Fall Discovery Walk & Cider Tasting

Where:      Essex County Environmental Center, Roseland, NJ

More Info: http://www.njaudubon.org/SectionCenters/SectionEssex/Introduction.aspx

Trip Assessment:

Ease             ✮✮✮
Expense        $$
Family Fun    ♥♥♥
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Hello everyone!

As this is our first entry, I'm going to start with an activity we did this past month.  Later on I'll add some places we've gone to further in the past, but that you can still take advantage of.

At the beginning of the season, we received a pamphlet from the Essex County Environmental Center in the mail.  It contained descriptions of their Fall/Winter 2009-10 activities.  I immediately flipped through it to see what these included.

Now, being the frugal mom that I am, I immediately noticed they charged a fee for their activities.  But, they were pretty reasonable and the activities sounded like so much fun I had to at least choose one.

A couple of weeks ago, we attended the "Fall Discovery Walk With Cider Tasting".  We had to register in advance, and it cost us $16 for our family of four.  Their current pricing of $9 per family includes one adult and two children.  Because we are two parents, we had to pay an additional $7.  It's a good thing I found that out upon registration over the phone.  I found it kind of strange that their family fee only entailed one adult parent, but they did say they are in the process of changing that.  I guess we shall see.

When we arrived, we checked in at the front desk and then waited a little while for other registrants to arrive before we were invited into a room by our trail guide.  We sat down and he discussed, mostly with the children, about the changes that take place in the autumn and some of the things we might see.  When it was time to go out, he loaned each of us a pair of binoculars and gave the children a small paper bag to collect fallen leaves in.

Our trail guide immediately began teaching us some very interesting nature facts along the trail. He explained how to identify leaves (including poison ivy - stay on the trail!) and tossed in some very interesting info about the wildlife in the area.

All of the children, including our girls, had fun collecting leaves as we walked.

Our guide seemed to love the kids, he really got them involved.

He showed them a tiny bird's egg (photo on left), turned over logs so they could search for worms and salamanders and toward the end of the trail, he brought us by the frog pond where we got to hold an actual froggy he fished right out of the pond (which our dear Leila was the first to spot - great eyes that kid's got!).

After the frog pond, we were pretty much done with the trail.  What we all thought was really nice, was the fact that he let all each kid choose a small pumpkin from two large boxes off the trail, that he said were going to Turtle Back Zoo for their Halloween festivities.  That was an extra.

We returned to the Environmental Center's building to conclude with cider tasting.  There were some gallons of store-bought cider on a table with cups, but he did have an apple press and fresh apples that he used to demonstrate how to make the cider.  The kids all got a chance to turn the handle on the press.

And that was not all!  Back inside, there were tables set up with paper plates with the centers cut out, extra leaves and glue so that the children can use their freshly collected leaves to make wreaths.

I'd say we got our money's worth!  The girls had a blast and we enjoyed ourselves as well.

There's still plenty of activities left on their schedule to register for.  Below is a link to the PDF version of the brochure we received in the mail.

Brochure Link: Essex County Environmental Center FALL 2009 Public Programs

Hope you're having a great Fall!