the blog of alice mercer

Here is an interview that Leroy did with Terry about Terry’s parents:

Here is a video from our trip to The Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39 (not to be confused with the Steinhart Aquarium):

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It was another beautiful day for our hiking trip at Cosumnes River Preserve.

We started out at the visitor center, which has some interpretive exhibits:

Then we had a picnic outside and looked at the river:  

Leroy contemplates nature….

We took a hike   The “ponds” behind Leroy and Jacob are seasonal. Water is pumped into to create a wetlands area from the river.

The preserve has one of the largest Valley Oak riparian forests in the state.   (the last two photos were taken by Leroy)

We had a great time!   

After a hint from a fellow we found a beaver dam…  and saw some of their handy work…

We also discovered lots of poison oak!      We didn’t sit on that bench.

Who needs a play structure?       

It was beautiful!   

The only problem was that with four different children, there were four different “paces” for the trip.

 Leroy, running ahead.

  Aaron is with Leroy here, but he spent a lot of time doing things like this so he and Jake switch off heading up the rear.

Sean was “just right”.  

  It was a beautiful early spring day, so I asked Leroy if he wanted to go to a park. I offered a bike ride to Fort Natomas, which I recently helped rebuild, and he said yes.

It was warm enough for shorts, and I was sorry I had worn a jacket on the trip out.   Leroy decided to be the documentarian. He said he was taking pictures of spring. Here are some of his photos:

He has a pretty good eye for framing. I was impressed.

 We got an early start for the long, 2-3 hour trip up north to Redding. Turtle Bay museum is a science, and natural history museum on the Sacarmento River. Since we all had the day off for the Presidents, we decided to make a road trip together with: