Fall Break 2015: Tallahassee Jr. Museum

On the second day of our Florida trip, my niece, Izzy, went to school for a field trip to visit the Tallahassee Fire Department. 

My mom and sister took Levi and Jack to the fire station while my brother, Isaac and I had a lazy morning at the house.

When they came home from their outing, we packed snacks and a light lunch to take with us to the Tallahassee Museum (it was called the Jr. Museum when my brother-in-law was growing up).

The Tallahassee Museum is an outdoor museum that feels more like a mini zoo than a museum. Set on 52 acres of natural flora and fauna, it is a living exhibit of Florida's wildlife. 

You can explore the Wildlife Florida section by wandering down nature trails and boardwalks which take you through various gardens and animal habitats that are native to the region.

At the beginning of our walk my mom commented that she smelled a skunk. As we circled back through the Wildlife section we discovered an area that did indeed house a skunk! 

As you walk through the wildlife section you will notice large metal sculptures of dinosaurs nestled into the habitat. The collection was created by Jim Gary in 1979; and after exhibiting around the world, it now resides at the Tallahassee Museum where it provides an element of whimsy to the natural environment. 

In addition to the native animals, there is a section of the Museum called Big Bend Farmstead that is dedicated to showing how rural farmers lived in the 1880s. Here you can view livestock and get a glimpse of how rural farmers spent their days.

If you have the time, you should try the Tree Top Adventures Ropes Course. As you walk through the Museum you will notice the ropes course in the tree canopy above you. 

We were unable to do this adventure on this particular trip because you have to wear close-toed shoes and we were all in sandals. We hope to come back and see the habitats from above! 

There is a children's ropes course (ages 3+) and two different courses for adults. As you walk through the Museum you can see all of the platforms above you and watch as people zip line between trees. 

At the end of our trip we stopped at the playground for lunch and to let our kiddos play. On more than one occasion one of our boys would yell, "Hey! There's someone flying [on a zip line] over that building!"

The museum has been an iconic Tallahassee landmark for more than 50 years and is ranked as one of Florida’s top museums. We enjoyed our afternoon there and hope to return to do the ropes course in the future.

Fall Break Recap:

Ellijay, GA   |   Stringers Ridge, TN   |  Wakulla Springs, FL   |  Tallahassee Jr. Museum, FL   |  St. George Island, FL

Fall Break 2015: Wakulla Springs

Wakulla Springs, located near Tallahasee, Florida, is the world’s largest and deepest freshwater spring. It was also our first day trip while visiting my sister during Jack's Fall Break.

The park offers a swimming area, complete with a diving platform over the deepest part of the springs, river boat tours, nature trails, horse trails, a historic lodge and more. We took advantage of the lodge, river boat tour and swimming area on this visit.

Upon arrival we purchased our tickets for the 12:30 boat ride. Since we had about 20 minutes to kill, we wandered up to the historic lodge where we got to see Old Joe. Old Joe is an 11-foot alligator that died in 1966. It is rumored that he was 300 years old. 

After checking out Old Joe, we purchased ice cream for the kids and boiled peanuts for the adults. You can never go wrong with ice cream. At the lodge we also learned that Creature from the Black Lagoon and the early Tarzan movies were filmed at this location.

On our river boat tour, we managed to grab the very front seats in the boat – with two 3-year-old boys I was more than a little nervous on several occasions, but we survived. No boys jumped out of the boat and thankfully no alligators got too close!

While there are many birds and turtles to see in this wildlife sanctuary, the biggest treat is the manatees and alligators that live in this spring.

This was my first time to see a manatee. It almost looked like a large smooth rock floating in the river. It never came above the water, just floated lazily next to our boat.

The highlight of the boat ride was probably the alligators. I have never seen so many of these creatures in one place. To be honest, they make me a bit nervous.

For the most part they just ignored us. Our river boat captain would pull up right next to the bank so that we could get a good glimpse of them. One turned its back to us, preferring to nap in the sun than entertain tourists.

