Beautiful day for a field trip.

It had been a few years since we last went to the San Francisco zoo. It had been our first Wednesday of October tradition for a while but I think we missed the last two years for one reason or another. I almost didn't take them this year. I didn't evem tell the kids until Wednesday morning that we were going. I wanted to skip it yet again but in the end we drove up into SF to see the animals.

Evidently they have stopped their first Wednesday of the month Free day last year. You have to be a San Francisco resident now to get in free. But thanks to being a member of a kids park near us, we didn't pay full price to get into the zoo. It wasn't free like I had planned but we still got in for a doable price.

The zoo hadn't changed much. Sophie remembered where everything was located.  How could I doubt my Zoo Tycoon! Of course she would remember how this one was laid out. She was our tour guide for the day telling us what we were going to see next. But Ian was the map keeper. That boy loved being able to read the words on the map this time.  Henry just was in heaven being outside and not having to sit and do school work. Molly was actually pretty content to ride around in the stroller and get glimpses of animals. Mostly she pointed out the balls that were in each exhibit and say "bauw....bauw,".  She is getting closer to actually using words.

I think we saw every animal. We covered the park and looked in every cage or space.

They are slowly updating many of their exhibits to have these glass walls rather than fences. The fences were hard to look through some times and in many places there were two fences between us and the animal. So when we came to the ones with the thick glass where we could get right up close to the animals (if they were so inclined to come up that close) it was really nice.

One of the highlights of our trip was getting to see the snow leopard. We went into the observation area that had the big glass panels and soon the snow leopard came down out of its rocky terrain and paced right along the glass.

It even took a moment to really check out my kids. It was us on display for him perhaps?

It stayed right there next to the glass for a long time. It even rubbed up against the glass where my kids were pressed. It was just like Grandma's cat does when she wants to be pet. It acted a lot like a kitten but was just a lot bigger!

We had a great time at the zoo. It was perfect weather and the park wasn't crowded. Henry wants to go back again next week.  I had to tell him that perhaps next year.

Two Missions in One Morning

We decided to take a field trip today. I didn't tell the kids where we were going until we got there but they were really excited to see something we had just read about the day before. Sophie was especially surprised to find out that we had two Missions so close to home.

 

Mission Santa Clara is located on the campus of Santa Clara University so it is very well kept and the grounds were beautiful. My husband said he has a few co-workers who chose this as their wedding venue. Today the campus was getting ready for graduation but nobody seemed to mind that we wandered around.

 

My kids had a lot of fun exploring the grounds. There wasn't any museum or even a visitor's center so we just looked at the buildings and frolicked through the roses, wisteria and birds of paradise that filled the gardens around the buildings. 

 

Here is Henry showing us how thick the adobe walls are. 

 

He also felt the need to try out every door. This one was very beautifully carved with a bear.

 Near the rose garden we found a statue of Father Junipero Serra who was the founder of the California Missions. Father Serra was the only person I remember from my 4th grade year when we did California history.

As we left this first mission Sophie was excited to see that the road we were on was the El Camino Real. All the missions are about a day's ride from each other all along the El Camino Real.  I am glad we had a car to drive the 20 minutes it took for us to reach the 2nd mission on our tour,  Mission San Jose. Sophie checked to see if we were still on the El Camino Real and we weren't this mission is located on Mission Blvd. 

This mission was not as well manicured as the Santa Clara Mission. I explained to the kids that this is more realistic and much more like what the mission probably really looked like.

Mission San Jose had a nice little museum inside which showed some of the history of the place and the people that lived in it.

There were dioramas about the Native Indian people that lived on the land before the Spanish came.

They had furniture and clothing displayed to show what the padres would have worn and how they lived.

The gardens were not as well kept and not nearly as colorful but the kids still enjoyed waking through them. And of course they found the statue of Father Serra and a fountain. They were thrilled with the discovery.

Inside the chapel we looked at all the icons, paintings and statues.

I am glad my kids were well behaved in the chapel. There were some people inside praying. I know both of the missions we saw today still hold services inside.

