I would like to report that the kids and I successfully completed our first vacation, just the 3 of us!

We’ve been on, and enjoyed immensely, vacations with my own nuclear family. I am not knocking those at all — they are always fun and interesting and really good family time. But I did also want to try taking the girls  somewhere on my own. Although I was sorry that our larger family vacation didn’t work out (mainly due to my not realizing that Princess A’s pre-K was to start 2 weeks before Princess M’s elementary school — bad Mommy!), I was glad I had a chance to take the girls somewhere.

I chose Callaway Gardens as our destination. It was far enough from home to feel like a road trip, but close enough so that we didn’t spend such a large chunk of a long weekend in the car. I felt like we saved some money by using the “Kids Eat Free” package. It meant we ate at the same buffet each morning and evening, but the food was good and it was close to our hotel room, and I didn’t feel any lack of variety. The girls probably actually benefited from the same routine starting and ending each day.

Highlights of the weekend included:

The Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center: We actually visited twice. The Center had counted nearly 3000 butterflies the week prior to our visit. What an amazing place — so many beautiful butterflies flitting around the conservatory. Our time there the first day actually attuned us to spotting butterflies outside as we explored. M was especially excited to spot different ones and made it her mission to take pictures of them. She took some great ones.  On our second visit we were able to watch some butterflies emerging from their cocoons. We were enthralled.

Butterflies emerging after metamorphosis

Robin Lake Beach: The girls had a great time swimming, splashing and dribble-castle-building at Robin Lake Beach. The swimming was not actually very refreshing, as the recent heat wave had raised the water temperature to bath-like, but it was great just to get wet and play. The kids wanted to do Iceberg Island — a number of floats with slides, “rock-climbing” or jungle-gym climbing options, and rockers. The floats were much bigger than they looked from the shore and I was proud of my kids for trying them. They are so much braver than I ever was!

At Robin Lake Beach

Walking trails: There are so many walking and bicycle trails… in the time we had, we did not take full advantage of these, but we enjoyed the time we did spend walking through the woods.

Ready for the trail

Our dragonfly friend

Mr. Cason’s Vegetable Garden: All I have to say here is, wow. Maybe not as impressive to someone who grew up on an actual farm. I did not.

Birds of Prey Show: One of the best hours of our stay. We saw Tildon the red-tailed hawk, Juniper the great horned owl, and Jerry the black vulture. The presenter, Tana, was as entertaining as her free-flight co-stars. We especially got a kick out of Jerry, who repeatedly hopped down off his perch to bounce along behind Tana. His posture as he did that was hilarious – reminded me of a Scrooge or some other evil cloaked hunched-shoulders character. We learned a lot during that show. [For example: A vulture can handle anthrax, Ebola, and a host of other diseases... but not NSAIDs. Vultures have a sense of smell; most other birds do not. A great horned owl's ears are in different places on its head and point in different directions.  A red-tailed hawk sees "faster" than people do.] We also saw a live bald eagle  soaring overhead during the first half of the presentation. What a treat! (The Gardens’ bald eagle didn’t seem to agree, judging by the conversation the two of them had at the time.) Princess A wanted to ask Tana a question, so we stayed afterward and asked her how she trained the birds. I loved that A wanted to know more and actually wanted to ask.

M the Raptor

A the Raptor

The koi ponds: Especially the one at the Mountain Creek Inn, where we stayed. What a nice surprise our first morning to happen upon it on our way to breakfast! I’m not entirely sure that the kids made a distinction between “koi pond” and “coin pond,” the confusion stemming from all the change on the bottom of the pond.

The hotel pool: I find it humorous that no matter how far we might go from home, one of the kids’ favorite memories will nearly always be the hotel pool. So I include it because we had so much fun there, though I suppose it isn’t technically an “attraction.”

Taking pictures: One of the more amusing side-notes of the vacation was letting the kids take over the camera and snap pictures of things they found interesting. We took 343 pictures over the 2.5 days and wore out 2 sets of batteries! But as a friend of mine said, having a digital camera really makes that feasible and fun. They took some really great pictures, and some really funny ones, too.

The kids took this picture.

Watching the ducks & turtles

I loved spending that time away with my girls, and I loved that so much of what we did was educational but didn’t feel educational. They asked questions about what they saw, and either we speculated and discussed, or I answered, or we simply asked someone. It was fun.

I have also discovered a cure to the endless “Mommy – Mommy – Mommy!” The girls were beginning to get peevish on the drive home, and I was getting tired of being called upon. (Plus I was a little bored and wanted a diversion.) So I told them that I was changing my name to Priscilla Underpants, and if they wanted me, they would have to use that name. Of course they couldn’t say that without laughing, which derailed the fussiness and set us up for fun the rest of the trip home. I kept changing my name,  something sillier each time, and would pronounce it with a weird inflection that I demanded they use, too. We were all laughing so hard…

Once again my post has ended up being longer than I intended (sorry). But I will go on to say that I had been apprehensive about taking the kids on vacation alone. I can’t pinpoint an exact reason; maybe something about all the non-stop “on” time, worries about being in an unfamiliar location, “what-ifs”, etc. Now I know that I can do it, and I will do it again.

My Princesses

Callaway Gardens website: http://www.callawaygardens.com/