Early morning by the fire. Breakfast cooking in the dutch oven.
Last week, we decided to take a little family adventure road trip before the end of Christmas break. I’ve written about our interest in having family micro adventures before HERE. And this getaway fits the bill. We love creating shared experiences with our kids. We all benefit and learn from being together. And now that they are a little older, we don’t dread extended time in the car with them anymore.
Especially after the Christmas hustle and bustle, we tend to be drawn towards activities that are simple and do not involve long lines and frenzy. Since we decided on this adventure at the last minute, and we knew we only had 3 nights to work with, that limited where we could go. Those limitations were good for us, because it helped us make some quick decisions.
Sunrise at Three Rivers State Park.
We took a drive up to Three Rivers State Park for a two night camping trip and booked one night in a hotel in Tallahassee on the way back. The state park is in Sneads, Florida, up in the Panhandle about 3 hours away. Never heard of it? Yeah, we hadn’t either. But we chose it because of its proximity to Florida Caverns State Park, which we have been wanting to go to for a long time. The park and campground were very nice. It would be really awesome to go when the autumn leaves are in full force.
We camped for three days at the park, just our family. When we go camping, we often go with other families, which is also fun. This was really cool because the kids were just as happy as they would be with friends. It is really refreshing to see how they can entertain themselves without toys, screens or friends. We will definitely be doing more of this type of camping in the future.
Who needs Legos when you have rock, dirt and sticks?
During our camping stay, we hung out by the fire, went on a nature hike, fished, and ate Brian’s dutch oven creations. He received a cast iron dutch oven for Christmas and was excited to try it out. We all gave his food thumbs up! We also set up the hammock, where I could read and relax.
On our hike, I paired up with Max to try to seek out unique colors and textures that we spotted on the trail. We noticed that if you keep your eyes peeled, you can find examples all around you!
We did drive out to Florida Caverns State Park on the second day. It was worth it. This is the only place in Florida where you can get a guided tour of underground caverns. The formations created over thousands of years are beautiful. Word of warning if you go…the tours fill up quickly. We got there at noon, and the first tour we could get into was the 3pm tour. Which meant we had 3 hours to kill in Marianna, FL. Hmmmm….try to avoid that if you can.
The next phase of our road trip was in Tallahassee, where we went straight to the Tallahassee Museum. Their tagline is “Where Florida’s history, nature and wildlife intersect.” That’s a good description for it. Apparently, this museum has been there forever. Most of it is outside and walkable. Seems like a pretty recent addition is the the zip lining courses they have throughout the property high up in the trees. You have to be at least 54″ to participate in that course though. So the boys did the course for kids that is smaller and closer to the ground. They still get harnessed and have to learn the process of changing their carabiner with each new section, which was good for them.
Getting instructions for how to stay safe on the obstacle course.
After the museum, we headed to the hotel. Not going to lie, we also enjoyed taking hot showers and sleeping in clean comfy beds after two nights of camping. The next day, we we were going to hit two more parks in Tallahassee, but it was drizzly outside, so we decided to head back towards home and make a pit stop in Gainesville instead.
In Gainesville, we ate at Burrito Brothers & got popsicles at The Hyppo for dessert. Can someone please tell me how their flavors just keep getting better and better? I had pistachio coconut dipped in chocolate. So. So. Good.
From there we took the boys to The Gainesville Rock Gym, which we had wanted to go to for a while. Brian and I weren’t really dressed for rock climbing, so we passed this time. However, Brian is already plans to come back without the kids so we can climb.
The Hyppo in Gainesville
Overall, the four of us agree that the road trip was a double thumbs-up. We did simple things, but we did them together. We are already trying to scope out when we can do something like it again. It was a special time for us to connect as a family before heading back to school, work and the craziness that sometimes takes hold when there are too many commitments.
Here’s wishing you and yours many beautiful shared moments in 2015!
