Thursday, December 9, 2010
Bahamas 2010
Bahamas Log
Destination -ocean reef yacht club. Freeport, Grand Bahama. Staying at the timeshare we won at the Pathways fundraising auction. Sophie stayed with grandparents.
Saturday November 27, 2010
Day one was pretty much spent just getting here and resting. The taxi picked us up at 4:15 am. Since we couldn't start packing until after 10pm, we didn't get much sleep. Brian and I are both nursing a cold, so our focus for this trip is rest. We'll have six full days with no travel.
Travel was uneventful. Had an hour layover in Atlanta. We rented a car for the week from a local place in the airport, got a map, and headed out to drive on the left side of the road. Hit up a local grocery store first thing since it was on the was to the timeshare. Sawyers grocery was really packed with locals. This was about 1pm on Saturday and I've rarely been someplace so busy. This is what I picture black Friday shopping to be like if I ever went.
Sunday november 28
We both slept well last night. Barely had woken up when we got our reminder call about the orientation at 10:30. We thought at least we would get free food. It was just sweetbreads, but at least we got plenty of hot tea, which helped our throats. It was somewhat informative, but mostly a bunch of sales pitches. One we liked though was a guy named shammy who does nature tours. So we booked a kayak trip through the mangrove swamps with him for Tuesday. $79 each and includes lunch at a local restaurant, time on a secluded beach and transportation and gear.
Then we were going to go to the rand nature preserve in Freeport, but it was closed today (plus they have guided tours on Thursday, so we'll go then. Instead we decided to drive over to port lucaya and check out the marketplace.
The Port Lucaya marketplace is supposed to be the most happening place on the island, but it was pretty subdued. A lot of the stores were closed since it was Sunday and not many visitors. We still managed to spend most of the day there. Had a great lunch. Brian had fish and chips which is somewhat local since this used to be a british colony. Stephanie had jerk pork with peas and rice. The rice dish was more like Louisiana red bens and rice. The whole thing was spicy and delicious.
About half the stores are jewelry stores which was fine with us because we'd like to do some Christmas shopping for our mothers. Scoped out a few nice pieces, bought some sunscreen, then hung out at a bar. At the bar we met a couple from Ohio who raved about the fabulous tours they've been on. Turns out they used the same tour guide, so now were really looking forward to Tuesday's tour.
At this point it's sprinkling at little and late in the afternoon. We stopped at a liquor store to supply the condo then changed into swim suits. Really shouldn't spend much more than 24 hours in the Bahamas without seeing the beach. Walked through the resort across the street and enjoyed the beautiful beach. The water was a little cold and the air temperature was only in the low 70s, so we didn't swim. The sand is soft, fluffy, and clean.
Went back to the condo, relaxed, went to the resort pool and hot tub, snacked, watched tv, and went to bed. Great day.
Monday november 29, 2010
Had breakfast in the condo and drove east to lucaya national park. It is a slow boring drive through thin pine trees and palm bushes. There are lots of unfinished houses on the island. They are all cinderblock construction, due to the hurricane building standards. The park facility itself was just a small gravel parking lot right off the road, a low cement building and some toilets. The fee was only $3, plus we had $1 off coupons, so $4 total. There is an upper nature trail thawt is a 10 minute loop, with 2 sinkhole caves you can walk down into. Those were really neat. Especially the first one, as it had fish in it and trees growing up out through the top.
Then we crossed the street for the southern half of the park. This is a trail through the mangrove swash, up through the wooded side of the dunes (where we saw a giant land crab), and to the fluffy beach. The tide was in, so the beach was small, but it was still very beautiful. This was gold rock beach, named for the rock jutting out of the ocean just offshore. We swam for almost an hour. The waves were pretty small, but it was still fun and warm as the sun was out most of the time. Then we ate sandwiches on a bench on the dunes and watched 3 little shore birds peck around in the washed up seaweed, which was not near as gross as the stuff back home, but just lime long thin leaves.
After that we thought about stopping to eat out East somewhere. We drove 7 miles further to the town of High Rock. We didn't stop to eat there, but it was a neat little town.
We got back just in time for the hotel's "Monday night madness". We went because it was 2 free drinks and free food. The host was playing goofy games with people and teaching them line dances. We sat with some canadiens. They have been coming here every year since 1981! Robert also told us about how to drive down to the closest beach. It seems we missed the mass introduction of everyone, but were okay with that.
