If at first you don't succeed -- that's a good lesson to keep in mind if you
are letterboxing 'cause sometimes things aren't where you imagine them to
be!

In an effort to beat the steady climb of the thermometer, team BeMa headed
out pretty early to the Hidden Pond Nature Center in search of the Happy
Homeschoolers three box series. Either those Homeschoolers are pretty smart
or Da and I have been out of school a little too long because we did have a
teeny bit of trouble and confusion at the beginning.

Getting there is half the battle -- first we messed up a bit on the driving
directions. We saw Greeley Boulevard and went for it (I'm mean really, how
many can there be?!...) Well, there are two of them so when the Happy
Homeschoolers say go to the one past Rolling Road -- you gotta listen to
them. I kinda figured we just missed Rolling Road. Da figured it was a kind
of short cut. Anyway, we followed the first (wrong) Greeling Blvd and
followed it to the end (which happened to be after the second left after a
different part of Rolling Road so go figure!). We came to a cul de sac with
a sign for Hidden Pond Park -- but, no nature center. Oh well, we donned
the pack, lotion, bug spray, hats, checked for the clues, compass, water
bottles, trinkets Miss Ma wanted to load up in her pockets and headed off
down the paved path as per directions. But, we came to several houses and
no nature center. Hmmmmm. Thought about it for a moment, back tracked, took
off the hats, the pack, unloaded the trinkets, water bottles, clues etc. and
hopped back in the car to tool around a little bit. Eventually we figured
out our mistake and found the nice parking lot for the nice nature center
(with a nice playground to boot!)

Despite a flagrant dearth of knowledge concerning trees, we made our way to
the first Liriodendrom tulipifera and Da paced out the yardage into the
woods for the two for one tree. There were several two for ones in that
area. Now, if it had been a two for one sale, as in buy one box of Godiva
chocolates, get one free -- I would have been quite happy. Trees, on the
other hand... This is where the persistence paid off. We just kept walking
around up to all the trees looking for logs until we found it safe and sound
-- yeah! We stamped in and, after reading someone's cryptic warning to
"watch out for swamp snakes" (which I mistakenly read out loud to Miss
Ma...) we headed out for number two.

Number two involved several more types of trees and lots of compass reading
but we found it with no problem. We read that several people had difficulty
with box #1 (which also might be easier to see in the winter when the
prolific ferns aren't obscuring the fallen logs as much). We were learning
a lot about trees and wildlife as we went along. We saw a chipmunk and
several toads, not to mention humungous earth worms. The birds at Hidden
Pond have got it made! Thank goodness -- no swamp snakes although you can
bet I was looking for them! I decided to let Miss Ma sing her medley of
Patriotic tunes suitable to Fourth of July letterboxing as loud as she
wanted. If that didn't scare away the snakes, nothing would!

Box number three was also a success! The woods were nice and cool and it
was a very enjoyable way to spend our morning! We saw these very
interesting plants all around box #3. They appeared to be a cross between a
succulent, a fern, and something I would expect to see underwater.

On the way back, the musical selection reflected our educational bent as we
explored geometry with different versions of the Sponge Bob Square Pants
theme song.... Sponge Bob triangular trousers.... Sponge Bob Octagonal
Overalls etc. We may not know our trees -- but darn it if we're not quite
up on our shapes!

On the way out we played at the very nice playground and watched all the
people who got out of their cars. Unfortunately, not a clue sheet or
compass among them -- oh well!

Thank you Happy Homeschoolers! BeMa
P9F104

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