Tilden Botanic Garden Field Trip

One of my favorite parts of running a nature group is getting to plan field trips to places I really want to visit and the botanic garden at Tilden park was one of these places. We came years ago and I've been wanting to revisit it for a long time. 

The garden is such a beautiful place. It's divided into several different ecosystems found around the state.

And the volunteers are amazing! We had three guides so our group could split into three smaller groups so they were really able to pay attention to the kids and focus on some of the things they were interested in.

Bonus when we found mushrooms. The little bit of rain we had recently was enough to start things going.

At the end, the kids took a little while to nature journal in one of their favorite spots. The redwood forest area was popular with a lot of the kids.

We had a couple new families join us, too. Always love sharing these trips with more friends.

A few of my favorites: These beautiful succulents,

the creek bed,

the desert area,

and all the bridges. If we lived closer, I'd be here every week. Definitely want to visit in all the seasons to see how it changes.

 

Honoring Papa

Our drive home from Southern CA happened to be on Papa's birthday, and I couldn't think of a better way to recognize that than a stop at the Botanical Gardens in LA.

I can't remember how old I was when he took our family there, but it made an impression and I've always wanted to go back.

It was fun pointing out plants that I know the name of because he taught me.

And it's just such a beautiful place to visit.

I remember this house from my last visit!

The plumeria were in bloom and were beautiful!

It was REALLY hot so we did a lot of looking for shade. Good thing we were there in the morning, but even then, it was a little much by the end.

As always, I probably pushed us a little more than was a good idea, but I wanted to see the waterfall

and pond and the plumeria grove, so we ended up covering a huge part of the park.

And then, because it would have been too good to be true, the cafe was closed so we couldn't grab lunch and the promised ice cream. We did end up finding a Baskin Robbin on our way back to the freeway, but it ended up being a bit of a long stop and I still had several hours of driving left to get us home. Really, though, a road trip with a stop at a garden was the perfect way to honor Papa. He would have loved to have been with us for all of it.

 

A Last Hurrah

We needed one last adventure before school started, and we REALLY needed to get out of the smoke so we could spend some time outside--our 1000 hour goal was hurting. We'd only had one day outside last week, and this was potentially our only day for this week, so we drove into the city for the day to see what outdoor adventures we could find.

First stop was the steps going up to Coit Tower. Daddy-o and I had stumbled across these gardens a couple years ago and I've been meaning to bring the kids back. 

The climb up is no joke, but pretty.

They were still smiling, mostly.

And we found lots of flowers.

Then, we walked around and looked at the tower. It's not open right now, but we peaked through the windows at the frescos where we could.

Then, we went back down a second set of stairs and found the garden I'd most wanted to show them.

There were so many bird feeders, and so many birds!

It's like a secret garden in the middle of the city, tucked away where hardly anyone seems to go.

It was all magical.

We also checked out the little park at the bottom of the hill that had some great water features.

We're big fans of water, so anytime we can play around near water, we take it.

Peanut had to touch all the different streams and fountains.

Next stop on the tour--The Wave Organ. This is one of the spots I've had marked to visit someday. Well, we still need to come back because the organ wasn't making any sounds at all when we were there. I don't know if it wasn't the right tide time, or if it just doesn't work that well, but we'll try again someday (and maybe do a little research to see if we can figure out a good time to visit.) But we saw crabs and pelicans got to walk in the fresh, windy air which was such a great change from the hot, smoky air we've been dealing with so no one really cared that it didn't work.

Everyone was starving at that point, so we made a quick stop at the same taqueria that we found last year on our summer adventure day. The burritos were just as good as we remembered, and they still only take cash, and there is still an ATM at the cafe down the street to rescue us because I never have enough money in my wallet, haha.

We had just enough time for one more place before we needed to go home, and Bug had still not been to the Sutro Baths, so that was where we went. The tide was way lower than I've ever seen it, so we actually had a beach to play on, and the kids were able to get out to one of the big rocks that has always just been out in the ocean when we've been.

This rock climbing adventure turned into a little bit of drama when it was time to climb down. I hadn't really wanted Peanut to go out there in the first place because it was pretty steep, and such a tall rock, but I really try to respect his sense of adventure and ability when he wants to try something, and he proved me wrong, having no trouble scampering up the rock. But when it was time to come down, it was a different story.

They all made it down about halfway, and then there was a tricky spot that Peanut, who was following Bean, was having trouble with. The kids were both guiding him, and then Bean saw her chance to get past the waves, and she took it and jumped down and ran, leaving the boys up there. They were doing okay, just slowly figuring out where Peanut could put his feet, when two different men asked me if he needed help. I tried to reassure them that he was going to be fine, that they were figuring it out, but I think both of them thought I needed help, so they were over there, trying to tell Peanut that they would help him down. But neither of the men had on masks, so my boys were not comfortable with the situation at all and just kept telling them that they didn't need help. It was kind of funny, but resulted in Peanut jumping from higher than he meant to and landing in a couple inches of water, which splashed his lower half. He wasn't very happy at that point and we had a pretty cantankerous end of our exploring.

 

The ruins are so cool, though. And there had been moments of fun, for sure.

One final look out at the cliffs with the fog rolling in and it was time for us to go home and get ready for the first day of school!

Catching Up

I got a little behind a couple days, but here's the recap for the end of our week. On Thursday, Bug and I took a class with John Muir Laws on drawing raptors. I say we, because I did start out with him, but it was two hours and that is a whole lot of sketching! I dabbled while also taking care of a few other things. Bug was totally captivated, though, and wants to do the rest of the classes in the series.

His drawings are pretty impressive--he said that he feels like he has a way better take on bird details now. Laws knows what he's doing, and it's fun that he's a Bay Area local.

Peanut worked on handwriting, math and history journaling during the bird class. I think he liked listening in here and there, but it was too detailed of drawing for him, and he happily skipped out on that part.

On a different nature subject, we found this cucumber that seemed to sprout overnight. Glad we'll get at least something out of our garden this year!

And we've got a whole lot of tomatoes starting. I'm really excited for those.

Friday was mostly a game day. We tried out a couple new ones--Tiki Topple, and this Madlibs card game. Both were pretty fun. Tiki Topple was the bigger hit--and Peanut beat me, and then made up his own two person version (of course--the boy can not play a game without then inventing his own!) Some of his games need some more tweaking, but this one was actually really fun, so we played a few rounds of his version, too.

We've been trying to read scriptures as a family in the evenings. We only end up remembering about 2-3 days a week, but I thought I should document it for posterity's sake. Even though we'd started this before quarantine, it feels like a coronavirus habit.

And finally, I have got to share just a little bit of the fun our animals are bringing into our lives these days. We've been getting them out to play in our make shift pet pen, and watching Charkie follow Poppy around, and try to hop like a bunny is hilarious. They are good entertainment.

Jamaica

In Jamaica, we did a historical tour at the Good Hope plantation house.

It's a beautiful house from the 1750s with many of the original structures still intact.

The grounds were pretty.

They do weddings and other events here.

I love this style of architecture.

Daddy-o with his Panama hat seemed right at home.

Old books make me happy.

Beautiful bedroom.

This house had the first hot water bath in the Caribbean (Falmouth had running water before New York City).

There were orchids all over the place.

More of the gardens.

They served us a traditional lunch out by one of the gardens. It was really good.

Such a pretty view.

We also got to sample the oranges that grow on the land now. They don't look very pretty but they are tasty.

I'm really glad that Daddy-o shares my obsession with touring houses, especially old houses. 

We had a little while after the house tour to wander around the shops and restaurants near the port and found Daddy-o a pirate scene. Lots of pirate history in this part of the world.