Field Trip

I decided it was high time I took the kids somewhere to see more of the island than just our back yard. It would fulfill two purposes: 1-get us out and about and 2-Ben has an award for school that he is trying to earn and this was something that would count towards the award. We took a transport out to Cabrits National Park and looked through the restored Ft. Shirley. The trip was set for Monday, 12/1, so the Saturday before that, Ben and I got on the Internet and looked up the history of Dominica. The fort that we would visit was built by the English when they had control of the island. The whole peninsula that the fort is on is now a protected area, as well as the coast line so it is still forested and infested with lizards and the waters are a good snorkel spot, or so I've heard. We learned lots of things on the signs that they have along the trail up to the fort - the goats were brought here so the English people would have meat the next time they came to the island. The kids were excited to run around and explore. I had packed some rolls and stuff so we had lunch under a mango tree that was full of unripe mangoes. (This is when we had the raisins that are mentioned in the "Be prepared" post.) The wind had blown several off the tree and the kids were busy collecting them - until I told them the mangoes wouldn't taste good. It was also during lunch that we saw some amazing ants working together to move a piece of a Pringles chip to their home. It was really amazing so I took a picture of it. We were able to watch the Star Clipper motor into the bay and the kids even gave them a nice welcome - pretending to shoot the boat from the canons at the fort. All in all it was a nice outing and I'm sure we'll go back again to do some more hiking on other trails.