O-kee Visitor Center

Griffin found a great interactive game where he was the Park Ranger and had to make decisions about managing the park like putting out the forest fires, issuing canoe permits, and going up against a new development in the park. He loved it. The screen even looked like a Ranger's desk with a radio and clipboard. There were short news briefs to give him hints about what to do and why. I see a future for our boy! He also used some of his vacation money to buy this little stuffed fawn.

Ruby used some of her vacation money to buy this little bunny puppet. Too cute. I think that gator behind her wants to eat that bunny!

This gator was very friendly.

We found a small pond with a baby alligator. He must be used to people because he swam right over to us. Griffin took this photo below.

Exploring the Okefenokee

Our goal for this trip was to paddle with the gators. And that is what we did.

Ruby counted 26 and Griffin counted 32 gators in the swamp during our paddling trip.  

The gators were very lazy and shy. A few would swim in front of our boat then submerge themselves. Most just laid on the shore and tried to blend in. 

The landscape was incredible. It looked prehistoric. Many of the same plants as in the bog in the Adirondacks like pitcher plants and yellow water lilies.

That is a gator in our path.

The park is around 400,000 acres and over 350,000 of them burned during last summer's forest fire. It was cool to see the blackened trees among the bright green spring vegetation. 

This is the only other large animal we saw beside the gators. The turtles and otters keep a low profile during the spring when the gators become active. 

Fortunately the bugs were not bad. Apparently the highly acidic water in the swamp and canals keep the bugs away until the very hot summers. We did see a lot of dragon flies and butterflies and even a little green lizard. 

Spanish moss hanging everywhere. Not really moss though. It is a parasite. Kind of a bummer to learn that fact.

It was hot and sticky but the kids did well. They were not scared of the gators. The only alarming incident was a big spider in the canoe.

Bugs and snakes

We decided to go for a peaceful hike near our hotel in Waycross Georgia (part way between Hilton Head and Florida and just north of the Okefenokee Swamp). I enjoyed being out of the car and looked forward to seeing some wildlife. As you can see, the bugs were horrible. We actually broke into a run at times to out run them but that didn't really work. Poor Griffin ended up with welts on his neck. I guess they like our sweet northern blood!

To add to the adventure, we came across a 4 foot timber rattler snake in the trail. Ruby thought it was a long piece of poop. You can't really see from this photo how vicious he really was.  Luckily Jason spotted it just as it was coiling up and getting ready to strike us (not really but it was trying to scare us). Well, we couldn't go over him, couldn't go around him, couldn't go under him soooo we had to turn around and try to outrun the bugs back to our car. 

Peaceful....

Savannah, GA

We stopped in Savannah to visit Savannah Canoe & Kayak Shop and eat lunch. We found a great deli with a coffee shop next door located across the street from this beautiful park. We were pointing out the differences between the people in Savannah and NYC. A few examples were - people in Savannah move slow, not many have iPods, very few were wearing black, almost everyone said hello or started up a conversation.  One point against Savannah - our GPS does not work in Georgia!

Probably the sweetest photo of Ruby yet!

Critter hunting take 2

On our last night on Hilton Head we explored a different beach to look for more critters.
We found a small stream that flowed into the ocean and thought we might be more successful than the previous night.
Once low tide hit we set out on our bikes,this time we came with buckets, shovels and a net.

 Nothing was stopping this guy from finding something.

What we found were small crabs that dug holes in the mud flats.

If you sit still, they come out to eat.

We finally caught one. Ruby actually caught this one by digging up one of the holes.

It was fun to let him go and watch him scoot quickly into another hole.

Success!

Beach Day #2

Our second day at the beach was much less windy and much warmer. Fortunately there were still lots of big waves to play in. 

Ruby was braver than in the past but quickly decided that she wasn't up for the big dunk. 

Griffin, on the other hand, couldn't get enough.

Can you spot the bottom of his feet??

End of the day sand castle.

Sunset beach trip

Ruby found this little guy on our bike ride to the beach one evening. We think its an eastern cottontail. Ruby thinks he looked like a little fox the way he stood up straight. 

Our mission was to catch low tide and find some critters. We uncovered a few things like sand dollars and oyster holes - but no oysters.