Ichetucknee springs

We decided to take one final little break before Max goes back to school. On Wednesday we packed up the van and took off for a few days to go camping! Years ago, B.C. (Before Children), Tim and I went with his parents to Ichetucknee springs in north Florida. It's a beautiful place - freshwater springs that all feed into a crystal clear river. Nice cold water is refreshing on a hot summer day.

You hire an inflatable tube and float down the gorgeous lazy river. It takes between 2-3 hours if you don't go all the way down and when you've got small children that's plenty! We got hold of tubes that held two people, one in front and one at the back so we could keep a good grip on the kids, despite life jackets. We saw LOTS of turtles, some of them swam right by us. We also saw a mother wood duck with her babies following her, some herons and big snails. The kids were fascinated, we got to sit back and relax.

Camping was great! As long as you don't mind being a bit sweaty and dirty for a few days that is. We stayed at a nice camp site (a bit primitive but it had a faucet and some picnic tables and port-a-potties), it was quite private and quiet, being the middle of the week.

The children had lots of fun roasting marshmallows and strumming the guitar. We had fun too, cooking on a wok - it really is the perfect camping tool. It was a nice practice run for figuring out what we need when we go camping on Cumberland Island in October with Donal and Nicola.

Here's a video of Lily's camping song and a few photos too

Lily's Camp fire song:
Every time I go camping..
There's no ghosts
Cause Max is just kidding.
About the real ghosts.
But there isn't a real one
but it's not.
It's pretend.
That's it!