My youngest son, 14 years, is in his last year at Open Alternative School.  He will graduate and move on to Santa Barbara High School.  His last camping trip was to Joshua Tree National Park. 

The class gathered in the parking lot the morning of May 18.  The cars and trucks of the drivers were packed with gear, food, campers, and they left for the desert around 9 AM.  It was exciting, as always during the 'lift off' for any new camping adventure.  It was a good time to get away from Santa Barbara because the drama of the Jesusita Fire was still fresh in everyone's mind.  The fire was not contained yet, either, and the place was hot, dry, and covered with ash.

The temperature was expected to be near 100 degrees in the desert which lies close to the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border.  While the class was camping, I headed in that direction, too, to visit my elderly mother in Riverside.  It certainly was hot!  In fact, it was just the way I remember from the first 7 years of my life - when our family lived in Riverside.  I am so grateful that the urge and opportunity to move to Santa Barbara materialized simultaneously in 1960!

I heard all about the trip upon their return - the heat, the rock-climbing, the snakes, and the fact that no tents were blown over the way they were during the trip to Mono Lake.  It seems that a determined rattler intruded upon the campsite more than once.  Someone, no word of exactly who, suggested they kill the snake, cook, and eat it!  I have never even known anyone who has eaten rattlesnake in my 50+ years of life.  My son would not have been anywhere near the top of my list of people who might possibly do this.  Did it taste like chicken?  It was more like a cross between chicken and turkey, with a consistency of fish.  An unfortunate garter snake was also consumed by this intrepid group of campers, so I may be mixing up my snake flavors, and for that I beg your forgiveness. 

I have heard that Joshua Tree National Park is the location of a vortex, where cosmic currents mix with the earthly gravity and atmosphere.  It is reportedly a site of UFO sightings.  But I have heard nothing about any sightings from the group.  One of the adult chaperones brought along a very large, well-made kite, though, and I was able to see the video of the kite while it was flown. 

It was a fantastic camping experience for everyone.  The teacher of this class, David, who is in his first year with OAS, has proved to be the type of teacher so valued at the school.  I can't really think of any teachers I recall from my school years who would covet the opportunity to spend 4 days away from home in the desert with a class of young teens!   But this is what makes Open Alternative School so unique and also what leads to the experience of being involved with the school such a highlight of child-rearing years, for parents and students, alike! 

Oh, I am going to miss that place! 

I'm thankful for my friend, Kyle. He is a very kind, caring person and I've known him for 20 years. He is a veteran of Iraq. He went to great lengths to get this message out:

Vote for Obama-Biden

Bring our troops home from Iraq

This is for you, Kyle. We all love you.

Here come 2 fun events! The Harvest/Halloween Festival and the fall camping trip. On Sunday, October 28, we will be at the school's festival. It has been known as Halloween festival, harvest festival, and one other that I can't remember. It changes somewhat depending upon the parents taking charge during that particular year. We've had a teacher reading tarot cards, a 'jail', cake walk, a haunted house, and other fun thing. We did a Beanie raffle a while ago. This year my son's class is decorating and 'putting on' the haunted house! Then, 3 days after that, the class leaves for a 3 day camping trip to Santa Cruz Island. Santa Cruz is one of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. There are bald eagles trying to take the island back from the golden eagles (the way it was for thousands of years before the cattle ranchers came) and the island foxes are making a come-back, too! The ranchers brought pigs who attracted the golden eagles, who then started eating the cat-sized foxes, who almost went extinct. The bald eagles do not eat the foxes or the spotted skunks also on the island. The pigs had destroyed many of the native plant species, too. In a controversial move, hunters were brought in to kill the couple thousand pigs so the golden eagles could be shoo'ed away. So far, the plan seems to have worked. I've never been to the islands and I'm really glad my son will now have been on 2 of the 4 closer islands. They're beautiful and there are 10,000 years of history out there. Next week we have our first of the year's 2 parent/student/teacher conferences. We mainly set goals at this conference. I always look forward to this one, since it's around Halloween and it's a fun atmosphere around school! By contrast, my high school senior son, who attended OAS from kindergarten through 7th grade, will be graduating. It's time to enroll in city college, apply for grants or scholarships, and think about a 4 year university, UCSB perhaps, after 2010. Yikes! I can't believe I wrote that!