I now have a 2nd option for those of you interested in studying botany – a ONE SEMESTER botany schedule. Click here for access.

This new option uses Ellen McHenry’s Botany in 8 Lessons as the main spine, while still incorporating the Botany for Dummies Book. Leave out the Dummies book and you have a 3rd option – either a shorter schedule that can be accomplished over the summer or a low key science program that will allow you to focus on other core subjects.

I’ve been working on the upcoming biology curriculum. It should be ready by the middle of August, although I will continue to tweak it as necessary over the course of the year as we use it.

Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite – the falls are really going this time of year! Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

We’ve always felt it very important that our children spend plenty of time outdoors. There is nothing that puts life into perspective as a walk through the woods next to a whispering stream or the roar of a waterfall. Spending time outdoors not only educates, it also refreshes. It helps us celebrate the magnificent world created just for us and allows us to view God’s handiwork up close.

Romans 1:20 - For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…

When is the last time you made time to take your children somewhere other than your backyard? Get involved in some Outdoor challenges! Getting kids to love natures is something that must be cultivated and taught starting when they are young. Don’t forget your littlest ones too…often we forgot that adventures must be “retaken” for their sakes. Siblings may remember your last nature outing, but how about your youngest?

Below are pictures from our recent trip to Yosemite. We are really blessed to live as close as we do to this beautiful park. It was the perfect setting to go over some of the things we recently learned in Otter’s botany curriculum! I kept pointing things out like the male and female pine cones, spores on the underneath of a fern, etc. That’s one thing I love about homeschooling, learning is just a part of life and not something that must always take place in a classroom.

I think our last visit’s theme was falls, falls and more falls. The waterfalls were really full (and breathtakingly beautiful) from snow runoff. The Merced River was also really full and there were unnamed trickles of water in places you won’t see anymore as soon as summer gets into full swing.

Yosemite Falls exploding with snow runoff – Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

Here’s another view of the falls. We walked to a bridge near the bottom and were blasted with spray & mist. It felt great after our 8 1/2 mile hike!

Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

We first explored Bridalveil Falls and then decided to walk to the Visitor Center in Yosemite Valley. Emily and Otter stand next to a sign showing how far we hiked from Bridalveil. Just 2 and a half more miles or so to get to our destination!

Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

A map below shows our highlighted route. All I can say is that blisters aren’t fun and Yosemite water from the water fountain tastes really good, especially after 8 1/2 miles. Oh, and I’m out of shape. But I can still make it. Barely. LOL…

Along the way we saw a multitude of interesting birds, butterflies, some deer with a fawn and even a snake!

A fawn grazes on some grass in the valley.
Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

I literally almost stepped on this. I can not only hike, I can JUMP!

Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

We remembered the following rhyme and knew he (probably) wasn’t poisonous:

“Red and black is a friend of Jack. Red and Yellow is a deadly fellow.”

As you can see, with this snake, red is touching black. That makes him a harmless milk snake. I hope. LOL. He really was a pretty little snake. Not even scary, except that half second when I almost stepped on him.

Half Dome seen through the trees:

Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

The Dogwood trees were blossoming:

Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

The Merced River rushing over moss covered rocks:

Photo taken by my husband Charles Guest of Memorableplaces.com.

It was a lovely trip!

Get your kids away from the T.V. and computer and out in some trees or grass or water or something! A lot of outdoor adventures are free and they are often just a little drive away.
It’s good for them and it’s good for you!

JCPenney.com currently has a coupon for $10 off orders of $10 or more with code MORE2BUY and serial number 0102798250. There is a limit of one coupon per account.

If you go to the clearance section, you can find an item for $10 and end up only having to pay tax, if you choose to pick up your ordered item from your local JCP store, instead of having it sent directly to your house.

Get an item of clothing for a few cents?!! Yep! It’s the real deal. I’d hurry though. You never know how long this one will last.

I don’t really hate math, but that’s the title of my post because it’s going to be about someone who DID hate math and how that all played out. Feel free to apply the concept to any particular subject your child hates and your own struggles with that.

