it was a wild weekend

It was a wild weekend. Everything we did was wild or "kinda" wild.

Saturday we attended another well done event organized by Inside the Outdoors. We watched an animal show, hiked with a naturalist, drummed in a drum circle, and made recycled crafts.

These...


Became these...


Yes, that is a mountain lion on her face. It looks just like the one on her shirt, don't you think?


Today we visited the Wild Animal Park in Escondido.

Some wild cousins below




wild kids on rhino


my wild herd

night hike

Night hikes really are wonderful and pleasing. Cricket and swallow songs, African bull frog croaks (they are not natives) and a gorgeous sunset made it all worthwhile even though it probably was 90 degrees out when the hike began. We did another night hike several months ago. You can read about the Astronomy Hike here. Both these hikes were FREE and totally worth it.



listening to stories


burnt trees from the Santiago Canyon Fire 2007


bull frog


petting Cowboy


The hike this time was a local lore hike. Stories were told of Juan Flores and his raid on the San Juan Mission, Limestone Canyon and the hanging tree, and so much more. The history of these canyons are fascinating and Julia cannot get enough of this stuff. Serena, too, did really well and hiked pretty much the entire time. I loved touching and smelling the California Sage.

howling like coyotes


Julia's favorite things from this hike in THIS order:

"touching the California king snake"
"hiking to the top of the highest mountain"
"eating s'mores"
"petting Cowboy the turtle"
"howling like coyotes"
"going through the spooky forest"

Astronomy Hike

Tonight Julia, James and I headed to a free public function given through Inside the Outdoors Foundation. It was an Astronomy Hike. Mostly the hike was geared to school aged children, but I got a kick out of it and was happy to hike in the dark with no moon in sight. The hike was minor, down hill with switchbacks and flashlights in tow. It took about 45 minutes to get our night vision. Our guide Jordan told us stories of Orion and The Seven Sisters. Later, Julia told me that was her favorite part, seeing the constellations and hearing the stories about them. After the hike we climbed up to where the OC Astronomy Club member had setup their telescopes and took a peek into them. My favorite was Saturn. Pretty cool!