After that we came back to the room and stephanie watched legally blonde 2 while Brian snoozed and read some of his book.
Tuesday November 30, 2010
It rained a lot last night. Just as we had gotten up and were getting ready to go on our kayaking trip, shammy called and asked if we could reschedule for Friday because of the weather. He said we could still go out and he had ponchos, but he thought we probably would not have a good experience. We reluctantly agreed.
The Rand nature center promoted a free guided nature walk at 10:30 on Tuesdays, so we went to that. Turns out the guided aspect of the tour was just showing you where the trail started. As that was pretty obvious, we were disappointed in the tour. But not disappointed in the place. It was a nice arboretum. There was a pleasant pond were we watched turtles, fish, and birds. They had a rescued an injured hawk, parrot, and some peacocks on display as well.
Lunch at Geneva's on East Mall Drive was wonderful. Easily the best food we've has here yet. Stephanie had baked lamb with peas and rice, plantains, and Cole slaw. Brian had BBQ pork ribs with peas and rice, potato salad, and Cole slaw. Not incredibly different from food at home, but wonderfully prepared and reasonably priced. Thanks, fodors, for the recommendation.
We went to the international bizarre, which is supposed to be a newly renovated shopping area. Hugely disappointed. There are very few stores open and they're mostly sad. The place is kind of like six flags in that each area is built in the style of a different continent.
We did find a natural food store open and bought a local spice packet for Marion.
We rested in the afternoon, and had leftover pork chops for dinner. The highlight of the day was Salsa dance lessons at the casino bar. There was only one other couple at the lesson, but we had a great time. There was instruction for about an hour with Gregory. Then he played music for another hour. It was fun because the atmosphere was like going to a real club, but there was no pressure to do everything right all the time.
Wednesday December 1, 2010
Snorkel day. We rented equipment from the hotel which was kind of an ordeal and not much less expensive than renting on the beach as it turns out. Then we jumped in the car and headed west to paradise cove for the best off beach snorkeling on the island. We paid a small fee for entrance onto the beach and rented some lounge chairs. Then we headed out. It was a fairly long swim to get to the first reef. There were some cool fish. Stephanie was seriously hampered since she doesn't have contact lenses. Mainly, Stephanie just saw jelly fish. There were huge schools of them. Also, felt jelly fish stings. The water was a little rough and we tried to make sure we were together but it was difficult to see. These things combined made for a pretty stressful excursion.
Next Stephanie sat in a lounge chair and read while Brian snorkeled again. This time he went out farther and knew how to avoid the jelly fish. He saw lots of cool things including a huge manta ray. By the time he returned it was very windy, cloudy, and cool. We packed up and drove to the western tip of the island before heading back to the timeshare. Most interesting observation was conch fishing. There were huge piles of the shells on the seashore near some villages. We also found the conch shell dump with shells piled 10 feet high.
Fixed pasta in the room, and went to the hotel restaurant for conch fritters and beer. There was a beach fish fry on Wednesday that's supposed to be fun, but it was actually a little cool and windy. Brian wasn't up for eating fish with head intact, so we just relaxed in the room for the night.
Thursday December 2, 2010
The goal for today was to do xmas shopping and sit on the beach and drink fruity drinks. We also went to movie night. We went back to lucaya marketplace and the jewelry stores. We looked at larimar for Jereane and pink conch earrrings & pendant for Stephanie. Brian tried to negotiate a better price,, but the lady wasn't budging. Then we looked at the place that sells troll beads. This would be a gift for Marion. We finally decided on an arrangement, but it was more beads and more money than we wanted to spend, so we decided to go eat lunch and try again later. Had a nice lunch at a mediterranean cafe where we had fresh veggies and no peas and rice. It was a nice change. In the end we bought the jewelry pieces with little success at negotiating, but were really happy with them. in the afternoon we visited tiano beach. We finally had fruity drinks, but it was really just for the sake of it. It was a little chilly but still nice. For dinner we had ziti in the condo and enjoyed watching a movie with the other guests. It was Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's a Swedish film based on the popular book, dubbed into English. Excellent mystery, thriller.
Friday December 3
Shamee picked us up for the kayaking tour with Calabash Ecotourism at 9am. On the way to Dover Sound on the northern part of the island, he shared a lot of natural history of the archipelago. This was a great tour. He taught us the basics of kayaking, which is very easy. We shared a two person kayak while Shamee had a single. The trip was through a mangrove swashland. It was much more open than I envisioned with the trees only rising a foot or two above the water. We followed Shamee through the swamp for about half an hour, then the path led us into the open ocean. This was much more exciting, but harder work. It made us appreciate returning to the swamp to finish the tour.
