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#FieldtripFail

Oh, my, do I feel silly, and glad to be sitting here at home today.

I did a lot of driving yesterday.  We went to visit the Charles A. Lindbergh Historic Site in Little Falls.  I took the girls to their Living History Day a couple years back and had intended to take everyone to this year’s Living History Day this past Saturday when the day just got away from us with too much going on and it just didn’t happen.

Never one to be deterred (ha! I can be so easily deterred sometimes it’s downright shameful), I did the next best thing.  I pulled out my calendar, spotted an opening a few days later, double checked the weather report- beautiful! And decided to go yesterday.

Little Falls is not exactly close.

The main problem with my plan?  The Charles A. Lindbergh Historic Site is open from Memorial Day through Labor Day, that holiday that we just had earlier this week.  My bad.

Imagine my dismay when, after driving for just over 90 minutes, I pulled up to a closed and locked gate and saw beyond it the closed and locked visitors center and museum.

Again, not one to be deterred (there may have been a moment of stunned silence), I pulled across the street into the Charles A. Lindbergh State Park and we piled out to play on some old swings and do some hiking.  We had gone fully intending on hiking a trail or two after the house and museum anyway, so all was not lost.

The trail roaming was perfect.  The kids got to run (not too far ahead of mom! with rivers every which way it makes me nervous when my children actually run out of my sight, I can let them off-leash and out of reach (we’ve never used a leash, that was a joke), but out of sight in a strange place makes me nervous) and the mosquitoes were scarce.  Yes, I know how many parentheses are in that last long and running-on sentence.

Some of us got full of sticky and pokey seeds, trying to hitch a ride to some fertile ground.  Some of us found caterpillars.  Some of us threw sticks and twigs over the bridge playing Poohsticks.  None of us are quite ready for the World Poohsticks Championship, or are we?  Oh, my.

Before we knew it, it was getting to be that time, the time when we needed to find some bathrooms.  Wouldn’t you know it?  Even the outhouses at the State Park (at least the ones in the area we were at) were locked.  Seriously.  Who locks outhouses?  The Minnesota DNR, apparently.  Fortunately for us, the Charles A. Weyehaeuser Museum was open, and it had restrooms.  This little museum was actually really, really neat.  I’m so glad we were desperate enough to stop in there.

After that, having enjoyed our walk over the little Pine Creek, but not wanting to leave Little Falls without a walk along the mighty Mississippi, we headed back to the Lindbergh site to just park and walk down by the river.  We were greeted by a chair in the path with a sign reading “active bees”, and as we looked around, there were indeed many, many, active bees.  We turned around.  We got back in the van.

I figured we could just go sit by the river in the big pinic area near the old train station in town, like last time.  It’s lovely there.  As I pulled up to the parking area, I noticed the men roping the entire park off.  That seemed odd.  Bright orange string, attached to many little poles.  Strange.  Then I saw the giant “Event Parking” signs.

There was nothing to do but laugh really.

The historic house was closed.  The museum we had actually planned on visiting was closed.  The outhouses were locked.  The main trail down to the river was blocked off by “active bees”.  And now, the city park by the river was being cordoned off.  It was as if this field trip wasn’t meant to be.

And yet, we had a great day.

(I’m adding pics as I get a chance, between breakfast and math and reading and laundry, check back in a bit to see more pics of our misadventures… I took many, no surprise there…)

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6 Comments

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Comments

  1. Dave (DadOf9Kids) says

    September 9, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    Great post, great persistence, great determination!

    I had my own bit of inspiration and determination today. After a week of Mother-in-law and cousins in-house I finally broke down, corralled all the kids, including cousins, and we picked up. This was quite a feat since I had to keep big boys and big girls separated. They had finally worn each others’ last nerve raw. Also had to keep little ones separated from big ones, everyone separated from baby, everyone separated from Mommy, working in the office, and everyone separated from Grandma who volunteered to whip up some magical mac-n-cheese if I could get the needlers to leave her alone.

    We eventually got it all picked up and no one actually died, although many had threatened that the cleaning was killing them.
    Thanks for the post…I thought my day was a challenge, but you definitely topped me. Perspective is everything!

    Reply
    • ali says

      September 9, 2010 at 2:51 pm

      Haha! Well, sounds like you managed fine and dandy. Now imagine if you had to deal with that after driving an hour and a half with the van full of them! At least you were in the comfort of your own home, well, after you got it picked up 🙂

      Perpective is absolutely everything, you’re so very right on that one!

      Reply
  2. Traci says

    September 9, 2010 at 2:15 pm

    When life hands you lemons right? Glad you were able to make something out of the trip, sounds like a park we should visit sometime too!
    🙂

    Reply
  3. ali says

    September 9, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    Haha! Well, sounds like you managed fine and dandy. Now imagine if you had to deal with that after driving an hour and a half with the van full of them! At least you were in the comfort of your own home, well, after you got it picked up 🙂

    Perpective is absolutely everything, you’re so very right on that one!

    Reply
  4. Tracey says

    September 10, 2010 at 10:38 am

    What a great story – at least the telling of it! 🙂 I have to laugh as it sounds so like something that would happen to me! Kudos to you for still making the day fun for your children!

    Reply
  5. Heart n Soul says

    September 10, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    Loved reading about your adventure… there’s always a silver lining… glad that you found it.

    Reply

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