A Day with Lee at Cabrillo Aquarium

It was a beautiful day for a field trip to the Cabrillo Aquarium in San Pedro.  Excitement levels were high amongst the 1st graders who got to enjoy a day away from school, as we waited to enter the class time on the beach.  Can you see Lee?  He's the one facing us to the right of the aquarium staff member.  It was here that we were told that there will be no cell phone texting or talking during class.

All of the 1st graders from Lee's school got to participate in the field trip.  That is roughly 50-60 six and seven year-olds.  So, imagine that many kids in a class on the beach, being told not to play with the sand they're sitting in.  There were doing pretty well here.  This was their first of about 6 classes.  I won't include the pictures of the sand-play offenders, so as to not incriminate the guilty.

Lee was given the honor of being a volunteer helper because when the aquarium instructor asked which whale was pictured, Lee shouted out, "Blue Whale!"  He paid attention in the whale books we read this year.  Here, he was demonstrating something completely adorable about the whale.  Or, he was being completely adorable demonstrating something about the whale.  Either way, my mama-heart was aflutter.

We learned about grunions.  The kids were given a glass jar with grunion eggs, sand, and water.  They were able to swish them around for a few minutes, until the eggs hatched, and little newborn grunion swam around the jar!  Completely cool.  Except for the part when the little boy got a sticky grunion egg stuck to his hand.  He kind of freaked.  And I kind of freaked, making sure that the ity bity pre-hatched baby made it back to the safety of the jar.

Moving 50-60 kids from class to class is daunting.  To borrow a phrase Hugo has been known to use, it was like herding cats.  We worked up an appetite, and took a lunch break on the grass.  Lee enjoyed animal cookies bearing the name of his great-great-great-great grandfather, P.T. Barnum.  He was looking out at a pelican on the water.  That's my boy.  Keeping his eyes on our Pacific Ocean.

After lunch, we went inside to the aquarium.  I would have taken more pictures, but even with our 2 to 1 adult to student ratio, our hands were full, keeping our kids where we could see them, with a dozen other schools trying to do the same.  It was pandemonium.  Lee had a steady hand, though, and he was able to snap this picture of an ocean animal in a small tank.  He said it was creepy, and that it made him have goosebumps.  He just told me that.  He walked up to edit me as I write.

It was a great day.  But for me, any day is great when I get to see the ocean, even if it is in the form of a harbor.  But, clearly the best part of the day was getting to spend time, and make memories with, my favorite little boy in the world.