The Nina and the Pinta
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 1:45PM I'm a sucker for history field trips, so I was really excited when my mom told me the reproductions of the Nina and the Pinta would be in the area during our stay. I have to admit that I was more excited about the Nina and the Pinta than about the Ultimate West Virginian Wedding, or seeing my aged grandparents, or even lunch at Coleman's Fish Market. Before we left South Carolina, I asked The Goobers what they remembered about Columbus.
JellyMan: "Well, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella from Spain . . . (here he gleefully delved into the intricacies of fifteenth century global economy and trade routes) . . . blah, blah, blah, blah, blah . . ."
Me: "Okay, JellyMan. You get it. I got it. Moving on. What about you, Anemone?"
Anemone: "1492! Ocean Blue! Haiti!"
Okay, then. I wanted The Goobs to be as fully informed as possible, so I told Anemone to read the Christopher Columbus sections in The Story of the World by Susan Wise-Bauer and Famous Men of Modern Times by John H. Haaren and A. B. Poland, and I told JellyMan to read chapter two of Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. Well, you know how it is. We got busier and busier as we neared our date of travel, and by the time we were packing our suitcases we had forgotten all about it. No matter. The books were there waiting for us when we got back.
The weather wasn't the best, but the Steubenville Marina was still pretty enough, I guess. For Steubenville, anyway.

I started to read this sign, but then my eyes glazed over. I took a picture of it in case I wanted to read it later, but my eyes are still glazed over. I like the buckeyes, though. If anyone wants a better view of the sign describing the Ohio River Lock and Dam 10 Site, just click on it. In fact, all the sign pictures are clickable if you feel like clicking something.
Which ship to see first? We could start with the larger Pinta. That's it there - the one crawling with field trip children.

Or we could start with the Nina. That's the deserted ship over here:

Can you guess which ship we boarded first?
That's correct! We chose the Nina! Here is Anemone on the Nina:

"1492! Ocean Blue! Haiti!"
I'm embarrassed to say that the most memorable piece of information we took away from the Nina was that it was small. Really, really small.
Okay, on to the Pinta!
You can click on this next sign if you want to, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, even at great magnification.
I like this picture of The Man and his boy. The Man had obviously just said something totally old and lame and not worth the time of a thirteen year old, because JellyMan is wearing his "You just said something totally old and lame and not worth my time," face. I think The Man must have suggested that JellyMan stay behind and volunteer to be on the crew. (I was tempted to volunteer myself, but I didn't want to offend my aged grandparents.)

There is absolutely no reason for me to be showing you this picture:

Here are the Goobs after touring the Pinta and purchasing many useful items from the small gift shop. JellyMan is telling me to pretty please hurry up, because he was promised a fish sandwich, darn it. His stomach is thirteen years old, you know, and needs constant refills.

This was, perhaps, the absolute worst history field trip blog post EVER (I mean, I'm not even bothering with the tilde in Nina or telling you about the dinghy made by a fourteen year old ship builder's apprentice or anything!) and I apologize. If you want to actually LEARN something about the reproductions of the Nina and the Pinta and the wonderful people involved, you can read all about it at thenina.com. It is fascinating. I want to be just like Miss Ellie when I grow up.
Melanie |
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