Back when I was paving the way with my oldest (Emily), I worried about my children’s futures in the context of my homeschooling choices. There is a lot of responsibility placed on a homeschooling parent’s shoulders. Like, if you don’t get the BEST, PERFECT, MOST WONDERFUL curriculum, you will destroy your child’s love for learning and all her future college scholarships and she will end up pushing a shopping cart only not at the store. Yeah. That. Nevermind if it costs $159,897,657. You can afford it. Your children are worth it. What kind of mom would not mortgage her house for her child’s future!? The catalogs beckon. The siren call of a better math, writing program, history core, grammar workbook and everything else lures you as you go about your never-ending search for THE ONE. The one curriculum/program/workbook/video/online program/something that will teach your child perfectly. And she will love it. LOVE IT. Come bounding out in the morning with a smile wanting to do it. And her future will unfurl with sugar coated bunnies and baby chicks dancing in a field of yellow flowers and dollars – growing on trees. Because it’s her FUTURE we are talking about. Her earning potential. Her happiness. My future great-grand babies living situations! Generations could be affected by the wrong choice!

So, the point is that I worried about choosing the right thing. I wanted to find something that spoke to my daughter’s learning styles, was fun, something she loved, and would help her become everything that she had the potential to become. Oh, and it had to be something I could teach. That too. Every homeschooling parent’s dilemma.

So, picture me, with my lovely 3 children sitting around the table with our books cracked open and me teaching that when you are doing long division you bring down the number and some other mumbo-jumbo algorithm and then I assigned some practice problems and we all smiled and had a terrific day. Not.

The whining started. It was Emily. Whining. Again. Oh wait…was that a teeny, tiny tear sparkling in the corner of her eye? Tears? A flood? My kitchen pipes burst? Emily was crying AGAIN over math. “I hate math!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (That’s me quoting her.) “I can’t do it.” “I don’t get it!” Insert more tears and crying and at least whining. I just knew we were heading toward disaster. She had to learn math. If she didn’t learn math, well…how would she buy food at the grocery store and get good deals and pay her bills and and and…. succeed???!!! At anything??!!! You know, it all ends at the shopping cart. The one…not in the store. Little note: I’m not making fun of homeless people. I’m being sarcastic. Honest. I did worry though…I think we all do, to some extent.

I began the search for the perfect math curriculum. I researched. I studied. I looked up stuff online (when there wasn’t as much online as there is today). Then I started buying. Math stuff. Math workbooks. Math manipulatives. Math programs. Math curricula. Math. Math. And more math. Do you know I still have math workbooks from back then that have never been used?

And I worried (yes, I know I said that – but it must be emphasized!). What if I didn’t get it right? What if she never learned math the way she was supposed to? It would be my fault because I didn’t do a good enough job. Because I didn’t find the right thing. Because I didn’t spend enough, try hard enough, research enough. Etc.

And what if she kept on hating math?!! It would be a total tragedy because my job as a homeschooling parent was to light a fire in her heart for all learning. The last thing any homeschool parent wants to hear is, “I don’t like school.” The last thing a homeschool parent wants to think is that somehow future college math courses won’t be successful because math wasn’t learned well enough at home. The last thing a homeschool parent wants to see is a child not succeeding as an adult because of something that didn’t get taught properly in your homeschool setting. Well, that’s a lot of “last things” you wouldn’t want to think. I guess they can all crowd together at the last together.

Ok, so fast forward through the years (and plenty of tears – oh, and whining): Emily graduated from high school and guess what? She did not like math. She even had to REPEAT some really easy basics. Oh yes, I took her back to addition and subtraction. In the SIXTH GRADE. And she did algebra TWICE. There were glimmers of math-like, like when she tried Teaching Textbook’s Algebra II and Geometry and actually loved it (for a little while). But oh my goodness, Teaching Textbooks didn’t have a higher level math ready yet. And you’ve heard the stories on those super rigorous homeschooling boards about Teaching Textbooks, I’m sure. How non-rigorous it is. How….(let’s whisper here) it will damage your child’s ability to do math at a higher level in college and hence destroy her future chances. The math love petered out due to the unavailability of more Teaching Textbook levels… and horrors! Emily didn’t even take a math course during her 12th grade year.

Did I fail? Was Emily’s future destroyed?

