Day 12

Today was a day short of activities and longer with driving.  We woke the kids up (gasp!) and got them in the car for the 2 1/2 hour drive to drop Grammie off at the airport.  As we were driving we listened to the rest of Animal Stories (love those Barefoot Books!) and Grammie read the last four chapters of The Chocolate Touch.  What a fun story!

After a quick curbside goodbye, we headed to our next stop just mom and the Clarke kids.  Apparently, Laney's feet have grown considerably since we left 2 weeks ago so we needed to stop to get her some new sneakers.  She's also been begging for another watermelon so we make it a quick stock-up trip at Walmart.  Then we went next door to McDonalds and free wi-fi for a smoothie and a solid connection for me to upload the post for the day before.  So many of the state parks are in the deep woods so not only do they not have wi-fi, I can't even get a cell phone signal for a hotspot.

We picked our campsite and settled in pretty quickly.  Within about 10 minutes, we were greeted by one of the many campground hosts with a map, a frequent camper card, and a park history lesson for the kids.  The kids put on their swimsuits and we headed to the "beach".  At least that's what the sign called it.  Being from Pensacola Beach, this was much different than our beach.  The kids enjoyed the cool water in the hot day though.  We'd left 57 degrees in Cloudland Canyon and arrived at 90 degrees at Hard Labor Creek State Park.

We made some pizza veggie burgers for dinner and called it a night.  The kids have started doing the dishes for me after any meal - so nice!  We talked about how Dad does the dishes when I cook, so they pitched in and did the same.  It's an easy job when it's three people washing, rinsing and drying!

Moods were falling and tempers were flaring so I think the long, active days and an early wake-up call has finally caught up with the kids.  Grammie has a surprise for them the next day though!

Day 11

Our plans today were for a hike down into the gorge of Cloudland Canyon and then on to another park that might be fun for the kids.  We were foiled right off by a closed interpretive center - a place the kids love going to learn more about the local animals, trees, and environment.  The disappointed crew went on to the trail head and were greeted by an extremely friendly cat.  She loved all the scratches she was getting and the kids loved being around her.  They named her Stripes (a.k.a. Sparkles) and we headed on down the trail.  There was much talk for most of the way down about the cat, whether and how we could keep her, if she would be waiting for us when we got back, etc.  It reminded me of when I tried to convince my mom I could handle a monkey for my 12th birthday.  

This trail was a nice dirt and gravel trail for quite awhile until the Grammie-dreaded stairs.  We decided to stop and hold this rock up for awhile before heading down.  There were 600 steps today so we'd better get started!  The walk down was pretty uneventful and sprinkled with cat talk until....Laney slipped through the railing of the stairs and landed in POISON IVY!  She alerted me pretty quickly that her legs were itching all over and would "prefer to go back up the stairs".  I immediately brought out the alcohol wipes and started trying to get the oil off.  Thankfully, we'd been educated almost daily by the Georgia State Park system about the vine. After the first wipe I looked at her legs and they were already angry with bumps, so I got another one out then used one of Grammie's as well.  After about 5 minutes, she seemed to calm down and I asked if she wanted to go on and she said yes.  So I let her have a picture by herself by one of the waterfalls.  Brave girl, that Laney.

We reached the bottom of the gorge then headed on to find our next cache.  My gps was giving me some serious issues with all the tree cover so we ended up looking for more than an hour, knowing we were right on top of it.  I'm generally a pretty stubborn person especially when it comes to hiking for an hour to get to a cache so I was getting pretty frustrated. Ryan kept looking and encouraging all of us telling us not to give up!  When I finally declared defeat, much to Ryan's disappointment, we headed back up toward the trail from the river.  We ran into some locals we'd already passed on the way down who asked if we'd found it.  I told them about my gps problems and they offered to help, so we ended up finding it after all!

Now the hard part, the climb back up!  This would be the 3rd of 4 canyon climbs Grammie and I would need to do in order to get our canyon climber t-shirts, so we were determined!  I think the kids were moving quickly just to see if the cat was waiting on them.  Alas, she wasn't but we did make it back up to the top!

Amazing that the kids look practically the same after 3 hours hiking in a canyon!  I assure you Grammie and I did not!  It was now already almost 2pm, so we made a quick lunch and ate in the car on the way to the next spot - James H. Floyd State Park.  The kids have been asking to do pedal boats every since our trip last year so it was fun to actually get to take them to do it here!

The lake was nice a calm and we were greeted warmly by the resident ducks.

Ryan had fun annoying this blue heron that was looking for some dinner. 

After exhausting our legs even more, we headed to the playground for awhile before going to find the next cache.  This was a quick one and the kids loved the creativity of the hide!

