GRISWOLD 2009 - "GRISWOLDS GO FOR BROKE - THE RECESSION TOUR"

GRISWOLD 2009 began a little earlier than normal, starting on Memorial Day since it's going to be a little different than our typical Griswold excursions. In short, the global recession has impacted us like everyone else, with one of us unemployed and the other having to take a recession-based pay cut like so many other people these days. The intrepid Griswolds will venture forth though, experiencing things a little closer to home, things that we may too often take for granted or just have not gotten around to seeing yet. So today, Memorial Day, was officially GRISWOLD 2009 - GRISWOLDS GO FOR BROKE - THE RECESSION TOUR - DAY 1!

For the first day of our extended Summer-long vacation, we hopped into the P.T. Crusier and headed west towards Springfield, MA. In Springfield, we visited "The Zoo In Forest Park", a smaller zoo in a city park kind of setting.

While Dad and Rebecca waited for the zoo to open...

...Erik decided to goof around on the playground. Note the large drop-off on the edge of that asphalt walkway...

...Erik didn't notice that drop-off until he'd taken a tumble off of it. Mom and Erik walked to the car and took care of it, so we finally ventured forth into the zoo.

Inside we saw a number of animals, like a cougar...

...some foxes...

...some peacocks...

...and a number of other animals. It was a cute little zoo.

From the zoo, we took a fairly short drive to the town of Westfield, where we went to Stanley Park. Stanley Park was a pleasant place with ponds, gardens and lots of active and passive activity areas. We had heard that this park was famous for its black squirrels, though we didn't see any. We did enjoy a casual walk through the park though.

While walking through the park, we noticed that in a small pond area, there were a number of tadpoles...lots and lots of them. This immediately brought Steve back to his days as "nature boy." We hatched a plan to bring some of these tadpoles home with us, to add to Erik's ever-growing menagerie. We quickly left the park and headed to a Wal-Mart which we'd driven past earlier. After grabbing a small butterfly net and some containers, we headed back to the park. After a nice picnic lunch back in the park, we grabbed our net and containers and headed back to the pond.

In the end, we came home with two different types of tadpoles. First we collected around 50-60 (maybe more) of these little tadpoles.

These tapoles are quite small, their heads around the size of a nail head or maybe a small pencil eraser. They will eventually turn into little toads, which we'll release in the woods behind our house.

We also caught some bigger tadpoles. These required a little more skill to net. We captured 6 of them with heads around the size of a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin and another 3 with heads just smaller than the size of a dime. The larger tadpoles will likely turn into bullfrogs eventually, if we're lucky with them. The dime-sized ones may be leopard frogs in the end.

They all made it safely home, except for one of the tiny tadpoles which didn't survive the trip. That's not a bad percentage. We've now got them all safely housed in appropriate tanks for their size and needs and we'll wait and see what happens.

Griswold 2009 - Day 1 was a lovely day, sunny and with highs in the low 80's. We had a very nice day and enjoyed the four of us being together. The wheels are already spinning and if you're in New England, watch out, the Griswolds may be coming near you sometime soon!