AZ Commemorative Wing Air Force Museum

Today's field trip was to the Arizona Wing of the Commemoratve Air Force in Mesa.  It's been on my list of places to visit since I moved to Arizona in 2006, and I finally did it!  I'm glad I waited.  My big kids are now almost 13 and almost 10 and they got a lot more out of it than they would have five years ago.

The awe actually began in the car on the drive in.  An Apache helicopter flew in right overhead and landed at Falcon Field (which, incidentally, began as a training field for British pilots during World War One).  It continued when we pulled into the parking lot of the museum and the kids saw the outside exhibits.

We were met inside by a retired Air Force vet who now volunteers his time at the museum, for a guided tour.  The amount of information that man holds is incredible.  He was able to tell us about all of the airplanes, about the history of the airplanes...and he was even able to answer the questions that my son and his friend had about the calibur of the weaponry aboard each aircraft!

Some of the things that I found interesting....

1. The swastikas on the side of the airplace denoted how many enemy airplanes the pilot of this plane was able to shoot down.

2. The number of bombs on this jacket denote the number of successful bombing missions this pilot has been on....

3. I thought the eagle on the wall was cool....

We got to go outside to look at some of the planes docked outside.

We were able to witness one of the B-17 bombers that had been in, I believe, Texas for a while, return back home.  The bomber gave the kids a buzz fly-by.

We got to see the restoration hangar, where they are working on several helicopters and other aircraft.  We finished the tour with some time on our own to explore the many other exhibits that were there.  My kids and my friend's kids struck up a conversation with another museum volunteer who was an infantryman in the Army.  He served in the Pacific.  I'm pretty sure my kids could've spent hours listening to his stories!  My friend's daughter thought it was really cool when she was able to make a connection between the exhibit on women pilots and one of the books she had recently read called "Almost An Astronaut". 

This was an incredible field trip tour.  I highly, highly recommend it for anyone interested in the military or in military history.  It's best for older children, teens and adults.

Holsum Bakery

Today's field trip was to the Holsum Bakery.  Per their factory rules, this field trip was for ages 8 and above.  Once we got there, I saw why!

We started the tour in a large meeting room.  Again, per factory rules, everyone was dressed in long pants and closed-toe shoes.  Everyone was given a hair net before we went into the factory.

The kids all thought the hair nets were pretty funny.  They all had some sort of joke to make about looking like the lunch lady or something.

Two managers split our group into two smaller groups, and each led one group through the plant.  It was hot and loud in there!  There were areas where the floor was wet and slick.  There were beams and tubes hanging low overhead that would be easy to walk right into.  During our tour, we saw where the dough was made, where it got put into pans, where it rose, where it baked, where it cooled (a MILE of track to cool from 200 degrees down to a lower temperature of around 100 so that it didn't melt the bag it's put into), where it was bagged, etc.  Holsum makes all of the store-brand bread for many of the local stores, some premium brand breads, and buns for lots of the fast food restaurants in town.  Holsum makes about, I think, 230,000 loaves of bread every week.  On our way home, my kids and their friends were busy working the math to figure out how many sandwiches that would be!

We finished off the tour with a Q&A session.  As always, my kids peppered the manager with questions.  Each child got to leave with a free loaf of bread.

This was a GREAT tour for older children, teens and adults!

Hall of Flame Firefighter's Museum

Today's field trip was to the Hall of Flame Firefighter's Museum.  It has been four years since the last time I took my kids, and I think it was every bit as much fun for them this time as last!  We had a large group of homeschoolers with us.  The kids participating ranged in age from 2 all the way to 16!  I love that about homeschooled kids - how they learn and experience life with such a diversity of ages.  The kids were broken up into two groups - under 7 and 8 and over.

The little kids started their trip with a story.

After their fireman's story, the little kids got to climb on a real fire truck.

Meanwhile, the older kids got a guided tour of the museum.

Both groups met up in the theater for a movie (that I'm pretty sure I saw when I was a kid doing fire safety at school!).

We concluded our field trip with the highlight of the day for most kids - the water activities!  They got to play a relay bucket game.

The wet part was as much fun for my kids back in 2007...

And finally, each kid got a chance to hold and spray a fireman's hose, which was also still as much fun four years later as it was when they were both littler!

This was a REALLY fun outing!  My youngest is 2 right now.  I will undoubtedly put this back on our to-do list in another two or three years.

Date Creek Ranch

My family took a day trip out to Date Creek Ranch today for their grassfed-beef BBQ and apple picking.  Date Creek Ranch is located about 15 miles north of Wickenburg.

