Trey had a blast on the playground, then we had a little picnic. The park’s not-so-wild-life was very interested in our little lunch. Trey was particularly fascinated by a very brave squirrel who was dead set on getting some crackers from us.

After a short picnic together we toured the grounds to see the animals. Highlights for the kids on this visit were seeing an ostrich care for her giant egg and petting a deer. Allister was really interested in seeing the buffalo and Trey was quite concerned that there were ducks in the buffalo’s stream.

The park is basically just a small playground but that is all a 3-year-old needs. We ran around and played and I got to experiment a bit more with my off-camera flash tricks.

Trey really enjoyed watching the parade – the highlight of the parade were our sister cities’ floats – Ulyanovsk, Russia and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Our visit to the fairgrounds was a bit of a disappointment because they were no longer selling the Unlimited Rides passes. The money we had “budgeted” for Trey to enjoy got him about 7 rides instead of the infinite number we had hoped for. Nonetheless, we spread the rides out and he enjoyed them just as much.

The fort was a British colonial fort meant to solidify their alliance with the Cherokee Nation during the French and Indian War. In the end, the Cherokee were fed up with betrayal after betrayal and finally ran the Brits off and destroyed the fort.

It was a cold, windy day when Trey and I went and we were the only visitors there. Trey was a big fan of the replica canons around the fort and had a good time exploring all the buildings. We also watched a 15-minute documentary about the history of the fort and it was interesting enough to even keep Trey’s attention!

You can see some more photos from our visit on my website.

Later in the afternoon I had to attend a reception at City Hall so Trey stayed at Causey’s house. Causey’s dad Adam took them to another nearby park to watch the annual Cherry Blossom lawnmower race. Only in Georgia!

Performing on this fine day was The Ralph Roddenbery Band. Ralph is a local singer/songwriter whose music is a mix of country, rock, blues, and Americana. Trey danced a bit to the music but was most interested in running around and playing in the little streams and ponds throughout Washington Park.

Special thanks to Marike Carrier for sharing the photo to the right!

Turns out that Scherer Plant is the United States’ largest single point-source for carbon-dioxide emissions (a mere 25.3 million tons per year to be exact). In fact, in 2007 it was ranked 20th highest CO2 emitter in the world (out of 50,000 power plants worldwide)! Their ash ponds have also been of some concern after the disaster in East TN last year. I’ve been here in Macon for almost 18 months and no one told me that polluting, monstrosity was in my backyard.

Now I’m not one to dive into the whole global warming debate, but I do know that that much carbon-dioxide being emitted in one place can’t be good. Trey’s take on it was “I don’t like it. It puts smoke up and down and it hurts my eyes!” I agree, it is a bit of an eye sore in the middle of Lake Juliette.

After getting directions from GA Power’s friendly security guards we head to the south side of the lake and found a muddy road leading into the woods. The area doesn’t have any hiking trails and I couldn’t find a good map online anywhere (remember I said mysterious) so we just followed an old road into the woods to the lakeside. Trey had a blast playing with his toy digger/bulldozer on all the rocks covered in moss. He also continued to exercise his tree climbing talents (he’s getting good enough to keep his mother very concerned). We actually spent about 2 hours just hanging out in the woods before heading home. Fun times!

We followed one of its main trails onto boardwalks that led into mangroves in Tampa Bay. It was a beautiful day and Trey was excited to see some kayakers making their way through the salt water swamps.

Trey was even more excited when we met Heidi at the airport. He hadn’t seen her in two weeks and let out quite a squeal of joy!

Today was our first time to attend and we had a blast. The weather was still warm and Trey loved playing in the water. Performing were local artists Molly Stevens and Shane Bridges.

After some play time at my parents’ house this morning, we drove down the road to Echo Lake Park for a picnic lunch with my mom and brother Philip. After some fun on the playground we had lunch and then Trey and I walked the 3/4 mile trail around the lake.

My brother Philip suffers from a disability that requires him to wear braces when he walks and he has to use a wheelchair when it comes to longer distances. It was neat to see the braces Roosevelt wore in his day (the best of the best at that time) and compare them to those Philip had on today. Medical science has made leaps and bounds in the last 70 years and Philip is much more comfortable thanks to that! In fact, even his wheel chair is 100x better than those Roosevelt used – who’d have thought you could improve so much on the simple concept of “wheel+chair” so much.

