T's Outdoor Adventure

As you might have read previously, my chicken houses currently sit empty. I have sprayed them with powdered bug killer and now they have to sit a few days locked up. That leaves me some extra time I normally don't have. I thought the best thing to do with that time would be to spend it with my son. Being that yesterday was a Monday, and I would have to take him out of pre-school for a day together, I wanted our time to be somewhat educational. Just some time between dad and son learning something together. In my head, I was visualizing something like a day at the Reuben H Fleet Science Center in San Diego. When I was working at an after school program in San Diego we took the students there and it was perfect. All hands on science activities for every age range, and an IMAX theater. Now, living near a college town, and having several larger towns around I assumed I could find something similar to that to take T to. I had assumed wrong.
I searched and searched the internet and found nothing. Well, I did find one that was close, but when I called for information they told me they closed a while ago for construction and won't be opening again until July. the good news is it looks like it will be a good place to go next summer. The bad news is it was no help to me yesterday.
After a long and very unsuccessful search I decided to give up on pre-packaged educational opportunities and take T out doors to a lake area that had a park and a large hydroelectric dam. We had a lot of fun there, and I would show you the pictures, but Daddy forgot the camera was in his coat pocket so he didn't take any pictures. DOH!
The water level is so low at the lake that it is hard to call it a lake at this point. The park however was great for out exploring. We saw a lot of birds, and we squatted down really low in a field and were very quiet for a while so we could see how many birds we could find. Getting T to be quiet that long was pretty amazing in itself, but he was doing a great job. We even were able to see a woodpecker, and some cardinals. We talked about how hard to see some of the birds were and how they were doing a great job of using their colors to camouflage themselves so other animals wouldn't see them. Camouflage is a difficult word...
We also found a little bridge that crosses a ditch. It was about as long as a train car. I know this because T told me it was a freight car and we played on it for a while as if we were on a train. We watched the Polar Express Movie recently, so we have a renewed excitement about trains. Back and forth, back and forth he ran with me trying to keep up. We even explored under the train to check the wheels. I personally didn't see any, but he did and they needed oil. Good news, they are now well oiled.
After a fun time in the park we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a nice visit and a delicious lunch. For not being exactly what I wanted, we still had a lot of fun and learned a little too. Now, if any of you have some ideas for little learning trips we can take I'd love to hear them.