Maple Sugar Festival at Kalamzoo Nature Center 3-15-2009

Wow. Could we have asked for a more beautiful day? It was wonderful and so therapeutic after a long winter. This was a birthday celebration for Jared (6) and Braden (3). We started out watching the Birds of Prey exhibit. They were really quite beautiful, which is something I had never noticed before. We saw a falcon, a Screech Owl, and a hawk. All of the birds are in captivity because their flight has been damaged and would not survive in the wild.

Next we had the delicious maple syrup pancake breakfast. I have to say that the sausage was really delicious! We then made our way to hike out to the maple sugar shack. The weather was sunny and around 60 degrees. Wonderful. We saw so many people we knew, which was wonderful to see. Everyone was out and enjoying the beginning of Spring and taking full advantage of the beautiful weather. There was a lot of mud, but on a day like this, even the mud is beautiful!

We milled around in the butterfly garden area for awhile. No butterflies yet, but a lot of deer droppings! Then we headed over to the Delano Homestead. We enjoyed some more maple syrup over ice-cream. It's a good thing we did a lot of walking today! Then we went on a wagon ride. Some of us opted to get out at the half-way point and walk the rest of the way.

Lastly, some of us took a hike. I honestly forgot to get the exact name of the trails we took. I made a mental note to bring along a notebook. I also joined the hiking club. I got a walking stick and will earn medallions to put on the stick, adding some each year. During the hike we observed a winding, sparkling stream leading to a pond. We saw some brilliant red plant all along the marshy area. We're not sure yet what it was. We also observed, and eventually smelled, that there was a large are that had burned. We are curious if this was intentional or accidental and will probably ask the next time we are there. I took a ton of pictures. We stayed all the way until the gates closed at 6 pm, so we were there for 9 hours! All I can say is that I can't wait to go back to the Nature Center or enjoy any of the wonderful areas we have around here.

Here we are with some wonderful weather. Ahhh , this is March for you though and I bet it's only a teaser. I'll take it though. I spent way too much time cooped up this winter and I plan to change that for next winter.

I just spending some time outside, picking up sticks and stuff boosted my spirits. I love the smell of the earth, even if it doesn't look very pretty this time of year, at first glance.