Our Day Off

We spent our day off school today getting a little fresh air at one of our local metroparks. We have the best metropark system!

One of our parks has a new nature center that we hadn't visited yet, so we stopped there before heading to a hiking trail. It was very well done! The kids were prepared to find it boring but were pleasantly surprised. So many hands-on displays, which were perfect for both kids and adults. It will be nice to visit this spring and summer when all the outside plants and grasses have grown in.

I didn't realize beaver were so big!

Those brown "rocks" in the distance are bison.

This says there are 6 species of salamanders in the park. Try as we might, we've only ever found 1.

After spending some time at the nature center, we drove down the road to one of the hiking trails. We went for a walk, got our feet muddy, poked some ice left along the bank of the river, climbed a tree, peeked in a nesting box or two, and finished up with a little fun on the playground. Before we headed out today, I told the kids I would give $20 to the first person to spot an owl in the woods. I figured my money was safe...and it was. We did hear a barred owl call twice while we were there, but we never saw him. Danielle found 64 cents on the ground, so her trip was profitable even without the owl. We had a very nice day out. I am counting down the days until spring break (22)!

We found this feather stuck on a branch. It is very soft and has a distinct color pattern. Wish we could figure out what left it. It's certainly different than the feathers our yard birds leave.