Happy August, everybody! It’s finally sinking in that the summer is almost over. Summer camps are ending and children are going back to school soon. Thursday was the third installment of Alive After Five. Every week is a different theme, and this week’s theme was “Salute to our Armed Forces.” In order to fit the theme, our main focal points were the William Floyd Estate and the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS). The USLSS was the predecessor to the Coast Guard, and was run entirely by volunteers. The volunteers would walk up and down the beach all night looking for shipwrecks.

After the festival, we went over to the pollinator garden at Patchogue Watch Hill Ferry Terminal to watch the Evening Primrose bloom. The flower blooms in the evening and releases a sweet scent. The smell attracts moths, which are the main pollinators for this plant. It was a really cool experience. When we first arrived none of the flowers had bloomed, but by the time we left most of the flowers had opened up. If you were patient enough you could observe them slowly opening up.

On another note, I’m excited to visit Rocky Mountain National Park for the first time and to meet all the other LHIP interns. I’m thinking about getting a “Passport to Your National Parks,” so I can start collecting cancellations when I visit a National Park Service site. I enjoy traveling, so it will be a great incentive to visit other parts of the country.