In 1492, Columbus Sailed The Ocean Blue

And in 2010, AH and I were able to explore handcrafted replicas of the Nina and the Pinta in Hudson, Wisconsin!  We drove the half hour to this small river town this morning where these two ships are docked until Monday.   It was almost perfect timing for our history studies!  We will be learning about the age of discovery, Caravels (this type of ship), and Columbus when we begin our "school year" next month.  I couldn't pass up an opportunity to learn hands on and up close, especially considering we live in the middle of the country away from any sort of coast.    More information about these two museum ships can be found on their website. 

AH finds a map!

On the Pinta

I'm not sure I would be brave enough to cross an unknown ocean on these small ships!

They are looking for crew members for the last few weeks of their tour this year. I did ask AH if he would be interested in signing up, but he just looked at me like I was crazy.  What an adventure in learning that would be!

"Mom, Come Here! You Have Got To See This!"

"And bring your camera!"

The door opened and AH bellowed those exact words into the house . I was a little annoyed, but when I got outside I could understand his enthusiasm. He had been playing in the backyard when he chanced upon this fine fellow:

This has to be the largest caterpillar I have ever seen. Who knew that Minnesota had such colorful and large creatures and that they could be in our suburban backyard! We haven't figured out what kind of caterpillar we encountered because AH watched its progress all afternoon (I told him to keep it out of my vegetable garden!) and hasn't bothered to look it up. Eventually his curiosity will get the better of him and then I'll let you know what he comes up with!

***UPDATE***

AH came upstairs to see what I was doing and when he saw the pictures of the caterpillar, he looked it up on our favorite site: Discover Life Here is what he found:
The scientific name of our visitor is Hyalophora Cecropia, and it will become a Cecropia moth or Robin moth. I can't link to the page from Discover Life which had a lot of pictures and information, so I looked on the site, Butterflies and Moths of North America, and found more information.