Tyler Place Proper Pond Walk with Nature Dave
This was our fifth year to enjoy a week at the Tyler Place, but our first time to check out the nature walk at Proper Pond with Nature Dave.
We had heard of the legendary Nature Dave who has been guiding children (and often their parents) in their discoveries of frogs, turtles, fish, salamanders, snakes and more for more than 16 years, but we had never signed up for the famous walk at Proper Pond.
Fortunately we signed up and even made the draw because, as is usually the case for anything with Nature Dave, many more than can be accommodated sign up and it always has to go to a draw to see who actually gets to go.
Our nine year-old explained that he had already been on enough nature walks, so we left him behind and loaded up our seven-year-old boy and five-year-old girl.
We caravanned the three minute drive and were met with supplied water bottles and insect repellant.
We followed Nature Dave into the woods and soon every child had his or her own walking stick, picked up along the way.
“That’s because we are all hunters by instinct,” nature Dave explained to my husband and me as we watched the kids gripping their sticks and peering through the bushes. “That’s what kids all over the world instinctively do.”
As we walked the two minute ‘hike’ to the pond, I asked Nature Dave about fishing with the Tyler Place children through the years. We had heard tales of his patience and knowledge in helping the children catch fish. Each of the kids groups has its turn for a fishing with Nature Dave session.
“Last summer we estimated that we helped about 2,000 kids catch fish,” he said. “We have about 25 lines dropped at once off the boat, so it stirs up a lot of action for fish of different sizes,” he continued.
Once we got to the pond, walking sticks were exchanged for fishing nets and one of the parents told his son to wait to hear what Nature Dave had to say.
“Oh no,” Nature Dave said. “Just let them go explore. They do enough waiting and listening at school.”
Off the kids and parents went, in search of slimy, slithery nature. And it wasn’t long before we had our first catch, a deep green frog.
“See this, hold it like a popsicle,” Nature Dave said, explaining how to hold the frog.
Soon there were more frogs, a salamander, tadpoles, a butterfly and turtles caught, inspected and released. Nature Dave also showed us a snake, and after explaining to the children to not seek out snakes at home, allowed a few kids to hold the snake.
The pond was set up perfectly for nature observation and scooping, with a wooden platform running near the edge, so kids could scoop on the muddy, grassy side or on a side with just muddy water that reached farther into the lake.
The kids loved it. The grownups loved it, but probably no one more than Nature Dave, who was teaching kids all about nature by letting the kids be the explorers and just filling in interesting details about whatever they caught.
And he has a lot of interesting details to share.
If you visit Tyler Place, I highly recommend signing up for anything hosted by Nature Dave… and then cross your fingers when it comes to the draw.
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Trip Journal: Burlington, Vermont and the Tyler Place Day Two
This might be Day Two, but it was the first full vacation day. And we really enjoyed it!
Fortunately the kids actually slept in this morning! Woo-hoo!
Once all were awake we headed out for breakfast at about 11 (yes, 11!!! Can you believe we actually slept in so late?!) and found a cute diner for pancakes, French toast and the like. After that we walked back to the hotel, got the car and drove a few miles to the Lake Champlain Chocolates’ factory, which makes delicious chocolates.
The ‘tour’ of the factory took place in one spot right in front of the workroom.
From our seats we learned how chocolate is made, from cacao bean to store. The kids got to taste chocolate in its different stages and learn exactly how it is made.
My boys seemed entranced, but my daughter drifted off after about 20 minutes. She must not be the first child to lose interest, though, because they had a small coloring station set up which she enjoyed while we continued to learn about chocolate. I really appreciated the fact that the chocolate factory had already set up a spot just for kids like her. So many other factory tours don’t do much to accommodate wiggly kids with waning attention spans. This way the older kids got to enjoy what they were learning and she was thrilled to color. Perfect!
Of course we made a few purchases before heading out to our next stop, ECHO, the Lake Aquarium and Science Center.
At ECHO we sailed in without paying admission, thanks to our membership at the children’s museum back home, and the boys quickly remembered some of their favorite spots from last year.
I think ECHO is the perfect size for children’s museum and all of the exhibits tend to blend well. It’s easy to navigate and not miss anything.
We had a blast touching sea animals, playing with water, creating and recording our own weather forecast news stories (complete with TelePrompTer, green screen and props) learning about the history and landscape of the area and checking out huge robotic bugs.
I made a few purchases in the gift shop.
After that we wandered back up to Church Street, stopping at Bennington Pottery North, the pottery store I spotted the night before and my son suggested we return to the next day. (I know. Amazing that he SUGGESTED it!!)
We bought a funky pitcher to be shipped home.
The store had some beautiful pottery and I was amazed at how well my children behaved while I considered buying a new set of dishes.
I was really drawn to these:
But the next day I brought my husband back and he preferred these:
(Still thinking about it. Waiting for pitcher and catalog to arrive.)
At Church Street we enjoyed a very late lunch at Sweetwater’s outside while live jazz played nearby. Perfect!
Next it was time for some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. We all enjoyed chocolate sprinkled cones of it and, while admiring the artistic cows downtown, we met some very nice people from Burlington and listened to, yep you guessed it, more fantastic jazz.
