Visiting Nature with Grandkids

Hooray! The turtles are out at the Whitman Mission mill pond. They are the Western Painted Turtle and the Slider. They are hard to tell apart. The Western Painted is red on the bottom shell (the plastron) and the Slider has a yellow plastron with black spots. You can spot the differences if you take your time. The Painted turtle is native to Eastern Washington, the Slider was introduced from the West side.

I plan on taking some kids and cameras there as soon as the intermittent monsoons stop.  I'm getting one of those prepaid "burner phones" to fasten to the older grandkids as they are old enough to get out of my sight. There's a big hill with a view point at the Mission and they love to climb it. With my deficient lungs and cranky joints I could not get up there in less than a whole day if at all. The phone will help solve the "getting them to come back down" problem and take care of any other mishaps (God forbid) too.

The next thing is kid proofing it so they don't lose it. I'm thinking small daypacks and they can carry their water bottles etc. My sons had day packs to hike and never lost them. Kept their compasses, water bottles, whistles, and food in them. We lost the youngest for a few heart stopping hours when he was 11. We were trout fishing at a small lake in canyon. He was examining the rocky hill behind and then he popped over the crest into a brushy, desert plateau. By the time we got up there he was gone. We searched, other campers searched. He found his way back just before the sheriff got up a search party. Sunburned and whistling all the way. He's 43 now and still wanders off.

I still take the 5 year-olds out but with a "big" kid to chase them down. I also pack a ridiculously delicious end of day bribe snack for "kids who mind and stay where I can see you." The older care minder gets a snack and some coin for their trouble. They do plenty of that kind of minding at home for free.

Anyway, it works and gets all of us outside under the sky and in the trees.