No. Emily has been successful in her college math classes and has even tutored high school math through a charter school. Take that Teaching Textbooks haters! Take that worries that plagued me! Not only has Emily received great grades in math, she actually teaches it to other homeschool students and gets paid to do so! Was it because I finally found Teaching Textbooks and helped her enjoy math for the first time? That might be a small part of it, but certainly is not the entire reason. I think it’s more about the fact that she was allowed to go at her own pace, repeat things when necessary and I taught her something more important than loving a school subject. I taught her to learn. I taught her to know how to figure something out herself, when she really needs to. I taught her to love God and depend on him when the going gets tough (or math needs to be learned, lol). That wasn’t in any curriculum or program or schedule. That was just in me, loving her, believing in her and encouraging her, even when she hated math.

So, next time you are panicking because your child hates a school subject, take a deep breath. No one has to love everything. And that’s ok. I promise.

Next time you are stressing over which perfect curriculum to buy, take a deep breath. You’ll teach it one way or another. If something doesn’t work out, you can try again. You can even start over. We did.

Next time you are tempted to spend money on something you probably don’t really need…put away your wallet and wait. Breathe. Decide if you really need to get something new or if that new curriculum love just wore off.  It’s ok to switch and change gears because sometimes you really do need to. And sometimes you don’t. And you know it, but wish you didn’t.

Next time you’re worrying that your current homeschooling choices might forever damage your children’s futures, take another deep breath! It’s not as much about what you choose or don’t choose, it’s about the life lessons you teach. It’s about the kind of person your child becomes. Those lessons don’t come in a package and they don’t cost anything. They are grounded in right choices and a dependence on God. Pursue Him first, and the rest happens. Yes, there may be detours and you may not even end up where you thought you were or wanted to go…but you’ll get where you’re supposed to be. And your kids will too, if they do the same thing. THAT is the important thing to teach.

Emily is a good (and successful!) person who has sought God first in her life and everything else has fallen into place. Even math.

Proverbs 9:10 – “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…”

May God give you peace in your heart as you struggle to find “the right/best/most awesome curriculum”. May He soothe the trouble in your spirit and wipe away your worries as you wonder how everything will turn out in the end.

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

P.S. I didn’t forget about posting part 2 to my “Sometimes Homeschoolers Worry Too Much About College” series of posts. I’ll hopefully get to that soon!

I have two children who’ve grown up and moved on. Two children who’ve navigated all the college prep and high school transcripts, testing, preparing, waiting, dreaming. Because I’ve gone through this experience (and am getting ready to go through it one last time), I want to share some things I’ve learned that might be helpful in someway for those of you who haven’t navigated these sometimes muddy, exciting and yes, even stressful waters.

Around eight years ago I was preparing for my daughter’s entrance into the high school grades. It was my first time to teach a high schooler! We decided to homeschool through high school for a variety of reasons. The reasons were both the same (in some ways) and different (in other ways) for each child. For Emily (*the blog name I use for her), it meant a higher and more rigorous level of academics, opportunities to volunteer in the community during regular school hours, dual credit opportunities at the local community college to get a head start on earning college credits, religious reasons, extra time to pursue her interests in our homeschool setting, and so on. We knew that our homeschool was the best place for her to thrive as well as prepare for her future.

We were confident about our decision but wow…the stress! There were so many things we hadn’t done before like SAT testing, applying for scholarships, looking over college brochures, planning out 4 years of high school graduation credits, making a transcript, choosing the RIGHT classes & courses for future college admission, learning about the local U.C. admission requirements and how to accomplish those in a homeschool setting (we wanted to keep her college options open), purchasing lab equipment for serious science courses, figuring out how we wanted her to earn her math credits, prep. for foreign language study and the list goes on. There was also the work of transitioning HOW Emily learned. We wanted her to learn how to take some responsibility for her own work and how to start having serious deadlines for assignments. We wanted her to start learning skills that would help her be successful in college and pre-college testing like writing essays with a time limit, testing well, dealing with grades, etc.

