It really shouldn't have been a good camping trip. 95-degree days in the Carolina low country, with an average of 85 percent humidity? Two kids, one a toddler, who had never camped before? I expected it to be kind of a grind but we had a surprisingly great time during our three-day stay at Lee State Park over the eclipse weekend.

We decided to camp because literally all of the hotel rooms and Air B&Bs in the whole area were booked up by the time we made our reservations. We chose Lee State Park as our camping spot just because it was near Florence, where our friends were staying. But once we were there, and saw all the park had to offer, we were glad we chose it. First of all, Lee State Park is home to some of the largest numbers of hummingbirds in the state of South Carolina. We saw so many different varietes of them, whirring about like little jewels. Did you know they make a clicking, chirruping sound as they fly? At some points we were surrounded by what seemed like a full on swarm of them.

Besides that, we saw a ton of other wildlife during our stay. Anouk's nature journal features several different frogs, spiders, centipedes, fish (in the kid-friendly swimming hole on the grounds), lizards, and a bobcat (that we heard yowling outside our tent one night, eek!)

But probably the most interesting things we saw at the park were the artesian wells. I had never seen one before and didn't know what they were so if you're in the same boat: Basically, an artisean well is a pipe stuck down into groundwater reservoir that's under pressure so that it flows up to the surface without a pump. The water is uncontaminated so it is clear and cold and clean. In the 1930s, the CCC drilled several of these wells at Lee State Park and most of them are still pumping over 80 years later! The kid were able to splashed and played in them like fountains. It was a nice way to cool off.


If you are looking for tips for camping with kids in extreme hot weather, here are some things that helped make our trip a little easier. First, frozen water bottles. Before we left, we froze 24 water bottles and loaded them into our cooler. At night, we all took bottles to bed with us. If you wrap them in a sock adn stick them under your neck and arms, it can bring the temperature down enough so that you're comfy enough to sleep.

Second: head lamps. Anouk kept losing her flashlight in the dark and freaking out, but once we stuck the head lamp on her, she was fine and bonus was able to use her hands to make smores.

Third: the Story Nory podcast. Before bed the kids wanted bedtime stories but it was dark and by the end of the night the grownups were pooped. We put on the Story Nory podcast and let somebody else read to them instead and didn't have to haul a bunch of books around in our packs.

Four: You can never have enough toilet paper. Bring several rolls.

Five: Sawyer Picaridin Insect Repellant Lotion. (You're welcome!) It has literally no smell, doesn't feel greasy, and works just as well as DEET. It evaporates more slowly than DEET though so you don't need to reapply as often. It also doesn't carry the same neurotoxicity concerns as DEET, according to my pediatrician. Sold!

Are your little ones happy campers or do they prefer to stay indoors? What tips/recommendations can you offer for camping with kids? Hit us up!

Swamps get a bad rap for being hot, humid, and stinky and a terrible place to be in summer. But don't believe it! Swamp Stomp at First Landing State Park this summer has been a blast. For those who aren't familiar with the concept: the program involves a short hike through the woods, under trees laden with Spanish moss. The park ranger hauls up big netfuls of muck from the bottom of the swamp and spreads it on the boardwalks. Then you root through it to search for the water bugs, amphibians, and invertebrates that live there.

This event is super hands on, and kids are encouraged to touch and explore, to gently hold and examine the things they find and compare them to pictures and information provided by the ranger, who does her best to make sure that everybody finds something! Anouk found a tadpole (with legs, halfway through metamorphosis!) and a couple of water scorpions and man, you would have thought she'd found gold nuggets. I love to see her getting less squeamish with bugs and squiggly things and to learn about the landscape that she lives in.




Besides learning about swamp life, we also heard, as we hiked, some fun facts about the dune ecosystem of the park, the variety of trees and vegetation (did you know this is the farthest north Spanish moss can grow?), and water quality (did you also know that the tannins in leaves make the swamp water super pure to drink? -- but I'm not going to try it any time soon).

Swamp Stomp is held at the park every Tuesday and Friday throughout the summer and is only one of the fantastic programs that First Landing puts on. Check out the full roster of offerings here.

PS: BUG SPRAY. We've found picaridin to be the best against mosquitoes, ticks, and those awful biting flies.

Do you LOVE Norfolk Botanical Garden but find yourself visiting the Children's Garden, Butterfly House, and Airport Overlook over and over again? If you haven't had the chance to ramble, and making your way through the map seems a little daunting here is a quick list of five of our favorite kid-friendly places at NBG.