On the whole I felt like it was a successful field trip. I am glad we went to both missions. I had planned to only go to one but I think it was good to see them both to see the similarities and the contrasts. And Best of all, my kids got to see and touch a little bit of California history today and see some of the things we have been reading about come to life a little more.

Science Field Trip - Mercer Caverns

Today we had a great field trip. I have been telling the kids we were going into a cave but I don't think they really understood what that ment. I had even read a few books about stalactites and stalagmites. But they were so excited when they got to go in and see some with their own eyes.
This is where we went. This is one of several caverns that are not too far from Grandma's house. I remember going to this cavern when I was young. But I haven't been again for years and years.
This is the entrance into the cave. It is rather unassuming.
Here we head down, down, down into the depths of the ground. The stairs were steep and narrow.

The first big room had all sorts of these beautiful stalactites. There was even some small stalagmites and one column where one met the other. I giggled to myself when Sophie and Ian told the tour guide all about stalactites and stalagmites as if he didn't already know.

These are the only formations we were allowed to touch. These are the "touching Twins", or the cavern gnomes.

We kept going down and down and down more and more steps. Henry of course had to do it himself. He scared me often. He would often jump down from step to step and it just didn't look safe at all "See Henny no fall down" was all he said. But he insisted on doing it without any help.

At the bottom of the cave. Or at least as low as they take us on the tour there is a beautiful formation of crystals made of the limestone. It is very fragile and evidently very sharp. We didn't test it.... thank goodness. At this point we were the equivalent of 16 stories down into the earth. It was a little chilly and when the tour guide turned out the lights it was darker than dark. But the air was fresh somehow and there was even a slight breeze.
There were a whole lot of these drapery formations covering the different rooms of the cavern.

We made it through the cavern, even Henry and his jumping down those steep steps.
We dragged Grandma along with us. She has lived in the area for decades yet hasn't been since she was a kid. It was good to go and I think the kids will remember it for a long time.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Sophie has been a BIG Alice in Wonderland fan for years. I have been meaning to take the kids to the Children's Discovery Museum for ages and since at the moment they have an exhibit devoted to all things Alice, I figured it was about time to take a field trip.


As you can see it was a big hit. The kids had a great time.
In one of the rooms they had a room where the ceiling sloped to give you the illusion of getting bigger in size. And all the doors had something behind it that you could see when you peeked through the key hole. Henry especially liked this room. Whenever I lost him for a moment I knew I could find him in this room peeking in the key holes again.

At this desk Sophie's reflection got to try on a Cheshire Cat grin. It was some sort of hologram or light on the mirror.

Here the boys played croquette with the queen of hearts. It was more like miniature golf but the boys had fun moving the flamingo heads trying to get the balls to roll into the holes at the different tables.


If you notice the boys had different clothes on in those last two shots. They had to change their clothes after visiting one of the other exhibits. The Water Ways is always a favorite with my kids and even with the plastic aprons they are always soaked.


We went around the rest of the museum and the kids had a great time climbing, touching and doing all sorts of things. Henry loved touching this little crocodile.

There is also a room where the kids got to dress up. Sophie especially loved dressing up. Henry is modeling the Skunk vest. I thought this was a very good way to do dress up clothes rather than a whole outfit.

Ian is a very talented builder with the soft blocks.

All the kids loved the sand table.
They sat here forever just pouring sand from different jars and beakers.

I think the spot the boys kept coming back to the most was these rubber band cars. They loved pulling back the cars and letting them race up the ramp.

They could have stayed right here shooting those cars for a long time if there hadn't been a bunch of kids lined up to play too.

Whenever we talk about the Discovery Museum, Sophie remember bubbles. She remembers doing the bubbles here and is very good at making the big bubbles.
I think one of the things that really makes the outing fun is that when we go to this Museum we always take the light rail. I don't like to pay for parking downtown and since we can ride the light rail for free we do that and it drops us off right at the museum. My kids had a great time talking to people and pointing out all the exciting things they saw out the windows as we passed through the city. Every water tower and every digger was pointed out. And when we went down into a tunnel is was a big thrill.
I am sure we will be going again several times during the hot summer days to come. I don't think my kids will mind at all.