Field Trip Friday #3

Welcome to Field Trip Friday! Thanks so much for joining me! This blog hop is all about sharing those wonderfully, educational experiences outside the home. From neighborhood walks to big city museums to treks through the forest. Any activity where you are your kids get out and explore with your senses and experience nature, science, history, art, etc first hand.

Last week there were some great posts linked and I encourage you to go and check them out! Here are the top 3 most visited links:

Our Life's Adventures posted about her family's trip to Sherwood Forest and the Robin Hood Festival. I know many kids- including my own who would absolutely LOVE to go here.

Morning Hugs and Goodnight Kisses shared their day at the lake and their wonderful nature finds.

And Home to 4 Kiddos showed some amazing pictures and experiences from the Naval Air Station and some authentic WWII planes. My boys would love to see something like that!

This week I shared our trip to Hendersonville during the North Carolina Apple Festival and the many museums and experiences we had that day. Did you take a special field trip this week? Or do you have an old one to share? You can share your links below!

To help this blog hop grow, please link back to this post so more people can find it and share!

Exploring Hendersonville: Part 2

 Once we left the antique car show on Saturday, we stopped by the Apple Valley Model Railroad Club in the old train station since they were holding an open house as well.

We started by exploring the old caboose before heading inside. The boys got instructed on how to operate a model train by one of the junior engineers.

Then we went into see all the models. I always forget how much my kids love exhibits like these. They spent a really long time in these 2 rooms. Watching the trains and the city replicas. They had a little Thomas the Train model set up in back that the kids could operate. Annika loved that part.

 After I pried them away from the trains we headed to our last stop. The WNC Air Museum. Again it was pretty empty, which means we got a really great tour and history of all the of the planes in the building.

There was a gyroplane that they could sit on. And the kids got instructed on how to get into the planes without breaking the wings and were allowed to sit in this WWI aircraft.

There were lots of models and experimental planes. A few unfinished and never flown planes that the museum is working to restore/complete.

 All day we had been seeing the biplane flying overhead, so we stopped to watch it land and take off before we left.

And that concludes our tour of Hendersonville. Big cities have a lot to offer, but sometimes small towns hold little known treasures that can make for a wonderful day.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Field Trip Friday to link up your best field trips, and to read about how others have spent their time outside of the home!

This post is linked to Field Trip Friday

Exploring Hendersonville: Part 1

This past weekend was the North Carolina Apple Festival in Hendersonville. On Saturday we decided head down and spend the day exploring the town and all it has to offer since many places were holding open houses or special exhibits. We parked at the street fair first. To be honest, I am not a street fair kind of girl. Way too many people. Too much junk being sold. And very little of the old time festival festivities left. But we wanted to see the downtown and the Mineral and Lapidary Museum was on Main Street where the street fair was being held.

We stopped and ate our picnic lunch on the steps of a building and walked the length of Main Street before heading back to the museum. It was small and very crowded, but it had a lot on display. The first thing the kids saw was the T-Rex head. And Lakin was very interested in the Smilodon Skull and other saber toothed cat replicas (he's always had a thing for saber toothed cats).

They had geodes you could purchase and have cracked open using this machine. It was fun to watch and the geodes were beautiful. The boys all wanted one, but at $15 for a small and $40 for a large, we had to pass.

They also had a case dedicated to rocks and minerals found in North Carolina. We'll have to check out and see if we can find some local places to go dig for some!

And if you ask Cale, the highlight of the day was Kilwin's. He found a listing for Kilwin's in Asheville and has been asking to go ever since. So when we passed by the store he really wanted to go in. 

Once we had been walking in the heat for awhile we stopped in for ice cream. 5 cones, a caramel apple and some fudge samples later we were back on the side walk to enjoy our treats

Once we were done at the street fair we headed down the road a bit to check out a small antique car show.  It was really small- we got there a bit late. But sometimes small and not crowded can be a good thing. 

One couple let the kids sit in their 1923 car and showed them how the top went up and down. Told them about the engine, where the gas tank was, how the pedals worked.

They tried out the horns of a few of the cars and explored the different engines. There were only about 6 or 7 cars, but still interesting and fun for the us to see.

Annika loved sitting up in the car and didn't want to leave when it was time to move on.  It was getting late and we had a couple more stops before heading home....