Vacation, take two

The next day trip we took was down to Mohican State Park and Malabar Farm State Park. While Jim grew up going to Mohican, I don't remember ever having been there. We drove down to the covered bridge area, where we ate our picnic lunch.










The kids enjoyed the stream (creek? river?) and swingsets, but didn't like the bugs. The path to the dam looked a bit muddy, and the noise of construction made us give up on that hike.










We did drive to the dam, and we spent a little time there before the heat made us give up and move along. After all, a giant dam is not much fun to two kids... unless you let them roll all the way down, and then they would complain about the walk back up.
Next stop, Malabar Farm, just a few miles away. The visitor's center was welcoming - and Air Conditioned! Jamie and Dot didn't want to leave all the colorful displays, but we got them excited about seeing the farm animals. The farm was mostly deserted - it was a very hot day, over 90 degrees and sunny, and schools weren't out for the summer yet. We had the barn all to ourselves, and the kids loved it. Jamie wasn't afraid of the large work horses - he went right up and fed them.








Dot loved the rabbit running free through the barn - and would love to have been able to take advantage of the sign on his cage, "rabbits for sale, $4." Outside, the kids pulled weeds to feed the cow and goats - if only that worked in our garden... but we don't have a cow.







The chickens ran right out of the henhouse when we walked by. We watched them peck around in the dirt until I dug around in my purse to find two quarters - the chicken feed was in a gumball machine, and the chickens expected to be fed!







Even though we were near to the farmhouse, we did not go in for a tour. While Jim and I would have enjoyed it by ourselves, we could easily imagine the kids breaking stuff. Instead, we headed off for a hike through the woods across the road.







The trail through the forest was beautiful, quiet and shady. We tried to keep the kids from talking too much - and they did fine, especially when they saw the deer ahead of us. We listened to a woodpecker drilling a tree, and heard other birds enjoying the early summer day. Of course, Jamie got too tired, and had to be carried, but by the end we had him on the look out for the blue trail markers on the trees. We wearily headed back to the visitors center, where we indulged in ice cream and cold pop.







They also had fresh, free-range chicken eggs for sale, and we picked up a couple dozen, along with some blue popcorn to try later. Jim picked up a book (what else?), From My Experience, by Louis Bromfield, based on what he learned through Malabar farm. It goes on the shelf, a part of Jim's dream of a small family farm...