First Field Trip of the Year

By Shann, Field Trip Coordinator and Parent of Terrific Turtle Brady

The 4th and 5th grade combo classes had a great field trip to the Peralta Adobe, one of the oldest buildings in California.

Unlike many historic homes that have been completely rebuilt, the Peralta Adobe has only been restored. The adobe bricks are the originals from 1797. They did however put in a modern floor instead of using the original adobe flooring that used cows’ blood to help hold it together, which attracted fleas. The two interior rooms were decorated to reflect how they would have looked 200 years ago. It was pretty interesting to see the old Adobe house in contrast to the busy plaza of San Pedro Market and the city that has grown up around it. The docent mentioned that the construction of new large apartment buildings downtown makes the future for the Adobe a bit hazy.

This was a nice, hands-on field trip and the kids really seemed to enjoy all of the stations. We often think of dress up as an activity for little kids, but our bigger kids got really into it too today. There were colorful skirts, rebozos (long, flat garments worn by women as scarves, baby carriers, headdresses, and for other purposes), leather vests, ponchos and bandanas – lots of bandanas…although the vaqueros probably used them to keep dust off rather than to impersonate bandits as our kids imagined. You may also have seen the candles that the kids dipped or the corn husk dolls and adobe bricks they made.

Somebody asked me if there were times the public and families could visit the Adobe house. If you are interested in such a family outing, I recommend checking out the History San José website at http://historysanjose.org/wp/plan-your-visit/history-park/hours-and-admission for the most up-to-date schedule and hours.

Playing dress-up at the Peralta Adobe

Listening to our docent during the tour

Inside one of the historically-decorated rooms