Moving into the high school years was a big transition from earlier years of homeschooling that were much more flexible. We wanted to maintain some of that flexibility, but also knew there was a lot of work to be done in so many areas. Having never been through it all before I experienced a lot of stress researching and preparing and working to have her meet all the ten thousand different “requirements” I thought she should meet in order to assure her the greatest success. I bought books about homeschooling through high school, book about applying to colleges, books about colleges themselves. Everything suddenly became centered around COLLEGE COLLEGE COLLEGE. We looked over college catalogs. We picked our jaws up off the floor when we saw the sticker prices of said colleges. We agonized over how she would get in and then how she would pay for it since we do not believe in going in debt. This was her LIFE we were preparing for. We knew she had to have the best start so she could be successful. Everything was building a foundation for…well…forever! That’s a pretty tall order! And instead of handing it over to college counselors at the local high school or paying some college admissions guru, we were doing this all by ourselves. We made so many plans to do this and that and whatever and always there was the thought in my head that I HAD to make sure we did everything right.

One thing we forgot about though was this:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

I’m going to share with you some true miracles that have occurred in Emily’s life that stem from this verse and how it’s all played out during her years in college and even how God was preparing her for some things before she was even in high school! She did not end up where she thought she would or where she even wanted to, if we could go back in time and ask her. However, God has given her opportunities that have far surpassed anything we ever could have planned for. He showed us that it’s all about HIS plans and not ours and that what He comes up with is better than anything we ever could.

It’s time to stop stressing and start trusting.

In future posts in this series I’m going to go into more detail about our homeschool high school to college process. I’ll also be discussing Emily’s college experiences and sharing some amazing things that have occurred… true miracles down to a Mcdonald’s milkshake (yes, God cares about even the SMALL details!!). I’ll talk about things we did in our homeschool that prepared her for God’s future plans for her even when she was in the elementary grades.

Here’s a hint about where Emily ended up college wise: it’s an option many of us think as sitting on or near the very BOTTOM of our college plans. It’s an option Emily actually cried over, lol. I can laugh now, because, well, it worked out better than even her “dream college” plans. You’ll see! I’m going to explain to you why sometimes what seems like the worst option is the BEST option.

Come back soon to see how it all played out or subscribe to my blog for updates sent right to your email or RSS feed reader (please see the right-hand side of my blog for our new subscription options). Current subscribers, please make sure you’ve re-subscribed in the past week as I’m switching email list / feed providers or you won’t continue receiving my blog content! Thanks to all my loyal readers.

Emily in Japan (she’s on the right with the light brown hair) – one of the amazing opportunities God gave to her during her college years.

The first Lois Lenski book I ever read was Strawberry Girl. I was instantly enamored with it and went looking to see what other books Lois had written. Lois Lenski wrote a host of old-fashioned, wholesome books and illustrated some of the Betsy-Tacy books.

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison is a wonderful addition to Lenski’s historical novels - a story about the real life of Mary Jemison who was captured on an Indian raid and raised among the Senecas.

In the early days of American, many children were captured by Indians. Some of these children chose not to return to white families when later given the choice. Mary (nicknamed Molly) was one of those children. Her capture occurred in 1758, right in the middle of the French and Indian War. Except for two older brothers who escaped, her family was massacred. Molly was adopted by the Indians and ended up living the rest of her life with them.

The book changes a few of Molly’s circumstances for younger readers, but is otherwise true to the original story. Lenski has done her research and it shows. She not only accurately captures life with the Seneca (and Iroquois tribe), but also successfully portrays the inner struggle in Molly’s heart and mind as she adjusts to her new life. Molly struggles to not forget her family and hangs on with a fierce tenacity to their memories. She clings to what her mother and father told her before being separated and repeats their names to keep them fresh in her mind. After finding out they’ve been killed, Molly has to deal with the dichotomy of knowing that the Indians who killed her family are also the people who have grown to love and care for her. It’s a warfare in her heart as she struggles to come to grips with these realities.

Once she’s given a chance to go back to white “civilization”, Molly finds she has a final choice to make that will forever seal her fate as one thing or another. Is she white? Is she an Indian?

Indian Captive has a satisfying end. After getting there, you can understand why Molly makes the decision she does, whether you agree with it or not. Besides a great opportunity to learn some real history, the book is a terrific window into Indian culture. The Indians are not portrayed as evil or wonderful. They are a range of everything in between, as all human beings are – with some characters more sympathetic than the rest. Indian Captive made a great addition to our homeschool for the mid 1700′s as we learned about the French and Indian War. I read it out loud to my two older kids and was delighted to be given the opportunity to review the Kindle edition. Besides a complex and emotional story, the illustrations by Lenski are a visual treat.

