a walk in the bog

Last week Maya and I got to go on Ella's second grade field trip to the Orono Bog.   

 

(You should know that Ella won't let me take too many pictures of her anymore and doesn't like me discussing her so I will be mostly radio silent on her for a while.)

 

We have been on the bog boardwalk many times but this was the first time with a tour guide.  There are so many cool things to learn about bogs.  For instance did you know that in some places there are 20 feet of peat below the surface?  Good thing there are planks to keep you above ground.

 

 

Happy girls.

 Before we left there were lots of instructions to listen to so we had to listen very closely.

 

As an impromptu surprise, my friend Lindsay and her daughter Leah just happened to be going for a walk in the bog at the same time and tagged along on our field trip group.

Maya had a lot that she wanted to investigate out there.  I was amazed by what she retained that our guide told us. She began to identify different plants as we walked.

We learned about the carnivorous pitcher plant, why a skunk cabbage is called a skunk cabbage (it will make you smelly if you pick it) and we even got to see some of the illustrious and endangered lady slippers. 

I can't remember what these are but they are cool. 

As much as she loves flowers, Maya was able to restrain herself from picking any, saying, "The bog boss said we can't pick them."  But she got lucky a few times and found some on the ground.

Maya had amazingly good behavior. She followed all the rules and behaved in line with the second graders. We were smart and left after lunch (there were lots of chaperones) so as not to tire her out. She held my hand on the walk to the car, sighing deep, contented sighs and telling me she loves me.