Labor Day is the only time of year when the pools that Roosevelt used during his time at Warm Springs are filled. The last time we visited the pools were empty, but today they had crystal clear, warm, spring water in them. Both Trey and Philip were very tempted to get in!

One advantage of having a Friends of Georgia State Parks membership is that you and 6 others get into any historic site for free. Today we saved $32 – that’s almost half of the cost of the annual membership! Don’t you want one?

The mound is located just north of Eatonton, GA and we drove up there as my parents were driving down to visit us from Virginia. We ended up arriving at the UGA 4-H Center right as my parents pulled in – perfect timing.

We walked up to the tower at the base of the effigy to get a better look. The eagle is so huge that from the ground it really looks like a shapeless pile of rocks. It’s only when you get up high that you can see the impressive figure. Making it even more impressive is when you realize it was built 1000-3000 years ago by men & women dragging these thousands of rocks in from miles away on deer skins.

A few weeks ago we drove there and saw a sign that said “Closed for Logging.” This week we went back and found our favorite forest had been destroyed. They didn’t cut all the trees down but it still looks really bare.

As sad as we are to see the trees gone, this is a case of good tree cutting. These trees were planted for the express purpose of being logged once they were mature. By logging this tree farm, one of Georgia’s natural forests gets to stand. I believe video artist Jym Davis’ short film “Sarah in the Woods” best describes our feelings.

Watch in HD on Vimeo.com

Hugo and Trey had a blast in the water and the adults spent a lot of time stacking rocks (like we’ve done there before). Before leaving we hiked up to the lookout point to get a great view of the river bend as the sun started to go down.

Joslins were no exception so we drove on over one morning to visit the site. Unfortunately, the museum in the visitor’s center was under renovations so we didn’t get to go in there. However, the boys had a great time running from mound to mound. It was a great energy burner – something those two boys needed.

The alligators were a big hit with Zack McBride and Trey really liked a hog we spotted wandering around. The pig was oblivious to our presence as it munched away at the green grass. Trey thought it was hilarious that the hog was eating grass and spent some time imitating it. I managed to get a fun shot of Zack in a herd of resting alpacas, but Trey was too scared to get in the midst of them (to his credit they are all pretty filthy and intimidating).

About 3/4ths of the way through the big park the kids started to get tired and grumpy. It is nice that Noah’s Ark doesn’t cost you a fortune like a visit to the zoo because you can end your visit prematurely and not have any regrets.

The biggest surprise was Becky Kelley, director of Georgia’s State Parks, showed up with her husband and a family that visited 30 parks in 30 days last year. She presented me with some State Park swag and made me an official volunteer.

It was a fun time of hanging out with friends and enjoying the park’s facilities. Some folks explored the falls to take photos, the kids all enjoyed the playground, and a few others went hiking down along the water. At the end of the day we were all exhausted and had way too much leftover food to take home.

For kicks you can do a sort of “Where’s Waldo Trey” and look for his little head in some of the giant images.

Click the image above to launch a new browser window with an interactive image viewer that will let you pan across the photos by moving your mouse left & right.

Mistletoe is located on a peninsula extending into the massive Clarks Hill Lake and has a great beach area that Trey really enjoyed. The park was packed since it was the 4th of July and one nice lady let Trey borrow a float.

After swimming for a while we headed over to a nature trail that follows a small canyon created by wash-off from poor farming practices in the early 1900s (like Providence Canyon). After the hike we treated our sweaty boy to a bucket of ice cream from the visitor center. He deserved it after trekking all over our great state!

The Georgia State Park named after him sits on the 2nd largest man-made lake east of the Mississippi – Lake Clarks Hill, which is known as Lake Strom Thurmond every where but Georgia. Apparently in 1987, a South Carolina representative had a bill passed in Congress to rename Lake Clarks Hill after their long-serving Senator Thurmond. Georgians were quite upset (and rightfully so) but failed to pass a bill renaming back to Clarks Hill at the federal level. Instead, in 1989, the State of Georgia legislature named the dam and reservoir Clarks Hill again but their authority only extends to all Georgia state maps.

At the park, they have a great recreated log cabin museum of his frontier home from the 1780s. We visited on the 4th of July and there was a volunteer re-enactor present. She gave us a tour of the cabin and gave Trey a little wooden gun to play with. I must say, that thanks to Georgia’s State Parks my son now has gun fever. “Kaboom! Kaboom!” was all we heard for the rest of the trip.

