Now at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is an incredible sea horse exhibit. Here are some tidbits you may not know… 1.  Seahorses change colors. Thier ability to camoflage themselves is even better than a chameleon. 2. The female can lay about 200 eggs, and the father is the one who carries them until they hatch. Which, is only two to three weeks later. 3. In Asia seahorses are used as medicine (believed to...

With kids being out of school all week, a few families joined together for a picnic at Lake Solano Park. This is an area near the city of Winters that is great for first time camping. It is not far from the Sacramento area and has some nice hiking trails and playground equipment as well. There is a visitor’s center that is, likely for budget reasons, only open sporadically. I have been looking for a place...

We recently took a trip to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Rancho Cordova, Ca.  You can read more about our adventure there. In honor of Photo Friday I thought I would include a photo of the first time our oldest went fishing.  We were at Camp Sacramento, a family camp that my family had gone to for many years of my childhood.  A river runs through the property which offers some good fishing opportunities. ...

Did you know….  that for over a month after they hatch, salmon are still attached to their yolk  sacs and don’t leave their gravel nest? It is not until their nutrient-filled sacs are completely absorbed that they start their journey from river to ocean. There is a lot to learn at the Rancho Cordova Nimbus Fish Hatchery.  Here, actually two hatcheries next to each other, you can view both...

The Nimbus Fish Hatchery was constructed in the late 50s as a way to mitigate the impact that the Folsom-Nimbus Dam had created for the salmon and steelhead trout population in the American River.  The ladder, which guides upswimming fish to a holding pen at the hatchery, is open in November and stays open until the run is over. The hatchery harvests the eggs from the female fish, fertalizes it with “milt”...

Many years ago I remember seeing thousands of butterflies, practically dripping off of  trees.  I have never forgotten this sight and have awaited the opportunity to show my kids. Monarchs flock to the California coast beginning in October, then mate and leave for their spring migration by February. This year I planned to find them again, and take the kids, who are still enchanted by beautiful butterflies....

I recently wrote about our trip to Bakers Beach in San Francisco. As part of Photo Friday, I thought I would also document the trip using photos of the progression of that day. Check out Delicious Baby for more Friday travel photos. The first hour the kids were excited to share the beach with the dog. They threw the ball for him, chased each other threw the waves, energy galore.           About an hour...

On the sixth and final day of a recent trip, I found myself scavenging through google maps looking for a beach, which I had promised my five-year-old would be included in our trip itinerary.  The nearest beach was an hour south in Santa Cruz. Our house was at least two and a half hours north. We had a week’s worth of stuff in the car and a dog who easily gets car sick. Surely there’s a northerly...

Having recently been thinking a lot about geocaching (see previous post), it seems only appropriate to use this dreamy Monday for a post of one of my favorite geocache finds: Spanish Peak. As I recall, this was my first introduction to geocaching, and you can see why I got hooked.  In our PK days (pre-kids) my husband and I decided to take a trip for a few days to Bucks Lake.  For a day hike we chose Spanish...

As the weather gets colder, I have less of an inclination to jump in the car to find a new place to explore, and more reasons to look for things to do nearby. Here is a way to make exploring your own city feel like a new adventure: go geocaching!  How do you catch a geo and will it bite, you ask? Geocaching doesn’t hurt a bit, but you may get bitten by the bug once you start and decide to continue geocaching...