I've been asked to include some pictures of our sites/views so here is one of the view behind right behind our tent and the ducks that came to join us for breakfast.
A night without rain and parties makes the morning so much more pleasant for everyone! We were able to eat and pack up pretty quickly once everyone got going. After a quick vote we headed to the Tell Us Science Museum. Brayden was surprisingly outvoted as usually Ryan will side with him on most any issue.
I was thinking this would be a pretty quick visit as I had assumed the museum to be pretty small. We drove up on a place that looked bigger than the NAS museum in Pensacola! When we walked in we saw a huge model of a dinosaur - it must have been 3 stories tall. Reminded me & Dave of Sue in Chicago!
There was an interesting hands on section for the kids they were excited to check out so we headed there first. This wasn't the normal hands on science play they were used to though. Ever single activity taught them something about light, energy, or weather. They were racing through the exhibits practically dragging Dave and I away from each section - we were busy learning too!
The dinosaur exhibit was very interesting as well - so many dinosaurs we'd never heard of. The kids couldn't believe just how large some of the turtle-like and fish-like models were. The teeth and bones on some of the land dinosaurs were bigger than the kids!
Next we walked on to a transportation and train exhibit. The kids enjoyed looking at the 100-year old cars and we talked about how Nana may have used a car similar to those when she was little. We always enjoy studying the train exhibits too for all the minor details they show.
Hidden away in a back hall we found a gem and fossil exhibit the kids loved. We'd done panning and searching for fossils before so they were ready to get to work. They got to keep a bag of gems and one fossil of their choice. I think they could have spent an hour at this part of the museum!
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Last we visited the mineral exhibit. The kids zoomed through this one just looking at the sparkles and shiny objects while I had flashbacks of Chemistry class. They had a really cool display of the periodic table with real life examples of each element - something to remember to do when we get to chemistry one day.
Dave treated everyone to ice cream and we headed outside to say our goodbyes. Brayden was already figuring out how many days until we met back up on the other side of Georgia. We grabbed some quick photos on the beautiful property outside and headed to Walmart for a stock up trip as we'd be in the middle of the woods for a few days. It was quite a drive with a wonky gps, but we crossed the borders and got there.
Got our Georgia picture too - kinda cheating, but we did walk back across the state line!
The back country drives are my favorite - full of farms and forests. So many houses that look like they've been there for 50 years with beautiful gardens in their (gasp!) front yards. We even stopped for some produce at one home - delicious! Our plans were to stop by a u-pick place or 2 on this drive, but with such a late start I was nervous about getting to the park too late. After driving through the spectacular views of Nantahala National Park, we entered the Smokies for a few days. We were headed to Elkmont - right in the heart of the park. And just look what greeted us within a mile of entering the park!
I of course wanted a shot of the better side of him, but with all the cars backed up I had to take what I could get. Definitely on the list for our next visit.
We bought some firewood and headed to our campsite to set up the tent just before a downpour so we were able to jump inside to wait it out. Luckily right when the rain started I had time to grab a snack and our Peppermints in the Parlor book so we were entertained for a little while. When the rain let up we hopped outside and set up the screen tent over the picnic table. We took a trip to the bathroom and were greeted by our campsite neighbor - also from Pensacola!
As I was opening the car door to haul out cooking supplies and stove, another downpour started so I gave up and grabbed whatever I could and hopped back into the tent. By this time it was nearing dusk so we read and had a dinner of Clif Kids Bars, Kettle potato chips, and oatmeal cookies. Dinner of camping champions!
Day 3 - Goodbyes and Hellos (to rain again)
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