« Older SD Transplant Newer »

The Outdoor Campus

Saturday, May 10th, 2008 by Alyice

On Thursday I had the honor of accompanying my daughter’s 7th grade class on a field trip to the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I must admit that at first I was a bit nervous about the experience as the entire 7th grade would be attending—all of which fit on a single yellow bus—and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to “connect” with this age group. I was also apprehensive about the field trip itself because I’d been to the Outdoor Campus a few years back (without a group) and found it rather boring. But all my fears were put to rest as I discovered that this was actually a fun and exciting age group and that the Outdoor Campus knew how to entertain, educate, and enlighten young minds.

The day began with a 40 minute bus ride filled with children laughing, talking, and playing games like “20 Questions”, “Hang Man”, “The Question Game”, and “Tic Tac Toe”. I was even asked to play a few games myself and found “The Question Game” to be rather interesting. The object of the game is to continually bounce questions off one another without actually answering the questions because the person that actually answers a question loses the game. It was funny to watch the kids’ facial expressions as they tried “not to answer” a question that they truly believed needed answering—like whether or not they liked a certain boy or girl in the class. And even more interesting to watch them take a simple question and turn it into a complicated question by throwing in a few curves or bells and whistles—all in an attempt to confuse the listener and get him/her to actually give some type of answer.

Upon arriving at our destination the kids quickly took their places in one of the rooms as they anxiously awaited their assignments. There were four groups of 15 with two adults per group. Each group would alternate between activities: fishing, orienteering, nature hike, outdoor cooking, and the infamous Sertoma Butterfly House and each activity would last for 50 minutes with a half hour lunch at 12:15.

Our first activity was orienteering which had a rather lame video presentation in which I actually said aloud, “That was weird” and got all the kids laughing. “Oops, my bad!”

If you don’t know what orienteering is, don’t feel bad. I didn’t know what it was either. In fact, I actually thought it had something to do with oars and the kids thought it had to do with “orientation” as in explaining how the day was to progress. Turns out we were all wrong.

Orienteering began in Scandinavia in the nineteenth century as military training but soon became a sport in 1919 when Ernst Killander, from Sweden, noticed a decline in track and field sporting events and wanted to spice things up.

Orienteering is about the thrill of adventure as you navigate through unfamiliar territory using a map of the course, a compass, and your own two legs. The idea is to find each checkpoint along the course and make it back to headquarters within a specific time frame. Think of it as a scavenger hunt without a huge list of objects or a simplified version of CBS’s “Amazing Race”.

After orienteering our group headed on over to the Sertoma Butterfly House where they were less than enthused. And honestly, I couldn’t blame them. Upon arriving at the Butterfly House we were met with a lady who gave us a list of dos and don’ts but forgot to educate and entertain the kids with the cool facts, like: where do they get the butterflies, what do they feed on, how can you tell a male butterfly from a female butterfly, do butterflies have enemies, why does the butterfly habitat have to be so hot, and how the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly takes place. While our visit was to last 50 minutes, the kids were ready to go after just 15 minutes, complaining about boredom and possible heatstroke.

The Butterfly House was followed up with an interesting nature hike where we learned about the local beaver, spotted a beaver lodge, and discovered how detrimental their damn building can be to cities but how beneficial it can be to natural environments. We also learned how to track, the importance of not sticking one’s hands down a burrow, and how to tell when a burrow is being occupied and when it isn’t.

After lunch we headed on over to the outdoor cooking area where we learned to make quick, homemade ice cream and Mexican Smores. While the kids had a blast making these goodies, I was disappointed to discover that they would only be told about the do’s and don’ts of fire safety and not actually see an actual fire being built.

After filling up on our afternoon goodies we headed over to the fishing area where the kids learned about fishing safety and how to cast a line. They were even given a few casting lessons before heading on over to the stocked lake for a half hour fishing excursion. With five volunteers ready to lend a helping hand the kids were ready to tackle the fish.

And that’s just what one young lady did! Turns out she got “Bob the Bass”—only the largest fish in the lake. As she screamed, “I caught one!” Half the kids ran to her aid as the other half cheered her on. And that’s when we learned a valuable lesson in the “catch and release” philosophy, the sooner you get the fish back in the water, the safer it is for the fish. Of course, I couldn’t get her to hold the fish for a photo, but I did manage to get a nice shot of the fish itself.

Until next time…

Disclosure: I was given free entrace to this attraction as part of my daughter’s class field trip. This is “my opinion”. I was not paid to give a positive review.

Posted in SD Transplant | Comments Off

Spring In South Dakota

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 by Alyice

It’s finally spring in South Dakota and I couldn’t be happier. Winters are often a dead time of year as everyone hibernates inside. You rarely see someone walking the streets. You never see kids playing in the school yard or the local park. You don’t hear birds singing from their treetop homes. And the skies look dreary and haunting.

But with spring comes renewed life as one by one the birds flock back to their treetop homes, baby bunnies leave their burrows in search of food, cows return to the pastures, and farmers return the land. And that’s what makes South Dakota so appealing to me.

Living on the west coast made it difficult to tell one season from the next. Our winters looked no different than our summers, springs, or falls. Some days were hotter than others, some days were wetter than others, but all in all they pretty much looked the same: blue skies followed by grey skies followed by a little rain and then sunshine. The streets were always busting with people frantically moving about as they scuttled from one appointment to the next. And except for a few pigeons and sea gulls, wildlife was basically non-existent—unless, of course, you paid an entrance fee.

