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.