My husband surprised us with a mountain cabin weekend! We had a WONDERFUL time, and I would recommend this trip to anyone with kids! Leave me a comment if you want info on where we stayed, and websites for the sites we visited, and I’ll send them to you! I’ll also leave some info at the bottom of this post…
First, we visited the Wild Animal Safari-
This towel for sale behind the ticket counter scared me a bit…
They sell cups of animal feed in here too. You’ll see why later.
The girls were excited!!
We rented one of their vehicles to ride through the park. It was scary. Here are the kids yelling, “HUNK OF JUNK!!!” instead of “cheese” for a picture…
The animals are very insistent when you drive through the gates! They sprint up to your car and poke their heads in, waiting for food!
Another view of some of the animals…
A hopeful moose…
Check out this dude’s horns!
Up close and personal with a llama…
This guy was HUUUUUUGE!
… and intimidating!
Check this guy out…
He came to check my husband out…
And to lick the window bars. Mmmmm…. Steer spit.
A SCOTTISH COW!!! I love these things!!
Yikes!!! Here come the buffalo!!!
… Yep, they wanted some pellets too… I think we were already out by this time!
A pretty white horse that Courtney loved…
And a donkey that Dan played with (it turned it’s head each time he did)…
And these baby piggies made my day. It was everything I could do to not snag one and bring it home. How cute are they?!?!?
Next we visited the “walk about” part… Old McDonalds Farm
This peacock hated me. I just wanted a picture! Isn’t he pretty??
Avery and Ashi gossiped at the fence with a llama-
A super-cute bear!
We loved the safari!!
Next we stopped at a nearby grocery to stock up the cabin refrigerator. I saw this in the parking lot… I guess this is one way to sell a car…
We stopped at some look-out spots on the way to the cabin. Avery is always picking flowers for me- so sweet!
We finally arrived at the cabin! Here are some pics-
The girls loved the porch swings!
One of the bedrooms had these cool shudders that opened to look over the kitchen and den area. They loved using it as a fort.
This is the backyard. It was pure, un-messed around with, God’s country! Beautiful.
My kids romping through the woods…
Enjoying my coffee, and taking in the scenery!
My man and my princess.
Me and my sweet Courtney-
So, Dan started to grill out (out back) for dinner. I guess the aroma of the meat attracted this guy. It’s very hard to see his size in this picture, but just to give you an idea, he was bigger than my black lab. In this picture, he almost looks like a house cat! But, closer up, you realize he is a Lynx (click the word or the picture for a state-provided picture). I read that some have tails and some don’t. Hmmm.
Our cabin’s air conditioning was apparently on vacation too, so they moved us to another cabin. The back yard wasn’t nearly as cool, but that was OK. We were planning to hike the next day, so we’d soak up lots of nature then!
Alex found this cool butterfly on the front porch…
Here, you can see the size:
Next, we went to FDR State Park. The kids loved the view of the mountains, and the abundance of CLOVERS!
Avery and Courtney with the statue of the CCC worker-
Next, we were off to Warm Springs for a walk through the fun little town, and a YUMMY buffet lunch!
There were yummy smelling flowers and Magnolias everywhere!
There was a little town square that had very odd statues and pieces of art in it- Dan described it as a “garage sale gone bad.” ha!
My boy’s too big- he’s over 5 feet tall at 11 years!!!
I think if I had this coffee pot, I’d be golden for the day…
A couple of cute views from the town…
I love this sign we saw in a flower shop-
My crew
Cute little outhouse
I wanted to go in here, but I had sensory overload when I stood in front of it, so I couldn’t…
…everyone needs one of these, right??
I have no idea where the sidewalk was leading- it just ends abruptly in a field, but I love this picture!
FDR’s little white house- we didn’t go in, but here’s the drive-by picture!
Gorgeous views in this area!
Dan and I, getting ready to take the kids on what we THOUGHT was a 1.7 mile hike!
Sweet Avery
We were hiking Dowdell’s Knob. This was apparently FDR’s favorite hike.
Here we go!
Ashi and Avery managed to hitch a piggy back or shoulder ride the entire time! Now, hiking is a good exercise anyway, but it’s a REALLY good exercise when you’ve got a kid on your shoulders or back the whole way!
Alex spotted frogs and lizards the whole way!!
Isn’t this one cute?
I love this picture, and wish it wasn’t blurry!!
These two hiked together to whole time!
Dan had a plant guide, and he told us about different things that were marked along the trail.
Avery loves flowers!!
She also loved hitching a ride!! My favorite comment to me was, “Mom you’re sweaty, and that attracts sweat bees. What if one stings me now???” Never mind, “thanks for the ride!!!” :)
Alex saw this frog- I have no idea how, because it’s even hard for me to see in the picture!!
Ashi on Daddy
Another lizard Alex found…
The stream was gorgeous!
At this point, we realized that we should have gone back and retraced our steps (we had already gone 1.7 miles), because if we continued on this circular path, the hike was closer to a 5 mile trip.
By the time we got back to the car, we had hiked over 4 miles!!!! I was impressed! The kids really did not complain!!!
What a pretty hike it was, too!
These are some of my favorite signs from our cabin!
You can click on them to enlarge them…
A little ice cream on the front porch swing finished off our trip.
We had SUCH a great time!!!
Here are the links to the places we visited:
http://www.mountaintopinnga.com/
http://www.gastateparks.org/info/fdr/
… and if you go, DEFINITELY eat the lunch buffet at Bulloch House Restaurant & Gift Shop in Warm Springs!!!
1 comments:
LOVE your short hair! I am dying to take my kids to the animal safari place. So, you think it is worth it?
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