Field Trips is our middle name!
Soon it will be prime time to visit The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch in Carlsbad, California. The Flower Fields are in 90% bloom around Easter and there are literally flowers everywhere you go. The dates for the 2019 season are March 1 – May 12, 2019. My kids and I went to visit and see the flowers for the first time back in 2016.
I was completely enamored with the all beautiful flowers around me. Pictures simply don’t do them justice!
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Rains in Orange County are preparing us for a beautiful wildflower season this year, and many of the parks, public landmarks and gardens are already in bloom ahead of spring. Poppies, lilacs and wild roses are just a few of the floral varieties that can be found blooming throughout the region’s wilderness parks and arboretums. Just remember when hiking one of these 20+ locations in Orange County to stay on the path and bring extra sunscreen!
Here is a list of 20+ Places To See Wildflowers in Orange County, California.
Baker Canyon, Irvine
Baker Canyon welcomes nature lovers to enjoy views of the Santa Ana Mountains as well as the wildflowers and plants of oak-shaded Baker Canyon. Travel along a 3.5-mile hike and learn about the local habitat.
Black Star Canyon, Silverado
Black Star Canyon is a remote mountain canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains. It is a watershed of the Santa Ana River and a popular destination for mountain bikers and hikers due to its wild scenery. Visitors to Black Star Canyon can spot California lilacs (Ceanothus) and bright yellow fiddlenecks (Amsinckia) in many sizes, shapes, and colors on a hike.
Last February, Field Trip Boy and I drove to Las Vegas for the weekend to take in the sites and enjoy some quality time together. On our way out to the desert, we stopped by the Nevada public art exhibit by internationally-renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone called Seven Magic Mountains.
Prior to our visit, I had seen several pictures of the colorful art installation on social media and heard from many of my travel friends that the exhibit was inspiring to see from the freeway. However, getting up close and personal was even better. As my son and I discovered, they were right!
Seven Magic Mountains is a large-scale public art installation located near Jean Dry Lake and Interstate 15, approximately ten miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada. Comprised of seven towers of colorful, stacked boulders standing more than thirty two feet high, Seven Magic Mountains punctuates the Mojave desert with a poetic stream of light and color.
Seven Magic Mountains is the brain child of Ugo Rondinone, a New York-based, Swiss-born mixed-media artist noted for a range of contemporary paintings and sculptures. His work has become recognized for its ability to channel both psychological expressiveness and profound insight in the human condition and the relationship between human being and nature.
Rondinone recent solo shows include Carre d’Art, Nimes, Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2016); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Secession, Vienna (2015), Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, Museo Anahuacalli, Mexico (2014); Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, M Museum, Leuven (2013).
We all have a bucket list of sorts. You know, places we want to visit one day, but haven’t gotten to quite yet. Cabazon Dinosaurs in Cabazon, California is one of those places for me. I’ve passed the iconic dinosaurs countless times while driving from LA to Arizona, but I’ve never stopped to actually check them out. Finally, one day in March, I decided to change that and became one of the 12 million people who drive by them every year.
The World’s Biggest Dinosaurs™ museum in Cabazon includes a dinosaur garden and 50 robotic dinosaurs. This educational facility features work from scientists around the world including Dr. Benjamin Carson and Dr. Michael Egnor. Here, visitors learn cool dinosaur facts and about the history of the planet and the human race from a Creationist perspective. Cabazon Dinosaurs is one of the best places to see dinosaurs in California!
Cabazon Dinosaurs, also referred to as Claude Bell’s Dinosaurs, are enormous, sculptured roadside attractions located right off the Cabazon exit of Interstate 10, a short distance west of Palm Springs. The site features Dinny the Dinosaur, a 150-foot-long building, shaped like a larger-than-life-sized Brontosaurus (or perhaps it’s an Apatosaurus), and Mr. Rex, a 65-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex structure.
The first dinosaur to appear at Cabazon Dinosaurs was the Brontosaurus, built by former Knott’s Berry Farm theme park artist and sand sculptor Claude Bell. Bell decided to build the steel-and-concrete dinosaur in order to attract more visitors to his now permanently closed Wheel Inn Diner next door. Construction on Dinny the Dinosaur began in 1964 and was completed 11 years later. The giant apatosaurus is arguably the largest dinosaur in America. Mr. Rex was completed in 1981.
Sculptor Claude K. Bell in March 1970, with his 45 ft high 150 ft long Dinosaur under construction in Cabazon
Since their construction, Bell’s dinosaurs have been featured in Coke commercials, MTV music videos, and the 1985 film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. When Bell passed away in 1998, his family sold the property to its new owners named Young Earth Creationists.
Last November, my family and I visited the world renown museum, MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, in Santa Barbara, California. The MOXI, first opened in February 2017, is a contemporary museum devoted to science, technology and the arts, with a focus on interactive exhibits. The museum was part of a massive community outreach effort, dreamed up over 20 years ago. With incredible vision and dedication, the Santa Barbara community poured in resources together to build a powerfully creative interactive environment where kids can learn about science and have a fantastic time doing so.
credit: MOXI
When we first arrived at the MOXI, we were greeted by an imprinted note on the front door, “Future Innovators Enter Here.” A very appropriate message for a place that stimulates learning and drives curiosity of science and how the world works around us. After we got our entrance wrist bands at the check-in counter, both my kids were off in different directions to check out the magnificent interactive spectacles that greeted them.
credit: MOXI
The MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation is designed for kids to use real-time scientific application. From racing derby style cars to playing a gargantuan guitar to syncronizing sounds to a movie in a sound booth, there are so many creative and stimulating ways for kids to learn, all 17,000 square feet and three levels worth.
Inside the MOXI, the first exhibit we checked out was the Handprints Globe. The globe is a symphony of connected screens where my kids made an image of their handprints appear on the screens in all sorts of vibrant colors and shades. Just a few steps away from the Handprints Globe, was a gargantuan sized guitar that you not only can play, but also experience inside the body of the guitar and listen to acoustic variances of sound.
Next up was one my son’s favorite exhibit, The Reactable. This unique exhibit is a musical instrument consisting of a graphical user interface that is tangible, meaning there are a bunch of images that you can swipe, turn and move about the screen to make sounds and even put together a little tune. The soundscape fun didn’t stop there, we then made our way into one of the movie soundtrack booths where we all banged objects together to video footage.
credit: MOXI
