Arkansas

 We went Diamond mining in Arkansas.  Sadly we did not find a diamond.  

But first I used a laundromat for I think the first time.  That was exciting.  The dryers were SO HOT.  I feel like I burned my hand when I got a sleeping bag out of the dryer.  It was nice to have some clothes washed so we didn't have to fear running out before we got to Monica's house.

You're just going to have to imagine the pictures of the big plowed field that was the diamond mine and us digging up rocks and sluicing it.  It was pretty fun getting to play in the dirt and water for a while.  There was a little visitor center there, as well, which is what most of these pictures are from.

Working in the 8th largest diamond mine in the world was pretty great.  And now we know why there are diamonds on Arkansas license plates.

Louisiana

 We went to a bayou in Louisiana.  Their visitor center had reduced summer hours, so we didn't get to go to the visitor center, just the actual bayou.  There was a path and a boardwalk to it.  Other than hoping my kids wouldn't be eaten by an alligator (which probably wasn't likely, and thankfully didn't happen), it was fun to see the bayou.  Apparently a bayou is a body of slow-moving water, while a swamp is a wetland with trees.  They looked somewhat similar.  There were also golden orb spiders here, so it was fun to show the kids and Peter the big webs and golden spider that Benton and I had told them about. 

Mississippi

 And this is where Peter started taking way more pictures than me, but you get the dregs because I'm just using the ones off my phone.

In Mississippi we went to church in Meridian.  Then we went to the Vicksburg Military Park.  The kids did the Junior Ranger program there, but Brita just helped Ingrid, because I was afraid she was too old for the program.  Little did I know.

It was interesting to read about the siege there and about the soldiers and war strategies.  

There was a major heatwave across the southern United States, so it was incredibly hot outside.  So we mostly enjoyed the museum.

Alabama

A friend recommended we stop in Birmingham at Vulcan Point.  It's a huge statue of Vulcan celebrating the iron and steelworks of the city.  It was really neat.  They have a map with cities and railway lines and roads.  Brita found cities with the names of her friend Brighton and her cousin Ensley.  The view of Birmingham was gorgeous.  

The World Games were going on then, and we tried to get tickets to the tug-of-war, but alas, we did not.  We did watch some of them in our hotel room that night in Tuscaloosa, though.

 

Georgia

On Saturday we left Melissa's house in the morning and drove to Georgia.  The night before Peter had rented a car and early Saturday morning drove down to pick up Brita from FSY.  Then they went to the Richmond airport and flew to Atlanta.  Flights were being cancelled left and right for months leading up to this so we had all sorts of contingency plans going through our heads, but it went off flawlessly.

Anyway, all this is to say that we took pictures of some interesting things that we thought Brita and Peter might enjoy that we saw on our travels.  Like these gigantic tires.  They're so big!

We stopped at this state park playground in Georgia because we had to take care of something urgently.  I think it was Yellow River State Park, although I have no idea why we would have been up there.  I just followed the GPS.

Then we went to Stone Mountain. It's a massive stone dome right outside of Atlanta.  We drove around the mountain looking for the giant carving of Confederate soldiers, and couldn't find it.  I was thinking that I didn't really know what Stone Mountain was at this point.  We finally gave up and were leaving to go pick up Brita and Peter, when one of the kids spotted something that might be it.  We pulled off and, sure enough, there's a little (most likely big, but nothing compared to Rushmore) carving of Confederate soldiers on the mountain.

And then we were together again and all was right with the world!  Hooray for Georgia!

 

South Carolina - The Swamp

Melissa, Adam, Benton and I went to Congaree National Park while my younger kids stayed home and played with cousins.  I hear they fed fish.  I'm not sure what else went on. :)

But Congaree was really cool!  Fewer mosquitoes than I was expecting, too!  We got there around 6 and it was nice to be in the shade.  Which it was all shady. 

Did I mention that the entire southern half of the United States was having a major heat wave during our entire time there?  Yeah, everything was hot.

We got the Melissa-given self-guided tour, which was great.  Very informative!

Knees from the cypress trees.  They think they grown them for increased stability in the swamp.

I can't remember what it's called when the trunks are really wide at the bottom like that, but I learned.  Also, the moss indicates previous water levels.  That's crazy.

Peter called and told me a story about how he had to break into our house, so I missed part of the tour and took pictures so I could see them later.

There were so many Golden Orb spiders.  They were really pretty and had HUGE webs.  There's one in this picture to the left of the front tree.  (It's in front of the tree, but it appears in the picture to the left of the tree.  They aren't THAT big.)

This tree, however really is THAT big.  It's a huge Loblolly pine tree.  By the way, Loblollies are the best.  Driving into South Carolina there were a bunch on the side of the road and their new growth was so soft looking.  They're awesome.

The highlight for the people who had been to Congaree before was these cute little wild pigs.  There were three of them and they really were quite cute. 

The swamp was totally worth going to.  I loved it.

And then we went home and had milkshakes. (Ingrid said something really funny about her milkshake, so I took this picture and now I have no idea what the funny thing was.)

Not bad for less than 24 hours staying with Melissa.

South Carolina - The Zoo

Then we went to the zoo where Melissa shared her membership with us so that most of my kids could do ALL THE THINGS for free. 

We saw lots of animals.  Like these otters.

And these flamingos.

And the penguins.

And the crazy-looking birds.

And the super-hot grizzly bear

And the kids got to feed birds.  One of which really wanted to sit on Irene's head.  Irene really did not want it on her head, but we couldn't figure out how to get it off.

We were all very obedient to signs.

The zoo had a rock climbing wall, so the kids that weren't too little for the harnesses got to climb it. (Benton had Walter get the membership bracelet rather than him, because he thought Walter would have more fun with it.  And because Benton's super nice and thoughtful.)

And they rode the merry-go-round.  Ingrid especially loved it!

And we rode this little train. (Not quite as fun as the merry-go-round.)

And we saw monkeys.  And lots of non-pictures animals.

Then back to the carousel for multiple rides.

And more rock climbing.

And playground playing.