We did a bit more shopping, a bit of wandering and just enjoyed the evening together.
My middle child would want me to include that he found a $5 bill in one of the shops. The employees let him keep it, so he was feeling quite wealthy.
Eventually we wandered back to the hotel, but after sitting there for a few minutes I decided it was too early to go to bed. And chocolate was calling.
We walked 2 blocks over to the Skinny Pancake, a crepe restaurant, tried a few crepes and then had chocolate fondue for dessert. A perfect ending to a very chocolate-y day!!
Filed under Vermont | Comment (0)Trip Journal: Burlington, Vermont and the Tyler Place Day One
I’ve just returned home from a bit of research for MomsTravelTales. Yep, I had to take my family on a fantastically relaxing vacation so that I could share my experiences with you. Right?
For the next week I’ll share excerpts from my Trip Journal so you can see what we thought of Burlington, Vermont and the Tyler Place. For the fourth time. Yup, LOVE that place! Travel along with me and I’ll tell you all about it…
Travel Day: to Burlington via Newark
We got to the airport with the kiddos in plenty of time. We kissed my husband goodbye at the curb and off he went to work… and off we went to vacation, just me and my three kids, ready for adventure. (Don’t worry, he joined us a few days later.)
We checked our bags (only 3 plus one carseat!!) , made our way through security (where a TSA agent gave us all a speech about summer travel and longer security lines), and sauntered on over to the gate. We played UNO until it was time to board the plane. This time we even decided NOT to use the pre-boarding with children option and boarded when our row was called. (This made my kids feel very grown-up.) As we slid into our seats a kind lady suggested that my cardigan might be inside out. She was right. Oops! Oh well.
After getting that fixed, I continued getting the kids settled into their seats, pulling out of their backpacks whatever they might need for the beginning of the fight. I was sitting across the aisle and wanted to be sure they could help themselves with whatever they needed or wanted for most of the flight. They may be relatively seasoned travelers, but they are still 4, 6, and 8 and can use a few reminders.
Good thing we pulled a lot of stuff out of the backpacks… We sat on the runway for quite awhile and took off one hour later than the scheduled time. The kids didn’t seem to care much. They enjoyed reading and looking through magazines. Plus they were thrilled with all of the new candy in their backpacks and enjoyed trading it and munching. I was definitely okay with that. Traveling may bring new rules, but it also relaxes many others. And junk food is much better tolerated by mom on vacation.
We arrived in Newark 30 minutes later than expected (although our flight left an hour late) and raced as fast as I could with three children in tow to the shuttle. We zoomed as fast as we could to the gate. Grabbed cookies to prevent flying on an empty stomach and cranky children. Fortunately our next flight was also delayed, so we had time to grab hotdogs, too. (Yes, I realize hot dogs aren’t that much more nutritious, but something told me they would be a good idea.)
When we boarded the plane I asked the man in the seat dividing me from my children if he would mind switching. Unfortunately he didn’t want to give up his aisle seat for the hour flight which, of course, baffled me as it always does when people are so territorial about their seats and inconsiderate to families. Fortunately another passenger kindly offered to switch and I could still at least make eye contact with my three kids. (Thank you so much, my mystery traveler. We really, really appreciate your help.)
Fortunately the flight held very little excitement… well, except when my younger son and daughter spotted some sparkly beads on the floor under the seat in front of her and she squealed about the ‘jewels’ when I handed them to her. It was a quick flight and then we were there… ahhh….
Arriving in Burlington was such a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively.
I started to relax as we walked down the jetway and was almost skipping by the time we reached baggage claim.
Then, the people at the Enterprise Rental Car counter were so nice! They pulled the car around for me and even rolled the luggage out to the car! Then, as we were walking out to the car, of course one of the children had to go to the bathroom. The rental car guy didn’t even blink. He stood with the car during our very long potty break. So nice!
We checked into the Courtyard by Marriott, Burlington Harbor and set off for dinner and to explore. This hotel has a great location for families. We just walked a few blocks and were in the middle of downtown Burlington with lots of fun shops, restaurants and live music, thanks to the jazz festival, plus it is super-close to ECHO, a fantastic children’s museum.
We got dinner at our favorite Burlington spot to eat, American Flatbread. We really enjoy their flatbread pizzas and salad. They also have an incredible selection of local beers, so I decided to try one. Perfect breezy evening, delicious pizza, happy kids making paper airplanes and coloring through dinner…. Good stuff!
After dinner we wandered by a closed pottery store. My oldest son suggested we return the next day. (How nice was that?!) Back in the hotel room we watched a movie and finally went to sleep just before 11… Much later then the typical vacation bedtime of 8:30 or 9!
I closed the hotel black-out shades and explained to the kids that they really needed to do their best to sleep in the morning since we were up so late. Then it was off to dreamland…
Wanna know more about the chocolate factory we visited the next day? Or what about the fact that my kids really did venture into that pottery store with me? I bet you’re just wondering if the kids really did sleep in. Tune in tomorrow for Day Two of my Trip Journal on Burlington, Vermont and the Tyler Place….
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