Visit to Tannehill State Park

We decided to take a short day trip Sunday to give the girls something fun to do on their last day before returning to school and to give me a chance to get out of the house for a little bit. I have been pretty couped up since my surgery. Anyway, we took the girls to Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park, which is between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. What a great place! It's an old mill and iron making town that has been preserved. It includes tons of restored pioneer cabins, a miniature railroad, a cotton gin, pioneer farm, working gristmill, iron and steel museum, and an original church. It also has old bridges and beautiful water running throughout the huge park. They have added a playground, which our girls really loved. We plan on a return trip maybe in the spring. They do all kinds of neat things between spring and fall like pioneer demonstrations of trades, train rides, horseback riding, trade days, etc. You can also rent one of the cabins. Not to mention, it is an awesome place to take pictures. Below are a few I took with my point-n-shoot. I took a ton more with my big camera. I will post some of those later in the week.

The girls loved the playground. It was a little wet, but that didn't hold them back.

Here is a picture of Tim and the girls looking for a geocache. Tim and Anna Kate have really gotten into this sport. For those of you who have never heard of it, here is a short explaination of geocaching from the geocaching.com website: "Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers outdoors, called geocaches, and then share your experiences online." Tim and Anna Kate have been caching for over a year now. There were several caches at the park, and then they found a few others on our way back home. Tim now has 900 finds, and Anna Kate has over 500. He has done a lot of caching while she was at school so that's why he has so much more, but she loves it as much as he does. It is a perfect thing for a dad who loves the outdoors and gadgets and a little girl who loves to do anything her dad enjoys. Emma is still a little small for this sport, but she enjoyed helping them look for the cache located under this bridge at the park.

It sprinkled on us a couple of times early in the day. We would just get under one of the pavillons and wait it out. These next two individual shots were taken during one of those times.

Like I said, it is a beautiful place. I can't wait to post some of the pictures I took with my big camera, but here are a few more I took with my new, small camera.