On April 21, we left for a 10-day road trip to different areas south of our homeland of Valley City. We started off driving 12 hours to Big Thicket where we stayed for two nights. First day we seined fish and insects. Which is what’s pictured. You can look at the Long-Eared Sunfish that our group seined up. The other picture is what we did to get the fish.
The next day we canoed for several hours and then proceeded to look at the carnivorous plants called Pitcher Plant. After our time in Big Thicket, we drove 14 hours to Port Aransas Texas. Which I thought personally was the best part of the trip. With this, I will tell you about what we experienced in a day on coast of Texas. The day I choose to talk about is the day we went kayaking in the ocean. We woke up around 6 am and drove roughly 45 minutes to the area we were going to start. When we got there, we got the kayaks ready, sprayed ourselves with excessive amounts of sunscreen and began our journey to an island off the coast. When we began, we went through a marsh type land filled with brush. After that we reaches open water, and that’s where we all started to struggle. The wind gusts were bad that day and we were paddling into the wind. We stopped at 2 tiny islands that were located throughout the coast just to catch our breath, and wait for everyone to catch up. After we made our last stop at a tiny island, we paddled to the larger island where we stayed for an hour to explore. When we were there we got the history of the island and took in some information about the plants and animals. They told us about a plant called pickle plant and how it was edible. We all munched of the salty tasting plant and started to seine. When we got in the water the first thing we seined was the pipe fish which is pictured below. After about 30 min we were all in the water, when two stingrays decided to make an appearance in the water. Although I didn’t see them I sure was freaking out, if I was excited to be in the presences of them or if I was going to die. We then packed up and begin the easy journey back to shore. Along the way back we looked at the shallow parts of the ocean where we looked at fish and other creatures in the water. The picture shows Josh Becker, Brandon Ramsey, and I floating on the way back.
We saw many different types of birds that were on the shore. We finished, loaded the kayaks back up and set off to eat lunch, fish, and sein some more. We pulled off the road where there was little shade for us to cool down and eat. Casey cooked up some hamburgers and some spicy hotdogs, while some people went off to fish. For myself I looked at the crabs, and the dolphins that were off in the distance. After we ate we started to seine. We picked up a lot of shrimp and even a toad fish. After our seine, we left to go back to the camp to settle down. Since the temperature was so hot it was necessary to cool off into the water. I got a picture of just how hot it was.
After our little swim, we left to eat supper, a group of us went to a little Mexican restaurant in Port Aran
sas. I ordered chicken 
enchiladas, and rice. The food was spot on, and spicy! We then went to a couple souvenir shops, and got our t-shirts, and went back to camp. After a long day we settled down, crab hunted and swam tell we started to get tired, which is what’s pictured. We caught a couple blue crab and saw some jelly fish that landed on the beach from the waves.
Overall it was a great trip and we learned a lot. I wouldn’t hesitate to go to Texas again due to how fun it was. I believe we all became more knowledgeable about different areas other than North Dakota.
