We started the morning a little different. I'd packed up everything possible excluding the tent the night before and had breakfast-to-go ready in the cooler. It was always easier to have a non-cooked or eat-out breakfast the morning we leave campgrounds as it would always take at least an extra hour to cook, eat, and clean up even the simplest thing.
Within a half hour from the kids waking up, we were leaving our spot and headed down to the lake for breakfast. There we had our bagels and bananas and talked as we swung in the swing admiring the view. We wondered where the alligator was. We watched the fisherman up early to find the day's catch. We admired this guy as he landed in Laney's hair. Ryan, the animal-whisperer just had to hold him.
This is the coveted log-rolling contraption at the playground. Ever since having multiple kids I've been adamant about only purchasing one of a toy to encourage sharing, but this one I would definitely have to have 3 of.
After some time on the playground in the cooler morning air, we set off for a park I thought all the kids would enjoy, General Coffee State Park. Not only would this be our 15th cache find (redeemable for a bronze coin for each of them), there was a heritage farm, several playgrounds, and a swamp to hike through. We stopped first at the visitors center to grab a trail map and look over the items for sale as we are getting close to the end of the trip and the money Dave has given the kids is burning a hole in their pockets. The park ranger there asked me if we liked cereal. I'm completely sure this guy had no idea he was talking to the cereal consumer who at one point in time had 17 boxes of cereal in the pantry. Of course since we've been trying to eliminate a lot of processed foods we rarely buy cereal anymore, but I answered yes and the kids' ears perked up. He pointed to the side of the store and told us to grab a box as he had 150 cases of grape nuts to give away. Hmmm....sounds like trail food to me!
The cache we were going for this time was a multi-stage hunt that took us awhile to get going. Once on the trail we found it pretty quickly. This one was definitely uniquely hidden!
See it way up there?!
That is quite possibly the largest magnolia tree I've seen. It was beautiful hidden away in the middle of the forest. Ryan kept count of all the wildlife we saw - 1 lizard, 2 butterflies, 8 spiders (these guys were as big as my hand with giant webs), 1 egret, and 8 frogs. On our way back to the car a quick, but soaking downpour started. We made it back to the car drenched, but quick and cooled off.
We stopped by the heritage farm on the way out and saw all these guys.
This pig followed us out to the parking lot! While I've called Ryan the animal whisperer, she is definitely not a pig-whisperer. She was underfoot the entire time he was behind us!
We opted for ice creams on the way out and hit the road to where we'd be staying. It was a nice, backroad drive most of the way and we began our next audiobook, "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew". This is an oldie so there is a lot of explaining to do during the reading, but we've read Little House before so they're familiar with some of the language and times.
We rolled into the park just at check in time and who did we find checking in, none other than Papa himself! It was perfect timing for us to find camping spots together. Brayden was excited to see all the tanks and planes on display next to the visitor's center - something we'll do in a cooler part of one of the days we're here. The kids submitted their Junior Ranger books for a patch and nice pin. The ranger told them they could keep going on to the next level if they wanted to get another pin. I'm not sure we'll get to that before we leave, but with that motivation you never know!
After setting up, we had a quick dinner and headed to find the swimming beach while they made a trip to Walmart. Still not like our beach, but in this hot weather with all the persistent gnats, it will definitely do.
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