Field Trips

Ah, school field trips, I remember them well.  Those field trips of mine.  I loved them.  The best field trips that I ever took though were the ones when I lived in Southern California.  We lived there for 3 years.  We lived in Westwood, Venice, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.  4 cities, 3 years--lots of fun field trips with my 4 different schools.  And yes, I saw movie stars.  Yawn.

From the ages of 10-12, I was able to go to the opera, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Cabrillo Island, a planetarium, the zoo, plays, many museums and on and on.  I loved every minute of it.  I was free--on the bus with my friends, looking out the large windows, daydreaming and excited.  You see, I was about to embark on the pages of things I'd read about.  Places that I never thought I'd get to go.  Places I wanted to see and embrace.  And now was my time.  Field trip days were absolutely my favorite days as a kid.  My family didn't go on vacations.  I've never been to any of those places listed above with my parents--only via school field trips.  I'm not sure why my folks weren't the vacationing type, all we ever did was visit family--maybe that's all they ever did as children, I don't know.  However, what I do know is this--my eyes were being opened to a great big world by going on those field trips--they made me hunger for more.  Whatever was out there--I wanted to see it.

As a reader, the more I read about, the more I wanted to experience.  Maybe that's why schools offer these trips.  To get the minds of children salivating for education, for something beyond books, the classroom or themselves.  Other cultures, other languages, other life experiences.  That's what they did for me, and I wanted to pass that along to my kids.  I became (much to their horror) the field trip mom in their classrooms.  I'd ride the bus to the next adventure all smiles and wonder, I was probably more excited than they were to see Folsom Dam or the Coloma gold mines.  I was downright giddy.  I love learning and I love experiencing life first hand--and not just through books.

My husband and I took our kids on as many adventures as we could possibly afford.  We called them adventures because they were hardly vacations.  We were going non-stop and we were having fun.  We camped, and we went to every theme park in California, we took them down south to San Diego and all the way up north to the San Juan Islands.  Every year we went somewhere.  We would have done more, but unfortunately, they grew up and also we did as much as our budget would allow.  Now my husband and I continue on without them.  We have our own field trips--this time around though they are usually to other countries rather than just other states.  Hey, it's all in what you can afford at the time!

The trips that we take now are still a type of field trip to me--every cathedral, museum, or famous sight that I encounter is a true wonder.  I've read about them, I've pictured them in my mind, and now I get to see them--on my own little field trips.

Don't stop taking them--ever.