Our Labor Day weekend get-away, Part I

We really missed our beach trip this summer, so we thought we'd head to the coast for a last 'hoorah' this season.  We have been talking to Mercer about Cumberland Island for ages, so thought we would take a ferry over for a day.  (We knew that we weren't quite ready to camp on Cumberland with him - but we would try out camping at a nearby state park.)  

There did not seem to be a lot of things to do at the park, so we decided to take a trip to the Okefenokee swamp since we were relatively close and none of us had been before.  On our first full day in south Georgia, we took a boat tour of one of the canals that was dug into the swamp and then branched off into a smaller path through the swamp.  The photo on the last post was actually taken on the swamp tour boat.  Here's another with Mercer at the helm of the boat.  

The swamp was actually prettier than we imagined.  There were a lot of colorful plants and blooming water flowers.  There were a lot of different types of birds too.  We thought it was going to be a lot muckier, but this portion of the Okefenokee was not.  The boat driver /tour guide - "Captain Charlie" - said that other parts of the swamp look different.  There are several different kinds of ecosystems depending on what part of the swamp you are in. 

We hadn't seen any alligators on the trip, as they are out more so during the early morning and dusk hours.  We were heading back to the channel and I somehow locked eyes with an alligator as we were passing by.  Captain Charlie backed the boat up and pulled into the tangle of water lilies so we could get right next to the little gator.    (Look closely and you'll see him too)

Everyone was leaning over the edge to peer into the water below while Charlie comes over with a long wooden stick and starts poking at the gator trying to get up under his chin and put him to sleep??  The little alligator, of course, did not like it. He swam under and we left. 

We went back down the channel - noticing how the still water looked like a mirror.  I liked the way that the water reflected images of the surrounding trees and that they got caught up in the current of the boat.  Unfortunately, my gaze was broken when we got a little too close to the edge and our boat ran through a spider's nest -- the giant quarter-sized black spider landed on me and crawled up my leg!

Mercer was busy watching the pattern the water made too in the water.  And - he discovered that he could spit in the water / watch it fly and hit the water's surface. 

The swamp park where we began our adventure actually had a pretty nice nature center with a lot of interactive toys and displays for the kids.  While there, Todd spotted another alligator - much bigger - hanging out in the open channel right next to the visitor's center.  We hung out on the deck for awhile and watched him as he watched us.  After the visitor's center, there is an 8 mile loop drive they encourage visitors to take.  There we saw alligator after alligator in the ditches on either side of the road. 

We all learned something on this trip too... that the swamp supports bears and jaguars!  Who knew?!  Also - the water was brown from tannins in the water from the plants and trees growing in the swamp. These tannins did not support mosquito larvae so there were no mosquitos amazingly. 

After the swamp tour, we hung out in the campsite, bounced Mercer's super bouncy ball, and cooked dinner on the fire.  We looked at constellations in the sky with our eyes and with the cool Google Sky program on our cell phones.  We made s'mores and reflected on how the swamp tour was.  It was a good, full day!




The next day, we took the ferry over to Cumberland Island.  I'll post more about that later this week, as there was so much to see it is it's very own (long) blog entry!!