Saturday morning we wanted to beat the heat so we headed out fairly early (for me these days, anyways!) to check out the Great Plains Nature Center. Once we got there, we realized that the temperature had dropped quite a bit and it was actually a little chilly! So we headed inside and checked out the center. The lady there was really nice and made sure that we knew all that the center had to offer. A lot of the information we already knew, but it was still neat to look at everything, and discover a few new things. The kids really enjoyed the seek n’ find mural, and we learned all about burr oaks that are virtually fireproof, and prairie grasses whose roots go down almost ten feet! On our way out we purchased turtle food, and the lady told us the best spot to find the turtles.
And she was right! We saw about a dozen turtles, and we did our best to feed them. Unfortunately they are slow and clumsy, and the ducks beat them to it most of the time. It was very entertaining and we even saw what we think was a large mouth bass joining in. We saw several different species of turtles, and were able to look them up on the well documented nature center brochure. We also watched an egret catch a fish! That was super neat.
Afterwards we drove into Wichita to find a well reviewed place to purchase bierocks. It was a funny little place, drive thru only, and the lady asked us some questions about what schooling situation we were pursuing with our kids. We chatted with her for a few minutes and tried to encourage her as she is tackling home learning with her kids who have some unique issues. Then we headed to a park and ate the bierocks. The verdict? Not as good as runzas, but still filling and comforting. They weren’t popular with the kids though.
When we got back to the Airbnb, we realized that there was a park just about a block down the street – a straight shot and basically in view of the house. So we let the older three go play there for a while and Cassandra did some quiet time at home (she was not happy about this and there were several door slamming sessions). The kids came back from the park with a toad pet; cleverly captured in a plastic cup so it couldn’t escape. He entertained everyone throughout the afternoon, and then in the evening we headed back to the park to release him. I also took this last picture standing on the front steps of the airbnb, you can see how close the very frequent trains were! They shook the house!
