Bay Model Field Trip

Sometimes field trips introduce places that we had no idea existed, and when our charter school planned this one to visit the Bay Model, I was amazed to know someone had built a model of the whole bay.

It is set up in a huge warehouse type room, twisting and turning around the space like the different parts of the bay do in real life.

Getting to do this trip with friends made it even better, of course.

We love having friends who use the same charter so we can sign up for some of the same trips. And the kids had fun exploring this exhibit.

I loved seeing all the bridges and the different depths of the water.

It was fun to find the places we've been on all our other field trips. They don't have a lot of the land represented, but we've done a lot that is on or near the water.

(Love these two buddies and how much fun they have together.)

This was seriously one of the coolest things we've seen--so glad we know it's there. Now we need to take the rest of our family to visit!

The Newest Bobcat

After having the summer off, Cub Scouts had their kickoff Pack Meeting. Peanut was only there for a couple meetings before the break, but he is fully immersed now. He got to lead the color guard in posting the flags.

And he earned his Bobcat rank.

And then, he got to shoot off water rockets with the other kids, which was the highlight of the night. 

Now, we've got to work hard so he can get his Wolf before the end of the year!

Camp Shelley

While Bean started school, and Daddy-o began his 4th year teaching seminary, the boys and I headed up to Tahoe for a few more days of camping. I really don't like saying goodbye to summer, and this felt like a good way to extend the season just a little bit longer. We joined homeschool friends at Camp Shelley, a campground on the south shore run by the Livermore Area Recreation and Park District.

Our first sight as we pulled up to our campsite was this across the way. Can't see it?

How about now?

This big guy was eating out of the cooler across the road from our campsite. I yelled at him and he looked up, and then went back to what he was doing, picked up a melon, and took it to this spot behind the log to finish his snack.

We had been told by other people who had been to Camp Shelley this year that there were a lot of bears in the area. Or, at least, one bear who likes to hang out in the camp. He obviously finds enough people who don't follow the advice to keep all food locked up in the bear box at all times.

That wasn't our only sighting, either. A few hours later, we saw him again on the other side of us, just up the hill from our camp. I was pretty nervous to get out our dinner that evening. We ate in courses so the only food I had out was the one we were eating right then, which the ranger had assured me that the bear would not come grab out of our hands, although he might watch us eating from a little distance. Not terribly reassuring, but we actually didn't end up seeing him again at all.

Bug took on a lot of the fire and food jobs this trip. It was great to have his help. He's a very proficient fire started and did good battling the yellow jackets while trying to cook our food.

He also built this cute stone house, inspired by a documentary we were watching the other day about the Incas and their architecture.

Day 2, we went for a short hike to Angora Lakes.

It was a good length to do with a bunch of kids that didn't really want to hike (but they DID want to swim in the lake at the end.)

First of the lakes--they were both small, and really pretty.

The water was a little warmer than Tahoe. You could still see patches of melting snow on the mountains above the lake, so it wasn't exactly warm, but in the shallow parts, it felt pretty good.

The kids found a big log that became their ship for the afternoon. We rented a row boat for an hour, as well, so they got to go on a tour of the whole lake. There is a cute resort at the lake, with cabins, and a little store to get ice cream and lemonade. 

Beautiful Sierra hiking!

The next day, we went north to Sand Harbor on Tahoe. The cove there was absolutely beautiful and we had a great day at the water.

Our friends had a paddle board with them and Bug loved going out on it. Most of the kids mastered it instantly, of course. I had used one last summer at girls camp and did not find it quite as easy as Bug did who just popped right up and never got wobbly.

Peanut spent a lot of time either in the blow up boat, or on the mattress. He had an unfortunate run-in with the yellow jackets back at camp that morning. He got stung on both arms, 4 times total. And after that, he decided that he wanted nothing to do with the outdoors is there was a potential to see a yellow jacket. Out on the water, he felt safe. He had me row him out to the middle of the cove so he could eat his lunch in peace. 

It really was too bad about the stings. Before that (and while he was on the water), he was having so much fun playing with M. But the last 24 hours were mostly a diligent bee watch. 

