Field Trip Friday

The worst Field Trip Friday ever?

We needed to go pick some books up at the library, so after we did that,  I decided to look up some geocaches in the area.  We found two in the little greenway close by - an area I am very familiar with.

As soon as we got there, the kids started whining.  It was overcast but oh-so-muggy and just not a pleasant day for tramping around.  We stuck with the "hike" until we found the spot where the cache should be....and found a huge black snake, a tiny little frog, and lots and lots of blackberry briars. 

At this point we thought to look at the previous logs for the cache and found that everyone complained that they could not find it because of the briars and poison oak. Lovely.

Even the short walk back to car was a little miserable so we decided to just act like our unsuccessful geocaching never happened and look for easy fun elsewhere.  We hopped into Petsmart to admire all the kitty cats and then went to McDonalds.  Not our most enriching Field Trip Friday by any stretch of the imagination.

On a happy note,  Colin is so awesome about stepping up when Chad isn't around to help.  He got refills, waited for our food, and cleaned up.  His daddy has set a good example for him. 

Field Trip Friday–Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market

I went to bed last night lamenting to Chad that I still didn’t know where we were going to go for Field Trip Friday.  I still have Chuck E Cheese in my back pocket, but I really don’t want to do that unless I am desperate – not only because it is rather unenriching, but because I am ticked off that they no longer have their phenomenal coupons. 

In the middle of the night I woke up with horrible allergies and at some point during the next three and half sleepless hours, I came up with what I thought was a great idea: Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market.  My boys have always liked our irregular trips there, but it didn’t really compare to some past Field Trip Fridays, so to get them involved, I told them they each had up to five dollars to use towards trying something new. 

When we got there, we walked the whole market once to see what there was.  The boys were immediately wowed by some free samples of artisan bread, and in the end Colin and Oliver decided they each wanted to buy a loaf.   The man selling it was so friendly, encouraging us to come back again and again for more samples, and his bread was INCREDIBLE, so I was happy to support him.  Colin chose a loaf of Gorgonzola bread and Oliver chose Rosemary Sea Salt.  Yes, my almost four year old.  Aren’t we just so hip? 

I got some bok choy, spinach, ginger, bean sprouts, cilantro, bananas, thai basil, scallions, and an avocado, all for 10 bucks!  Sadly, none of the flower places accepted credit card, and I only had enough cash to cover the boys, or I would have treated myself.  As always, the bouquets for gorgeous.

And what did Gabe get?  A whole bunch of delicous kettle corn from a very friendly and generous vendor……

   

…and three lemons, which he cut open with a butter knife and then squeezed into a cup, daring his brothers to partake of the sourness with him.  Six year olds are awesome like that.

The whole trip was pretty quick, which was good because it was hot hot hot.  By the time we got home, stuffed with kettle corn, Carina was ready for her nap.  I told the boys they could play all the Wii, Xbox and computer their little hearts desired as long as they let me take a nap with her.  And they did.  For 2 hours.  Mom of The Year, folks. 

For dinner tonight we had Chef’s Salad, as I grew up calling it (basically a big salad bar) and the bread.  There was some bread leftover and I keep dipping back into it.  Yum.

Field Trip Friday–Carolinas Aviation Museum

Last Friday we went to the Carolinas Aviation Museum.   Believe it or not, this humble little museum, tucked away by the airport, houses the Miracle on the Hudson.  I did not expect to be so touched by seeing it, but it brought tears to my eyes.  There was a great volunteer there, who heard Colin talking about some other airplanes he learned about on a field trip there, and he jumped on Colin’s enthusiam, trailing us for most of our trip and explaining things.  He talked to us about the passengers of Flight 1549 standing on the front wings as they evacuated, and pointed out some dents towards the front of the plane from bird strikes.  It was just amazing to see this beast of a plane, broken up in so many areas, and know that it is broken up in just the right ways to have landed without anyone inside dying. 

 

 

There was a movie playing, and the two oldest boys really got into it.  As we were looking at the plane and watching the movie, I felt this sinking feeling and thought, “Uh, maybe it wasn’t a good idea for the kids to see this less than a week before we fly across the country.”  Carina was getting super fussy during the movie and we needed to leave, but I stayed until the plane landed safely because I wanted them to have the last images of safety stuck in their heads. 

There were a lot of really neat airplanes there – I am sure someone who knows more about that kind of stuff would enjoy it even more than I did.  I had to take a picture of Colin in front of a Concorde model because he used to be obsessed with it.  And I the picture of Ollie is in front of what he calls a “Surfjack.”

Just a note, if you do go, the hangar that houses all these cool planes is not air-conditioned and it gets hotter in there than it does outside.  We went right when the museum opens at ten, and we were sweating.