Day 57: Spring Lake

One of the best things about working my own schedule (and having a big vehicle) is the opportunity to chaperone field trips for the boys' classes. I missed out on a lot of them the last two years from working retail, so I'm trying to make up for it by chaperoning as many now as possible.

Today Camden's 2nd grade class had a field trip up to Spring Lake park in the hills of Santa Rosa. It's not only a regional park with a lake and hiking/walking trails but it also has a nature center and guided tours. 

We started at the small amphitheater outside of the nature center, where the park ranger (who looked exactly how you would expect a Northern California hippie park ranger to look) did a neat demonstration on a 3D map on how the area used to be before people moved in, then how as wild areas grew into urban areas, simple things we don't think about (washing cars, letting the raccoons tip over our garbage cans, etc) drastically affect the ecosystem. 

After the presentation, we went inside the nature center, where there was a plethora of taxidermy local animals, some live ones (snakes and turtles), and all sorts of science fair-esque type displays and stations about the environment. They even had a miniature tide pool, where the class got to poke at sea urchins, star fish, etc. 

The best part of the field trip though was the nature walk up a steep hill to a little meadow on the plateau with a pond known as "Frog Pond", full of - you guessed it - frogs, tadpoles, birds, and the like. On the edges of the pond you could see hundreds of these weird, clear little jelly fish looking things. Upon asking, we learned that they were actually sacks full of salamander eggs! Camden of course this was the coolest thing in the history of ever.  

School work by Frog Pond

The view above Santa Rosa

Salamander eggs!

I loved this little field trip with Cam and his class. Cam was so enthusiastic and animated about it, and was great being able to share it with him. 

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