I did convince him to come up (wrapped in a towel so most of his body was covered) and play a round of Qwixx with me. I think it kind of distracted him for a few minutes, but then he went right back to the water, and safety.

Lovely beach. We got so lucky with the weather, thank goodness. It helped balance some of the challenges of this trip.  If I'm being honest, it was probably one too many for this summer. It was our 3rd camping trip, total of 9 days, in one month, and, with two dog sitting jobs, made 15 nights of not sleeping in my bed this month. That's more than I prefer. As much as I love to camp, and the water days were amazing, in general, I'm tired.

But we had a couple more stops on our way out. It was hard to convince Peanut that being outside was going to be fun. He pretty much moved from the car to the tent our last day, but we did go on one last short nature walk at the visitor center just up the road. We found lots of evidence of beavers (but didn't get to see one.)

It's so beautiful, and lots of different environments--mountain forest, meadows, streams and marsh.

The big draw was the stream chamber, which was closed last year. They have information about the local fish and how the different seasons affect the stream life.

And then you can see under the stream and check out which fish are around.

More beaver evidence--they are busy beavers for sure. The ranger explained how there are a couple spots that the rangers have to remove every day because it's flooding parts of the trail, and then the beavers come back in the evening and rebuild, over and over.

Our big wildlife spotting was a red tailed hawk. We watched him in the trees for a minute and then he took off and flew right over us.

So beautiful!

Glad we were able to convince Peanut to stay outside long enough for us to see everything. He was on high alert when anything flew by, but manage to escape the yellow jackets' rage.

And then we made one last stop for lunch on Apple Hill at one of the orchards. The area was beautiful and reminded me of our Sky Top Orchard in NC, including the weekend crowds. I can only imagine what it is like when the apple season gets going.

We didn't buy apples, but we did get a great tri-tip sandwich, apple donuts, and apple cider. We may have to come back in a few weeks.

So, overall, the trip was a success. I definitely don't want to camp with yellow jackets again. And I don't think I'll plan to camp quite so often next year, but who knows--I may be convinced otherwise. It's hard to pass up a chance to go somewhere so beautiful, and to get to spend another week of summer doing actual summer things.

First Day, 2019-2020

First day of school for this girl--10th grade.

She was excited for school, as always. She has art this trimester, which gives her an hour of creativity to look forward to every day, along with Chemistry, Spanish 2, World History, and Biotech. She's looking forward to a fun start to the year.

And even though it's a little arbitrary, we're counting it as the first day for everyone (even though our charter technically started last week, and we aren't really planning to start full-force until after Labor Day--it's definitely a soft start today!). Bug is in 8th grade--last year of middle school, which is a little shocking, and sad, for me.

And this little Peanut is in 3rd! I'm so glad that he decided to stay home with us this year. Getting woken up about an hour after he would have been up if he was going to school made his day.

I'm excited to have both of them around. We've got a lot of really fun stuff planned for this year, which I'm sure I'll get into in the next few weeks.

But for this first day of school, we went to Brentwood and picked peaches.

I'd been wanting to do this all summer, but just didn't get to it, so it was time to seize the day. For once, procrastination paid off. The orchard we stopped at was selling all the u-pick peaches for $1/pound because it was their last week they'd be open and they needed them gone. We got 50 pounds of peaches to dehydrate, bake with, and eat! And they are delicious!

We stopped at a couple different farms, for pluots and Asian pears as well, and the boys made friends with a cat at the first one. Spending a couple hours outside, and listening to science podcasts on the drive, just felt like the perfect start to our year of alternative learning.

On the Way Home

On the drive down the mountain, we stopped by the McKinley Grove to see some giant sequoias.

They are such impressive trees. There was a short 1/2 mile walk with some markers about the trees.

There was a fallen log that had initials and dates carved into it going back to the 1950s and 60s. I'm not typically a proponent of carving into trees, but since this one is dead, it is kind of cool to see the old dates of others who have visited over the decades.

So much incredible beauty in this world!