We tried to have a “down day” to get some traditional school work done. I do have a list of what the kids’ classmates are studying, so I’m trying to make sure they learn those things as well as all of the other stuff we do and see along our trip.
Dacen, Brielle, and I headed to the local library to try to take advantage of free wi-fi. Until this trip, I didn’t realize I was so in love with library decor. This one had cute benches/seats in the kids’ area.
In the afternoon I decided we should ride bikes around the State Park we were staying in. It’s a great place, but there is so much to see and do in New Orleans, we hadn’t explored Bayou Segnette State Park. We decided to check out the Nature Center. Ranger Josh was very excited to have visitors. He had just fed Salt, the albino corn snake they have. He gave a little lesson about albinos and pigment. Then he had the kids grab nets and we headed out to see what we could see.
Josh seemed to want to find a gator. I, of course, had a lot of questions about the alligators and what we should do if we came upon one. We got a bucket of clean water and then Josh taught the kids how to fish with a net. He told them to make sure to get under the green muck as we would find more species living there.
Josh was very excited about the number of shrimp the kids were able to find. They also found blue gill, minnows, snails, a water worm and a water bug of some sort. We learned about 2 invasive species the Apple Snail and the Water Hyacinth. Josh had to get back to the office, but he told us about the board walks and sent us on our way to try to see a gator. Dacen was particularly disappointed we didn’t see one. I have to admit after talking to Josh I was ready to see one in the wild.
Reality check: It was late and getting close to dinner and I still had to get to Walmart to get Dacen new shoes and to stock up on food before we head to Dauphin Island. No luck on the shoes – I figured Dacen wouldn’t find anything there. The boy is a runner and he needs decent shoes but it was worth a try. It was late by the time we got back home and ate dinner.
Huck found a family had just arrived at the campground across the intersection from us. The Bareneckers are a family whose blog Huck has read several time. They were very nice and it was fun to meet them!
On to our next destination. We are eager to see Bill and Karen Miller! They are friends from church that recently moved down to Mobile, AL.