Row, row, row your boat ...

A post-holiday funk was settling into my bones, and I decided we needed a little mini-break. After all, it had been almost a month since we'd been back from our Big Road Trip, said good bye to our visitors, had a birthday party, and we had one last weekend before Isabella was back at school as a big Grade Two Girl, to do a little travelling just the four of us.

As Chief-Holiday-Planner, I'd done a little research through the week about possible weekend destinations. Our Georgia travels, so far, have been north, east and west, so we figured we might as well head south, towards Florida, and explore a little down there.



The historic southern Georgian town of Thomasville popped up on my radar, and so that was where we headed.

Unusually for me, we hadn't pre-booked accommodation, as we didn't want to put pressure on ourselves on a Friday night, so we threw the kids in the car after feeding them, and drove for just under 3 hours, comparing a couple of motels online, en route, and settling for a mid-ranged one with a pool - essential!! - and close access to the action of the historic downtown.

In reading up about Thomasville, I'd come across three key attractions: an ancient oak tree dating back more than 350 years; a walkable historic main street; and a plantation estate. It sounded quaint, but one can never be sure. Although, I've found Trip Advisor to be a pretty reliable source of travel info, sometimes it's not until you ask at the Visitors' Centre that you find out what's open and what's not - the Plantation estate was not.

So after a basic but adequate breakfast at the motel, we went in search of the Big Oak Tree. It was, indeed, a beautiful, majestic monster of a thing, supporting not only its own ecosystem, but also a considerable chunk of the tourist dollar for Thomasville.

There were a few signs warning people not to climb her, and a web-linked camera, with a phone number to dial to activate a photo of yourself posing in front of the beast!

Here's our tree-cam shot, followed by our ground-level, iphone ones!

After that, we strolled down the main street, just enjoying the opportunity to WALK somewhere! There were a number of cute and interesting shops, including a great toy shop, and an amazing cheese shop - shock! horror! It even had a large communal table, set up for cheese and wine tastings ... if only! We settled for some locally produced cheeses to take back to the motel and enjoy, once children were in bed.

 It wasn't pleasant extricating these two ...

I meant, these two!

Now, for some Mummy-Daddy time!!!

Yes, it was steamy and hot outside, and cool and crisp inside!

Even Miss has a taste for cheese - pity there wasn't any Daphinois!

The teacups and saucers as part of the window display, along with the flower boxes got me ... so pretty!

Shrimp and Grits! (And a Hush Puppy!)

This guy reminded me of Kramer (Seinfeld) ...

 Nope, we didn't venture into this one ...

The Visitor's Center showed photos of Thomasville in its heyday as a Winter Resort for wealthy northerners. 

Pretty house, but not entirely sure of its purpose?! 

And back to "our" tree!

We had a lovely al fresco lunch at "Jonah's", complete with outside pedestal fans, and colouring activities for the kids with biblical verses!!

After lunch we went for a little drive around town, and stumbled across an historic homestead which was open for tours, where we took in a more civilised way of life - especially if you happened to be a wealthy Chicago  businessman at the turn of the last century. Amongst the interesting snippets gleaned from our guided tour, we learned that there is not one square room in the house, and that there are a large number of external doors in case of a fire - the former owner's obsession, after surviving a house fire as a child - interesting, given the amount of wood in the house!

Have DouDou, will travel!

The dinner setting, though not authentic to the time, was rather familiar!!

It's ok, he didn't do it!

At a certain time of year, and time of day, the decorative star cutout on the balcony throws a shadow inside the house ... see cards below.

I imagine any new bride would be chuffed to cook on such a stove ...

... and wash up in such a sink - with running water, no less, though these taps have seen better days.

We had a peek in the cellar - open air - and heard stories of how the household's extensive wine collection had been thieved one year!

I loved the lead light and the subsequent glow in the staircase.

"Yay", says Daniel - "now I can really go crazy!"

Even the letter box was in character!

Here's another majestic local home ...

Love the Live Oaks!

By the time the kids had become ratty, it was back the motel for a swim, and thoughts of dinner! Dave had spied "The Chop House", a predominantly red meat establishment, and we'd planned to go there, but alas, 6.30pm on a Saturday in downtown Thomasville is peak hour for diners - even those without ankle-biters - go figure! So after a little fruitless traipsing around, we settled for the local gourmet pizza joint. It was a little bit of a let-down, as we'd hoped for something fancier, but it ended up being fine.

Decisions, decisions!

Something American restaurants are great at - entertaining the kids!
Moonspin had crayons and paper plates for pre-dining entertainment, which was a nice change from the usual colouring-in activity sheet/menus of most of the big chains

Full-face contortions necessary to get one's chops around this beauty!

Drippy, droppy (and fuzzy!) trees ... in downtown Thomasville, GA

One of the cute looking BnBs in town - we didn't stay here! 

Sharing a double bed with someone can be quite comfortable ... when you're under 40!

