Today we wandered further afield, exploring creeks and forests and chapparal. Many creatures came under our scrutiny. The creek was home to Pacific Giant Salamander larvae, California Slender Salamanders, Water Boatmen, and a good number of other small, wiggly things. Up at the edge of the chapparal, I found an Alligator lizard and a scorpion co-existing under a log. The scorpion ran up the outside of my pants and did its best to hide near my zipper. The kids all held up their disposable cameras, paparazzi-like, and snapped dozens of pictures. One kid even had a digital camera, and is probably the only one of the lot who got a good picture, since the disposable ones won't focus at distances under three feet or so. The lizard bore the scrutiny with bad grace, but the scorpion posed on the end of one of my fingers for more photos. The kids were excited enough about this to run and tell everybody they met about it.

The facilities manager clued me in to where to find a tarantula on the grounds as well. It lives under one of those cement electrical junction boxes, which is set flush with the ground on one of the lawns. It quickly ducked out of sight down its secret escape hatch when we lifted the lid. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to show it to the kids.

My first night hike as a leader went pretty well. This week's fifth graders are a bit more fearful than last week's sixth graders were. A couple of the girls even cried a bit, but I talked them through it. It's a pretty big deal when you fear something and do it anyway. I made sure that they knew that. Afterwards, we lay on our backs in the field and looked at stars. We should all do this more often. I feel fortunate that I can do this and get paid for it.