After touring the cabins, we hiked a 3/4 mile nature trail through the woods and saw some incredible spider webs (of course Trey “kaboomed” them all). At the end of the hike, just before getting back in the car I found a very impressive rhino beetle. Normally, Trey loves holding bugs but this critter’s horns and size were a bit too much and he opted to let Daddy do all the bug handling.

After hiking we cooled off in the lake and Trey had  a great time watching other families bring their boats & jet skis in and out of the water at the boat ramp (I really think he wanted to ride on one of those jet skis).

I spent a ridiculous amount of time photographing a spider that had a web on a reed in the water 20 feet from shore (how did he get out there?!). I’m very thankful for a patient and understanding wife who lets me obsess over things like that. I think it was worth it because I got a cool set of images from it.

This park has been another victim of our current economic crisis. Like Hart State Park, it was recently changed to a State Outdoor Recreation Area. I hope that in a couple years, the park service is able to re-open these parks.

The bridge is Georgia’s longest covered bridge and was built in 1885 by the son of a freed slave. It is remarkable to see that a bridge built so long ago using wooden pins still holds up under the modern day vehicles that drive over it.

The park boasts of several miles worth of trails, but once Trey saw that we could go on the rocks and enjoy the water any thoughts of hiking were over. After walking across the bridge and exploring the river’s banks for a while, I had to give in and let Trey swim. We didn’t have our river shoes so we had to be extra careful on the slippery rocks. I took Trey up to the waterfall under the bridge but he was not a fan of the spray. Don’t know what his issue is with that – for the same reason we can never give him showers, only baths.

Click the image below to open a panoramic image in a new window:

This state park’s main attraction is its 18-hole championship golf course, but you can guess that wasn’t what Trey and I were particularly interested in. We spent all of our time on a playground near the banks of the lake and had a picnic lunch on the shore.

The park boasts that it has one of the oldest steel pin bridges in the area but when we went to see it, the trail leading to it was closed.  Just as well I guess since Trey was already pretty exhausted from climbing on the playground and running around on the beach.

Trey and I hiked down a nature trail to Lake Hartwell and then followed the shoreline a bit. It was a blistering hot day and Trey really wanted to swim, so I stripped him down to his undies and let him splash around. The red clay under the water was a neat contrast to the bright blue skies above.

Trey and I camped at Tugaloo in one of the “primitive” campsites. I still don’t understand why our secluded campsite right on the lake had running water, an outhouse, and only cost $12. Had we camped at a normal campsite we would have been packed into area with dozens of other campers and paid $22. The only extra amenity would have been electricity.

Trey really enjoyed roasting marshmallows before going to bed and in the morning we got up and headed down to the lake. We walked a short nature trails before hopping in the car and headed south to Hart State Park.

Watch this video in HD at Vimeo.

We purchased a new annual pass and this time got a family membership. The family membership includes two tickets for a train on the SAM Shortline – a treat Trey will really enjoy.

I’m really proud of Trey for being such a fun companion and I’m glad Heidi got to join us on a lot of the excursions. When Trey grows up he is going to have a great photo album to remind him of the adventures we had.

I’m a bit behind on posting photos from our park visits, so over the next week I’ll be putting up the last six.

I was reminded how the littlest things can leave the biggest impression on kids. With all the amenities this park has to offer, Trey was most impressed by a portion of the road where the creek flows over it. It blew his mind that we got to drive the car through the creek. Ah, the simple pleasures of life!

The fort was built way back in the early 1700s at the southern most point of the British Empire. The soldiers were defending the Altamaha River from the Spanish and their Indian allies. After the Revolutionary war, the fort was dismantled and replaced by saw mills as the nearby town of Darien became an important exporter of lumber.

While we were there the park ranger spotted two manatees in the river by the fort but we were too late and missed them. I tried explaining to Trey what a manatee was without having any visual references and it didn’t go to well. Referring to them as “Sea cows” only confused him more as he kept looking around and saying “Daddy, I don’t see any cows.”

We didn’t spend too much time at this site as we had to drive to Fort King George and then on to Tampa. The nature trails led us from the tabby ruins to other restored structures that showed what colonial life was like in the early 1700s (hint, not good). Given the heat, humidity, and bugs we experienced in the two hours we were there, I don’t think it would have been that pleasant to live there.

