Air Base and Citrus Park Field Trip

The Camp Fire group scheduled a double field trip day. It sounded like great fun, so we went! Like all of their meetings and field trips, it was optional. That is so nice, because with kids, everything is optional. We can't guarantee plans for anything, ever. You just never know what might come up, literally.

Nobody woke up sick, so we were good to go!

First stop:  March Air Force Base Museum.

We've been here before, and we just went to the San Diego Air Museum last week. But, it's a great place to walk around and feel tiny. The airplanes are huge! The girls enjoyed themselves and I did too. They've changed the indoor area and the new layout is nice and open. It was great to be there. We see new things every time we've been there. And Gracie had a great time bonding with her new friends. Libby clung to me.

Picnic Lunch:

We had a picnic on the grass in front of the Air Museum. It was nice. Not all of the families joined in but they all said they'd meet up at the next destination. Picnicking together was fun. But, of course I would do this, I spilled my iced tea. I had less than half a cup left, and I spilled it. I had it in one of those insulated plastic cups with a screw on lid and a straw. I held it by the lid (why do I do crazy things like this?) The lid popped right off and the cup fell, spilling the remainder of my tea right onto my ankle. The tea soaked my sock and I had to walk around the rest of the day with a wet sock inside of my shoe. Oh how stupid that felt. I had about 3 oz of tea and that's where it had to land? For Pete's sake!

Next stop:  California Citrus Historical State Park.

Wow. Never even knew about this place. As we pulled up to the gates of the park, I rolled down our windows of the car and wow! The air was fragrant! It smelled so delicious! Citrus flowers! I want to live in this neighorhood and smell this every day.  Yummmm!

Now, everyone knows that I have a hyper sensitive nose. My schnoz rocks. I'm like a dog with this thing. So I was in heaven and we hadn't even parked yet.

The Citrus Park had a little museum and we toured that. Nice exhibits in there told about the citrus market and how citrus traveled along the Silk Road to Europe, and from there across to the Americas. There are lots of varieties of citrus. I had no idea.  I can name four:  Orange, Lemon, Lime and Grapefruit.  But, no, there are several varieties of each of those basic groups of citrus and more!

The Park was hosting a special tasting event that day.  Drool!  We got to taste more varieties of citrus than I could count! (I can't count high, I get bored and sick of counting. Math just isn't my thing.)  We lined up and they had us taste the varieties of Grapefruits first. Then the Lemons and Limes.  The kids were willing to try things, but when you start with the tarts, they lost their will to taste new citrus fruits pretty fast. After the tarts, we moved on to the Oranges and the sweets.  Everything was super delicious. I loved it all. I loved the sour, the tart, the acidic, the low acid, the sweet, the watery, the bland, the bold, all of it.

All of the varieties that we tasted were grown at the Park.  However, they do not allow anyone to pick from the fruit trees, and they do not harvest and sell the fruits. Um.... I want some.

Behind the museum, there were a couple of picnic tables set up with balsa wood, hammers and nails. The docents offered to do a craft project with the kids. Sure. Do it!  Let me just sit back here and snap a few pictures while you teach my kid to use a hammer. Love this!  The kids hammered away and ended up creating a miniature orange crate. Too cute! And very cool that they had this project for the kids. The kids loved using the hammers and learning how to hammer nails.  Gracie was pretty good at it. Libby, well, she's better at drawing and dancing and things that do not involve hammers and nails.

We hiked around the citrus grove for a bit and noted the variations of the tree sizes, amount of fruit on the different trees and things like that. Libby saw one  person pluck an orange, peel it and eat it. She was very concerned that he'll end up in jail for stealing an orange. The signs say not to pick the oranges.

Somewhere between the carpentry and the hiking, we lost our Camp Fire group. The kids finished the orange crates at different rates, and everyone was with their families, so I think they are a lot like our school groups and do quite a bit of field tripping on their own as well as some with the group. That was fine. It gave Gracie a chance to tell me how much she liked her new friends. I am thrilled beyond happiness that she is enjoying this youth group!

We stayed at the Citrus Park until shortly after 3pm and then got back in our car.  We sat in the car, shut the doors and wow, my car stinks. I'd rather be out in the Citrus Grove. It was sad to leave that beautiful aroma behind. My nose had a wonderful afternoon!