We headed home exhausted after such a long day and ready for Grammie to go home so we can have a break!  I'm sure she feels quite the same way.

On the way we noticed a road and campground named after Juliette Gordon Low - the founder of Girl Scouts - neat!  

Off to take her to the airport in the morning and on to the next park!

Day 10

I started the morning with a nice run down the 600 steps of the trail to say goodbye to the waterfall.  The trail was quiet of people, but roaring with the sound of the rushing water.  Some of the trails here are made of 100% recycled tires which is definitely a good thing, but also a joy to run on.  I felt like a gazelle bouncing down the trail!

We'd gotten pretty comfortable in the cabin so it took us about an hour or so to round everything up and stuff it back into the van.  We found the cache at the park, browsed the craft fair set up downstairs at the lodge, then headed upstairs for brunch.  While I'm quite frightened of buffets, the kids love the chance to make so many choices and eat such a variety.  It also helps quite a bit they get dessert too.

We were on the road by 1 and started listening to the first book in "The Series of Unfortunate Events", "The Bad Beginning".  I'd been trying to get Brayden to start reading this series for quite some time but for some reason he has been very reluctant to do so.  We all really enjoyed the book and the timing was perfect, ending just as we pulled up to check in.  Another one to check off the list!

On the way to the park, Grammie received a phone call that we were being downgraded to a 2-bedroom cabin as there were maintenance issues in the other cabin she'd booked previously.  I was expecting the worst, but we arrived and were pleasantly surprised with a relatively new, spacious cabin that would do just fine.  I want a rock like this in my backyard!

The kids grabbed their scooters the minute they could and began practicing their "cool tricks" and developing new ones.  After a quick dinner we headed out to find the playground and a wildlife viewing area. When the kids saw all kinds of monkey bars at the playground they barreled out of the car to try them out. They've been on a monkey bar kick lately ever since they all could successfully complete them several times in a row.

One of the Junior Ranger activities the kids have been anxious to do is noting some wildlife observations, so we were aiming to do just that in a pretty open field planted with a buffet of treats for rabbits, turkey, and deer.  At the end near the connector trail there is a tall tower where visitors can look out over the field and pond to have the best view.  We must have been exceptionally noisy as all we saw were moths, spiders, a few frogs, and had a fleeting glance at a bunny.  We did have a discussion about how quiet we needed to be, but that only lasted for a very short time.  Luckily, we've seen deer on a couple of occasions - once about 10 feet away as we walked down a trail.

The parks have done a good job of educating visitors about dangers in the parks - snakes, bears, ticks, etc. Laney found a tick on crawling on her in the car and recognized it right away.  We also spotted some poison ivy winding around a tree.  It was so good for the kids to put an image with the name as up until now, they'd been labeling everything as poison ivy.  Leaves of three, let it be.

Day 9

Our plan this morning was to get on the road as soon as the kids woke up so we could see a few more parks, show Grammie the quaint town of Helen, GA and make it back to our park in time for the birds of prey talk.  Some background information is probably required for today's post.  The previous night at our campfire and s'mores roasting, we were entertained my many stories one of which was about the indian pricess,Trahlyta.

The story revolves around some local springs believed to sustain youth where this princess was later buried. Later, Indians and then settlers customarily began to drop stones on her grave for good luck.  Well this grave just so happens to be in the middle of an weird intersection of two highways.  We unknowingly zoomed through this intersection on the way to our first park without registering where we were until we were 50 yards passed it. And without dropping a rock for good luck.  And you all know how I am bit superstitious and all.  We contemplated going back, but then just decided to keep on moving.

Our first park was Vogel State Park.  It was a beautiful park with a 22-acre lake, cottages, camping, and a nice guided hiking trail.  We found our first cache pretty quickly along this trail after a small detour.  This detour was a 13-mile back country trail we slipped onto, but thankfully we didn't go much more than 200 yards before backtracking.  Not necessarily bad luck, but not good either.

Our second park was Unicoi State Park where we were to hike about 1/2 mile to find our next cache. About 1/4 mile in we came to a Scooby-Doo-ish fork-in-the-road predicament with a "Trail Closed" sign laying on the ground and some trees with caution tape hanging down from them.  Hmm.  We decided to follow the compass and head down one of the paths.  It was a nice, wide path that ended up turning thick with grass and a dead end.  We did find this little guy where we turned around though.  That Ryan just wants to pet, pick up, and take home everything!

So we backtracked and headed down the original trail.  I'd remembered reading something in the description of the cache that we would end up in an open field and within about 10 minutes we were in just that. However, we never could get closer than about 200 meters, so we backtracked yet again to find another fork.  This time, we ended up in a much more secluded field and eventually found that cache after a little searching.  Definitely not good luck.

