Playgrounds from Our Trip to South Carolina

On the way down to Hilton Head, we stopped for a break at Nash County Miracle Park which had some construction going on. It also had some fun for our kids.

Most of the playground

Brave climber

Slide climber

Another brave climber

Group shot

Lowcountry Celebration Park has to be the swankiest playground we visited on our trip. The outer park is fairly typical, but inside is the Adventure Playground which features a large pirate ship as the main attraction for kids.

Typical empty fields and buildings

Atypical pirate ship (or is it a typical pirate ship?)

View from the side

The kids played hide and seek while at the playground. The youngest was able to hide above deck for a while.

Looking for her younger brother

Still safe

The playground has a patina of educational value with this sign about the history of Hilton Head Island, named after explorer (and eventual island owner) William Hilton.

Yeah, sure, the kids take the time to read this!

The park also has a large sculpture that is unidentified. It suggests the rays of the sun to me, or some fancy headdress.

Art over water

The playground has some lagoonish waters around it where we saw a turtle and and alligator.

Submerged turtle

Non-swimming turtles

Later in the day, we went to Shelter Cove's playground with fun, if less elaborate, equipment.

Awkward swinging

Looking smoother

"Who dares me to take the fireman pole?"

Stuck in mid-pole

Jarvis Creek Park has a large lake that drains water from the Main Street area nearby. The builders put in a trail around the drainage pond and a playground. The pond has alligators around it too!

Jarvis Creek playground

Climbing

Three in one photo

Two gators in one photo

A lone gator

We walked along the trail around the lake (in spite of the gator danger). The kids turned one of the swinging benches into playground equipment. They swung and jumped!

Building up momentum

A blurry landing

Hoping for a good landing

What technique!

Harbour Town at the southern end of the island has a playground that featured swings again, plus an alligator ride.

Crazy, twisty fun!

Trio of trouble

Like Paul Atreides on a sand worm!

We went back to Shelter's Cove on our last full day in South Carolina.

Getting help from big sis

Watch out!!!

Geocaching from the Carolinas

In an attempt not to flood the usual monthly geocaching update, I'm posting the caches we found on our Carolinas vacation. We went over spring break in 2022 and did a lot of fun things, including finding geocaches.

Our first find was in Chadbourn, North Carolina, a small town once known for its strawberries. Take Me Out to the Ball Game is not named after the local delicacy but after the field next to the cache. The dugouts were really nice but the diamonds has not been kept pristine, probably another victim of Covid.

View from the cache

In South Carolina, our base of operations was North Myrtle Beach. Our first caches in the area in the Cherry Grove neighborhood. The first find was up with the vines by the Cherry Grove Boat Launch. The area has a lot of construction going on which make it a bit of a challenge. We were intrepid enough to hop a small fence and make the find.

Past the dangers is the cache

Half a mile away is What's Fer Lunch. This cache is in Heritage Shores Nature Park. The park has some short trails through a wetland. At the end of the wetland is a covered picnic table that overlooks the intercostal waterway. We ran into some people there who had heard of geocaching. One of them found the cache for us! We signed the log and went off, happy to do a little geo-evangelizing.

It's in there somewhere

Another water themed cache is He's a bad buoy...., in a parking lot along Route 17, the main highway roughly north to south through Myrtle Beach. The hide was nicely done.

Lots of potential ground zeroes

On our way home, we found Emergency Operations Center, which is in front of the Pender County (North Carolina) Fire Department that also is the home of the Pender County Emergency Management Office. The find was fairly easy. One of the workers noticed us and came out. He said he knew what we were doing and hadn't checked on the cache in six months. We discovered the log was soggy and he said he would get something for us. He came back with a coin that they had from Hurricane Florence, which was the most awesome geofind we've ever had.

Posing near the cache site

Showing off the coin

Further along on our trip, we picked up Aquia Episcopal Church which was, as seems obvious, at the Aquia Episcopal Church in Stafford County, Virginia. The church is on a hill overlooking I-95, so it was an easy off-and-on from the highway and a nice chance to stretch our limbs.

View from the cache

The trip was a lot of fun. More posts on other activities coming soon!

Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh, Part II

A continuation of yesterpost...

The Kid Grid area was all about producing and using electricity. A complicated system distributes circular tiles (representing fuel) throughout the area. Various machines pick up the pucks and send them down tubes to other parts of the room. The children enjoyed the complicated contraptions and learned something about the electric grid too.

Kid Grid entrance

A climbing area

A way to send power into the system

Driving an electric car

Electricity use at home

Just outside Kid Grid is STEMosphere, an area devoted to science, technology, engineering, and math. Some challenges were meant for kids to conquer, others to inspire wonder.

Building a Lego bridge

Wind on a hankie makes for an interesting display

Working with circuits

Moneypalooza is an area about using money wisely, very similar to the Kid Grid area, but using cash instead of power.

Moneypalooza entrance

One area emphasized saving for the future and let visitors shoot money through air guns into a savings area.

Aim to save!

Loading the Aim to Save air gun

Still loading

Making a deposit

Another area helps kids choose what to spend money on by that classic game of skillful choosing...skeeball!

I hope I get to spend more money on food!

Many of the soft money balls would accumulate in a big piggy bank in the middle of the room. Occasionally the piggy would get overfull and burst his seams, dropping money on excited children below.

Waiting for the bank to crash

Pennies from heaven?

On our way out, we put our faces on a hundred dollar note....

$100 daughter

Toddler bucks!

Aren't you a little young to be wearing a wig?

The final inside area of our visit was Splash! As the name implies, water was a big theme in this area. We managed to stay dry during our exploration.

Splash! entrance

Inside a yellow submarine

At the controls

Beyond the submarine is a pirate ship, which looked like more fun to me but only the oldest child was interested in playing there. I felt obligated to keep an eye on the toddler so I did not get a chance to explore. Maybe next time.

Front of the pirate ship

Back of the ship

The scurvy mate

Outside, we visited Tree Tunes. The area has plenty of musical instruments, mostly of the xylophone variety.

Playing a tune

Playing together

One last note

Tubular bells

A fountain in the middle

The area also has a river where children can play with boats and other water implements. Protective smocks were available but unused by my children.

Waterfall at the end of the river

A water tower

We enjoyed our visit but were getting hungry (and the toddler was getting sleepy). We headed off for lunch happy with our experiences at Marbles Kids Museum.