After the tent was up we walked a nature trail that went through some woods to the banks of the Ogeechee River and its marshes. I neglected to put on our 100% deet bug spray and we were slaughtered by biting flies and mosquitoes.

In the morning, before heading out we swung by the fort and where they let Trey borrow a wooden rifle to patrol the grounds with. What a brilliant idea! He had a blast pointing it and shouting “Kaboom!” – it kept him so preoccupied that I didn’t have to worry about him messing with the historical ruins and artifacts.

This historic site is an earthwork fortification, meaning that there weren’t above ground buildings but instead mounds and trenches. It is one of the best preserved forts we’ve visited in Georgia. Several of the underground barracks and storerooms are restored and you can go inside of them to see exactly how the Confederate soldiers lived while defending it during the Civil War.

Once again – kudos to the staff at Fort McAllister for coming up with the idea of giving kids the toy rifles!

One of my few complaints about Georgia’s park system is its camping reservation system. Camping in a tent costs $22 – about the same as in an RV (a few parks do offer a couple walk-in sites at $16 with no reservations available). To reserve a camping site you have to use their online system and it charges a “convenience” fee and requires a minimum 2 night stay. So for me to reserve a spot for us to camp for one night it would cost over $45 (and be for 2 nights). We had originally planned to camp at the park but Friday nights fill up quick and our lack of reservations forced us to camp in a nearby Days Inn. I suppose it was worth it because in the end, the motel cost us less than the tent reservation would have.

Trey and I enjoyed the amazing vistas on the eastern rim and then hiked down to the first waterfall that cuts through the mountain. It was a very strenuous hike and I was impressed with Trey who made the whole hike on his own.

We had hoped to camp at James Floyd, but when we arrived the campground was already full (it hadn’t realized how busy the campgrounds are on Friday nights). Instead we walked around the lake and played on the playground before continuing north where we got a cheap motel room for the night.

You may notice in some of our recent photos of Trey that he has a red stripe on his chin. He recently fell while running in our driveway and got a perfect vertical scratch up his chin. It is so perfectly straight and centered that it looks fake – as if we drew it on there.

With that in mind, going to John Tanner State Park on a cloudy day is a bit of a bummer. Nonetheless, it just threatened to rain and never actually did so we still had fun in the water. My photos aren’t the greatest because of their stormy nature, but all that really matters is that Trey had a blast in the water.

Throughout his presidency during the Great Depression and World War II, FDR visited his cottage in Warm Springs to relax and hang out with “ordinary folks”. His interactions and friendships with the poorest of rural Georgians are what inspired many of his New Deal programs. If you are planning a visit to Little White House or just interested in FDR and Warm Springs, I highly recommend the movie “Warm Springs” starring Kenneth Branagh. This historically accurate biopic was filmed on location in Warm Springs and came out in 2005.

The museum had tons of FDR memorabilia and gifts that he was given during his presidency. People handcrafted for him everything from plates, to quilts, to canes (lots of canes!) with his name and/or likeness on them. We got to see the innovative, custom-built cars that allowed the president to drive using just his hands. One item that stood out to me was a small pocket Bible issued to all soldiers in WWII that had a foreword by FDR. Here’s a quote you won’t here from any 21st century presidents:

“As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration.”

After touring the museum and cottage, we drove over to the pool where he used to swim in the warm spring water. It is currently empty, but they do fill it once a year and open it to the public (apparently you have to make reservations due to the turnout).

We stopped by on the way back from Helen, GA and were disappointed to find all the trails (yes, all 18 miles of trails) were closed due to the excessive rain. The only trail we were allowed to walk was the still-under-construction, paved, ADA approved path. We walked the short trail to and observation deck that looks out over the lake and Trey got to see some turtles and a snake. After some fun on the playground, we headed over to the old fort (which is just a little cabin) before heading home.

We didn’t visit Helen for its Bavarian facades (pun!) but for Unicoi State Park which is just outside of town. We let Trey get some playground time and then we did the 2.5 mile hike around Unicoi Lake and its dam. It was a cool 60 degrees out and perfect for for a long walk.

Our visit was on a rainy day that kept us damp but not drenched. Our friend Jym Davis drove over from his home in Canton to hike some trails with us. We hiked up to the falls first then headed on a much less traveled wetlands trail.