The time in the swashland was probably the most relaxing aspect of our vacation. It was warm, the wind was calm, and the scenery was really beautiful. We saw some great blue herons and sandpipers flying through. Not much need to paddle. We were sorry for that part of the tour to end.
Shamee next drove to Banana Beach for lunch at a beachside cafe. Stephanie tried a conch burger. Not something she'll be ordering again, but worth a try. Brian stuck with a regular burger. This beach is really fantastic. It was low tide and you could see exposed sandbars curving around the beach. We took a walk after lunch and found some small conch shells in the water, complete with the slimy critters inside. This was the end of the tour and Shamee too us back to the condo.
We decided we should make one more beach run before the end of the trip, so we walked to Coral beach from the condo. It was cloudy and really too cold to go in, so we shivered on the beach for awhile and then wen in the resort hot tub.
Friday night was the best food and nightlife of the week. There were more locals out and it's always more fun to go someplace that's not empty. We drove to Port Lucaya (2miles) and had dinner at Agava. It's a trendy Latin fusion place and we both had really excellent seafood dishes complete with tasty sauces, steamed veggies and fried plantains. The atmosphere was calming, if pretty similar to home, and the service was great. Then we went to the casino. Brian played craps for an hour or two while Stephanie sat at the bar and enjoyed watching karaoke night. Brian walked away ahead $5 after tips, which didn't cover Stephanie's drinks. Not bad for an evening's entrainment.
Saturday December 4
Time to go home. Brian has been under the weather since the day before Thanksgiving and he's not feeling great. We stopped at Thompsons family market near the resort. We were in search of more ginger tea to take a gifts. The didn't have it, but the place was so charming that we walked the small store. Wish we had found this place earlier. If we wanted to open a market, it would be just like this. High quality specialty foods, produce, a small meat counter, and a deli/bakery. We bought some salami and fresh croissants for sandwiches and a strudel just because it looked good. We filled the car up with 4.28 gas. 200 miles for the week. Before going to the airport we stopped at Sawyers grocery again to get the tea. This was a risky move after the crowds last Saturday. Not quite as bad this go around and we made it to the airport in plenty of time.
The grand bahama airport is very easy and relaxed. Unfortunately, the salami was snagged in customs.
Destination -ocean reef yacht club. Freeport, Grand Bahama. Staying at the timeshare we won at the Pathways fundraising auction. Sophie stayed with grandparents.
Saturday November 27, 2010
Day one was pretty much spent just getting here and resting. The taxi picked us up at 4:15 am. Since we couldn't start packing until after 10pm, we didn't get much sleep. Brian and I are both nursing a cold, so our focus for this trip is rest. We'll have six full days with no travel.
Travel was uneventful. Had an hour layover in Atlanta. We rented a car for the week from a local place in the airport, got a map, and headed out to drive on the left side of the road. Hit up a local grocery store first thing since it was on the was to the timeshare. Sawyers grocery was really packed with locals. This was about 1pm on Saturday and I've rarely been someplace so busy. This is what I picture black Friday shopping to be like if I ever went.
Sunday november 28
We both slept well last night. Barely had woken up when we got our reminder call about the orientation at 10:30. We thought at least we would get free food. It was just sweetbreads, but at least we got plenty of hot tea, which helped our throats. It was somewhat informative, but mostly a bunch of sales pitches. One we liked though was a guy named shammy who does nature tours. So we booked a kayak trip through the mangrove swamps with him for Tuesday. $79 each and includes lunch at a local restaurant, time on a secluded beach and transportation and gear.
Then we were going to go to the rand nature preserve in Freeport, but it was closed today (plus they have guided tours on Thursday, so we'll go then. Instead we decided to drive over to port lucaya and check out the marketplace.
The Port Lucaya marketplace is supposed to be the most happening place on the island, but it was pretty subdued. A lot of the stores were closed since it was Sunday and not many visitors. We still managed to spend most of the day there. Had a great lunch. Brian had fish and chips which is somewhat local since this used to be a british colony. Stephanie had jerk pork with peas and rice. The rice dish was more like Louisiana red bens and rice. The whole thing was spicy and delicious.
