Aidan loves boats and ships. Specifically he is fascinated with the Titanic, but last year as we studied American History, Aidan was particularly interested in life on other ships, the Mayflower, Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, the Viking longships, and steamboats- anytime we learned about new boats, we delved a little deeper into it. (one of the awesome joys of homeschool!) So when we heard that the Tall ships were coming to the Great Lakes this summer we marked this July weekend in our calendar and waited eagerly for weeks to head to Bay City.
The Tall Ships were quite a site to behold. Nearly twelve large ships lined two sides of the riverwalk and sailed from around the world. The most impressive ships of course being the Galleon, and the Viking Longship. We were able to tour the deck of the Pride of Baltimore, peek below, and talk to the crew. There were lots of people dressed up as pirates, and old-fashioned sailors. There were crafts for the kiddos including build-a-ship, color a mural, and face painting. Lucas got his face painted like a little dog. He was so pleased with himself, he didn’t ever want to take it off, and he got lots of smiles from grown-ups and kiddos alike passing by. Aidan had a little money that he spent on a pretty cool wooden sword and sheath that he carried through his belt-loop all day.
It was a fun day, not too terribly hot, though we did learn a few things though about the expo. The first being that unless you are super motivated to arrive hours before opening, the chance that you’ll have to tour all the ships you want to, is still quite low. The lines for the most popular ships were literally hours long. Aidan was a little bummed out there were only sailing ships, not ironclads, or steam ships, but they were all so impressed with the drawbridge opening and closing for the boats going through, it probably made up for any disappointments.
It was a really great day- A fun day Papa reserved to spend together as a family, and to highlight one of Aidan’s biggest interests. The stopover at Grammy and Grampapa’s for supper on the way back was the cherry on top, and three tuckered boys were carried to bed when we arrived home. Godspeed tall ships, on your journeys around the world!