Christian parents, there is some mention of Indian spirituality with mentions of the “Great Spirit”.

I also think this story will appeal more to girls than boys, although both my daughter and son enjoyed it when I read it to them years ago.

If you are looking for a book to delve into Iroquois Indian culture or to illustrate the effects of the French and Indian War on both sides, Indian Captive is a great addition to homeschool history studies. It’s also just a good adventure book that explores a little bit of psychological complexities and makes for some good discussion.

Click here to read more of my book reviews!

*I recieved this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.

P.S. For those of you who subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feed, please read this post to re-subscribe via my new subscription service and my new feed address. I’ve decided to delay shutting off my old feed for a week or two during the transition so everyone has a chance to migrate to the new system. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience!

Tiger Babies Strike Back: How I Was Raised by a Tiger Mom but Could Not Be Turned to the Dark Side

I am a big fan of Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a memoir of a mother with an unflinching look at her extreme parenting based on the “Chinese” way of raising super-kids. Though I don’t agree with most of Amy’s draconian ways of raising her two girls, I still found her book secretly admirable in parts, though flawed.

Tiger Babies Strike back is Kim Wong’s answer to Battle Hymn. It’s her own personal look at Chinese parenting and the toll it takes as well as her personal decision not to follow in the Chinese Tiger Mother footsteps. Her book is a humorous foray into Chinese-American culture as she shares her stories of growing up in San Francisco’s Chinatown  Her message: “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be robots.”

Kim has a rambling sort of way of writing. She jumps between history and culture lessons about the Chinese to first hand experiences from her childhood up to her parenting her own daughter. She shares all sorts of stories illustrating the damage done from such a harsh version of Chinese parenting and delves off into rabbit trails about other Chinese cultural bits and pieces with a playful and humorous style that is sometimes tinged with a cutting edge of bitterness.

Kim is sassy, astute and also unapologetic for the message behind her book. She says,

“Tiger Parents, you may be asking yourselves, “What is the point of this book?”

“Love your babies, and show your babies that you love them. Withholding your acceptance and praise while pushing your children into achievement might yield certain results, but that kind of pressure stifles other aspects of growing up.”

While I enjoyed getting to peek into the ever fascinating world of Chinese-American parenting, I never felt the book was completely coherent and totally focused on its message. Kim wanders all over the landscape of her upbringing, often popping into the present and delving deeper into the murkiness of history. She is funny, but sometimes I wasn’t totally sure of who her intended audience was. Was she speaking to all parents? Just Chinese-American parents? Tiger Moms? I felt like an outsider peeking into someone’s life with whatever message she was trying to convey slipping past me, a white woman of European ancestry, as I didn’t fit the mold of whomever she seemed to be speaking to, mainly (it appears) those caught between two cultures as she herself is.

Still, despite its faults, I enjoyed learning a great deal about Chinese-American culture and appreciated Kim’s crusade to persuade Tiger Mom’s to put away their claws when it comes to their children. Compared to Chua’s book I think it fell a little flat, but was still an enjoyable and worthwhile read for the cultural aspects.

Read more of my book reviews here!

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

P.S. For those of you who subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feed, please read this post to re-subscribe via my new subscription service and my new feed address. I’ve decided to delay shutting off my old feed for a week or two during the transition so everyone has a chance to migrate to the new system. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience!

I want to thank my hundreds of loyal subscribers and apologize for this inconvenience.

I’ve been using Google Feedburner for email subscriptions and RSS feed subscriptions. They are going to discontinue their service at some point so I’m switching over to WordPress subscription tools. If you’d like to stay subscribed to my blog, please re-subscribe. I don’t want to lose any of you! If you are not a subscriber, you might consider doing so if you don’t want to miss any new posts.  There are several ways to do this.

1. Sign up for email updates

On the right hand side of my blog there is a form where you can fill in your email address and push a subscribe button. You will get a confirmation email that looks like this:

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If you subscribe via RSS (or would like to) please RE-SUBSCRIBE by clicking on the blue RSS- Posts link on the righthand side of my blog’s sidebar. Use your favorite RSS feed reader for the subscription. Please note that if you use Google Reader, it’s going away soon! Switch your RSS subscriptions to something else before they are lost! I’ve listed a couple options below:

Subscribe to my RSS feed using bloglovin’

Create a free account at bloglovin’. If you are a Google Reader user, you can import all your current blogs with just one click.  Once you’ve activated your bloglovin’ account, look for the “search for blogs” search box at the top of the page and enter in guesthollow.