Baker Overlook: The coolest place in the whole of NBG, in my humble opinion. Literally and figuratively -- it's always five degrees cooler there than anywhere else. There's a two-tier deck/tree platform in a giant oak that makes you feel like Swiss Family Robinson, comfy padded porch swings, and a view of the waterway, to watch the tour boats go by. (The photos in this post were taken at Baker Overlook on a Sunday Pokemon hunt a few weeks ago.)

Hunter Savage Colonial Garden: Part ornamental garden of the 18th century, part medicinal and culinary garden. The walkways are paved in oyster stones, and each herb and plant is marked with tiny handmade markers. We love to run our hands over the herbs and name each smell. Speaking of scents...

Fragrance Garden: Located next to the main building, each plant in this garden was selected because of its scent. Each season has something to stop and smell, from Allspice in summer to Bayberry in winter. We like to do a sensory tour of the garden and find as many different things to touch, smell, and see in this spot as we can.

Tropical Display House: the Tropical Display House is a riot of color year round. It's a steamy spot (going in there always makes Anouk's hair extra curly), which is nicer in winter than in summer. BUT there is so much to see in there, palm trees, birds of paradise, strangler figs, and even that kid-friendly fave: BANANAS. A good place to practice your monkey sounds. Be careful of wet floors.

Enchanted Forest: Two easy trails wend through this secluded spot (one is paved for strollers). Among the tall trees, it's almost possible to pretend that you're somewhere else entirely. There's a picturesque footbridge, whimsical tree-stump benches, and a magnificent fountain spiraling up into the middle of Lake Whitehurts! One of the best places in the Garden to look for turtles.

Honorable mention (Anouk told me to add this, so it's straight from the horse's mouth): Fern Glade, which can be found adjacent to Baker Overlook. "It looks like there are elfs there, Mom."

Picking the perfect peach is not as easy as you might think. When we arrived at Greenbrier Farms ready to pick, we were given a handout listing all the things to look for: perfect color, firmness, smell, and how easy it will be to pick from the branch. Our big kids took it pretty seriously. On the hayride out to the orchard they studied their notes like they were cramming for a test and each peach they pulled off the tree had to be JUST. RIGHT.

Even given this level of perfectionism, it didn't take too long to fill our bags. But luckily there is more to do at Greenbrier Farms than pick peaches, which justified the long drive from Norfolk. The kids visited the petting zoo, fed cheerios to a pair of puddle ducks and a hen named Oprah, swung on giant tire swings, jumped off the stairs at the old farmhouse, and played on the playground in the middle of it all. By the time we got back to the cars, tired and sweaty, they were more than ready to nap the whole way back, which left me free to daydream about all the goodies I'd bake with our haul.

Greenbrier Farms has something to look forward to year round. After peaches come nectarines, then pumpkins in the fall, and cut-your-own Christmas trees in December. In the spring, there will be strawberries, then peaches again.

The staff at Greenbrier are super accommodating and want to do everything they can to make your visit enjoyable (the handout should be a tip-off). They encouraged us and our littles to look around at everything, let them roam through the still-producing strawberry patch, told us about all the different plants growing around their greenhouses. If you're too busy to come and pick your own peaches, they will even pick them for you and have them ready to go when you come and pick them up!

As for those peaches ... we made cobbler. YUM.

Pro-tip: Bring sunscreen (there's not much shade at the play area) and bug spray (mosquitoes are terrible this year).

Say hello to our latest "pets!" We picked them up in their cage from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Brock Environmental Center at the beginning of last month. Our oysters are tiny -- spat on shells, which basically is a technical way of saying baby oysters. Or oyster larvae, but I like baby oysters better.

Over the course of the next year, Anouk and I will be growing these oysters into bigger oysters that look more like the ones you are accustomed to seeing. At the end of that year, they will be transplanted back into the Chesapeake Bay, to help purify the water and rebuild dwindling local oyster populations. The CBF Oyster Gardening Program is open to the public, and training (you have to register and take a seminar) is held at the start of each summer.

So far, our oysters are doing really well. I think. It's kind of hard to tell with oysters. In any event, they look exactly like they did when we got them, maybe slightly bigger. They also have been given names -- Anouk named them Moana and Maui (Moana are on the left side and Maui the right).

As far as pets go, oysters are pretty chill. Every week, we head down to the marina where their cage hangs off of the dock into the water. We tumble their cage and hose the oysters down to remove silt (too much can smother them). This week, we also had to remove a small crab that had scuttled in through the bars, molted, and gotten to big to get out on its own.



We are going to blog our oyster adventures over the next year, and hope this will bring awareness to the CBF's awesome program and encourage others to get involved! To read more about the CBF Oyster Gardening program, click here.  For more information on Chesapeake Bay oysters in general, click here.

