Field Trip!

Does it count as a field trip if you did not actually visit any fields and then ate a bunch of ice cream?  I am assuming so.

Today we left the school books behind and headed out on an adventure.  We visited the Bonnechere Caves and the Shaw Woods Outdoor Education Centre.  We started out cool (a lovely 8-10 degrees C underground) but ended up hot (35 degrees C at Johnny's Lookout over Shaw Pond).  We sweated a ton but it was a fantastic day.

Our morning at the Bonnechere Caves was excellent.  We visited the Bonnechere Falls, the old bridge ruins and the sink hole.  We saw some fossils and, of course, guided ourselves through the caves.  We brought head lamps and searched for Ordovician Period fossils in the cave walls.  The boys loved it.  Paleontology brought to life.  The stromatolite fossils transported me right back to my university field trip excursions with Professor Narbonne.

Bonnechere Falls

Old bridge ruins

Everyone loves a good sink hole!

Fossils in the cave wall.

After a picnic lunch, we escaped to the shade of the Shaw Woods.  The four of us hunted mushrooms for kilometres!  Alistair hiked a full 4 km independently before he asked to be carried.  We were all very impressed!

My tiny kiddos dwarfed by the old growth forest.

We found a sugar shack in the woods.

After another snack we visited the replica Alice May Alligator boat, crossed over the Shaw Pond Dam and hiked the short trail to Johnny's Lookout.  There were educational placards (woohoo!) and we learned all about native foods traditionally foraged by indigenous people, how animals and plants have adapted to survive on rocky cliffs, the history of the log drivers, etc.  Amazing.

The Alice May.

Johnny's Lookout

Parts of the old grist mill.

The Shaw Pond Dam.

All this hard work exercising and learning earned us the most enormous ice cream cones we had ever seen.  Thank goodness the Cobden ice cream shoppe gave us cups and spoons in addition to cones since the boys (who were very hot and hungry) did not come even close to finishing them.  The remaining pools of ice cream are now in the freezer for tomorrow.

What an awesome day!  This was one to remember.