Subscribe to my RSS feed using feedly

Another RSS option is to use feedly. It’s free and has Kindle, iOS and Android apps.

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 If you are already subscribed to my blog via Google Reader, you don’t have to do anything else. If you aren’t you can do the following to add my blog to your feeds:

Once you are logged in to feedly, click on the little gray 3 lines on the upper left side.

A drop down rectangle will appear on the right. Click on add content. A green search box will appear that looks like this:

Type in Guesthollow and then choose the bottom option that says Guesthollow’s Blog (gee, not many subscribers yet, since I’ve been using Feedburner instead of my regular WordPress feed).

I personally think bloglovin’ is the easiest RSS feed service to sign up for if you don’t already have a Google account or don’t use Firefox or Chrome. However, feedly is the nicest looking RSS feed format that reminds me of a magazine and is easy to work with. I use feedly on a day to day basis because I like how pretty and SUPER organized it is. It’s the best RSS feed reader I’ve ever come across. Either of the above will work though, as well as a myriad of other free RSS feed services.

Thanks again to all my loyal readers and again, I apologize for the hassle!

Homeschool crowd listening to a presentation at the Open Sea Exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Every year, Monterey Bay Aquarium has a set of FREE homeschool days. These days sell out really quickly, so if you are in CA and are interested, I recommend getting on the email list to be notified of the next sign-up period which will probably be in August. We were able to get 3 adult tickets as well as a ticket for Otter for this year. The 4 tickets we received for free were the equivalent of $136, so these homeschool days are quite a treat that normally wouldn’t be in our budget. The extra adult tickets are great if you have a grandparent or older “grown up” sibling who’d like to come along!

During these special days, the aquarium opens up their Discovery Lab classroom with drop-in activities, touch tanks, crafts and plenty of docents on hand to explain and teach a variety of information on sea creatures and the ocean. It’s a beautiful aquarium with a huge variety of exhibits that takes a good 3-5 hours to walk through. Each year there is usually some sort of new or rotating exhibit so there is alway something “fresh” to see, even though we’ve been many times.

If you aren’t in CA or local to Monterey, I highly encourage you to contact your local museums and other similar venues to see if they have a program like this or free/reduced days. We’ve always considered activities like this an important component of our homeschool, rich with opportunities to see and learn new things!

Here are some pictures from our recent visit.

We love the jellyfish exhibits! They are so beautiful…

The Open Sea exhibit features a HUGE tank full of different types of fish and sharks. The glittering schools of sardines are mesmerizing.

The kelp forest features a multi-story aquarium with living strands of kelp. All sorts of fish glide among the kelp. There are benches where you can sit, relax and watch the fish. The picture doesn’t even do this exhibit justice. It’s HUGE.

This year there was a seahorse exhibit. The variety of seahorses is amazing. This one is called a leafy sea dragon.

In the Discovery Lab classroom (my dream science lab!!!) we were able to investigate all sorts of interesting things like a stuffed sea otter (you can’t believe how soft and thick their fur is), touch tanks, etc. Younger children were busy with crafts and other fun activities. Volunteers were on hand to instruct and answer questions. In the picture below, Bob is teaching us about some of the animals. Afterwards, Otter fed a sea anemone some kelp.

The aquarium also has a lovely aviary with all sorts of rescued seashore birds. They are quite tame and you can stand within just a couple of feet. Near the aviary there is also a shallow pool where you can touch manta rays. In another area there is a small colony of penguins where you can watch them both above and below the water.

Otter and I touched sea cucumbers, anemones, starfish and other creatures in a touch tank:

Some of the fish seem just as curious about us as we are of them as they swim by. This fish paused and stared at me for awhile. I think he’s a dolphinfish.

After visiting the aquarium we walked up and down Cannery Row to visit antique stores, sample some clam chowder and peek into the shops. We wrapped up the day with a very special dinner at a local restaurant that had  floor to ceiling windows overlooking the bay where we could see wild sea otters playing in nearby kelp beds. We had a great time!