28 Days of Nor Cal Adventures: Day 1

Yesterday my oldest son finally asked me the question that I will probably get asked a million more times (but this was the first time).  "Mommy, how many days until we move?"

The answer both shocked and inspired me.  I counted it out and told him that we had about 30 days left in Eureka.  Of course he had to ask how many 30 days was, and I tried to explain it by showing him on the calendar.  In doing this I started to think that it would be cool to create a calendar to count down the days until we leave, except that might simply depress me, or worse, freak me out.  Instead another idea popped into my head.

I have been researching things to do with kids in Salem for over a month now, in an effort to build up excitement for the move.  Well, yesterday it finally occurred to me that there are actually a lot of things to do in Nor Cal that the boys have never, or rarely, done.  Why not do some of these things in the month leading up to our move.  My mom even gave me the idea for a scrap book just a few days ago.  So here we go with Day 1.

DAY 1 (August 5th) - Mad River Hatchery

I know, I know...I cheated.  But I hurt my neck on Sunday and didn't really want to leave the house yesterday, so I figured since we had already gone to the hatchery two weeks ago I had one "freebie".

After church on August 5th, my parents, my sister and her family, and our family all piled in our cars and drove to Blue Lake for a picnic at the Mad River Hatchery.  I hadn't been to the hatchery since I was in 3rd grade and no one else in our group had ever been until this year (my sister had taken her family for the first time the week before).  We have a family friend who works there, so the idea had crossed my mind to take the boys, but I just kept putting it off.  Then my sister went and I realized how much the boys would really love seeing all of those fish and getting to feed them.  So that was it.  No more putting it off.  We were going to do it.

It was a beautiful day for a picnic.  Sunny, light breeze, hot but not sweltering.  We were in heaven, until...  We got to the hatchery and the first thing I notice is the missing diaper bag.  I had run out the door after my youngest and had forgotten to go back in the house for the diaper bag after putting him in the van.  Silly Mommy!  Lucky for me my sister was willing to share my niece's diapers.  (Poor G!)

After lunch the real fun started!  We got to check out the fish (and the resident cat).  The baby fish were too little to feed, but they were still pretty active and interesting to watch.

                                  

The big fish were where it was at though.  There was a food dispenser that cost a quarter to feed the fish.  Not sure exactly what the money goes toward (probably keeping the facility open to the public).  Either way it is a worthy cause in my opinion.  And we definitely did our part to contribute.  I'm pretty sure we nearly drained that food dispenser.  Everyone, even the adults, was getting a kick out of watching the fish get excited over the food.  At one point the fish got so excited they actually broke a dividing board in the tank.  Todd fished it out so the maintenance guy could see it on his rounds.  I think everyone had a wonderful and memorable day.