And what's worse is we were definitely going to miss the birds of prey talk now, so we just headed to Helen for the afternoon.  We had lunch on the river, took time to watch the tubers go down the river, and of course visited the magic shop so coveted by the Clarke kids.  I won't be revealing any tricks learned or purchases made on this blog just in case they decide to show you a little slight of hand in the future.  They've been practicing practically since I let them open the packages!

As we headed home, I noticed it was time for a celebration of appreciation for the most dependable thing on our trips so far - the Odyssey!  It rolled to 100,000 miles this afternoon as we drove home through the windy Georgia mountain roads.  We purchased this van when the girls were infants to, in my words, "support my active lifestyle".  Basically it was just easier for me to get 3 children under 3 out of the car without breaking my back and hurting any of them.  It's been a reliable part of our family ever since and I hope it continues for awhile to come.  I even patted the dashboard and said "Good job and thank you."  Ok, so that's good luck. 

Day 8

While exploring the trails around our cabin this morning, I stumbled onto the approach trail to the beginning of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.  I hiked just a little ways in to discover it was also part of the 5-mile trail to the Hike Inn - Georgia's only hike-in lodge built to green standards.  More to add to my bucket list...poor Dave.  Or poor Grammie.  

After some giant cinnamon rolls, we headed toward Dalohnega, GA to learn a bunch about gold.  On our way out the cabin door, Ryan spotted this cool guy hanging out and couldn't resist picking him up.

We stopped first at the Dahlonega Historic Gold Museum and learn about the Georgia history of gold mining.  We had to solve a bunch of questions to build the combination that would open the cache and we got our first historic cache card.

We hopped back into the car and headed to Babyland.  Ever since I decided to do this Georgia State Park tour, my grandfather (Papa) has been reminding me and Grammie that we must take the kids to the Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital.  Papa made us promise so we visited there today.  We even witnessed a cabbage patch baby birth which ended up being pretty humorous for moms who have experienced the whole hospital delivery.

Laney was in awe of all the babies!  She had such a difficult time deciding on just which one to adopt. Brayden and Ryan chose quickly at the end. We adopted 3 new babies: Aubrey, Theron, and Lionel.  They have enjoyed much play, cuddling, and nap time since their welcome into the Clarke family.

 Next up was some panning for gold!  After learning about the history, we decided to stop at the Consolidated Gold Mine for a mine tour and gold panning.  The kids had fun being underground and learning all about the tools and how underground mining was actually accomplished.

Brayden had a first and very reluctantly participated in part of the tour. He was supposed to wave his arms around to demonstrate the jobs 8-12 year olds had back during the gold mining days.  When asked if he would do something else, he shyly declined and the girl next to him agreed.  Fortunately for me, if Brayden had agreed, I would owe our tour guide $200, so he did good.

Some of the tools they used were on display and there was a 130-year-old mining drill that still worked near the end.




We even got to see this endangered little guy on the way out!

We were famished by the time we got home so we had a very large lunch at 4pm.  After playtime, finishing Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and working on Junior Ranger books and journals, we headed out to the park program for the night.  We were treated to s'mores as we sat around a campfire and heard a large variety of stories, mostly about Native Americans and the Appalachian Trail.  The extra special treat was a visit by a baby black bear looking for a snack from the lodge.  He was adorable and all of us would've taken him home in a second, but alas they had to scare him away so he would go find his own food the right way.

Day 7

After a refreshing trip around the fitness trail, we had a wonderful breakfast of fresh blackberries and yogurt. The blackberries were so delicious and got a thumbs up from everyone except Brayden.  

We got a super late start as all the kids slept in, especially Brayden.  We decided to head east to show Grammie Tallulah Gorge.  After a quick stop at a very busy visitors center where Ryan bought a bear, Brayden & Laney bought a bag of rocks, and Grammie and I received our first punch on our Canyon Climbers Club card.

Once we walked into the interpretive center, the kids remembered being there in December, especially finding all the animals in the wildlife display.  We filled up with as much water as possible and headed out. Laney had curvy road issues on the way, so she was especially slow at the beginning.  Once we began our descent to the bottom, she bounced right back though.  

Grammie didn't believe me when I told her how far it was, but she ended up doing all 1,000 steps down (you can see her and Ryan at the bottom below) and back again.  I'm sure she was thinking some not-so-kind words about me on the way back up, but thankfully kids were present so she just smiled through her exhales instead.

