Austin Science and Nature Center

This morning Reese and I took a "field trip" to the Austin Science and Nature Center in Zilker Park. As a teacher, I made yearly pilgrimages to the Science and Nature Center for field trips, but I had never enjoyed the grounds as a "civilian" until today. The nature center has been around for sixty years and has a HUGE pond, walking trails, animal exhibits, and a dino pit where kids can "excavate" buried dinosaur bones.

In order to get Reese interested and excited about the trip I told her we were going to see animals--kind of like the zoo. That did the trick. She ran up the steps to the front gate as fast as she could and kept asking where the animals were. The nature center doesn't have a zoo's worth of animals--in fact, it's more of a rescue facility that houses injured animals that can't be returned to the wild. Since we arrived early in the morning before the heat was too oppressive, we got to see most of the mammals out and about including: two foxes, a bobcat, rabbits, a skunk, a coyote, and a raccoon. Reese was less interested in the amphibian/reptile house, but LOVED the birds of prey exhibit (again, injured, unreleasable birds). She particularly liked the owls. We saw Great Horned Owls, Barn Owls, and a third variety whose name escapes me. All morning long she talked about the owls, how they were sleeping, and how they say "who, who."

Another highlight of the trip was digging in the GIANT dino pit. The dino pit can easily accommodate 100 digging children, and it's full of shovels, buckets, and brushes for kids to explore with. While the goal is to excavate the hidden dinosaur bones, Reese enjoyed experiementing with the digging tools more than anything else. It was a miracle that sand didn't make its way into her diaper considering how often her legs were barely visible under the sand piles she made. (This happens when you fill buckets with sand and pour them TOWARDS you.)