We decided to take a little family vacation and stay at a state park in cabins for a few days last week. I went with my family lots of times as a kid. Some things were exactly the same and some have been updated. We stayed in camper cabins so air conditioning but no bathroom or kitchenette. There was a bath house across the yard (and up a steep hill, but everything there is on an incline). I totally knew there was no bathroom or kitchenette but my brain did not put together that also meant no sink at all so we had to improvise on water a little.
We climbed the tower twice on the first day. Once when we got there and once to watch the sunset.
We had fun around the cabin especially with campfires. Those are smore cones! Philip and Nicholas befriended a park worker who we kept seeing around the park. His name was Logan and they must have had an extended conversation at the swing set the first day we were there. It turned out to be great because we locked our cabin key inside during lunch the following day. After Jeremy and Samuel set out on their bikes to go to the office, who shows up to do some work around our cabin but Logan. Nicholas pipes up to tell him, "We are locked out of our cabin!" "Yep," Philip agreed, "our key has gone missing!" (It hadn't, it was inside.) "Oh," said Logan the friendly park worker, "I can let you in if you want." Um, yes. I do want! So he let us in and I drove to find Jeremy and Samuel before they came all the way back with the office key. Philip friendliness pays off! And even my not-so-friendly Nicholas was in on it!
On Wednesday we did some paddle boating. Always a hit. They do still have some of the paddle boats that I remember paddling in as a child but we chose shiny new ones. :)
We fed the fish and ducks while we were at the marina. We found a few hungry catfish in the shade. Research project: Do catfish have bad eyesight? It took them a few tries to get the food we were throwing!
The park has done lots work on the creek that feeds the paddle boat lake. There are about four small ponds going down an incline that lead to the lake. The kids had lots of fun seeing if their stick boats could make it down the rocks to the next pond.
A trip to the craft hut. I don't remember this being outdoors. Each kid painted a ceramic which they will enter in open class at the fair. I probably have a state park ceramic somewhere in my childhood things....
We hiked and made it to the falls! I remember always seeing the sign that said "Falls" with an arrow but I never remember making it
all the way to the falls. To my ten year old legs it was way too far. Also, it was the 80s. We were allowed to hike without the adults and I was a scardy cat which may have contributed to us never making it to the falls.
We headed to a nearby trail head and biked on a really nice path. Even Nicholas could bike it even though it's crushed rock. He biked like a champ and kept up with us really well. We made it to the bridge across the river where we encountered this closed sign. Which we then ignored. It looked like they'd done some cement work on the other side and hadn't taken down the barrier yet although the cement was dry.
We ran into my Aunt Carol and Uncle Larry who were also staying at the park and celebrating their 35th anniversary. We joined them and their grandkids for smores and margaritas after our bike ride which was fun. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins.
The next day we went to the safari park and had fun seeing the animals there. It's much more elaborate than I imagined.
When we got back from the safari Nicholas crashed. He hadn't been feeling great all day and needed a nap. Jeremy took the big kids swimming and Nick and I stayed in the air conditioning. When Nick woke up he still didn't feel great but was sad he'd missed swimming. We decided the cool pool would do him good so I took him swimming and the big kids went to the shooting range. Samuel and Thomas shot rifles (I think) and Julia and Philip did archery and sling shots.
After dinner Nicholas said he thought he might throw up so he and I packed up and headed home a night early. He never did throw up but it took him all of Friday to really recover from whatever he had. Not sure if it was a bug or heat exhaustion.
Jeremy and the kids stayed he night as planned, had a campfire, took another bike ride, stopped by the nature center where Philip held this baby fox snake which he has told me about multiple times, packed up, stopped at a steakhouse out in the country for lunch and headed home.
The closest we got to a family picture:
It was fun but next time we're going to try to get our act together early enough to get "modern" cabins! (Those have plumbing!) And maybe order some weather below 90 degrees!
