Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Back on track


One of my favorite parts of homeschooling my brood is taking field trips. Anytime my husband has a day off we usually hop in the car and take what we lovingly call a "McClary family adventure." Sometimes we just end up in the car for hours driving around and exploring new parts of our beautiful state of Utah, but most of the time we plan ahead and find national parks, historical sites, or places to hike and let the littles run around. If we go too long without a field trip, I mean adventure, my husband and my kids get restless.

We kicked off this school year with a family adventure to the Golden Spike National Historic Site, and a side trip to the Spiral Jetty. The Golden Spike site itself was rather underwhelming. Other than looking at two fully operational train engine replicas, there were not many things for the children to do. The museum is really just one big room with a movie and a few displays, but we made the most of it. I think the most fun was found in a game of hide and seek in the picnic area, and in the six dollars my 6 year old found after taking a picture by the sign.




My husband was not satisfied with the less than exciting Golden Spike site so we went off in search of the mysterious Spiral Jetty. I had never heard of it but it sounded intriguing. It is a type of land art that was created in the 70's by the artist Robert Smithson. For any of you in the Salt Lake City area who would like to visit I suggest you borrow an SUV! It takes a long, bumpy ride to get there on dirt roads. The kids loved the ride of course, holding their hand up in the air the whole way like we were on a roller coaster. I on the other hand did not appreciate the jarring bumps and jiggles. Once there my husband and kiddos took a little hike across the beach to where, on a very wet year, the spiral jetty juts out into the Great Salt Lake.
I didn't make it out of the car to see the jetty myself. My littlest one had somehow fallen asleep despite the bumps and I needed to stay at the car with him. Here are some pics my hubby took, and a link to Robert Smithson's website.





I am so excited for this school year and for the many field trips to come!


No comments:

Post a Comment