We started the day off with lunch.  The portions were huge!  We had left-overs.  And, YUM.  It was delicious.

 We then headed out to the orchards, with a wheelbarrow and some apple pickers.  I'd never used an apple picker before!  The day was HOT, so it wasn't as comfortable or as much fun as it could've been, but you've got to pick when the fruit is ripe! 

My kids had so much fun with those apple pickers!  They loved the "hunt" for the perfect apple.  Date Creek lets you snack on apples while you're out picking, too.  Be aware that the bees like snacking on fallen apples too!  There were lots of bees, so we did watch our footing, but none of them bothered us at all.  Many of the apples are hard and small, but I think they'll make perfect apple pie filling and I'm going to try my hand at homemade canned applesauce too.  At $1 per pound for organic apples, you just couldn't go wrong!

Besides the orchards, Date Creek also has cattle and pigs.  My littlest liked the pigs!  She wanted to play with them, but they were snoozing.

I'm sure my kids will talk about apple picking for months, and will be asking us when we can go back and do it again!

Desert Botanical Gardens

I took my kids to the members' preview of the Big Bugs Exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens last night.  The weather could've have been better - occasional lightening flashes, cooler than normal, a storm looked like it was coming in but it didn't rain on us at all.  The gardens were serene and beautiful.  The kids loved having flashlights to explore.  Here are two of the Big Bugs...

There were "Discovery Stations" set up all over the Gardens with information (and some live critters) on bugs, snakes, frogs, bats and cacti.

They had a craft area set up, where kids could make their own bugs.

They had folks giving kids bug tattoos.

They had a small band (who had an uncanny ability to make bug-like noises!) playing.  My kids got their groove on...

And, we made some wonderful discoveries - a nest in a cactus, a frog in the pond, a toad hopping on land...

This field trip got rave reviews from all of my kids!



The Glendale Police Museum

Today's field trip was to the Glendale Police Museum.  It is housed in the Glendale Public Safety Building.  We were met by Dan, the delightful curator of the museum.  He is a 25-year veteran of the Glendale Police Force, having served undercover, on patrol and in the DARE program during his working years.  He has amassed an interesting array of Glendale police memorabilia and displayed it well.

Dan led our small group from display to display, and shared his memories and what he just happened to know about each cluster of items.  We began with the wall of chiefs.  After that, there were displays covering SWAT, bomb disposal units, K-9 units, women in the department, the motorcycle, uniforms, shields and badges, the Memory Wall (in 100 years, only two officers have been killed in the line of duty), police lights, technology, and a few others.  Dan regaled me and my children (currently 12 and 9) with his tales and information.  My kids peppered him with questions.

We ended up spending 90 minutes there - 30 beyond what we were scheduled for, because we were so interested in what we were learning about!  This is a free museum display.  Docent-led "tours" (like the one we had) need to be arranged ahead of time, but you can just go in and browse on your own.

Hunger 101

Today's field trip was a presentation called Hunger 101 and a tour of St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix.  I've dropped off food donations at the warehouse before, so I really wasn't sure what to expect.  Along with several other homeschooling families, my 12 and 9-year-olds and I learned about hunger in the Valley and about how St Mary's helps.

The first thing we learned is that there are three different kinds of people that St Mary's helps: 4, 5 and 7.  One in every four children in the Valley is hungry.  One in every five adults, and one in every seven senior citizens.  That's absolutely disgraceful.  I was shocked. 

Nonetheless, I won't cover the highlights of the presentation that Mr. Chet gave the group, in case you want to schedule a tour yourself.  I will, however, say that Hunger 101 is their educational program for children.  When I asked about age restrictions, I was told that it was St Mary's policy not to have kids younger than 5 attend.  I'd take that further and say that it's best for upper elementary through high school age.  There's a lot of talk, and a good amount of walking on the tour.

We went through the entire warehouse.  It's huge.  And hot during the summer.  No air conditionning.  The sheer volume of square feet and the amount of food that goes in and out of the building is amazing.  The number of volunteer hours logged by volunteers is staggering....and yet, still more needs to be done.

The most interesting part of the warehouse tour for me was when we rounded the corner and left the community supported section of the food bank and went to the government funded section.  Different rules and regulations, and yet another example of government waste and inefficiency.  The community supported portion of St Mary's does everything about feeding the community better, cheaper and more efficiently than the government funded portion.

Finally, a plug for one of their fundraisers...My son and I each won these stuffed turkey characters,  The tag attached to them says, "Buy-A-Bird Feed A Family".  They'd make perfect gifts for friends and family who don't really need anything.