Jellystone Tabor City: Take 2

Jellystone at Tabor City has quickly become one of our favorite places.  We fell in love the first time we went back in March. When I saw on their Facebook page that the upcoming weekend was "Hero's Weekend" we jumped on the chance to go again, only this time for half off since my husband totes a badge. We had not planned on another camping trip until July but some deals just can't be passed up. The kids were beyond excited to go fishing again in the stocked ponds and hoped that it would be warm enough in May to swim in the pool.

I reserved what I thought to be the perfect location, #83. Click here to see a map (Jellystone Tabor City Map). Not too far from the bathhouse, close to the pools and right next to the basketball court and jump pillow. With kids this seemed to be the perfect spot. We rented a golf cart this time so it was quicker to get too and from the ponds for fishing. We broke the rules a little and let our 8 year old drive the golf cart a few times. Got a tongue lashing from the lady at the ranger station when we checked out for that. Lesson learned!

The water in the pools was warm enough to swim this time and with not many people there that weekend it wasn't crowded. The boys enjoyed riding their bikes around the bike track and around the camp ground. The jump pillow had just opened that weekend but the kids weren't super thrilled with it. It was fun for a few minutes but they were more interested in fishing and swimming.   Another highlight of the weekend was gem mining. For $7 each kid gets a bag that has gems, fossils, rocks, shark teeth and an arrow head. The boys especially loved this! I mean, what boy doesn't want a real arrow head and a bunch of gems!

Taylor's 9th birthday is in July so we're planning a trip back for that weekend. YAY!  Another little perk we just discovered is that there is a geocache there too!! SCORE!

Sunset over the big pond is just too amazing!

"Super Moon" weekend. PERFECT!

I caught a catfish :)

She'll pose with and for anything.

Booboo's arrowhead

Our favorite part...relaxing by the fire!

Jump pillow action. That thing gets a little hot so beware.

Geocaching fail

Ok it wasn't a complete fail but it was a rough day. I dropped off the two little ones at Nana's house to swim. Taylor and I took off to go treasure hunting. First, I thought I'd start off with how we got started. The app on my iPhone has a feature that you can search to the closest caches. It's pretty simple even for me who is a little bit of a techno-idiot. There are a few things on each listing that help to find the cache. First there is the title. One of the caches we found today was called "Bob's Sinkhole". What we would be looking for was a large sink hole right off of a nature trail not too far from our house. Another thing we use on the app is the GPS. It takes you within a few feet of where you are going. There are different types of maps and a compass to help navigate right to the cache. There is a rating system for level of difficulty to find and the difficulty of the terrain. It also tells how big the item is that you'll be looking for. Yesterday we found a film canister, a small plastic container and today we found a reusable water bottle. Each listing also has a description, a hint (sometimes) and the most recent date someone has found it. 

All together we attempted to find 6 today. Bob's Sinkhole was a success because how can we miss a gigantic hole in the ground that has a sign in front of it that says "Bob's Sink Hole". The nature trail we were on had several. Some as far as a half mile into the woods. I wasn't completely comfortable going that far in the woods not only because I'm a scaredy cat of creepy crawlies but also because it was just me, my 8 year old and my phone. There weren't any other cars in the parking lot when we got there so we were alone in the woods. Not my idea of fun. We agreed to go try a different location.

We moved on and didn't find anything at the next couple we went to.  Discouraged, we thought we'd try one more. It was at the park, near the water tower. Taylor decided to stay in the air conditioned car and I trekked in the little patch of woods to find a water bottle full of goodies. It had a note pad for us to sign in, a pencil, a few silly bands, a sticker and a little sparkly trinket box. We didn't take anything but left a stone from one of our camping gem mining adventures and placed the bottle back in it's place. So 2 out of 6 wasn't a complete failure but not what we had hoped for either. We'll be trying again soon. There are so many in our area.

Here's what I've learned so far...

• Take bug spray
• Wear sneakers (no flip flops)
• Long pants are probably best but who am I kidding? We're in the south and it's June!
• Take a pen
• Have your phone fully charged
• Take water
• Have anti-itch cream on hand at home
• Wear sunblock

I'm sure our list will get longer as we get more experienced. This was only our second trip out and there is a bunch to learn.

Until next time, Happy Hunting!

The lonely nature trail that Chicken Little and Chicken Big decided against.



Checking out the turtle in the sink hole.



