Field Trip to the Coast

Twelve hours. That was the estimated time span of today's field trip. I arrived at the school at 7:35am and returned home at 7:15. So, we beat the estimate - thanks to being able to ride with Randy and Nancy and not on the school bus.

First stop on the field trip to Newport was a trip to the Yaquina Lighthouse and tidepools. This was actually a really fun experience - it's been a long time since I've been exploring tidepools. Our school made a reservation for this day and time back in August to insure very low tides for exploring. Very cool. Brayden wasn't super fond of the "hugs" given by anenomes (he said he's not fond of hugs by strangers...hee-hee), but loved checking everything out. There were many sea lions sunning themselves out on the surrounding rocks, but none close enough to make a picture worthwhile. It certainly made the experience worthwhile though!





After lunch, the kids headed over to Hatfield Marine Science Center, and took three one-hour classes. It was odd thinking that these classes were actually beginning when their schoolmates back home were being released for the day.... The three "stations" were an estuary walk, including finding tiny crabs and lots of shrimp, the "crab lab" (which I found to be the most boring) and finally, the squid disection. That was pretty fascinating, but it was a small room with a strong smell - and approaching dinner time. I was ready to be done and not searching for a squid's "ink sack".


There are three fourth grade classes at Brayden's school. One class went yesterday and two went today. Apparently, yesterday's weather was torrential downpour featurning sideways rain. Today, by the time we reached the coast, the high pressure ridge had already begun forming, beginning with blue skies on the furthest west portion of Oregon - right where we were at - Praise God! While I'm super-thrilled to be home, all in all, this field trip definitely exceeding my expecations, and once again, I was super thankful to be able to spend such special time with my buddy.