On Friday I helped chaperone the Japanese students’ field trip up to Columbia State Historic Park and Big Trees State Park. There were about 7 cars each filled with students and host families.

After about 1 1/2 hours of driving we made it to Columbia to meet up with a few representatives of the hosting program so we could get a group photo. Once that was completed we had a few hours to spend walking around the western town in the park and have some lunch. Most of the kids discarded the lunches they brought in favor of having some ice cream.

Once lunch was over we drove another 45 minutes over to Big Trees State Park. We spent about an hour or so walking the 1.67 mile loop in the North Grove. The students really enjoyed seeing the huge trees and took every opportunity to take a photo in or on one of the trees. There was a huge stump near the parking area that must have been 20 or so feet wide that the students all piled onto for a group photo. Most of the students hadn’t seen trees this large before so it was a fun experience for them.

We made it back to their school by 4:30pm to drop off the extra students we had with us and then made our way home.