Roadschool San Diego field trips (part 2)

Our other two field trips were to the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. About 20 friends went with us to the zoo.

Check out this Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko! That's quite an unfortunate name, but he does look like a leaf.

The baby giraffe towards the back was only about 6 weeks old.

The cheetah came right up to us.

The birds and ducks on display intrigued me. I have seen these buffleheads on occasion in the wild, but I always thought they were black and white. It was so neat to see them up close and observe their colorful head.

This female Malay Great Argus Pheasant has just one tail feather 

with circles on it. Would have loved to see the more colorful male.

The Secretary Bird has very long legs, allowing it to stand 4 feet tall!

Waiting in line for the aerial tram.

Riding the tram gives an interesting view of the park and animals below.

They found the Photo Booth. Wonder how many kids could fit in here?

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A week later we went as a group to San Diego's Safari Park, 

excited to check out the animals who call this 1,800 acre park home. 

We rode the safari tram thru the area. Many of the park's 300 species live here

 together just like they do in the wild. It was great to see their natural interactions.

We measured our wingspan against a condor.

Had a conversation with Robert the Zebra. This is a really cool exhibit. 

He actually interacts with the kids. He does what they ask him to and answers questions. Love it!

Hung out with bats.

Gazed at gorillas. These guys were quite busy and entertaining. One young adult was getting to close to the mama and her little baby and the giant silverback went after him.

The lemur walk was a favorite exhibit. We were able to walk inside their enclosure, watch them jump around while interacting and then come very close to us.

Roadschool field trips in San Diego (part 1)

One of the benefits of being members of Fulltime Families, is the opportunity to get together with other traveling roadschooling families. After the rally, many of us remained in San Diego for a few extra weeks. This allowed us to take advantage of homeschool days at some of the major attractions in town. We visited Legoland, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park all for a small fraction of the regular price! Neighbors at our campground actually gave us free passes to the Safari Park, so our entry there was free! Yay!

Our first trip was to Legoland with approximately 100 of our roadschooling friends.

We spent time with lots of different families, but managed to spend most of the day with the Lewis family since our families had bonded so well.

Here they built Lego boats to race down the river.

The kids loved, loved, loved the roller coasters. This one was pretty serious. Only 4 people per car and it went fast and very high. After the first big fall, they were ready for it to be over, but by the end, they jumped right back in line to ride again. Brave little monkeys.

Sea World offered us a special show with the Orca whales where we learned how they train them in order to monitor their health. We watched them demonstrate how the whales will roll over for them to take blood, check teeth, even do ultrasounds right there in the water.

This ride simulates arriving by helicopter to an Arctic exploration base where
we found the polar bear, walrus, and one of our favorites, the beluga whales.

Sea World's homeschool program is a four hour visit and doesn't allow access to all areas, but we really enjoyed our visit and are happy for the opportunity as this is something we couldn't do at full price. 

O-H I-O

In November I stumbled across an incredible airline deal, so the kids and I flew to Ohio to visit family. Unfortunately it was a red eye flight leaving at 10am (3hrs past their bedtime) and arriving in Cleveland (2hrs from our final destination) at 5am! OUCH! In the days leading up, I was incredibly stressed about the logistics of transporting 2 sleeping 40lb-ers and our suitcase. Thankfully they woke up enough to walk both to and from the airplane! I think they were just incredibly excited to see Grandpa waiting at the terminal for us. He so lovingly drove the two hours to come get us and bring us to his home.

We spent much of our time at the metro parks, hiking and looking for birds. Here we 

are checking out the live creatures at Blendon Woods Park, while waiting for cousin Lucy.

Afterwards we drove out to Dawes Arboretum, on of Grandma's favorite places to walk around.

Shooting hoops in Grandpa's barn.

I think we hiked at Highbanks 4 of the 6 days that we were there. The strangest part is that I had never been to this park before. We came for birding, but had so much fun walking the trails and exploring the nature center, we just kept coming back for more. The only disappointing thing was that we didn't see any of the eagles that nest there. Well, Asher actually saw one on our drive but I missed it! We kept going back with different family members- Uncle Jason, Aunt Christen, Benji, Avery, Lucy, Grandpa, Grandma, Grammy and Memaw! I love seeing the cousins hiking together!

Asher was super excited that he and Benji matched.

Memaw had the kids and I over for a slumber party with her and Grammy. We had fun, but my mom didn't get too much sleep with the kids next to her. I slept well with Grammy and they both let me sleep in....ahhhhhh!

My kids ended up sick, probably from the flight, so unfortunately we didn't get to see friends. On our last night, I was finally able to reconnect with two of my friends, Cindi and Bob, while our kids had fun playing together in Grandpa's barn.

On our way back to the airport, Grandpa drove us up to visit with his dad and stepmom before meeting my Aunt Jane and Uncle Barry for lunch. It was so nice to catch up with all of them.

Time to head home, and yes, Asher's leaf came with us. 

And this time we were more prepared for the flight!

The horned lizard that welcomed us home at LAS.