Cliffs of the Neuse State Park, North Carolina

The Cliffs of the Neuse State Park is only an hour away, so it's within the 50 mile limit for Damon to go.  It is not a huge park, but had a great trail for a hike with the kids.  There is a lake for swimming and cool-looking visitor center, but they were closed.  We had a nice little picnic on a bench overlooking the lake. It was a really enjoyable day.  The last two photographs were taken by Owen. 

Columbia, South Carolina

We spent the long weekend at Columbia. It is the state capitol of South Carolina and the main campus for the University of South Carolina. The old State House was constructed between 1786 and 1790 and was destroyed during the burning of Columbia in 1865. The new building's main structure was completed in 1875 and the exterior in 1907. It is of the Classical Revival architectural style. The grounds are very pretty with a ton of trees and paths. We saw the state capital building and the street next to it was having a fun little street fair. We also found a great little toy store where Milton picked out a great camera that he has hardly put down since purchasing it. Then we went to Camden to visit an NPS stamp location. Fortunately privately owned so they were open for me to get a stamp! By the time of the Revolution, Camden was the economic and cultural center of the backcountry of both North and South Carolina and was so important that almost immediately after Lord General Cornwallis’ capture of Charleston in 1780, Cornwallis established Camden as the garrison and principle supply post for all the British operations in the South. The Camden Battlefield is over 450 acres just north of Camden. It is also becoming a Longleaf Pine Preserve replacing the Loblolly pines. The Longleaf Pines are very slow growing and rely on forest floor fires to be able to grow in ideal situations. The stands of pine trees are stunning the way the that forest floor is covered in pine needles, so really easy to walk through. The next day we visited the Riverside Zoo which the kids loved seeing all the alligators. Milton kept going into the gardens at the state house looking for alligators so he was pretty excited to find a real one at the zoo. After the zoo we went to the South Carolina Museum which was much cooler than we would have guessed. Lots of neat exhibits from natural ecosystem displays, to space flights and satellites. The kids also loved swimming in the little pool at the hotel.

September 2020

This month we were able to resume some of our excursions and in general more of our life's schedule before everything shut down in March.  We spent the long weekend in Columbia and did little day trips to the Cliffs of the Neuse state park, Topsail Island beach and Wilmington Train museum.  Having the kids in school has been tremendously wonderful.  Truly, words cannot describe how nice it is for me and them to be in school.  They both have made leaps and bounds of progress already.  Owen has started back up his piano lessons and finished up book 1 of his Music for Little Mozart series.  He does so well with his lessons and music in general.  A favorite game he likes to play is sort out the books and play "library" when at home.  Having to wear a mask at school and all the other things he is doing for covid precautions he is taking in stride.  Milton gets his temperature taken at the door in the morning, but the little kids are not required to keep on their masks. The classes at Owen's school are small compared to other school districts, so they have the space to spread out in the classes to have some time without their masks.  All the kids are so excited to be back in school that wearing a mask is a minor inconvenience.  Milton has made huge progress with potty training (pooping specifically) once I started using the lego city sets as reward.  Owen was starting to feel a bit left out, so we started a chore chart type thing for both boys that once they get all their "checks" they can pick out a bigger lego set.  We have exhausted all the local options for the small sets.  Owen's chores are making his bed, vacuuming, practicing his piano, cleaning up toys, taking out the recycling, checking for the mail, and his most popular item of reading a book. Milton's options are slightly shorter, with taking out the recycling, checking mail, cleaning up, and using the potty. Milton wants to read too so he can get a check for reading a book too.