Año Nuevo

A few weeks back I was able to take my students to Año Nuevo State Reserve to see the famous elephant seals! A woman with a foundation that provides the funding for low-income schools to go on field trips contacted me and they paid for it all! It was such a thrill to take my kids there. It's on the coast, of course, and a few of my kids were asking "Is this sand?" when they bent down to touch it--because they've never been to the beach before. It was such a special experience to share with them. The photo essay is below:

*(Italicized remarks made by Jameson. I played hooky to go on this trip, and it was awesome. These animals are amazing. And ginormous.)

Here's one of my favorites, Jose. He took a little nap on the way since it takes over an hour to get to Año Nuevo.

(The park is just south of Pescadero, which is probably due almost exactly west of Palo Alto, but we had to go north to Half Moon Bay to link up with the one. Beautiful rolling green hills along the 1 fwy, some farms and lighthouses. Pretty picturesque).

Our docent is in the red. The kids had a great time following her on the hike. It was 3 miles, but they were plenty entertained so time passed rather quickly.


What a beautiful place, right? (There were two dudes surfing just below where this picture was taken, which is about 500 yds from the main seal beach. A few thoughts - a) these seals could kill you, and b) they are the primary staple of great white sharks, who prowl outside the reef, enforcing natural selection).

Keep on trekking...

Some of my kiddos taking a quick break.

Is this sand?....

Looking at two pups sleeping. My kids were quite quiet so as not to disturb their slumber.

(You can't really tell from the photo, but they let you get about 15 feet away from the seals. That's about from one end of our living room to the other.)


And there's a big guy yawning. If you know anything about elephant seals, you know that they are huge, and the bigger male you are the more females you get. Even though this male looked quite large to me, he's not the alpha so he's kind of a loner.

(Click on the photo for a better look at his mouth.)

My kids couldn't pass up the elephant seal race! Wouldn't we all just love to scooch around on our bellies? (Jameson and I passed).

(In yet another intelligent move by the kids of room 23, several of the kids brought their cell-phones and temporarily lost them in the sand here. )




An elephant seal skull.

(This is actually a grizzly skull. I'd edit out Jessie's mistake, but it is an easy one to make, given that the skulls look almost identical - see the elephant seal skull below). The docent suggested that some scientists have theorized that the elephant seal represents an evolutionary return the water on the part of the grizzly. She explained that many of their behaviors are similar. I can't remember the details. Pretty crazy. I guess that grizzlies used to hunt the elephant seals back when they - the bears - were prevalent in CA).




Class picture with a park ranger named "Mountain." Don't ask. Neither Jameson nor I understood.

(As in, 'Hi, I'm mountain'. Really?!?. Why don't you just tell the kids you became a ranger to connect with nature and the natural cannabis herb...)

More scary skulls. Fortunately, they don't mind humans so we didn't have to fear.




We had a lovely time. My kids were really lucky to have this opportunity, as we're not really allowed to go on field trips this year because of all the state sanctions upon us. Somehow we were blessed and my principal gave her stamp of approval! Hooray!

(Jessie's principal loves her. She's practically begging her to come back next year. Unfortunately, that still doesn't give much bargaining leverage for the big raise. Check out these pics:)









Check this link out for a vid of grizzlies fighting.