HI from above
Originally uploaded by beancounter.
Well, the field trip was a great success. The kids spent three days here at the Headlands Institute in Sausalito, where they did things like search through pond muck for tiny creatures to view under a microscope, and learn about adaptation and ecosystems and land stewardship.
And hike. Boy, did we hike. This was more exercise than I've had consecutively in a very long time! In our small group, the other chaperon and I always knew where our bottles of Advil were.
All us women-folk slept in the girls' barracks. I was afraid I wouldn't get any rest, what with 50 girls (from two different schools) babbling and running around, but it turns out all the girls were so dead-tired at the end of the days' activities, it was lights out at 9:15 and silent by 10:00. Or so I was told. I myself was fast asleep by 9:16. Both nights.
But during the days, I did pull my own weight as chaperon, especially on hikes, keeping our next generation from falling into the ponds or off of cliffs, and stopping them from touching dead possums they found on the trail ...
One of the main problems with American kids is their utter unfamiliarity with the wonders of nature (ie, dead possums). In my day, back when schools weren't hogtied by so much PC legislation, the touching of dead animals was considered essential to every child's education. Many were the times in my youth when the school bus would stop, the teachers would hustle us out of our seats and we would contemplate, by the side of the Interstate, the wonder and mystery which is a dead possum or deer or even raccoon.
Nowadays liberals and trehuggers and their like have made it a legal nightmare to bring children with even spitting distance of any possum, even if its only been dead for 24 hours. When the Great Collapse comes, and our children are wandering helplessly through the post-apocalyptic landscape going "ooh" and "icch" at the piles of deceased animals. Then it'll be too late to fix the problem and the untermensch will take over the world.
Don't say I didn't warn you...
Posted by: Anthony | January 22, 2007 at 08:31 AM
Wow. Good for you. Way above and beyond the call of duty of your regular old bus field trip to the aquarium. Sounds like a great experience for the kids.
Posted by: Kathryn | January 22, 2007 at 09:07 AM
I'm glad you had a good time. That is one of my all time favorite places in Marin. When life would get too crazy at school I would head out to the beach. Sometimes we would go see what animals were in the research/rescue center. I miss it! Ironically, I live closer to the Ocean now...but, get out there less.
Posted by: Wende | January 22, 2007 at 09:16 AM
Kathryn: It was a great experience, for everybody!
Anthony: It is my belief that, when the Great Collapse comes, the human species will die out and the bumblebees will rise to the position of global dominance. Or maybe germs, a la George RR Martin's "Blood Music".
Posted by: pam | January 22, 2007 at 09:21 AM
Um, who do you think is currently engineeering the Great Collapse? Roaches? Feh! They can barely repair a broken modem. Ants? Only if you think that 365 days worth of picnic lunches is a Really Kewl Idea...
No, it's bees. All that honey contains carefully coded software viuses which will, in 2012 (just as ask Chris Carter) cause it all to go Bad.
And as for Royal Jelly, don't even ask. Ever...
Posted by: Anthony | January 22, 2007 at 10:19 AM
Sorry, but 'X-Files' with its bee theory is so yesterday. My money's on the germs.
Posted by: pam | January 22, 2007 at 10:32 AM
And WHAT were the bees carrying, hmm? Smallpox virus!
Bees, germs...All part of the Con!
Posted by: Anthony | January 22, 2007 at 12:09 PM
Oh! If you're saying the germs will one day harness bees for transportation purposes, then I'm with you. Otherwise, Chris Carter's convoluted plotlines to the contrary notwithstanding, yer waay off about the bees.
Go germs! Go germs! Go germs!
Posted by: pam | January 22, 2007 at 12:26 PM
Hey, that's Rodeo Beach (and lagoon) in that picture. That area would be on my short list of my favorite places on Earth. The trip sounds great--congratulations on getting through with nothing stronger than Advil.
Anthony: "Liberals and trehuggers and their like"? (What's a tre? Will I get rabies from hugging one? Where's my hand sanitizer?)
OK, it worked. You made my knee jerk. From my last few decades of close observation, I'd nominate some others to the Dead 'Possum Enemies List: Nintendo, Bill Gates, Sony, the culture of fear-mongering (special guest stars: Fox News, John Walsh, and the tabloid of your choice), Steve Jobs, and their like: whatever/whoever else out there that conspires to keep adults and children from experiencing the world on non-processed terms.
Posted by: Dan | January 22, 2007 at 03:48 PM