Bucket List: Visit the Redwood Forest

I visited the Redwood Forest in March of 2008 on an Alternative Spring Break trip to Boulder Creek, CA which I wrote about here.

This was a great experience.  We didn't get to spend as much time really exploring the forest as I would have liked but it was definitely neat to see these humungous trees.  It is unreal how tall they are!

Facts About Redwoods: 
 Redwood Trees grow to be approximately 112 meters tall (367 feet), but can be as tall as 370 feet.
Redwoods have cones that grow on the tips of the higher branches.  Only 1 or 2 of 10 seeds with germinate.
Redwoods thrive in a moist climate.
Redwoods can hold approximately 34,000 pounds of water!
Redwoods can live to be about 2000 years old.

I definitely hope to go back to California and explore more of Redwoods National Park :)

Travel Tuesday: Wilson Botanical Gardens, Costa Rica

Alternative Spring Break:  Las Cruces, Costa Rica with James Madison University - March 2009

My second ASB trip was was to Las Cruces Biological Station/Wilson Botanical Gardens in Costa Rica!  What an amazing trip and beautiful Country.  The trip actually started out Rocky.  We got to the airport and had to run to our terminal only to find out that the flight was delayed.  It ended up being delayed 2 hours which meant we missed our connection in El Salvador.  6 hours in the El Savadorian airport is enough to make anyone stir crazy (you know, with the 4 whole terminals there). Since we arrived in San Jose so late and the rain made it impossible to cross the mountain, we stopped at a hostel to sleep for a few hours before beginning the trek to Las Cruces. Once we got there though it was amazing.  We worked on the biological station doing inventories and learning about different species of plants and animals and two of the mornings we went to a local elementary school to teach English.  It was a really rewarding experience.  I have already written about our experiences at Manuel Antonio after leaving Wilson.

We left Harrisonburg the day before our flight and stayed at one of the girl's brothers house in Arlington in order to catch our flight at Dulles.

Bri could fall asleep anywhere! I was so jealous.

We actually ended up meeting a group of guys from JMU that were headed to Costa Rica for a rafting/hiking adventure!  We were on the same flight out of El Salvador.

We finally made it to Costa Rica behind schedule and stayed in a hostel for a few hours before making the trek from San Jose to Las Cruces.  It was a trip that was approximately 5 hours long. 

I get very motion sick so usually I don't sleep in vehicles but on this trip I was so exhausted that I slept for a little more than 3 hours!  Thank God, because according to some of the other girls, it was a scary drive across that Mountain.  I did catch some photos of the drive after I woke up.

When we got there I was in awe of the place.  I would go back there and work for them in a heartbeat.  It was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't believe that I was getting to spend a whole week there!

We had a beautiful view at meal times and our rooms were comfortable.  Nothing extravagant but comfortable and just what we needed.

Throughout the week, we did work cleaning up the grounds, learning about the plants, learning about animals, inventorying Agoutis and teaching English to local school children.

 

This is a clay-colored Thrush, which is the national bird of Costa Rica.

Little Squirrel joined us daily for meals.

This picture was taken after we went into the rainforest at night to learn about bats with some Grad students studying abroad from Princeton.  It was so neat and will definitely be getting its own post in the future. 

The Kids, definitely deserve their own post as well.

We also felt a legitimate earthquake.  It hit Panama pretty hard and we were feeling aftershocks for a while.  It was a surreal experience for an east coaster who has only felt small tremors.   I had so many great experiences on this trip and it is definitely a trip I wont ever forget.  Costa Rica definitely has my heart.

Winchester Mystery House

On our last day in California we left camp and headed into San Jose for the night before our flight out the next morning.  We had a choice of things to do and before we left on the trip we all voted on the Winchester Mystery House.  It was a great choice!

This house was built in 1884 and was under construction until Sarah Winchesters death is 1922.  The story is that Mrs. Winchester thought that she was haunted by those who were killed by Winchester Rifles and if she kept building up the house, they wouldn't get to her.  The house was actually 7 stories high until the 1906 earthquake and is now 4 stories.  It is filled with stairways that lead to the ceiling, doors that open to nothing, and windows which are inside the house and look to other parts of the house.  With 160 rooms, this place was definitely huge and easy to get lost in.

Stairway to ... the Ceiling

Main Bedroom

Really Super Expensive Stained Glass Windows

View of part of the Yard

Grand Ballroom

Me Outside of the House

Our Group

Scale Model

We took one of the guided tours and it was very informative.  The guide did a great job and did not rush us.   He knew his information and was able to confidently answer our questions.  If you are ever in the San Jose/Silicon Valley area, I would highly recommend a visit.

Travel Tuesday: California 2008

Alternative Spring Break Trip: YMCA Camp Campbell, Boulder Creek, California - 2008

We took this trip to northern California (outside of San Jose) in 2008 and our purpose was to be camp counselors to a group of 5th graders for 1 week.  In California, the fifth graders are required to have some sort of "in the field" science credit or something, so they come to science camp for a week. My girls were a handful but they were good for most of the time and so sweet (I am now friends with some of them on FB and they're going into 11th grade, WHAT?) and I had a great time. 

We also had a free evening because we got there Saturday afternoon, had training Sat night and Sunday then camp was from Monday afternoon to Friday morning and we didn't have a flight til Saturday.  So, we went into San Jose to eat and check out the Winchester Mystery House, which I will do a separate post on tomorrow :)

We worked here at Camp Campbell which is located in Boulder Creek, California.  It is in the Redwoods and an absolutely beautiful campground.   The staff was excellent and I really enjoyed working there for the week!

We left Maryland on Saturday and flew in to LAX for a layover then to San Jose.

We got to camp two days before the kids.  We met up with a group from the University of Wisconsin and spent some time getting to know them and spent some time learning what we needed to do when the kids got there.  We played games, did ropes courses, learned camp rules and other fun things.

These three actually worked at Camp Campbell

Once the kids got there, it was non stop!  We played a game with all of the kids first then went and got split up by cabin/cabin leader.   We also had to pick goofey camp nicknames and mine was Eeyore (I was wearing eeyore clothing half of the time).   It was interesting because the kids came from two different schools with very different socioeconomic status's, but for the most part, everyone got along.

My group of girls were great.  They were a handful at times but for the most part, I really loved spending the week with them.

We also got split into "science groups".  When the kids were at their science lessons, they were paired up with another group, one group of girls and one group of guys.

We had a bunch of silly songs that we would sing with the campers and one of them was about Banana Slugs which were definitely plentiful at Camp Campbell!

Redwoods are definitely huge!

The second to last night we had a super fun game night.  The kids had a blast and this completely wore them out!  Us leaders also had a great time!! It was probably my favorite part of the trip.

Kristen, my science group buddy

Our last night there was campfire night.  We had a great time singing songs and performing skits.  Each cabin had to perform a random silly skit.

The next day we had our last science lesson and packed up to go home.  After getting everyone packed and ready to go, the kids all got to choose fun activities to do such as the big slide, flag football, ect.  I would be lying if I said that I didn't cry when saying goodbye to the kids :(

 

This trip was such a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat!  I wish I could just copy my journal into a few blog posts just so I can share the entire experience!  I love Alternative Break Trips and hope to do another one in the near future!