After watching the park movie and a quick shopping trip, we were on the road find lunch.  Using Urban Spoon I found a great little spot in the middle of a small town that had great beer and even better food - perfect!  After we waddled out to the car, we were on our way again, this time to Black Rock Mountain State Park.  I had to stop and take a picture of this after the epic fail of missing the 1/4 way around the world mark sign last year.

Anyway, this mountain's claim to fame is it's the highest mountain in Georgia.  And after the walk up, I believe it!  The kids did awesome and the views were spectacular!    

I have a new kid-friendly rating system to propose to the state parks, however.  I think they should rate them based on the possibility of injuries requiring band-aids.  This hike was pretty tough for kids and I would rate it at a 2 band-aid level.  Laney ended up receiving one on her hip and Grammie wanted but didn't get one on her wrist. 

With our late start we needed to head home shortly after finishing this hike, but we did take a moment to enjoy this view first.

The kids have been enjoying listening to Roald Dahl reading his books as we drive.  Yesterday we finished "James and the Giant Peach" and "The Magic Finger" and today we finished "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Fantastic Mr. Fox".  We have a bunch of books to mark off our reading list already!

Day 6

This morning started bright and early as all the kids were up and ready to get going almost as early as I was. We finished packing pretty quickly and said goodbye to our campground.  I was obviously a little too excited to get going as I just about drove off and left all our cooking gear and camp essentials sitting at our campsite. Thanks to eagle-eye Brayden we still have it all.

Ryan wasn't feeling too hot, so she got the sick girl treatment and a package of crackers for breakfast.  Our first stop was a nice, big farm to pick blackberries.  This farm has some of the most plump blackberries I'd ever seen in my life!  

I'd only planned to stay for about 20 minutes or so as my children absolutely love the idea of picking fruit until about 10 minutes in to actually picking it.  I told the stories of how we used to pick blackberries at the end of our subdivision when I was a kid and that Grammie used to make us special treats with the fruit.  I wonder if she told us the same thing when we would go pick them to keep us interested?  Hmmm.  

There was also a large field of blueberries, but I had an extra passenger on my back (sick Ryan) so I wasn't feeling like that would be enjoyable at all for mom.  We ended up with just under a pound of beautiful blackberries and Ryan added on a basket of yummy tomatoes.  

We drove by the barn to check out all the new baby animals before getting back on the road to Panola Mountain State Park.  The park was really beautiful and quiet, so after finding a quick cache we headed to the playground for a few minutes.  

Then two bus loads of summer camp kids swarmed the playground and my kids practically turned to stone watching them all.  I checked on Grammie's plane - 10 minutes early - so we jumped in the car to go pick her up.  The kids were bouncing in their chairs ready to see her!  They colored signs quietly as I navigated the spaghetti noodles that are the roads around Atlanta airport.

I asked the kids if they remembered what she looked like so we could be sure to find her - all they could tell me was that she had gray sorta-curly hair and she was tall.  I hope they never have to give information to a sketch artist!  

There were hugs and hugs as we found her and got on our way to the cabin up north.  We stopped by Trader Joe's (we NEED one of these in Pensacola) for a stock up grocery trip and a pizza place for a refuel for all of us, then headed to Amicalola State Falls Park.  The cabin is quaint and cozy with the perfect driveway for scooters!  The kids did "cool tricks" as they call them for a few minutes as Grammie washed car dishes and fruit. 

We walked the 425 steps down to the first overlook and were treated to this view below.  Beautiful!  Of course this picture in no way does the view justice, but for the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi, I'd say it is pretty amazing. 

Laney and Ryan saw more steps down so we left Grammie and Brayden for 125 more steps to a second view.

We had discussions about how cold the water might be and we found out thanks to Grammie and this small waterfall!

It was then time to walk back up all the stairs.  Everyone voted to go with Grammie the easy way back down to another parking lot instead of up the stairs to the car.  That is until I protested that I would have to do it myself, so Laney joined me.  We counted the last 100 steps and she declared it was easier than the hike up Stone Mountain!  On the way up, Laney and I devised a plan to get all the other back.  I called Grammie asking if I'd given her my car keys because I didn't have them.  By the sound of her voice as she was looking through her purse, she was already trying to figure out what to do...call AAA, walk back up and look for the keys, and then we pulled into the parking lot.  That'll show them.

We headed to the playground for a few minutes for at least five rounds of monkey bars for each child before getting eaten by mosquitoes.  Not a millisecond after getting in the car, the kids reminded Grammie of her promise to get ice cream so we stopped by the lodge restaurant for dessert before headed back to the cabin for some much needed showers and a chat with Dad.

Off to the West and possibly adopting 3 new babies tomorrow!