A Nice Day for a Walk

Yesterday, when I woke up, I just felt blah.  It was one of those days that I didn't feel like getting out of bed to do the same-old, same-old.  Weird, because it was a Friday and I love Fridays.  But there it was.  An off sort of day.

I decided not to let the day or my feelings overrun me and instead, I got everyone going pretty much first thing to take a good walk on part of the Rio Grande Bosque Trail, which always cheers me up.  We had E with us, and therefore, the stroller, so we couldn't go all the way into the bosque like we usually do.  The ground is much too sandy there, so we stuck to the packed paths that go alongside the bosque.

Anyway, it turned into just the right fix for the day.  We all love getting outdoors and I love that we all got a good bit of exercise (it was about 2 miles round-trip, we walked from Alameda to Paseo del Norte and back) and there were some bonus "wildlife" sightings, which I'll share with you in pictures below.  And after our walk, we still went home and did our schoolwork for the day, including two different crafts!  (But maybe I'll share those pictures another day.)

Here's a map of generally where we walked (from 1 to 2 and back):

Here's a link to the full-size version of this map.

And some photos ...

This is not the Rio Grande itself, but one of the irrigation canals that is fed from the river to flow to the various farms (I believe).

Yes, it's a weed, but here in the desert, I've come to appreciate color where it appears.

This was an exciting find.  I took like 20 pictures of this same caterpillar.  I'll spare you most of them.

Thanks to Z, it flipped over, so I got to take pictures of the underside, too.

Apparently, they have not yet run down their energy reserves.

A glimpse at J's unique fashion sense.

We saw a lot of ants on our walk and it was perfect because we could talk more about arthropods, which is the current science unit J and O have been learning about.  Nice way for me to slide in some extra discussions about them.

And this was a big surprise to see.  But there are all kinds of farms backing up to the water there.  Apparently even exotic animal farms.

The one-mile mark (and turn-around point).

There was this heavenly scent in this section of the walk and we narrowed it down to this plant.  I want it in my backyard to cover the brick wall.  Now I just need to figure out what it is.

Here's a larger view of it.

Who would've thought we'd see a camel AND and ostrich on this walk?!  Bizarre.

Turkeys are so not attractive.  But the kids loved these gents.

Bonus, a little video of the turkeys that amused the kids for a good amount of time...