DeLancey's Go to the Sunol Wildflower Festival

When I noticed that Lance had put the Sunol Wildflower Festival on our calendar as a possible weekend activity, I was at first skeptical.  Wildflowers are pretty, sure, but as a family activity?  Would the boys really be happy looking at a bunch of wildflowers.  A quick look at their website showed me that guided hikes (some specifically for children) were available, which could potentially be a lot of fun, so we decided to check it out.

We took too long at lunch on the way there and missed both of the hikes I had selected as good for the kids, but we continued on anyway since we could always hike ourselves if we wanted (we had been to the Sunol Regional wilderness before after all).

It was a pleasant surprise, but the festival activities were SO good (and SO free) that we never even got on a trail.

Each kid got a "passport" that they would get stamped when they finished an activity and when they collected 8 (out of 12) stamps, they could claim their prize (a button with a wildflower depicted).  The activities kicked ass.

They learned about animals living in the watershed and each got to color a wooden animal (RJ picked a steelhead trout and Logan picked a salamander).  They learned about bees and other insects (and collected a plastic bee and plastic moth as swag) and made coffee filter butterflies.

RJ got his face painted (a bee) and both boys got temporary tattoos (RJ got a bee and I think Logan's is a dolphin or something).



Then, the sweetest thing happened...RJ and I were walking around the bee house building tent and one of the boy scouts running the activity (the smallest one I might add - they were probably 8-12 year olds if I were to guess) approached RJ and asked him if he wanted his help in building a bee house to take home.  This boy was a natural teacher - he gathered up the materials and led RJ through making his bee house.  He didn't do it for him, and he didn't just tell him what to do - he brilliantly did the activity WITH RJ, letting RJ do what he could on his own, and helping him when he needed it.  I made sure to tell this child that he was a really good teacher and that we really appreciated his help.  And now we have a bee house to hang outside.


RJ also learned about the parts of a flower at another tent, drew flowers at another, made paper out of cotton and wildflowers, and swindled me into making him an elderwood flute while he stole the awls and dug in the mud with them.  That flute is a pain in the ass to make.  My only complain about the whole festival was that to hollow out the stick sufficiently takes a LONG time.  RJ lost interest way before we had even hollowed out all the way through and it still needs "about an hour or so more hollowing" to make any sounds.  It would've been better if they had pre-drilled some of the sticks (we were doing it with hand files and screwdrivers), so that we could've left with a working instrument - but still, it's pretty cool they were doing this activity at all since I'm pretty sure this was the first time RJ held a hand saw and he managed not to saw anyone's fingers off.

While RJ was busy at the flute station, Logan found the "mud cup" station (yep - chocolate pudding + cookie crumbs + gummy worms) and spent the rest of the day with chocolate all over his face.  RJ and I got some too when we were done, but this was clearly the highlight for Logan, who, at 2 wasn't super engaged in many of the activities, which were understandably geared toward older kids.  He spent a lot of time running around in the field and relaxing with Lance by the band (yes, they had live music there too!).


We were so impressed with the incredible activities for kids, especially considering that they were all free and there was no admission other than the park's normal $5 parking fee!  We did make a small donation because it was such a quality event.