The NINA and the Pinta

On Thursday afternoon, the kids and I headed downtown to the river to see life size replicas of the Nina and the Pinta.

Looking around the ships would have been cool in itself, but the guided tour was really fascinating!

(I love home schooling because I learn so much!)

Some of our friends joined us. Ella Kate (on the left of Bethany) is in B's kindergarten class.

The Nina is an exact replica of the original. This replica was made in the exact same way as the original as well--the boards were finished with steaming and pine tar, there were no power tools made in its creation, and it was made by original descendants of the original ship builders. 

(Wow!)

Here we are looking down in the hold of this small ship. The current crew lives down there.

On one of Columbus's journeys in the Nina, he was sailing with many other ships (16, maybe?) and they all hit a storm. Every ship went down except the Nina! Columbus picked up as many of the other ships' crews as he could and tried to sail back to Spain with 120 people on this little boat!

The kiddos with the Pinta in the background. The replica Pinta was actually built 9 feet longer and 7 feet wider than the original Pinta.

And Naomi in front of the Nina.

If you're interested in seeing these ships yourself, check out their cruise schedule HERE.