We took a mid-week trip to the beach to get away, try out our new (to us) camper, and to do some hands-on stuff that goes along with the curriculum that the boys have been doing for the past few months. They've been doing a WinterPromise curriculum called Sea & Sky, which chronicles the history and science of sailing and flying from the Ancient World to the exploration of space. In parallel, they've been doing Apologia's Swimming Creatures science, so they've been learning about all manner of sea creatures.
We found an RV park near Holden Beach for a good price, loaded up and headed out. It's a 3 1/2-hour drive down, so to break it up, I found a place to stop and get the kids out to walk around. Lake Waccamaw was right on our route down there, so we went to the state park there. The warnings from the Ranger there included: "Keep the kids close. The 'gators are out." Riiight... Let's go!
The lake is the largest natural fresh-water lake in North Carolina and is home to a large number of animals that are found nowhere else, though the vast majority of them are particular species of snails, mollusks and that sort of thing. It's also home to the largest population of the American alligator this far north. We got a map and decided to take a walk along a trail and see if we could spot one or two...
Spanish moss...
and some cool-looking dead trees, but no alligators that we could see on our walk.
At this point a storm started to roll in across the lake, so we hustled it back to the car and headed on our way.
