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It sounded like good, cheap fun (and it was).

It was a bit of a drive, but also an excellent time for Gillian to nap and get ready for a lot of walking in the heat.  It had just rained so it was cooler, but it didn’t take long to start heating up again and to turn all that rain into humidity.  We persevered.

Right away, Neil found a sandbox.  This really demonstrated that I need to get off my butt and get these kids a sandbox at home.

Gillian didn’t want to sit in her stroller for long.  She insisted on getting out and seeing things like the giant rabbit (not part of the Big Bugs series).

The bugs were not necessarily as big as I thought they would be.  They were of very nice wooden construction, however.  There were a few really giant bugs — these ants at the top of the hill.  They were probably my favorites.  There were three, but you can just barely see the second on the right in the picture.  They were marching across the hill to somewhere.

My plan ever since we figured we were going to make this trip was to bring my pinhole lens cap and take some pinhole pictures.  That means I needed my tripod — which I realized I forgot when we arrived.  I took a few pictures that way anyway, but they didn’t turn out so great.  I had to find a wall to sit my camera on for any shot.   Here’s one of the dragonfly, which was also one of the bigger bugs.  (Pinhole camera pictures make everything close and far away in focus, but everything is all blurry also to the same degree.  The pictures are rather “dreamy”.  It can make for interesting pictures in the hands of someone with talent.  And a tripod. I had neither.)

I didn’t stick with the pinhole lens cap for long.  Really wish I’d brought my tripod.  On the other hand, then I would have had to carry around my tripod which would have been a little bit of a pain.  Here’s the last bug picture I have.  It’s a pretty nifty spider in his spider web, hanging off some trees next to a bridge.

The kids had a fantastic time getting out.  Gillian is the Big Explorer, running around looking at whatever she’s allowed to see for as long as she’s allowed to do it.  Just like she can eat as long as you let her, she can run with no end.

She’s very happy to point and tell you something incomprehensible about everything she sees.

Neil, on the other hand, is our thinking.  This is a typical face for Neil.  He’s not unhappy!  On the contrary, he had a great deal of fun that day.  What this face represents is that he’s deeply thinking about something he’s seen and probably coming over to question us about it until he feels he understands it.  It’s challenging sometimes, but a lot of fun.

At the end we took a short trolley ride back to the entrance to avoid a walk along a sunny piece of road.  Here’s Neil giving that some more thought.

All in all, a great trip!