Canoeing on the Chestatee!

Yesterday we went canoeing in Dahlonega, and it was AWESOME! I wish I could go every week!! And we saw a bunch of things like:

• kingfishers
• herons
• minnows & carp
• snails
• hawks
• turtles

And boy, there was a ton of turtles!! I couldn't even count how many there were! Most of them were fairly large, and this is what they looked like:

It was 6 miles from start to finish, and I think that was my favorite 6 miles anything ever! 

We had a half-way point mark, which was a fairly large beach. We stopped for almost an hour, and then moved on. There were several small rapids, but nothing really scary. It took us almost exactly 3 hours to get from start to finish, 2 hours if you didn't stop at the beach. But it was really fun, and I hope we get to go back pretty soon.

This is the beach we stopped at with some of the canoes. (Yes, we went with a big, homeschooling group):

And this is a picture from the front of our canoe when we were about to push off from the beach:

If you ever want to go canoeing, I would highly recommend Appalachian Outfitters in Dahlonega! It is AMAZING!! 

Well, that's all for now. See you later!

Vacation

Last week we went on vacation! (I was extra excited because I haven't been on a vacation in a few years!) We went to Biltmore Estate!!!!! We had a nice hotel only a few minutes away from the Estate! I had so much fun!! Wednesday we drove to our hotel (that drive seemed to take forever. It took 4 hours).

Thursday we went to the Estate and got to tour it. In the House we saw lots of guest bedrooms, a dining hall, and so much more! Part of the time I felt a little lost. Then we had lunch, and after that, we went and did a bunch of other stuff. We saw a Birds of Prey show, and they had an Eastern Screech-Owl (it was tiny), a Red-tailed Hawk, a Barred Owl, and a Great Horned Owl. They also had a Turkey Vulture. (All of the birds had been found with an injury so they could never go back into the wild. The Great Horned Owl had a wing injury. It had been swooping to get something, and its left wing was caught in a barbed-wire fence, and it was left hanging until it was found. Poor owl.)

We saw a thing on erosion, something with bees and honey, glanced at something with a water wheel, and also got to take turns pulling a one-thousand pound log with ropes. That was hard.
Then we went to the farmyard and got to hold chicks, and pet a baby goat, and we got to pet two horses named Bert and Ernie, and got to gather eggs. Then we went to the barn and I got Moose Tracks icecream, and after we finished our ice cream, me and Cullen got to play on a wagon. That was fun. And then, after that, we went to the winery, and we got to see how they make their wine. Then Mama, Ken, Aunt Beckie, and Jonnia got to try wine and me and Cullen (my cousin) got to try the best grapejuice I've ever tasted and maybe the best I'll ever taste. And after that, we went to the flower garden. Mama loved that. We had lots of fun there, too. After that, we all went out and had supper together at Cracker Barrel. I had mac-'n-cheese that was good. I also had a biscuit with butter. Yummy. Then we went back to the hotel for some sleep. Then on Friday we left there for home and got a little lost, but we ended up seeing an old copper mine. That was cool. So I had lots of fun that week!!

Tellus Museum

Two weeks ago we went to the Tellus Museum. They had dinosaur fossils, a rock & mineral gallery, and so much more. Some of the dinosaur fossils were a t-rex, an apatosaurus, a mammoth, and a jawbone of a shark that ate whales & also was bigger than a school bus (that's big).

We also got to do a fossil dig. That was fun too.

So that's a bit about the Tellus Museum!!!

The Atlanta History Center

Yesterday I went with a few cousins to The Atlanta History Center, and we had so much fun!The time period is civil war times. Here are some of the things we did: Pottery. We each made a little bowl (mine finished drying this morning), and you can paint it, too!

We got to learn about shoe making. The tops of the shoes are made of thin leather, the bottom is of thick leather, and the heels of wood. You might be thinking,"Did they have grips?" and "If so, what were they made of?". Yes, the shoes do have grips, but not as we think of them today. The bottom of the shoes have little nails that are hammered in, and the heels have small 'horseshoes', one on each shoe.

We got to visit an outhouse! It was a re-creation, but it looked old. It had two holes, one on each side. Yes, they had a wall in between the two holes, and each had a door.

We made candles. We got into a line, and when it was my turn, the lady there gave a string to me. I dipped it down quickly into a bucket of hot wax (almost to my fingers), then quickly into a bucket of cold water, then went to the back of the line. I did this about 15 times, but I heard that you had to do about 50 dips.

We also saw the guy that told us about shoes do some wood carving. (That was all outside stuff). Then we went inside to cool off, and saw a lady spinning wool, and I felt a finished scarf.

For more about our fun day, click here and here!