Camping Lessons: Cool place to camp!

In '08, we went to Suwanee river state park for our annual camping trip, we still talk about balanced rock and the old guy with the baritone voice fishing across the river singing gospel hymns.

This year we visited the Florida Caverns.
The main tour cave was discovered during the late 1930s when Civilian Conservation Corps workers were building the park. A worker happened to look beneath the roots of an overturned tree and found a hole leading down into the caves. Closer inspection revealed a massive networks of caverns with pristine formations and miles of passages. Tbe CCC then cleared out pathways for tours using pick-axes. 


The underground world was amazing...it felt more like a sci-fi movie than something right in our own back yard!

stalactites

stalagmites

rim pools

soda straws (baby stalactites)

close-up of a soda straw

the 'waterfall'

cave life - the bat my hub thinks is fake

Yes, It's a dinner plate!

I think this is one of my favorite facts from the cavern tour. The CCC guys lodged their plates into the rock behind their lights. The reflection gave them more light to work by.

photo credits....ME!

Camping Lessons: making tinctures

I think one of my personal favorite parts of our trip to the Florida Caverns is the abundance of this...

Lecanorales

And where there is Lecanorales...there is an abundance of Usnea.

If you have coughed, or sneezed or complained of a sore throat around me in the past year my response has been a resounding 'Usnea, Usnea Usnea!'

Thanks to one of my soul sistahs, I learned the wonders of this remedy last year when our son had strep...and the next day, he didn't!

Well the ground was covered! No need to harvest from the trees, because they still need it, but the wind knocked enough off the trees that we filled an entire gallon size bag on one of our hikes and in 6 weeks we'll have enough tincture to share!

Of course, that doesn't help me right now...when I could REALLY use some!

photo credit: ME!

Camping Lessons: Acorn Whistling

Can you whistle an acorn cap?
It's one of the many things the hub shared with the mini's on our camping trip...more pics of the cool caverns later coz those deserve their own story!

finding the right acorn cap is important

display proper technique...it's all in the cheeks

okay, the way you hold the acorn cap is important too

success!

Be sure you make the 'y' with your thumbs...

Much to the dismay of his older brother...middleson's favorite activity was acorn whistling!

He even taught his sister!