From Foster City to Gold Country and Back

We have been preparing for the 4th graders Gold Country Field Trip for over 6 months now. The Foster City Elementary School Fourth Grade finally went on Monday. And I went along as a chaperon. Boy was I glad I went!

We left home at 6:30 AM. There was an orientation at school at 7:00 AM. We left school around 7:30 AM, and I slept on the bus while the children watched Kung Fu Panda. Around 9:30 AM, we stopped at a McDonald’s/Starbucks. There we saw a huge McDonald’s truck parking to unload. We saw the truck and driver perform some amazing moves I had never seen before! I had not known trucks could do them. We can learn a lot by just observing.

Around 11:30 we reached the town of Columbia and had lunch immediately. Then we went on a tour of the school house built in 1859. We were immersed in a real classroom experience from the 1860s as our tour guide became the principal of the school and showed us how class was conducted. I captured the whole thing on my iPhone in HD video. It was very entertaining and educational. We then participated in a bucket brigade to put out a pretend fire. The kids had a lot of fun and got very wet. After that, we toured the town and panned for gold. The panning process is very simple, but I will leave that to you to Google up and learn.

It was now 3:30 PM and I was already tired from all the walking in the sun, up and down hills, with a backpack on my back. We had an hour before the bus would leave for Sierra Outdoor School (SOS). The children had $20 each to spend. So we visited the local candy store, the ice cream parlor, the saloon, and the souvenir store. My son bought a flute that had a leather patch on it, with leather trimmings and feathers. It looked very genuine – like a Mi Wok Indian artifact. It had a tag on it that said “Made in China. This is not an Indian flute under the definition of ‘Indian’ by Government regulation so and so.”

We left at 4:30 PM and went to the Sierra Outdoor School about 30 minutes away. After a quick orientation, we found ourselves some bunk beds to sleep in. The dorms and bathrooms were very clean. I would go back any day. Soon it was time for dinner. We were starving. We ate family style. The children helped to set up and clean up the tables. After dinner, we had an owl pellet dissection class. That was a cool class. The children learned about owl pellets and pick out the bones of mice from the pellets. After a short campfire ritual we went to bed and had lights out at 9:30.

The children were all up at 6:00 AM. They played basketball, soccer, and volleyball. We had breakfast at 8 AM and were ready for hiking at 9 AM. We learned a lot of wilderness skills between then and 12:30 PM. (Five absolutely essential items on a day hike: A whistle, an empty garbage bag, trail mix, a bottle of water, and a small first aid kit.)

We got on the bus at 1:30 PM and I slept again till we got to the McDonald’s just after 3:00PM. From there we watched Kung Fu Panda again until we got back to school at 5:30PM.

Can't wait till the next one!