About half the stores are jewelry stores which was fine with us because we'd like to do some Christmas shopping for our mothers. Scoped out a few nice pieces, bought some sunscreen, then hung out at a bar. At the bar we met a couple from Ohio who raved about the fabulous tours they've been on. Turns out they used the same tour guide, so now were really looking forward to Tuesday's tour.
At this point it's sprinkling at little and late in the afternoon. We stopped at a liquor store to supply the condo then changed into swim suits. Really shouldn't spend much more than 24 hours in the Bahamas without seeing the beach. Walked through the resort across the street and enjoyed the beautiful beach. The water was a little cold and the air temperature was only in the low 70s, so we didn't swim. The sand is soft, fluffy, and clean.
Went back to the condo, relaxed, went to the resort pool and hot tub, snacked, watched tv, and went to bed. Great day.
Monday november 29, 2010
Had breakfast in the condo and drove east to lucaya national park. It is a slow boring drive through thin pine trees and palm bushes. There are lots of unfinished houses on the island. They are all cinderblock construction, due to the hurricane building standards. The park facility itself was just a small gravel parking lot right off the road, a low cement building and some toilets. The fee was only $3, plus we had $1 off coupons, so $4 total. There is an upper nature trail thawt is a 10 minute loop, with 2 sinkhole caves you can walk down into. Those were really neat. Especially the first one, as it had fish in it and trees growing up out through the top.
Then we crossed the street for the southern half of the park. This is a trail through the mangrove swash, up through the wooded side of the dunes (where we saw a giant land crab), and to the fluffy beach. The tide was in, so the beach was small, but it was still very beautiful. This was gold rock beach, named for the rock jutting out of the ocean just offshore. We swam for almost an hour. The waves were pretty small, but it was still fun and warm as the sun was out most of the time. Then we ate sandwiches on a bench on the dunes and watched 3 little shore birds peck around in the washed up seaweed, which was not near as gross as the stuff back home, but just lime long thin leaves.
After that we thought about stopping to eat out East somewhere. We drove 7 miles further to the town of High Rock. We didn't stop to eat there, but it was a neat little town.
We got back just in time for the hotel's "Monday night madness". We went because it was 2 free drinks and free food. The host was playing goofy games with people and teaching them line dances. We sat with some canadiens. They have been coming here every year since 1981! Robert also told us about how to drive down to the closest beach. It seems we missed the mass introduction of everyone, but were okay with that.
After that we came back to the room and stephanie watched legally blonde 2 while Brian snoozed and read some of his book.
Tuesday November 30, 2010
It rained a lot last night. Just as we had gotten up and were getting ready to go on our kayaking trip, shammy called and asked if we could reschedule for Friday because of the weather. He said we could still go out and he had ponchos, but he thought we probably would not have a good experience. We reluctantly agreed.
The Rand nature center promoted a free guided nature walk at 10:30 on Tuesdays, so we went to that. Turns out the guided aspect of the tour was just showing you where the trail started. As that was pretty obvious, we were disappointed in the tour. But not disappointed in the place. It was a nice arboretum. There was a pleasant pond were we watched turtles, fish, and birds. They had a rescued an injured hawk, parrot, and some peacocks on display as well.
Lunch at Geneva's on East Mall Drive was wonderful. Easily the best food we've has here yet. Stephanie had baked lamb with peas and rice, plantains, and Cole slaw. Brian had BBQ pork ribs with peas and rice, potato salad, and Cole slaw. Not incredibly different from food at home, but wonderfully prepared and reasonably priced. Thanks, fodors, for the recommendation.
We went to the international bizarre, which is supposed to be a newly renovated shopping area. Hugely disappointed. There are very few stores open and they're mostly sad. The place is kind of like six flags in that each area is built in the style of a different continent.
We did find a natural food store open and bought a local spice packet for Marion.
We rested in the afternoon, and had leftover pork chops for dinner. The highlight of the day was Salsa dance lessons at the casino bar. There was only one other couple at the lesson, but we had a great time. There was instruction for about an hour with Gregory. Then he played music for another hour. It was fun because the atmosphere was like going to a real club, but there was no pressure to do everything right all the time.