So for now I am happy to call South Dakota home.

It is here that I can slow down long enough to not only smell the flowers but embrace nature. And it is here that I can get my “city fix”. Just by taking a drive to Sioux Falls or Rapid City I can immerse myself in modern civilization and then return to my small hometown where tractors driving down the street are as common as a bus driving down a metropolis street.

Until next time…

Posted in SD Transplant | Comments Off

Verne Drive-In

Sunday, May 4th, 2008 by Alyice

One of the great things about living on the west coast was the ability to watch movies at drive-ins so when we moved to the mid-west we were disappointed to learn that drive-ins are very rare. We missed sitting outside on lawn chairs or in the back of pick-up trucks with a picnic lunch and sodas from the concession stands as we watched the big screen.

When I was a little girl we frequented the drive-in theatres a lot. At the time it was just $5 per car load so the more people you could pack into the car, the better the price became. Over the years the price went from $5 per car load to $5 per car of four, with $2 per additional person. That’s when I discovered the art of “sneaky entrances”. We often watched teenagers stop just outside the drive-in so they could load up a few of their friends—in the trunk of all places!—just to get a cheaper price.

My mom used to love to stop off at her favorite oriental restaurant or fried chicken place to load up on some food. Then we’d have to wait until we entered the drive-in to eat. We had two drive-ins mom liked to frequent: one being 10 minutes away and the other being 35 minutes away. Whenever we’d go to the drive-in the furthest away the food would smell up the car causing my stomach to growl with anticipation. Eating the chicken, coleslaw, and mashed potatoes was easy. It was the oriental food that was tricky. Have you ever tried to eat fried rice or noodles in the dark? It sure made for some good laughs!

When my husband and I were married we moved to an area that made drive-ins a bit of a hassle as we’d have to drive about an hour or more to the nearest drive-in but every summer we would drag the kids—knowing that drive-ins were becoming a dying form of entertainment.

In fact, we had a few carpooling adventures with a few friends and family members. We’d caravan to the drive-in, line the cars up side by side, pull out the lawn chairs, the blankets, and the coolers and commence to enjoy a lovely evening together.

But moving away from the west coast soon ended our drive-in adventures—until we moved to Knoxville, Tennessee that is. The first time we were able to attend a drive-in movie, after leaving the west coast, was when we lived in Tennessee and it was a blast!

The drive-in was called Midtown Drive-In and it was located in Harriman, Tennessee—about a 45 minute drive away.

I must admit that it was the best drive-in I’d ever been to. Sure we had to park our cars on gravel and grass but it had a 50’s charm that really made the experience worth it. And the price wasn’t bad either–$6 per adult and $3 per child.

Midtown Drive-In did something that even our west coast drive-ins never did—they gave every entrant a raffle ticket and during intermission they’d raffle off cool prizes like: toys and sporting equipment. And if you happened to make it to the end of the second show there was one last bonus prize—often a television set or radio. They even had a small diner in the snack shack where you could eat some of the best grilled burgers and hot dogs in all of Tennessee. And of course, there were the usual theatre goodies: popcorn, candy, sodas, and their ever growing line of freshly made snow cones. And if for some reason you didn’t want to sit outside or in your car, the huge windows allowed you to watch the movie (and hear it) from the dining room area. And finally there were the old-fashioned pinball games.

When we left Tennessee we thought we’d have to give up summer drive-in adventures forever but to our surprise we discovered a quaint little drive-in a little over an hour away.

The drive-in is called Verne Drive-In and is located in Luverne, Minnesota.

Verne Drive-In has a really nice grass area right under the big screen for passing the time before the movies begin. It’s there that we, and other families, spend a little quality time with the kids. While some families toss around a football others throw Frisbees or, like us, play catch with a baseball and gloves.

The price is pretty reasonable too: just $5 per adult and $5 per child.

I have to admit that I really like their bathrooms. They’re modernized, clean, and indoors. Growing up, our drive-in bathrooms were always less than desirable—reminding one of a camping experience. The bathrooms in the Tennessee drive-in weren’t that much better but they were clean. But here at Verne Drive-In the bathrooms are nice.

The hamburgers, however, are less than desirable. They’re tough, overpriced, and do not come with any condiments—no lettuce, no tomatoes, no onions, no pickles, nothing. They could actually learn a thing or two from the Midtown Drive-In as their snack shack always had a line and their food was recommended for miles around. In fact, their burgers were often the reason my husband went to the drive-in. He’d often say, “I don’t care what’s playing, I’ve been craving one of their burgers. Let’s go to the drive-in tonight.”

At any rate, we always eat before we arrive at Verne Drive-In, bring our own sodas, and stick to only buying our popcorn and pretzels with cheese at the snack shack.

Until next time…

Disclosure: I paid for this attraction. This is “my opinion”. I was not paid to give a positive review.

Posted in SD Transplant | Comments Off

Pages: Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next

AlyiceEdrich.com
I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

Copyrights

All material on this blog belongs to Alyice Edrich, unless otherwise noted. No project, artwork, or text may be reproduced or displayed elsewhere without the consent of the creator. That includes making derivative works for resale. Please use project tutorials for personal use and/or gifts only.