kayaking on the St Joseph river

I'm behind in Life Update posts, but I wanted to jump out of sequence and post about the adventure Bones and I had last Friday.

I grew up canoeing in a water reservoir called Blue Marsh, located in the Reading area. I've always felt pretty confident in a canoe, and have been eager for a long time to try my hand at kayaking.  A friend told me about ocean kayaking, and that sounded even more amazing...but I've never had the opportunity to try any variety.

Bones found a Groupon offer that made such an adventure wicked cheap, so we decided on a date, slathered on the sun protection, and headed off to St Joseph.
( Cursing! Kayaking! Waves of doomity doom! Clickity to read more! )

Zoo adventure! (in which I attend an overnight as a visitor and not a staff member, for a change..)

Many moons ago, I used to work for the Academy of Natural Science's Safari Overnight program.  It's changed a lot since my time...which makes me sound like grandma, doesn't it?  Gah!

*ahem*
So. I was one of the kitchen managers and, when that job was eliminated, I became an assistant manager and a sometimes-Teacher Naturalist.  What this means is that I spent years either scrambling to get snacks and coffee (ZOMG can Boy Scout dads drink coffee!), or being in assistant-charge of the needs of up to 450 people per night, starting from 6PM and going until about 9AM the next morning.  It was exhausting, it was awesome, it meant I got to work with people I'm still friends with well over a decade later, and I remain proud of being a part of that team.

But. I've never seen how other places handled their version of overnight programs.  Many zoos, museums, and aquariums have such programs, and they're a great experience for boy scouts, girl scouts, and family groups.

(No, it wasn't as cool as this..but it was pretty friggin' cool.)
(Yes, all the kids thought the T-rex and the mummies totally came to life at night.)

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