Nature Vacations: Fine, As Long As It's Not In Snake Country!!!

I live near Chicago and for those of you who don't know, we don't have poisonous snakes. Well, actually we do, but they are so rare there is no worry.

I did worry when we went south for vacation - down in snake-ville Missouri. The first time I made reservations, I made sure it was in mid-April when snakes were rare.

We loved it so much we wanted to go when it was a bit warmer. Hmmm, that is, my husband did. “What about the snakes?!?!” You see, my children climb into, over, and up things, they love to explore ... but there are snakes in Missouri!!!!

We’ve gone there 4 years in a row and each time a bit warmer. And each time I’ve done much better with snakes, poisonous ones, that is. Did you know that we’ve only found 2 poisonous snakes in all of that time and they were ... um, gulp, pause, take a deep breath ... brought to the house by my husband? But we won’t go there!

I will, instead focus on the non-poisonous ones we’ve found.

Yes, that’s a Black Rat Snake - a bit tiny isn’t he?!? And at the end of his tail is my then-6 year old daughter!

She ain’t afraid of no snakes! Actually, all of my children know the difference between poisonous and non and will readily pick up a snake.

I do too, but, I stick with garter snakes and boas, oh, and frozen ones to pass off to my family to disect, skin and tan.

"Here you go, and by the way, it's time for my walk! See you later!"

Nature Vacations: It's A Bird! It's A Plane! Well It's Not Superman!

Did you ever watch a show where one person stops and is looking intently up in the air, the next person comes along and looks? Soon a whole crowd is trying to figure out what everyone is looking at.

Try it - go out, find a bug crawling, a worm wiggling, a spider hanging, or maybe even a Plains Garter Snake enjoying some frog legs (oops toad-legs) and start exploring yourself.

If you are bored with or afraid of nature, your kids might not be willing to jump in and explore? Well, some will, but I have seen many children robbed of their natural inquisitiveness by their parents fear of nature.

Most creatures will go out of their way to keep from being hurt and often, if you are slow and careful, you can get up close and watch.

Bring along your camera!