Magic and Mayhem

We had a wonderful day at a nearby state park with some homeschool friends yesterday!

We started out walking on a causeway to Loon Island (misnamed by the locals years ago when they thought the nesting cormorants were loons). Daryl dropped me and the kids off and went bird watching, since he has (as Jack puts it) “owie legs” and can’t walk far. He parked in a shady spot and bird watched, while we explored the island.

It was a beautiful day and the temperature was perfect, with a nice breeze off the lake. We passed a cool fish skeleton that Victoria had to get a picture of, too.

Once we got to the island, we stopped at the shore and looked for cool rocks and artifacts. I found a piece of an arrowhead. Mostly I chased Alex, who loved the sand and water. He ended up stripped naked because I couldn’t keep him out of the water! Anna found a neat leaf skeleton, and then found some for her friends.

Then we hiked the path through the island. My kids spotted a great climbing tree so we all had to wait a bit while that was tackled.

After another brief interruption where I went all the way back to the van to get comfortable shoes for Anna, we headed out again. Some highlights included the weird conjoined trees, the big indentation where the interpretive sign said a still was during prohibition and more trees to discover.

It turned out to be a very long hike when one has forgotten to bring either a stroller or a sling! We thought it was a much smaller island! Still, we found egg shells, learned lots and had a really nice time.

After we made it back from the island, we drove to some small lakes in the park and played. Daryl taught our friends how to use juggling sticks, the kids played T-ball and baseball, we explored the lakes and just sat and talked.

By the end of the day we were exhausted. It was a really nice day!