M&M: Maritime Museum!

I was invited to join our Year 4 students on a field trip to the Maritime Museum in Sydney's Darling Harbor. It's one of the few places in the city I had yet to see so I was game! I had text-messaged the teacher the night before. He explained that they'd be departing by bus at 8:30 from the school and that I should plan to be there then if I wanted a ride. I'm all for not having to drive into the city and fighting traffic. However, I'd rushed once before for the field trip to Toranga Zoo. I ended up waiting around for the kids to arrive around 8:45 am. We normally finish our morning prayers right at 8:30 each day, so I decided to stick to our routine and show up about 5 minutes late (the time it takes me to walk from my friary to the bus stop in front of school).

Well...needless to say, I showed up at 8:35 am just as the buses all pulled away. I couldn't believe that they'd leave without me, as I had texted to the teacher the night before! Little did I know, this was the new teacher's first time at planning a field trip. He was a bit nervous about getting all the kids on the bus on time as he'd never done it before. Further, he'd been told that they needed to leave by 8:30 sharp to arrive in time for orientation at the museum!

Well, I strolled up to the teacher on duty and as I found no one else around asked, "Where's the buses for the Year 4 field trip?" She said, "There they go!" as they turned the corner, disappearing from view. So I started running in my sandals to catch up! Thankfully there was lots of traffic, and the area gets congested with families dropping off kids at that hour. So I was able to slowly catch up. I was also texting the teacher as I ran! He felt horrible about forgetting me! He eventually had the bus stop and I was able to breathlessly catch a ride! It was a good laugh the rest of the day. The kids thought I was Superman for running and catching up to the bus about half mile from the school!

The day in Sydney was cloudy and cool. We'd had rain a couple of days before. Here are some shots of the museum entrance (1) and foggy downtown (2), also a huge anchor near the front doors (3). They set up this huge mast near the entrance, too (4).

We began the tour with paying respects to the native peoples of Australia. It's something they try to do everywhere here, aware of how poorly they'd been treated by those who'd arrived later. (Would that we'd do the same with our native peoples in the States!) Here is a piece of Aborginal art (5, I was told it was a map to a good spot for shark fishing). And a pouch for carrying water made of dried kelp, though it looked like leather (6)! Aren't they clever?

Next we talked about the "discoverer" of the continent, Captain James Cook. This is a model of his ship the Endeavor (7). Here is a piece of Japanese China that shows the influence of these explorers of the East (8). And I assume this is meant to be Cook's likeness (9).

As a group, we visited a modern war ship, the Vampire, (10-22) and a recreation to scale of the Endeavor (26-40). (The actual ship sank.) I have to be honest, the warship did not excite me at all. It was interesting, though, to see the medical bay (14) and the crew's quarters (13, 18, 19). I also liked the ship's logo (11, 17). On the way off the Vampire we spotted a school of box jellfish hugging the ship's bow (23-26). Here is part of the 70 or so kids that made the trip with their teacher, Ben Nolan, who abandoned me atthe bus stop, toward the right (16).

I was more interested in the Endeavor tour. I'm not sure the function of this red face (27) but I liked the carving and color. I'd been on a clipper ship before and knew what to expect down below: cramped and low quarters—even I had to stoop (32-37)! They shared that they often brought cats aboard to deal with the mice; here's a ginger sleeping (33). And this is the cat-o-nine-tails and its red bag hanging from a post (34). Our guide expmained how the expression "let the cat out of the bag" came from sailing days!

Junior officers got a bit more privacy to their sleeping hammocks (35). This is the officer's space in the aft part of the ship (36) and this is the captain's quarters (37); you can see his initials in the tea towel that is hanging. And this is Ben Nolan with myself in the main part of the ship (38). He's a sweet and wonderul teacher, full of life and joy!

Around home, we have some beautiful blooms, now that the weather is cooler. These grevalia are so exotic and pretty after a morning shower (41-42). This purple flowered tree started to bloom from the bottom up; slowly the whole tree flowered (43-45)! A real masterpiece of God!