Gang Green's Colloquium Blog: February 26th - Estero Island and Canoeing

Cristina: I loved the first half of the trip! Jo is such an awesome person and I really enjoyed hearing about her experiences. It was also my first time trying sea grape jelly and it turned out to be quite good! I think it could be fun to make it or at least to learn how. I also wish we were able to talk to Jo about her personal experiences and ask her questions. I felt like our time was short with her and out of all the places we have visited this is the first time we were able to talk to someone knowledgeable and willing to share her knowledge. I also wish we had been able to look around the property before getting on the bus to the next destination. There was a lot of cool artifacts in the display cases that I was able to glance at quickly. Normally I am not a fan of canoeing but I will say I did enjoy canoeing on our own. I don't think we learned anything but we did have a pretty good time - I feel like it lacked purpose.

Kristin and Cristina canoeing

Kristin:
I had so much fun on this field trip. I enjoyed listening to Jo talk about growing up on Fort Myers Beach. It meant a lot hearing about her personal experiences and how the island has changed over time. She was so knowledgeable and you could tell she really cared about the island. In addition, I enjoyed getting a chance to try her homemade sea grape jelly. I really enjoyed it! I agree with Christina that it would be fun to learn how to make it ourselves. I also agree with Christina that it would have been nice to have more time with Jo to ask her questions, see more artifacts that they had there, and look around the property. I felt like she had so much more information that she would have shared with us is we would have had the time. On the other hand I am really glad that we got some time to go canoeing. I almost wish this field trip was split into two. One that we could spend more time talking to Jo and one where we went on a group canoeing trip and had a guide or something. I really enjoyed canoeing and getting to spend some relaxing time in nature, but the time on the water went so fast. Also, due to the fact that I had never been on that area of water I didn't really know where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to be looking at/for. It took Christina and myself a little while to get the steering down while canoeing, but we were able to get it down before we returned to dock! Overall, I really had a great time on this field trip!

Melanie:

This field trip was very enjoyable. I really liked hearing Jo’s talk about how life was back when Florida was untouched. It was neat hearing how they had to protect themselves from mosquito's using DDT and spraying it around the windows or else it would just be this dark cloud of them over all the screens. It was also funny how they walked around with broom like objects to swat away the mosquitoes. It was very sweet of her to provide us cookies as well J

             I had a great time canoeing down the river. It was very peaceful and we got to see an anhinga that was drying its wings on the mangroves. We tried going into the mangroves, but that failed. Then we found a spot that we could tie the canoe to a mangrove. This was really cool. We were able to walk through them and find fiddler crabs and snails. The dirt in the mangroves is so rich; it’s almost like burnt red brown kind of color. I had a lot of fun during this trip.

Meredith:
            Finally being able to hear someone else's perspective on life in Southwest, Florida before our time made this field trip very eye opening. Jo lived in a much simpler time, but she enjoyed every minute of the small town. Having to protect themselves from mosquitos by using their own makeshift repellents to place on screen doors and seeing the various wildlife that was around then was neat! I would have liked spending more time with Jo to learn more about her years growing up near Fort Myers Beach, but it was still a nice time.
            Canoeing was my favortie part of the trip! I was surprised at first that we were able to just grab a canoe and go onto the water with our classmates with few guildelines. It was cool to explore the mangroves and enjoy the peacefulness of being out on the water. The soil was so rich there and you could easily see that from the bright, green vegetation. I was in a canoe with Melanie and Christian and they paddled first, and then paddled with Christian on the way back to the dock. It was my first time canoeing, so it was a great experience, and I appreciated colloquium a little more as we headed back to school.

Christian: I really liked the first half of the field trip. When I think of Fort Myers Beach I think about the Lani Kai, the beach and spring break. It was nice to hear the history of the area. It amazed me that they did not have electricity for that long! It must of been a total different world to live in. I also found the story about the German uniform during WWII, as well as the stories about the local air bases pretty interesting. Overall I enjoyed listening to Jo's stories, she was very knowledgeable. I like history and think that it is very important for the future generations to know what the island used to be like so they can respect the way things used to be. The canoeing part of the field trip was fun! It reminded me of when I used to go fishing with my Grandpa when I was younger. It was nice to see the mangroves and the estuary. It went surprisingly well, I was expecting for us to have more trouble maneuvering around, but we managed pretty well!