Discovery Day at Dauphin Island Sea Lab

We awoke to steady rain....again....and considered skipping  the trip to Dauphin Island that we had planned.  But it let up by about 10, so we headed over to Kelly's house (in the car we borrowed from them) and picked up Michael.  Kelly had gone to the lab early to get things set up for Discovery Day.

Discovery Day is an event for the general public when they open up all the labs and have exhibits, plus lots of activities for kids.  Kelly  had said they would have thousands of people there, and that was right---LOTS of little kids.  Kelly's lab display included microscopes so people could see various marine worms, a display led by her graduate student about how and what worms eat, and a demonstration of pressure differences in her flume.    We also visited the other labs and talked to various scientists and grad students about their work.

By mid-afternoon we were on the road, heading east on I-10.  We stopped outside Pensacola, FL at Big Lagoon State Park.  Kelly and Michael came over with their camping equipment (including new tent), so we had dinner together and had more time to visit.  It rained much of the night, so their tent did get a good test!  Plans are to explore the park for a day before they have to go back to work and we continue to head east.