Wednesday December 1, 2010
Snorkel day. We rented equipment from the hotel which was kind of an ordeal and not much less expensive than renting on the beach as it turns out. Then we jumped in the car and headed west to paradise cove for the best off beach snorkeling on the island. We paid a small fee for entrance onto the beach and rented some lounge chairs. Then we headed out. It was a fairly long swim to get to the first reef. There were some cool fish. Stephanie was seriously hampered since she doesn't have contact lenses. Mainly, Stephanie just saw jelly fish. There were huge schools of them. Also, felt jelly fish stings. The water was a little rough and we tried to make sure we were together but it was difficult to see. These things combined made for a pretty stressful excursion.
Next Stephanie sat in a lounge chair and read while Brian snorkeled again. This time he went out farther and knew how to avoid the jelly fish. He saw lots of cool things including a huge manta ray. By the time he returned it was very windy, cloudy, and cool. We packed up and drove to the western tip of the island before heading back to the timeshare. Most interesting observation was conch fishing. There were huge piles of the shells on the seashore near some villages. We also found the conch shell dump with shells piled 10 feet high.
Fixed pasta in the room, and went to the hotel restaurant for conch fritters and beer. There was a beach fish fry on Wednesday that's supposed to be fun, but it was actually a little cool and windy. Brian wasn't up for eating fish with head intact, so we just relaxed in the room for the night.
Thursday December 2, 2010
The goal for today was to do xmas shopping and sit on the beach and drink fruity drinks. We also went to movie night. We went back to lucaya marketplace and the jewelry stores. We looked at larimar for Jereane and pink conch earrrings & pendant for Stephanie. Brian tried to negotiate a better price,, but the lady wasn't budging. Then we looked at the place that sells troll beads. This would be a gift for Marion. We finally decided on an arrangement, but it was more beads and more money than we wanted to spend, so we decided to go eat lunch and try again later. Had a nice lunch at a mediterranean cafe where we had fresh veggies and no peas and rice. It was a nice change. In the end we bought the jewelry pieces with little success at negotiating, but were really happy with them. in the afternoon we visited tiano beach. We finally had fruity drinks, but it was really just for the sake of it. It was a little chilly but still nice. For dinner we had ziti in the condo and enjoyed watching a movie with the other guests. It was Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's a Swedish film based on the popular book, dubbed into English. Excellent mystery, thriller.
Friday December 3
Shamee picked us up for the kayaking tour with Calabash Ecotourism at 9am. On the way to Dover Sound on the northern part of the island, he shared a lot of natural history of the archipelago. This was a great tour. He taught us the basics of kayaking, which is very easy. We shared a two person kayak while Shamee had a single. The trip was through a mangrove swashland. It was much more open than I envisioned with the trees only rising a foot or two above the water. We followed Shamee through the swamp for about half an hour, then the path led us into the open ocean. This was much more exciting, but harder work. It made us appreciate returning to the swamp to finish the tour.
The time in the swashland was probably the most relaxing aspect of our vacation. It was warm, the wind was calm, and the scenery was really beautiful. We saw some great blue herons and sandpipers flying through. Not much need to paddle. We were sorry for that part of the tour to end.
Shamee next drove to Banana Beach for lunch at a beachside cafe. Stephanie tried a conch burger. Not something she'll be ordering again, but worth a try. Brian stuck with a regular burger. This beach is really fantastic. It was low tide and you could see exposed sandbars curving around the beach. We took a walk after lunch and found some small conch shells in the water, complete with the slimy critters inside. This was the end of the tour and Shamee too us back to the condo.
We decided we should make one more beach run before the end of the trip, so we walked to Coral beach from the condo. It was cloudy and really too cold to go in, so we shivered on the beach for awhile and then wen in the resort hot tub.
Friday night was the best food and nightlife of the week. There were more locals out and it's always more fun to go someplace that's not empty. We drove to Port Lucaya (2miles) and had dinner at Agava. It's a trendy Latin fusion place and we both had really excellent seafood dishes complete with tasty sauces, steamed veggies and fried plantains. The atmosphere was calming, if pretty similar to home, and the service was great. Then we went to the casino. Brian played craps for an hour or two while Stephanie sat at the bar and enjoyed watching karaoke night. Brian walked away ahead $5 after tips, which didn't cover Stephanie's drinks. Not bad for an evening's entrainment.
Saturday December 4
Time to go home. Brian has been under the weather since the day before Thanksgiving and he's not feeling great. We stopped at Thompsons family market near the resort. We were in search of more ginger tea to take a gifts. The didn't have it, but the place was so charming that we walked the small store. Wish we had found this place earlier. If we wanted to open a market, it would be just like this. High quality specialty foods, produce, a small meat counter, and a deli/bakery. We bought some salami and fresh croissants for sandwiches and a strudel just because it looked good. We filled the car up with 4.28 gas. 200 miles for the week. Before going to the airport we stopped at Sawyers grocery again to get the tea. This was a risky move after the crowds last Saturday. Not quite as bad this go around and we made it to the airport in plenty of time.
