Half Moon Bay, California November 2012

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Nature walk with Uncle Matt

This may be a boring post to you... but the children and I had a great time this morning.  We met up with Matt and he took us on a nature/wild flower hike at one of his favorite trails.  He hikes a lot... so this was a stroll for him!  :)  He was really good and would stop to show us some wildflowers, wait for the children, explain things to them, have them look at the view... and just take in the walk.

So the children had their own guides/pamphlets telling them the names of most the wildflowers we would encounter on the trail.  (Of course, they were picked up a head of time by Uncle Matt when he went on a different hike a few weeks ago and knew the children would love to have their own).  MG and I took pictures of each one.. they were so beautiful we couldn't help it!

Goldfields:
 Fiddleneck:
 Broadleaf Filaree:
 Blue Eyed Grass:
 California Buttercups:
 Off they go with Uncle Matt in the lead:
 Common Phacelia (I'm not positive though)
 California Gilia:
 MG checking out the pamphlet and making sure I had the correct names!
 He decided to collect rocks along the way... because MD told him they would be good to throw at the snakes if we ran into any.  Good ole MD, guiding his brother!
 These, according to Matt, is a weed, so they were not listed on our guide.  They are called, Queen Anne's Lace, I think.  Beautiful weeds, no?
 The view... beautiful isn't it?!  The bonus?  We were the only ones on the trail (after we passed a few people on the way up).  It was just so peaceful to be here... even though a few minutes drive away is the hustle and bustle of our busy city!
 No sure what these were...
 Checking the trail map:
 And back we go.  E stuck pretty close to Uncle Matt.  It was an hour round trip and they never complained once.  They were too busy looking for snakes, identifying flowers, and enjoying the view! E had to point out the California poppies to us... and they were everywhere!!!!
 These two were just amazing today...
 MG took this picture.  Apparently, she felt it was a nice view!  :)
 At the end of the trail we finally found these -- Johnny Jump-ups!  What a name, huh?
 And then by the car the children found this grasshopper, followed him, and tried to catch him.  Since they could not, Uncle Matt came to the rescue!  He caught it, they observed it, and then released it.
 Here, MD wanted to hold it... but it jumped off before he could get a good grip.  It's okay... they liked being able to see it so close!
Thanks again Uncle Matt!  (And in case you are wondering, we did go back to Uncle Matt's house and made yummy pretzels again! And MG had her last set of teeth pulled out too... poor baby girl!)

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