually books up a year in advance).
I think they do 5th and 6th grades, as well as some disabled classes.

that was a fun afternoon for me too! It is always a pleasure to chill out with the Russell clan!

I hadn't seen the whole program in its newest curriculum form and it was really impressive.
Laura has really worked hard to dial in all three education stations, and now with the stations also having classroom time as well the program is really running on all cylinders.

they teach Marine Ecology (with physical examples and a watershed model), Marine Biology (with a plankton drag and the microscope), and basic navigation (with compass bearings, triangulation, electronics, and charts).
All this plus a trip aboard one heck of a sailing catamaran.  It really is an amazing program, and covers a huge amount of stuff in a short time period.

the program itself runs on a few grants and a lot of private donations. It is completely free to any schools that apply and are accepted (it is very popular field trip these days and usually books up a year in advance).
I think they do 5th and 6th grades, as well as some disabled classes.

The whole day far exceeded my expectations in every way...and having Sean along to chat with just made it that much cooler. 

We are really lucky to have this program and great people like Laura as a resource for our community, schools and children.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Sean if Laura ever needs new urchin or abalone or scallop shells or anything tell her to please let me know....my garden is littered with stuff, and if I don't have what they want I can probably get it pretty easily.   

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Sweet adventure with the kiddo! Right on!