The grand bahama airport is very easy and relaxed. Unfortunately, the salami was snagged in customs.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
May 2010 Vacation - Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas
May 2010 Vacation
Stats:
Dates: Sunday May 16 through Friday May 21
Destination: Petit Jean State Park, outside of Morrilton, Arkansas
Accommodations: Duplex one bedroom cabin rental with kitchen, 5 nights
Activities: Hiking, play grounds
Car time: ~ 7 hours each way including play stops
Temperature: mid-high 80s mid-day, 60s at night.
Sophie’s age: 2
Cost: Cabin @ $100/night for 5 nights plus tax = $540.
Dog sitting @ $36/day for 5 days = $180
Diesel, 1 tank = $48
Automobile Museum = $15
Total: $783 not including food which was similar to at home
General Overview:
This is an excellent destination for a family vacation. The main activities are hiking, swimming, and lake activities. Our main activity was hiking because the boat rental doesn’t open until Memorial Day and the swimming pool was still pretty cold. While our plans for fishing and swimming were out, there was still plenty of other activity for a 4 day stay. We would definitely consider coming back on a family vacation or inviting friends and family to join us at this park. We liked the Sunday-Thursday night stay because it was less crowded. (Apparently, weekend cabin rentals book up for the summer before mid-April when we planned the trip.) The park has both cabins and a lodge with restaurant. I suspect the park is pretty crowded on the weekends and during the summer. The park is on a mountain with spectacular overlooks at ravines and the river valley farm land. There’s been talk of making this a national park and it compares favorably with Smoky Mountain NP.
Hiking:
The hiking is challenging but the trails are generally not all that long. Three of the trails are designated national recreation trails. We’re not sure what that means, but they were pretty awesome. There are 5 trails that lead to interesting natural features and one long loop trail that encompasses the whole park (Boy Scout Trail). The BSA trail can be used to link together various hikes to make trips ranging from as short as ½ mile to 8 miles. We took hikes every day ranging from 1½ hours to 4 hours and never did the same hike twice. Hiking was fine with Sophie since she rides in the backpack, but I doubt a child under 6 could handle the hikes on their own.
The main draw is Cedar Falls. The falls can be seen in two ways. The most exciting is the hike to the falls from the lodge. This is certainly the most popular trail and was fairly crowded even on a week day in May. The trail is practically straight down the mountain, so there is some challenging terrain. It takes about 2 hours to hike to the falls and back. The second option for viewing the falls is from an overlook on the top of the mountain. There’s a boardwalk leading to the overlook, but it’s still a fairly long walk. Approximately half a mile round trip.
Other interesting hike features include huge rock formations, caves with native pictographs, turtle rocks, and mountain streams. All the trails included steep descents into canyons and crossing some streams.
Stats:
Dates: Sunday May 16 through Friday May 21
Destination: Petit Jean State Park, outside of Morrilton, Arkansas
Accommodations: Duplex one bedroom cabin rental with kitchen, 5 nights
Activities: Hiking, play grounds
Car time: ~ 7 hours each way including play stops
Temperature: mid-high 80s mid-day, 60s at night.
Sophie’s age: 2
Cost: Cabin @ $100/night for 5 nights plus tax = $540.
Dog sitting @ $36/day for 5 days = $180
Diesel, 1 tank = $48
Automobile Museum = $15
Total: $783 not including food which was similar to at home
General Overview:
This is an excellent destination for a family vacation. The main activities are hiking, swimming, and lake activities. Our main activity was hiking because the boat rental doesn’t open until Memorial Day and the swimming pool was still pretty cold. While our plans for fishing and swimming were out, there was still plenty of other activity for a 4 day stay. We would definitely consider coming back on a family vacation or inviting friends and family to join us at this park. We liked the Sunday-Thursday night stay because it was less crowded. (Apparently, weekend cabin rentals book up for the summer before mid-April when we planned the trip.) The park has both cabins and a lodge with restaurant. I suspect the park is pretty crowded on the weekends and during the summer. The park is on a mountain with spectacular overlooks at ravines and the river valley farm land. There’s been talk of making this a national park and it compares favorably with Smoky Mountain NP.