Toward the end or our ride we came across two alligators that were quite large. The guide joked that they must be related to Old Joe. Then one of them started to raise its head and come a little closer to us... our guide backed the boat away in a hurry. I tried not to imagine the worst – like the fact that our two little boys would have been a good gator snack.

After our boat ride (which the kids got a bit restless on), we headed to the swimming area of the spring. It made me a bit anxious that the kids were swimming in the SAME spring as the alligators we had just glimpsed. 

Supposedly the alligators never come over to the swimming area, but you can believe I kept a watchful eye out for anything mysterious looking in the crystal clear water!

While we sat watching the children splash in the water and stir up the "al-a-gee" I sat back and watched as a bird on the opposite bank dove out the sky toward the water. Just as it neared the water, an alligator jumped up and snatched it. I about fell over. The alligator must have jumped 3-4 feet in the air to grab the bird. I had no idea they could jump like that.

Needless to say I was VERY nervous about the kids after that. The kids had no clue and enjoyed the water, even though it was freezing! A trip to Wakulla Springs is worth the visit just to see all of the animals in their natural habitat.

After our time at the springs, we went back to Tallahassee for a late lunch at the Midtown Caboose. Midtown Caboose offers a ton of different gourmet burgers. 

Since it was the week before Canadian Thanksgiving, I decided to try to the Oh Canada! Burger. This consisted of a burger topped with hashbrowns, Canadian bacon and a fried egg, sandwiched between two pancakes with a side of maple syrup. It was delicious and I ate the ENTIRE thing. Midtown Caboose is definitely worth a visit if you like burgers.

Fall Break Recap:

Ellijay, GA   |   Stringers Ridge, TN   |  Wakulla Springs, FL   |  Tallahassee Jr. Museum, FL   |  St. George Island, FL

Fall Break 2015: Florida

My sister and her family moved from Nashville to Tallahassee about a year-and-a-half ago. We have sorely missed having them live in a neighboring city. What used to be a doable day trip (2 hours each way) now requires 8 hours in the car with little ones.

Last year our entire family met up in Mexico Beach for some fun in the sun, but this year we decided we needed to go see my sister's family in their new house and experience their new city.

Jack has missed his cousins (which I know all too well since most of my cousins live in Canada) so we will continue to do our best to make sure our kiddos get quality time together.

The thing that stands out to me most about the Tallahassee area is all of the Spanish moss hanging from the big oak trees. It is beautiful. I also loved the large cypress trees growing in the swampy areas. It is such a different feel from the mountains where we currently live. I hope that Jack and Isaac will cherish this different area of the country as we continue to venture down to visit their cousins.

On this particular trip my sister had a full schedule mapped out for us. I will post about each of our day trips in upcoming posts, but here is a quick recap:

On Thursday we drove out to Wakulla Springs for a river boat ride where we saw two manatees and quite a few alligators, in addition to the many birds and turtles living in this sanctuary.

Friday involved a field trip with my niece's first grade class to the local fire station. The boys had fun checking out the fire engines (though with 100+ kids running around, Jack thought it was all too loud).

Friday afternoon we got Izzy out of school and went to the Tallahassee Jr. Museum where we walked around and saw animals that are native to the area – including a panther and two black bears, oh my!

On Saturday we made our way to St. George Island on the Gulf. This was probably the kids favorite outing – building sand castles and splashing in the water.

We had a lovely week with my sister and her family. It was extra special since my brother and my mom were able to join us (they rode down with me and the boys so that I would have some help on the trip).

Isaac was a trooper through all of the outings, even though he was teething all week. He is working on not one, but two bottom teeth!

It was a wonderful Fall Break, but we missed having Daniel and my dad along on this trip.

Fall Break Recap:

Ellijay, GA   |   Stringers Ridge, TN   |  Wakulla Springs, FL   |  Tallahassee Jr. Museum, FL   |  St. George Island, FL