These oysters are not for eating! --> Anouk wanted me to add that. You are destined for greater things, Maui/Moana. Looking forward to seeing how far you'll go!

West Ghent is a quiet area of town but can be the perfect place to spend a morning or afternoon. We found our way there with friends a week or two ago and visited some of our favorite Ghent spots and sights -- and found some new ones to explore as well. Our walk started off on Redgate Avenue, looped down to the Chelsea neighborhood, and back. All in all, we spend about three hours exploring, and saw some really amazing things.

The first was the Wishing Tree on the median on Redgate. You can't miss it, with the rectangles of bright paper fluttering from its branches. Feel free to write and leave your wish, and then spend a little time reading and reflecting on others. (NOTE: there were pencils and paper provided when we went but you might want to put some markers or crayons in your bag to bring along if you want something brighter and more colorful).

If you keep walking down Redgate to Langley, you'll reach the Elizabeth River Trail, which runs by the river for over nine miles. If you head one way you'll reach Norfolk State University; the other and you'll eventually get to Harbor Park. But in the meantime you can experience the river ecosystem and stretch your legs on this walking and bicycle trail.

If you head north on the trail, one of the sights you can see is the Weyanoke Bird and Wildflower Sanctuary, which we wrote about years ago for My Active Child. We love this sleepy, simply, but beautiful spot. The park is maintained by the Cape Henry Audubon Society and open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays (though you can call ahead to arrange a visit).

On your way back, stop for coffee and a scone at the Bakehouse at Chelsea. We LOVE their wood-fired pizza!

The Chesapeake Arboretum! What a cool place to be on a spring day. Not literally -- it was pretty hot and muggy when we took our walk -- but despite that the arboretum was a wonderful place to experience nature.

If you look at the arboretum on the map it is surrounded by neighborhood on all sides. So we expected it to be pretty manicured. Instead, we found a pleasantly maintained mulched path and jumble of wild greenery. Whenever we did catch sight of a house through the leaves it was almost a surprise to see it there.

We took the longest path option which is about two miles of flat and easy terrain, even for Gus's little legs. There are shorter routes available, too. (Find the map here). When we went, back in early April, some of the sections of trail were under construction and a couple of the bridges were out of commission or missing guardrails. So it might be best to check with arboretum staff to make sure the routes still lead where they are supposed to before setting out! We had an issue with a bridge leading to nowhere but it was easily solved by walking out to the neighborhood while James went back for the car and picked us up.

Anouk's favorite part of the walk was climbing on every tree and fallen long she could find and there were tons. There was also so much wildlife to see on this trip! On our two hour hike we saw rabbits, frogs, turtles, butterflies, all kinds of birds, and even a couple of SNAKES. If you're into that, keep your eyes peeled. (If you're not, same).

We plan to go back when the farmhouse is open and when the leaves turn in the fall!

Anouk got a rock collection for her birthday and has been really interested in geology lately. I thought over spring break that maybe we would drive to Luray Caverns to check it out but after looking at a map decided it was too far. Much more reasonable for a day trip was the Lucky Lake Gem and Mineral Mine in McKenney, VA, just over two hours west of Norfolk. At Lucky Lake, you can see the same sorts of rocks and minerals you might find at Luray...just on a smaller scale.

Lucky Lake features flume mining, which means that you shovel buckets of dirt into small trays and shake and swish it around in the water to reveal the treasures hidden there. We examined each rock closely, kept the ones we thought might be special and dumped the rest (the staff at Lucky Lake goes through your cast-off pile to make sure you're not throwing away anything remarkable). After you've finished sifting through the bucket, they sit down with you and tell you about all of the minerals and rocks you've found, show you what they look like when they're cut and polished, and share the supposed mystical properties of each crystal (Anouk has been sleeping ever since our visit with her uncut amethyst, which is supposed to take away bad dreams).

We found aquamarine, rubies, beautiful blue sodalite, garnets and a lot of quartz. We also purchased the option where our bucket came with an already cut stone in it, so that was exciting to find our mystic topaz glimmering there. Another slightly more expensive option was to get any stone from your bucket cut and mailed to you.

Besides panning there is a picnic area and fenced yard where the kids can run and play. We brought our lunch, which ended up being good because there isn't much else around the McKenney area at all. We debated stopping in Emporia on the way home but ended up driving back, which made for a lot of driving in one day and some cranky kids. Our advice would be to find a place to camp overnight or to make a detour to McKinney on a trip to Richmond, just to prevent this from happening to you.

But overall, it was worth it, even the cranky kids. One of our coolest road trips to date!