Hiking:
The hiking is challenging but the trails are generally not all that long. Three of the trails are designated national recreation trails. We’re not sure what that means, but they were pretty awesome. There are 5 trails that lead to interesting natural features and one long loop trail that encompasses the whole park (Boy Scout Trail). The BSA trail can be used to link together various hikes to make trips ranging from as short as ½ mile to 8 miles. We took hikes every day ranging from 1½ hours to 4 hours and never did the same hike twice. Hiking was fine with Sophie since she rides in the backpack, but I doubt a child under 6 could handle the hikes on their own.
The main draw is Cedar Falls. The falls can be seen in two ways. The most exciting is the hike to the falls from the lodge. This is certainly the most popular trail and was fairly crowded even on a week day in May. The trail is practically straight down the mountain, so there is some challenging terrain. It takes about 2 hours to hike to the falls and back. The second option for viewing the falls is from an overlook on the top of the mountain. There’s a boardwalk leading to the overlook, but it’s still a fairly long walk. Approximately half a mile round trip.
Other interesting hike features include huge rock formations, caves with native pictographs, turtle rocks, and mountain streams. All the trails included steep descents into canyons and crossing some streams.
Facilities:
We rented a duplex cabin that was really great. It was one bedroom with a full size bed and twin bed in the bedroom and a sofa bed in the living room. The living room had a basic TV (no DVD) and glider chair. The kitchen was fully equipped but not extravagant and included a kitchen table. Along the back of the cabin was a screened-in porch complete with a porch swing. Behind the screened porch was a deck with a picnic table and charcoal grill. The deck was fully railed which was necessary since it was elevated. We had three different neighbors during our five night stay and only one night was bad. Who would expect people to party on Monday night? This is the risk with a duplex. They also had single cabins mixed in and it would be worth trying to get one of those if we go alone again. The duplex feature would be great if we’re in a group and want to rent both sides. There are two cabins that allow dogs for an additional fee. The view from our deck was really spectacular. The lodge & cabins are on a point and there was a cliff about 20 feet behind most of the cabins. No letting Sophie run free! The first few cabins were not next to the cliff, so it might be worth trying to get one of those. We’d lose the view, but gain the freedom of letting Sophie play outside.
Here’s what we saw of other facilities: lots of camping sites. It looked like there were separate tent sites from the RVs. The lodge has hotel rooms and there are also cabins that don’t have kitchens. The lodge restaurant was okay but not fantastic. The best feature was the awesome view. There aren’t many restaurant choices within a 20 minute drive. Having a kitchen is a real plus if staying more than a day.
Playgrounds:
This has become an important consideration for travel plans. We visited at least one playground every day. The area has a large variety of playgrounds. The cabins have a small playground that was old and not fancy, but Sophie still enjoyed it. In the day use area near the lake, there’s a large playground with modern equipment. This wasn’t really ideal for kids her size and close supervision was required, but she really loved it. The nearest town to the park is Opello and it has a very nice playground for young kids at the city park. There’s not much else in Opello. No grocery store or restaurants. The nearest big town is Morrillton. It’s about 20 miles from Petit Jean SP. We found their main city park and it had really good playground facilities for kids of all ages.
Other attractions and notes:
There’s an automobile museum that we visited one morning. There had been a big storm the night before, so we wanted to let the water drain some before doing the daily hike. Brian was more interested in the automobile museum than I was, but we both enjoyed it. Sophie was happy as long as I kept passing cheerios back to her in the backpack. She has no appreciation for old cars at all.
We saw signs for a petting zoo but didn’t pursue it.
The Rockefeller Institute is also on the mountain. It might have some interesting lectures for a future visit.
During the summer, there are boat rentals available. It looked like they had canoes, Johnny boats, and paddle boats. We walked to the fishing pier and the lake was really peaceful.
There’s a swimming pool at the lodge for lodge/cabin guests. There’s also a large pool with slides at the day use area, but it doesn’t open until Memorial Day.
The nearest grocery store is in Morrillton. The produce department is teeny tiny, but there are 5 different choices of baloney. There’s a Wal-mart near the interstate in Morrillton, but we didn’t go that far. I’m sure there are other restaurant and store options there.
About the pronunciation: Everyone uses the American pronunciation for Petit Jean, but it was originally the French pronunciation. The mountain got it’s name from a French exploration party.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)