That trail led us to an amazing part of the forest in which the ground was covered with bright green ferns. We spent a lot of time taking photos of and in the ferns. It wasn’t until the end of our hike that we saw a sign telling us the area was restricted. Oops! They need to label both ends of the trail!

The museum is located in the center of Dahlonega in the oldest courthouse in the US. In fact, the courthouse’s brick walls were made from mud in nearby creeks and you can still see specks of gold in the brick. We arrived in town and found out it was the annual Fine Art’s Festival so we also got to see lots of artists’ work on display.

After watching the best mini-documentary I’ve seen at a state historic site (projected on big theater screen as well!) we toured the displays of old mining tools and photographs from the the mid 1800s. Trey was most interested in the water canon which was used to wash away tons of dirt to expose veins of gold in the mountain sides (apparently this was one of the worst ways of mining for the environment). He is into fire trucks and things that shoot right now so that was a perfect blend of the two for him.

Trey would have spent all day at the putt-putt course but we walked the mile-long nature trail that loops around the lake. Highlights for Trey were the “gooses” and their babies and the man who had caught two trout.

This small park is located in the town of Reidsville and has a swimming pool (was closed), a 9-hole golf course (not even 18? come on!), a playground, no history behind it, no landmarks, and not even a nature trail. Shouldn’t this be a city park? Definitely not up to state park caliber.

We picnicked on the playground then walked over to the lake and checked out the lily pads. Then we drove home.

**UPDATE** I take back my golf course comment. Apparently, they just expanded it to 18 holes. Couldn’t they have at least added a nature trail? Take a machete, hack a path through the woods, put up a sign, and TADA! – a nature trail.

Magnolia Springs was the site of Fort Lawton, the Confederacy’s largest POW camp, which held upwards of 10,000 prisoners during the Civil War. The spring itself has crystal clear water and tons of underwater plant life which in turn hides turtles and alligators.

After we set up our camp site we walked a trail that passed through the Fort Lawton remnants and then up the stream to the spring. In the morning after packing up we visited to the “aquarium” and were pretty disappointed by it. There was a massive school group there and the ranger was giving a presentation about alligators. He let everyone pet a baby gator and Trey was more nervous about it this time (he did that at Crooked River State Park too). I think it was because I kept reminding him not to get to close to the spring because there were alligators in the water that could bite him – I was really hammering that point in on this trip.

We skipped the park museum (there was a $4/person fee and I’m never too impressed by the collections of Indian artifacts – nor is Trey) and headed straight to the nature trail leading to the great temple mound. The park has a total of 7 mounds but most of them just look like bumps in the ground (one we couldn’t even find). These mounds are supposedly the oldest ones in Georgia and date as far back as 250AD.

As usual, Trey got a kick out of climbing the “mountain” and the view from the top was pretty neat.

The park is located around a cove of the huge Seminole Lake and is a popular destination for campers who enjoy fishing. It had a couple playgrounds, a single 2.2-mile nature trail, and some beach areas for swimming in the lake (though there are signs all over warning of alligators).

We stayed long enough to play on the playground and hike about half of the nature trail. Apparently, a lot of notorious Florida mosquitoes had crossed the state line and we were nearly devoured on the hike. I literally had a swarm of them around me! I guess winter is over and I need to start making sun screen and bug spray a habit again.

That’s what C.W. Lapham did and we now have a beautiful, bright orange house to visit on our National Historic Landmark Registry. The house was custom built to his specifications and everything about it demonstrates his fear of being trapped in another fire. Each of the 19 rooms in the house has at least one door leading outside; there are a total of 45 doors and 53 windows. Every room had a fire extinguisher (unheard of at that time), the chimney has two connected flumes (in case one clogs up, smoke can exit through the other), the doors are designed so that you could find your way out in the dark (external doors are taller and have protruding panels, doors to closets are shorter and have inset panels), windows are low to the floor and open into the wall above them (giving more room for a person to step through them), upstairs rooms were equipped with rope ladders, and the list goes on…

There are more oddities in the architecture of the house. The home has no 90 degree angles in any of its rooms – this was to  conform to a theory that a healthy home lacked right angles since they were not found in the natural world. Lapham had traveled to East Asia and may have picked up on some philosophies similar to Feng Shui. As a result, nothing is symmetrical in the house and nothing is centered in any of the rooms.

This historic site is one of my favorites that we’ve visited this year. If you are ever headed south on I-75, I suggest you take a little detour and visit it.