Our Family Blog

2012 January Homeschool Road Trip - Tybee Island Pier and Marine Center, Georgia

Yesterday, we went to Tybee Island, GA, off of the coast.  It's host city is Savannah.  We walked along Tybee Pier, Grace played in the water for a while, and we visited the Marine Center.  We watched various groups of dolphins from the pier and saw some interesting marine birds. 

        

The Marine Center was probably the smallest (and unimpressive) center we've ever seen.  The touch tank was probably the highlight here, but they didn't have much in there that was new or that exciting except for the spider crab.  Eden spent some time talking to one of the staff members about her Gold Award project, and they discussed some turtle embryology that is being done at the local university.  For as well done as their website is, their actual presentation at the center is not great, and they seem to be far less educational about sea turtles than the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.  I personally felt that this place was not worth the admission fee, and I don't think I've ever thought that of any other venue, except for the UFO Museum in Roswell, NM.  In any case, the kids were invited to the "staff only" area to see some additional specimens, which was cool. We did like the vials of sand from around the world - that was very neat.  So, not ever a complete loss - just different.

       

Georgia Sea Turtle Center - Jekyll Island, GA

I arranged for a special program at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island for the girls, so that they could take advantage of some of the interesting education programs they run at the center, particularly one for a Girl Scout badge.  The volunteer coordinator there was amazing and arranged for the girls two have one-on-one educators with them.  Their Saturday morning started out with a turtle education classroom, followed by the "ins and outs" of turtle tagging, locating, nest protecting, and then a mock turtle escavacation.  After that, the staff took the girls through the gallery, to view the hospital and then spent time with them in the turtle rehabilitation center, where they talked about each turtle, their ailments, release prognosis.  Eden is currently doing some research for her Gold Award, so the volunteer coordinator also arranged for her to sit down and interview with a staff member about what they do there, curriculum ideas and ideas for future volunteership.  It was a wonderful experience, and we hope to go back again very soon.

                           
 

Jekyll Island - Horton House and the Beach

While exploring Jekyll over the weekend, we stumbled upon the cool Horton House ruins. It was spookier having it to ourselves but very neat to see how they fortified their walls with seashells.   Amazing how much that house had been through and it was still standing with very little damage to the walls.

      
After visiting Driftwood Beach, we also found the "main" beach, which was really nice and flat - great for walking.  It was such a beautiful day, and the waters edge was a pretty neat "hub" for sea creatures.  On our walk, we saw welks, sea urchins, clams, ghost crabs, shrimp and sand dollars. It's illegal to keep any of these, so we left them alone, but it was sure neat to see so much on an hour walk along the shore!

    

The Trees on Jekyll Island

I'm kind of obsessed with Spanish-moss covered trees, and my children indulged me by letting me take their pics with them - and sometimes not - they were just gorgeous, and if we had more time (and wouldn't have been yelled at), I would have climbed one!  Just beautiful!

      

2012 January Roadtrip - Jekyll Island 4-H Center

One of our first stops at Jekyll was the 4-H center, run by the local 4-H club with grants from the Georgia Cooperative Extension.  Dawn, at the center spent a lot of tim with the girls (we were the only ones there), explaining exhibits and sharing extra information from some of her books.  The girls loved meeting Amy, the sea turtle and doing a "mock dock" study.  The girls have already earned two Girl Scout badges on our trip, which also "double dip" as schoolwork.          

Jekyll Island - Driftwood Beach

We spent the last two days at Jekyll Island, Georgia, exploring and doing some sea turtle education.  One of the highlights was going to Driftwood Beach on the north shore.  It was a surreal location with beautiful fallen trees.  The island is losing land in the north but gaining in the south, and they do not clear the trees, so the tide washes out the brush and leaves the trees.  There is a large barrier of rocks that also protects the trees and larger branches from being washed out into the ocean, leaving a magical place to frolic and, for some, a little known wedding destination.

Be sure to check out Eden's photos on her photography page.  She took some amazing pics.

             

The Magic at Magic Kingdom - January 2012 Girly Roadtrip!

Who could be unhappy at the Magic Kingdom!  If you have the chance to go on a weekday during the off-season, I totally recommend it, as the wait times for rides are typically 0-15 minutes, even for favorites like Snow White and Space Mountain.  Normally busy rides, like Buzz Lightyear, also has only a 10-15 wait. The girls were sporting their new Disney outfits, a tradition, and we kicked off our day with some castle pics on Main Street USA - of course!

  

Meeting Chip and Dale (and no, not the strippers)

 

Ride Pics - PeopleMover, Teacups, Jungle Safari, Pooh, It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

                      

Magic at Cinderella's Castle, color-changing at night - and saying good-night on Main Street.

    

The kids even find something funny at the transportation center by the parking lot! Ahh, my gang!

  

A few last resort activities....

The girls and I wrapped up our 11-night stay at the Hilton Grand in Orlando with a couple of gorgeous days by the pool and on the porch.  Grace swam a bit and Eden got a cool airbrush tattoo.  It was an absolutely wonderful impromptu roadtrip!

   

January 2012 - Walt Disney World's Epcot!

The girls and I enjoyed a wonderful weekday at Epcot earlier this week.  We bought passports so that the girls could have them written in and stamped in each country, and we took advantage of empty exhibits that have had long-wait times in the past.  This was also Grace's first trip to Epcot, as we usually skipped this one with her.  It was nice to see how much she really got out of the attractions, many of which would have been boring or over-her-head in the past.  We noted this when we first took Eden at age 5, as she got so much more out of everything the older she became, and there were some new exhibits for her, too.  We don't go on "everything" year after year, so there were many attractions she hadn't been through in years or new ones since we had last been there. 

 

The always fun character greetings - Daisy Duck and Stitch.     A cast member gave Grace her "First Visit" button.

   

  Getting ready for Space!

  

Playing the Piggy Bank Adventure in Innovation.     

 In the Nemo attraction.

  

Starting the Worlds...Canada!

 

Meeting Mary Poppins in England

In France

   

Meeting Marie from the Aristocats in France.

  
Enjoying all things France, including French foods and snacks.
   
  

Morocco

 
       

Japan

      

Italy

  

Germany - a little railroad...and meeting Snow White!

  

China

     

Mexico

  
The passports are full...night Epcot!

Jan 2012 Homeschool Road Trip - Disney's Animal Kingdom

It was almost 80 today,  so what better reason to head to Disney's Animal Kingdom for an African Safari.  We took our time wandering through, enjoying Tree of Life and the Safari Trek.  We also caught Nemo's Musical and listening to street music.

  

On our safari...

      

Wandering around Africa and Asia....

    

Eden brought her pin lanyard and traded for two pins.  She's been trading since her first trip here at age 5.

The girls riding Everest.  It's one of Eden's favorite rides, so she rode it twice.  Grace was a trooper and tried it for the first time (and has the Yeti to prove it) but said "never again." :)

A warm greeting from the Jungle Book gang!