5 Field Trips Every El Paso Kid Went On Back In The Day

I can remember the last time I went on a field trip. I was in the eighth grade and we went to the planetarium. This was before it moved to its new location on Wren Ave., it was still on Boeing Dr!

I also recall our eighth grade science teacher saying that it would probably be the last time we had a field trip to the planetarium. I thought he meant that the planetarium was closing down- turns out it just meant that in high school field trips are almost non-existent!

I used to love field trips- you have to admit, it is one of the coolest parts about school. The air on the mornings of field trips just hit different. El Paso didn't have aquariums or scientists labs to visit, but we had some pretty good field trips like:

The Gene Rodenberry Planetarium 

Was it just me or was this a cool field trip? I remember sitting in that auditorium and learning about light pollution and just how close Venus and Mars are to us.

The Coca-Cola Vending Plant

If you didn't go to this plant you missed out! You got to see Coca-Cola be distributed and at the end of the trip you got a free Coke- it was the coolest thing in my 2nd grade year!

El Paso Zoo 

Everyone went to the zoo- and it was great! You got to hang with your friends at the zoo, eat lunch outdoors and then visit the gift shop? So much fun!

El Paso Courthouse

I never fully understood why they would take us on a field trip to the Court House, but it was a day out of class and sometimes you got to see some guy in handcuffs and think that maybe he was a big time criminal! Perhaps this is where all our obsessions with "Law & Order" derived from.

Insights Science Museum

Kids today will never know how cool Insights was! The original location on Santa Fe was demolished in 2013 to make way for Southwest University Park. But that old location was the coolest.

Field trips are wasted on kids! Can you imagine taking a whole day off of work to go to the planetarium? Or to the Coca-Cola factory and at the end of the tour you got a Coke?