This past Friday for our Early Summer Stroll of the week, Kids Unplugged visited the Rye Nature Center. This is a spot that I’ve wanted to get to for some time and it is a lovely place. A series of unmarked trails traverse the 52-acre property. Many of of these are interconnecting, include two numbered nature trails, and travel through varied terrain including woodland, wetlands, streams, fields and a pond. There is a small nature center with a host of native and non-native animals to visit and seasonal displays to explore. There is also an evolving “nature’s playground” where the kids can climb and play before and after a hike along the trails.
Our visit began, understandably, at the playground as we waited for folks to arrive before heading out on the trail. With all the wet weather as of late, the trails were peppered with puddles and mud, much to the children’s delight. In fact, the highlight of the hike was when, on our search for the pond, we came upon an area of low-woodland that was largely flooded by rain water. The kids took to the lake-like puddle with fairly reckless abandon, and trudged through with soggy joy. In that vein, we encountered something today that we haven’t had much of recently (and for which I was not prepared) mosquitoes. They started to nail us around the flood area and whenever we stood still for too long, causing us to make tracks back to the nature center for some time with the animals.
The kids saw and pet the corn snake, wondered about giant hissing cockroaches from Madagascar (sorry, yuck), cooed over the chinchilla, and watched the bees entering and leaving their hive with pollen stuck to their hairy legs. We then went outside to find a spot along the rocks for a story and a lunch picnic before heading back to the playground for another quick romp before heading out.
A nice time and a place to return to soon.
(My camera battery was dead today so we’ll have to wait for Debbie’s great shots!).
Speak Your Mind