Family Hike at Back Bay in Newport

Saturday morning we attended the family hike at the Back Bay in Newport Beach. Usually Jodi and Mark teach the class, but Jodi was sick, so it was Mark and Deanna teaching. We learned that the Back Bay is an estruary which is where freshwater and saltwater mix together, "this coastal wetland, one of the largest in southern California , is renowned as one of the finest bird watching sites in North America. During winter migration up to 35,000 birds may be using the Bay at one time. It is home to six rare or endangered species: Light Footed Clapper Rail, Brown Pelican, Belding's Savannah Sparrow, Black Rail, Peregrine Falcon and California Least Tern. The Bay is home to one endangered plant species - Saltmarsh Bird's Beak. Considered a "critical estuary" habitat - Upper Newport Bay is one of the most pristine remaining estuaries in Southern California." We saw lots of seagulls, skimmers, a mark hawk, turkey vultures, Lon-billed Curlew, Kingfishers, black-bellied plover, coots, ruddy ducks, marsh wren, willets, mallard ducks and I'm sure other birds. We also saw 2 jellyfishes that were hanging out where the freshwater flows into the bay. It is so interesting that some animals (sharks, fish, jellyfish, etc) can survive in a mixture of freshwater and saltwater. The boys loved playing with the cattails and the coyote bush. They pretended the flowers from the coyote bush was snow (the closest we'll see in Southern California) and Ian made "snow balls" with the flowers. They loved making "snow" with the cattails too. It was another gorgeous day in California!!!

In the evening we went to a park in Laguna Hills to see their holiday celebration. They had a horse drawn carriage, Santa and his elves, games for the children, a very small petting zoo, a band and a park for the kids. Everything was free except for the snacks and drinks. We didn't want to wait in line for the carriage ride, so we just walked around. Ronan was just in awe of Santa - he kept looking over at him but he didn't want to sit on his lap or stand next to him (neither did Ian). Ian loved playing the games, especially throwing the darts at the balloons (he also tried the ring toss and the basketball hoop game). The kids met up with their friends from preschool and they all had fun running around the park. It was such a nice holiday celebration and it was all FREE (except for the food that we didn't eat).

Then we drove to the "Grinch" house near our house and they were having a community party with free hot chocolate and cotton candy (the house next door had food too and Santa).

It was a crazy busy day!!

Love, Shelly