Mother's Day at the Presidio

Its Mother's Day here is sunny California so I was up bright and early with the children who were lovely and showered me with homemade cards and gifts, made and chosen by them. Rose and Isla insisted on making my breakfast and I had some lovely cut up strawberries and banana.

Mother's Day activities are my choice and I have been wanting to explore the Presidio for a little while now. The Presidio is part of the Golden Gate National Parks and on our doorstep just a few blocks from the house. It is a huge area and was a military post for the U.S Army for over 148 years.

We started our walk at Fort Scott and were following the Presidio Habitats Quest designed for young people. There was a bit of everything for everyone; map reading, questions to answer, listening, observing, running, searching, collecting and resting.

This shows troops gathered at Fort Scott when it was in operation between 1912 and 1946.

This shows Fort Scott today, along with a few yellow chairs and 3 little children. There is currently an art installation exhibition in and around the Presidio entitled 'Habitats'.  Artists were asked to produce work that reflected the wildlife and history of the area. These 8 yellow chairs of differing heights and angles have been placed around the parade ground inviting the seated to be 'Patient' and become part of the surroundings. We were lucky enough to see a Great Blue Heron and loads of Barn Swallows all feeding on the wing over the meadow of wild flowers.

I'd packed a paper bag for each of the children to collect nature bits that they found interesting and wanted to bring home. We are now the proud owners of about 20 giant fir cones and a couple of dead daisies. Isla collected so much stuff in the first 5 minutes that she couldn't carry her bag any more but wanted to empty it out every time we stopped.

Our walk took us past many beautiful sites but the most impressive was at Immigrants  Point Overlook. We could see the Marin Headlands and Light house (where we visited last weekend), the Golden Gate Bridge of course and the sea crashing on the coastal rocks below us. Lost on the children.....











A lovely day with the family and home in time for tea.

Happy Mothers Day to all my lovely girl friends
Love Jo xx