We took a quick day trip to nearby Indiana Dunes on Sunday to do some hiking and playing on the beach. They have a surprising number of nature programs and hikes, so we decided to check out a few while we were there.

The first program of the day sort of set the tone for the whole thing. It was sort of a “creepy” tour of the dunes, including various stories about the things that happened there (including a skeleton buried in one of the dunes and a ghost who walks the dunes by night), finally ending in their very own “pet cemetery”, a place where they found little tombstones and a crematorium that they can’t explain. To be fair, the ambiance was a little lacking, and it really couldn’t have been less creepy, but I was nervous that this would be a little much, especially with her uneasy feelings about monsters lately. However, she seemed to be mostly unaffected by the stories, other than to ask us 100 times if A) we knew where the ghost was hiding during the day, and B) if we could go looking for said ghost. She was absolutely sure she was going to see this ghost come strolling down the beach in broad daylight, in front of 30 people, on the sunniest, most gorgeous day in months.

She even made me tell my own ghost story on the way home.

After some beach time, and a restaurant with really awful service, we just barely managed to make it to the afternoon program, which was “creature feeding”. Now, in all honesty, I was sort of envisioning something outside, maybe throwing some seed out on the ground and trying to attract some birds or squirrels or something. What I didn’t really count on was reptiles.

Even feeding the turtle was somewhat gruesome, since it really went to town on some worms, blood and guts hanging out of it’s mouth. And when they came around with a snake to touch, I figured Evie would say, “No way!” since she had previously refused to touch a snake at the zoo. Not only did she want to touch the snake, but she insisted on petting the next snake even though the snake was whipping around viciously and the naturalist said nervously, “Okay guys, I’m sorry, I need to put him back in his cage. I think he’s hungry.” Evie was like, “No way, you said I could touch the snake, I’m touching that snake!”

The first snake got an enormous frog, who proceeded to fight and kick as the snake slowly devoured it. (“Butt first!” as Evie is fond of recounting.) Evie couldn’t tear her eyes away. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but it was slightly horrifying, at least to me. Next up was a constrictor, and when the lady asked, “Who wants to put the mouse in?” Evie was jumping up and down saying, “Me! Me!” Naturally, the lady picked an older kid to put the mouse in the cage, after which we all watched the snake constrict the mouse until it stopped moving, and then slowly eat it’s head. This snake moved like lightning too; when it pounced on the mouse, I jumped. It was almost too quick to see.

So, finally it came time for the big enchilada: the poisonous rattle snake. This thing is in a super cage with shatter-proof glass in the front and padlocks on top, it’s so dangerous. “Who wants to put the mouse in?” comes the question and “Me! Me!” comes the answer. I couldn’t believe that the lady actually picked her! There were teenagers standing there, but she went with the 3 year old! I guess she could see how much Evie really wanted to do it. “Uh…Sara?” I called, since Sara wasn’t paying attention and didn’t know this was going on.

Sure enough, Evie took the mouse by the tail and gleefully dropped him to his doom with the waiting rattler down below. She did it perfectly. I can assure you, it was every parent’s dream moment. Unfortunately (?), the snake wasn’t feeling hungry, and he left her mouse alone. We practically had to drag her out of there, since she was glued to the front of the cage, waiting for the mouse to be devoured.

I should also mention that, somewhere in there, the frog being eaten by the first snake burst open, and there were literally blood and guts hanging out of it’s side while it still futilely tried to escape. The naturalist said she’d never seen that before. Must have been our lucky day.

It was absolutely amazing to me that there was such a program. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone feed a living animal to a snake, much less did I see such a thing when I was in preschool. It was awful and yet awesome at the same time. I certainly would have enjoyed seeing that as a (slightly-older-than-Evie) kid. And even more surprising was that Evie took it all in stride. She was enjoying it as much as any of the older kids. I kept vacillating between being proud of her and wondering what was wrong with her. 🙂

Did I mention our 3 year old daughter fed a live mouse to a poisonous rattle snake??

Let’s just hope this doesn’t come back to bite us later on down the road with some kind of terrible nightmares!