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Well this is/was Labor-day weekend, and we normally would have been in attendance at the annual camp out in Arizona, but we just couldn't talk ourselves into driving in the car 40 hours to camp in the rain. Now, we were seriously debating the drive until we saw that Hurricane Jimena was heading up Baja California and would most probably dump a nice few days of moisture on southern Arizona and the northern mountains (white mountains - where the camp was to be located). I know we are chickens, and getting weak, but truth be told, I don't think Terra wants to do much more camping (at least here) ever since the invasion of the ticks. |
| Now I don't know what actually happened (with the rain) but I am waiting to see the news reports. We instead decided to head down to a little place 30 miles south of Mobile, Alabama to a place called Dauphin Island. This is a community of idiots (in my opinion - I could never live that close to a body of water that has a history of not staying within its bounds) and are in the business of either ignoring the visiting population or preying on them (tourist trap) nevertheless it was a fun place to visit. In fact most of the homes on this island were built up in the air on stilts - I don't know how effective that really is. At any rate, the water was nice and clear and the weather couldn't have been better. |  |
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There was a lot of local wild life that we managed to get a good glimpse at. Some of which were seagulls, pelicans, oysters, hermit crabs, blue crabs, fish, jelly fish, and manta rays. The next time that I go to a beach, I am going to take a snorkel and just spend some time looking at all of the creatures that I am trying to step on when they aren't looking. This beach had white sand and really clear blue water. One of the neat items visible in some photos are the oil rigs on the horizons. This is an item that is non-existant in the Pacific Ocean, and I would have to attribute that to the environmentalists in California, but I could be wrong. The boys really enjoyed catching the clams and then letting them burrow into the sand on the beach, and then catching them again and repeating the process. We took a video of it, and you can watch it here. |
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Terra even picked up some hermit crabs and let them crawl across her hand. We didn't get any video of that, but it would have been neat. Ethen was scared of every thing. Even the clams. It took him about two hours before he would get in the water above his ankles, and he wouldn't pick up any clams until Kyle and Rachel did first. He is just very cautious by nature. Rachel on the other hand is the other end of the spectrum. She will try anything and ask questions later. Ethen asks questions and reasons, then asks some more questions, then watches others and then will either try it or still turn his nose up at it - this is also evident in his eating behaviors. |
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After we played around in the water and managed to get everything we brought covered in sand, we went over to the east side of the island to Fort Gains. This is a fort that was built prior to the Civil war, and I suspect didn't look as good as is currently does once the war was ended. We looked around the exterior of it, and almost ventured a trip inside, but there was a long way to drive home and we wanted to get started back (and they wanted us to pay them for the privilege of looking at the structure) so we just got in the car and started driving. The trip out there and back took us through the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. There were signs on the Freeway (I-20) that told of the historic battlefields that you could stop and see, but I don't think the kids would really care or enjoy it. I would like to take another trip down there and take a look around. I know, I know it isn't Gettysburg, but still it would be fun. While I was in Atlanta, I did make it to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield. Perhaps when Dad makes a drive out this way for a visit we will run down to Vicksburg. It is only 2.5 hours away. |
| This was about as much of the history that the kids wanted to see. They wanted to know where you put the cannon balls in to fire, where they kept them for storage (there were none immediately visible), and how to fire the cannon once it was properly loaded. Looking at it, it was obviously decommissioned, and you couldn't make it work without investing some serious time, but I could imagine that it would make quite a noise once you made it work. There was still riffling on the inside of the bore consisting of 1.5" grooves. |  |
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This is the remnants of a ship that washed up upon the island after Hurricane George. According to the sign it was a 19th century ship judging by the construction. The sign also told the nature of the ship, the purpose of the ship, and the crew of the ship was all unknown. I would figure that was obvious since no one even knew the ship existed until it was washed up on shore, but I can't help but think that they added this description to accommodate the many inquiries regarding the crew... |
| After we returned home and were cleaning out the car (and putting another coat of paint on the trailer gate) we found another frog in the yard. This one was next to the trailer on one of the kids toys. Ethen of course wouldn't touch it, so I caught it and gave it to him. He finally warmed up to it and would hold it. I am still amazed by all of the wildlife that lives around here. I think that by growing up in the desert, I just can't get used to the fact that things live all over the place outside - but they do. (Can you guess what color I am painting the trailer?) Karren has voiced the concern that I haven't posted pictures of the trailer in its three different positions. Truth be told, I haven't made the trailer able to stay in three different positions. It is a long story, but here are the highlights. 1. I re-designed the gate to work much better after it was built poorly. 2. There are a swarm of hornets that live under the siding by the trailer, and they have prevented me from fixing the gate. |  |
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3. I can't bring myself to fix the gate correctly (it will take lots of time) and I don't want to make the gate stay horizontal with a 0.5" step up from the level of the main deck. They are pretty lousy reasons, but there you have it. Right now it is just an ordinary gate, and one that I don't like. I am sad that I am the fool that put it together, because there is always some satisfaction to be gained by saying, "well I wouldn't have built it like that".
Rachel of course had to be constrained from killing the frog by her loving touch. She has never been relieved from her desire to play with animals. I can't help wanting to see what will happen when she is able to voice her opinion on a louder scale to acquire a pet and her mother protesting the idea. I have seen that Terra's desire to remain animal free is strong, but still part of me thinks that Rachel might just know some way of defeating Terra's defences and winning out in the end. Time will tell... |