Let me start by saying that this nature walk began at 4:30 pm and lasted an hour. I knew it would be hot, but holy moses, 5 minutes after we stepped outside on the trail, I was dripping in sweat. Jacob and I were dressed in shorts and T-shirts and apparently this was not the appropriate dress code for nature walking. We were told that long pants, long sleeve shirts and closed toed shoes were preferred and I looked at the woman like she was crazy. Was she kidding? Did she want people dying of heat stroke on her watch? There was actually a 3 year old there dressed "appropriately" in jeans and a long sleeved shirt and I wanted to slap his mama. It was over 100 degrees! Poor kid.
Anyway, before we started the walk, we spent a few minutes inside talking about the animals in nature. She would hold up a dead, stuffed version of an animal and proceed to tell us a little bit about this creature (all the while Jacob was saying "pet him mommy, pet him!" I had to explain to him that that particular animal was dead...err, "not real" and that we couldn't touch the exhibits). But then she kept telling us "we won't see this animal today, but I just wanted to show it to you". She said this with each and every animal she held up -- the skunk, the raccoon, the bobcat, the armadillo, etc. She even said it about the squirrel! Um, hello, come to my neighborhood and you can see HUNDREDS of squirrels as you walk along a well paved, mostly shaded sidewalk.
So, we start on our trek down the trail and she stops us every 5 seconds to show us (please remember that she is instructing a class of 2-3 year olds) an animal footprint on the ground. "OHHHH! Look at this everyone! This is a deer print! We won't see deer today but look at how lovely the deer track is!" Jacob was not at ALL interested. It was quite clear that the animal tracks were planted there by the nature center because we were absolutely NOT to step on them. And then, every few minutes, we would see an animal skull lying on the side of the trail and we'd all have to stop and inspect it and try to guess what it was. At one point, she even picked up a mess of something that she called bat vomit. Bat VOMIT.
After about 15 minutes of this nonsense, Jacob was clearly not entertained and just kept saying "Mommy, hold you please." When this kid is bored and tired (and HOT), he wants to be in mommy's arms and in that kind of heat (5 1/2 months pregnant no less) I really thought I wasn't going to make it through that trail.
Needless to say, we did not see ONE animal. Lots of snake skins (again, obviously planted) but not one living creature. Not even a silly squirrel. So much for our animal nature walk! Jacob and I decided we'll pass on the other classes coming up and spend our time at splash parks instead. We went to one this morning with our new mom's meetup group and had a blast!!! I think this is a MUCH better way for us to be spending our time. :)
Pics from our Nature Walk:
One of the many snake skins that had been shed on the trail:
Some sort of animal remains in the guide's hands:
Jacob following the group:
We survived the trail!
Yay for splash parks!
Jacob trying to work one of the big water guns:
Snack time!
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