Fabian and the kids and I headed out for the long weekend. Seems like we NEVER do this...with family far away and trips to the north east requiring much more than a long weekend, we usually sit around wishing we had somewhere to go. Well this time we did! It wasn't exactly the original trip we were going for, but we ended up having a great time and it was great to get a change of scenery. We had quality together time, most of all.
I don't want to give away too much of where we are since I don't know who might be reading this blog, so here goes my coded summary.
We went to IHOP for breakfast Sat., which the kids LOVE-LOVE-LOVE. Fabian and I used to go there when it was just "us", so we're glad they're into it too. We hit the road a little after that and drove to a small-ish town (compared to where we live) 20 miles or so from the really small tourist town where we wanted to go but couldn't get a hotel room. Checked into our hotel room and found it was really quite nice with a decent pool/spa and continental breakfast each morning (it really rocked! As mentioned before, we all love breakfast food...)
We headed to the originally planned destination and visited a dinosaur themed attraction. There is a walking path with about 100 life sized dinosaur replicas to discover, and what made it even more fun is that there was a huge storm (not Gustov) which blew in while we were there. The electricity went out in the indoor areas so we sat outside under an awning while it poured down rain. Finally the rain let up enough for us to go on the paths, but there was still distant rumbling thunder and light sprinkles which only added to the adventure on the trail. The kids loved it. Then we headed back to our hotel and swam. Sunday we decided to stay close to our hotel instead of driving the 20 or so miles to a particular state park that we had planned to go to. Fabian took Andreas and Isabel to a state park closer by for some fishing, while Naomi and I swam some more. Andreas' fishing pole malfunctioned AND there was a close call with a fish hook (it landed in Isabel's NECK but fortunately her dramatic tendencies got her brother's attention before he cast his line...ugh, Fabian said I would have FREAKED OUT had I been there, it was a scarey few moments -- she was OK except for a tiny boo boo) plus they didn't catch anything :-). Oh well, at least they tried and everyone came back in one piece...barely...the kids just wanted to swim after they returned, so all five of us went back to the pool. After dinner we went to a town park and hung out for a few hours until dark. It was so nice to be away from the big city and play at a different park! They said it was the best playground ever.
Today (Mon.) we went to a wildlife center for a very cool experience. You pay (ALOT) to drive through -- it takes about 3 hours to see the whole thing-- and buy a bag of feed to give to the animals as you pass through. There were lots of endangered deer-related animals (bongos, for instance -- can't think of any other proper names), wildebeasts, zebras, and 7 giraffes -- one was a month old. The animals come right up to your car for food. We had a giraffe eating out of our hands-- it was sooooo cool! We let some of the long horned critters get a bit too close, I think we were supposed to throw the food out from the car a bit but we had these animals sticking their heads in!!! The zebras and ostrich were the most aggressive, we closed our windows most of the way when they were around. The zebras practically had our car surrounded! Naomi was on my lap (we were driving very slowly on private property) and I got a little worried a few times that she would get hurt as she's a bit impulsive and when the horned critters turned their heads with their sharp appendages the horns were a little too close for comfort.
All in all it was a good weekend and in spite of the close calls, no one was seriously hurt! I thank God for that.
Most of the people staying in our hotel were evacuees fleeing Gustav. We noticed almost everyone had a dog and not many people were swimming -- I guess when you're running from a hurricane you don't think about your swimming suit. Everyone we saw was gracious and in good spirits. Again, I thank God that the storm wasn't as bad as predicted but my heart does go out to those affected.
1 comment:
I am still waiting to hear how my mom and my dad are doing since they were part of the Louisiana area evacuated. Doesn't surprise me they would forget their bathing suits, but I never do in the summer. I usually keep one in the car just in case. I love, love, love to swim!
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