On Sunday, we decided to head east to the natural wonder that is the Okefenokee Swamp! Hitting the road anywhere in the south on a Sunday is like driving through a ghost town, unless you time it wrong! Luckily for us, we timed it right and had a very quiet drive through some peanut plantation country, only having to stop briefly to explain to the local constabulary why we were in such a hurry ... our driver decided it might be best not to try to spin a tale. It worked!

Two hours later, we arrived, and if we thought everywhere else we'd been was hot and humid, we were not prepared for Swamp Country. The air was damp and full of opportunistic mosquitoes looking for an Australian asthmatic to sink their nasty little proboscis into. (I'd read somewhere that mossies are attracted to carbon dioxide, which people with asthma and allergies produce more of; explaining why my ankles look like the face of a spotty teenager!!)

After spraying ourselves with heavy-duty insect repellent, we entered the Okefenokee Swamp Park and bought our tickets which included a boat ride, train trip, and nature talk.

Yes, he's real!!

This mean mother (or father!?) was giving chase - and quite nimbly - to his roomies!

Otter capers

Before our boat trip, we squeezed in a little walk along a disturbingly close to the water wooden walkway, amongst water lilies, swamp cypresses, vines, and the odd gator. A sign on a gate to one of the lower and narrower (!!) walkways, warned people about the risks of being in a nature reserve and reminding visitors, who hadn't done so, to sign the waver in the gift shop!!!

We hadn't seen a waiver, but figured if we kept to the middle plank, and held the tastiest morsel in our team well above the water, we'd be safe. It was a little scary, and Isabella had a worried expression for most of this little sortie, but it was great fun!

We even saw some tiny, little, hatchling alligators which were invisible unless someone pointed them out to you. The hatchlings were sitting on partially submerged moss, and were rather cute! Mumma Gator was likely to be nearby, though, so nobody was silly enough to try to get too close.

Unfortunately, we didn't see any bobcats ... being "mostly" nocturnal, 
but it was kind of cute to think that they were lurking in the neighbourhood!

Daniel enjoyed cutting loose from the family...for 15 seconds!

Checking out the baby gators!

Tiny, baby alligators - recently hatched, and not far from Mumma!

And this is where the walkway gets a little narrower, 

a lot closer to the water ... and all who reside in it!

Isabella looking suitably nervous, and trying very hard to stick to the middle plank, as we'd recommended

Aah! Safe, at last...for a moment!

Heading back to catch our boat

The boat trip offered another, slightly safer, but definitely stinkier perspective of the Swamp - due to dead catfish carcasses floating in the waterways. Our guide, a bald bear of a bloke, with a real southern drawl, predictable one-liners, and a pro-hunting t-shirt, led us for a 45 minute tour. Keeping Daniel on his bum was a challenge, but luckily the trip was broken up by a stop at an observation tower which afforded us amazing views across the treetops.

Charlotte and co.... perhaps, hubby?!

Almost, all aboard!

And off we go ...

Daniel was determined to be gator bait ... but I think even he had an appreciation for the atmosphere of the Okefenokee Swamp, judging from his very serious little face.

Our guide, Buck, looked like he could have taken on a gator, if needs be, so we were quietly confident of getting back to the launch in one piece.

Along the way, we took in the river bank sights, including an old moonshine "distillery" ... looked a little like a cheap movie prop to me, but who am I to say?!

Floating Catfish carcasses made for an aromatic trip ...

Wild growing Pitcher plants were a pretty sight.

This non-descript mound was apparently a Mumma Gator's nest!

I wasn't about to take over the navigation - thank God, for Buck!

Don't you just love Buck's t-shirt with its smoking bullet forming the shape of a helpless animal?! (I suppose it matches his camo pants and hat.)

And here we are, back at the tower, to which we'd walked via the boardwalk, just prior to our boat ride.

What a view!!

I just love that drippy, droppy Spanish Moss ... somehow the sight of it makes everything feel more languid!

  

  

   

We probably could have happily departed at that stage, back to the sanctuary of our air-conditioned car, but no, we had a train trip, and nature talk to sit through! 

Can you tell, I was over the heat, humidity and mosquitoes?!

And now for the train trip ...

You can just see the tail of "Aunty Helen", a 60 something year old lady of the swamp.

Anyway, onward and upward, to the Okefenokee choo-choo, where we had yet another view of the Swamp, stopping briefly at The Island, where an assortment of hokey-looking sheds - none of which had aircon - with fairly lame displays of life from yesteryear. Yep, I was getting more and more over it as time ticked on, until finally, hallelujah, the whistle blew and it was all aboard for the return trip, and the nature talk.

The nature talk was pretty entertaining, mostly because Daniel demanded first pat of every baby gator, snake, etc, on offer, and there is something about a squawking toddler in a room full of people that cannot be ignored, despite every parental trick in the book. 

The presenter knew Daniel by name by the end of the show, as did everyone else.

Welcome to the Deep South ... and the art of Gator Hypnotism!

 And with that, it was homeward bound with a couple of very tired and sweaty swamp rats!!