Reptiles Invade Shishmaref

Because we're so isolated, kids don't often have a chance to go on typical field trips. Luckily, our principal is pretty good about arranging for groups and organizations to come to the school. We had one of those "Reverse Field Trips" today.

The Anchorage Imaginarium brought an assortment of reptiles. Steve and I were placing bets on how many cold-blooded animals would die on their way up here, but they all survived (fortunate for the reptiles but unfortunate for Steve and I who both wagered otherwise*...). I guess the cages have heaters in them (that seems like cheating).



They brought a snake. They told us what kind of snake it was, but I don't remember. I guess I was a little more interested in taking picture than I was in listening. Oops. Mr. Snake (I guess it could have been Mrs. Snake or Ms. Snake; I wasn't that close) was a little freaked out, so he only wrapped itself around the arm of its Imaginarium friend. Even when they put him on the floor he stayed all curled up.




They also brought a lizard. Or an iguana. Or..... (Hmmmm... I'll have to remember how hard it is to pay attention next time I'm scolding kids for not listening to me.) (Formatting note: I made the above picture small because blogger keeps cutting off the right side of the horizontal pictures. If any of my professional blogging friends know how to fix this, please let me know. Thank you.)




They let the lizard crawl around on the gym floor. I was lying on the ground taking pictures, and the lizard got close enough to me that the kids started shrieking. (For the record, I was only mildly concerned about the proximity.)





This little turtle was pretty cute. The Imaginarium guys tried to get him to eat some lettuce, but he was uninterested.



Mr. Turtle might not have been interested in lettuce, but he was very interested in the yummy worms. He ate the entire worm in about a minute. It was funny.




One of the best parts of the day was watching the kids watch the animals. They loved it. It was probably the first time most of them had ever seen reptiles.



The Imaginarium guys were great with the kids and the community. They let the kids have plenty of time with the animals. All in all, it was a successful event. No reptiles froze, no little kids ran away screaming, and everybody had a lot of fun.

*No members of the Alston family actually placed bets.