At Bob's Sink Hole

Geocaching



I'm all about some cheap, fun entertainment that doesn't include sitting in front of a TV so when I came across a website about geocaching I knew it was perfect for us. I signed up for the premium membership which was $10 for three months which is perfect for summer and isn't a long term commitment in case we don't love it. I also downloaded the mobile app on my iphone so that we could search "on the fly". So here's the deal in a nutshell...

People around the world have hidden different things, often times little plastic containers so that they hold up in the elements and wild animals. They plot the coordinates on the website and give it a clever name and maybe a hint. So today I decided to go on my first hunt alone. I wanted to be sure there was something to find before lugging all three kids to find something that didn't exist. The mobile app took me right to it! It was a tiny little film canister (remember those?) hidden at the tennis courts of a local public park. We visit this park all the time. Had no clue there was hidden treasure. I wrote our geocaching name on the little slip of paper and tucked it back into it's hiding place. In case you need more explanation here's a little geocaching 101. So cool! I was confident the kids would love it too.



See that little silver thing above Kenly's head? That is what we searched the woods for!



Later on I got all the kids and their friend and headed out to find more. The football field where the boys play had one that was a little more hard to find. I think it was supposed to be hanging from a branch but it was on the ground in a little patch of woods by the field. It didn't matter, the kids were hooked! Taylor was begging to go find more. I am really shocked at how many there are in our little town alone.

Next was the Boy Scout hut. This was super cool because the boy scouts had put a little plastic box in the woods by their scout hut. They had taped camouflauge tape on the box and had put little treasures in the box. The note said if you take something from the box to leave something of equal or greater value. We weren't prepared to leave anything so we put it back the way we found it.



There was only one out of five that we couldn't find. They didn't feel ripped off at that one either though since there was a deer skull on the ground. Kenly and I were a little grossed out but the boys thought it was cool.



Now we are all excited about going tomorrow!




And here's a little collection of our adventure...

Even Little Ms. Priss liked looking for hidden treasure



I promise were having more fun than this picture says




Looking...



Treasure!!!

EEEEWWWWW!!! but he thought it was cool.

This one was tricky to find because we looked all over the ground. Didn't think to look up!

This beats sitting inside any day!!



OBX

Our next camping trip actually happened because we signed up to do a half marathon in Nags Head. Instead of staying in hotel we decided we'd take the kids and camp instead. Our childcare plan didn't work out so we didn't do the race and just had a great weekend away weekend away on the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina. Getting to the camp ground is quite a trek. We booked the 4:30 pm Cedar Island to Ocracoke ferry (Click here for the ferry reservation website)  Suggested arrival time is 30 minutes before the ferry leaves. We got there just in time at 4:15!

On our way to the Cedar Island ferry

The 2.5 hour ferry ride was surprisingly uneventful. I was completely expecting to have an urge to feed a kid (or three kids) to the seagulls but they loved it. We took plenty of coloring books, crayons, markers and games to keep them occupied.  The cabin of the ferry was super comfy, roomy and air conditioned!  This was definitely a new experience for us since back in the day when we'd go to the Outer Banks we took naps on the way there and back.

The wind was a little strong.



The gift of a beautiful sunset....aaahhhhh

When we got the Ocrocoke we had a short drive to get on another ferry but this time it was only 30 minutes. We got to Hattaras around 9:00 and still had another hour long drive to get to Camp Hattaras which is actually in Rodanthe.  We finally made it to the campground around 10:00 and had to set up our little home away from home. Thankfully, it doesn't take very long!

This was the first time we had been to the Outer Banks since Hurricane Irene.  On Saturday morning my husband rode to the nearest store to grab milk for the kids' cereal. The lady working there told him that it was the first time they had opened their doors and he was their first customer since the hurricane had devastated their town. Later that day we drove down Hwy. 12 and saw water slides in pieces on the side of the road, stores without windows still, roof tops blown off. The coolest part was all the new wood where they have worked so hard to rebuild what was lost. New picnic tables at each camp site, new stairs leading down to the beach, new homes going up everywhere.  It made me think about my own life and how at some times it would have just been easier to lose hope and move on but instead I (we) work hard to rebuild what was broken. If it's worth fixing then you stay and fix it and even make it better than before.

We spent a few hours on Saturday at Jockey's Ridge State Park playing on the sand dunes. OH MY GOODNESS! That was an insane leg work-out but so much fun!! The kids had an absolute blast running up and down those dunes. The view from the top was pretty amazing too.  I added hang gliding to my bucket list that day.

Jockey's Ridge

Saturday when we got back to our humble little abode we all swam in the indoor pool (the outdoor pool was still under construction). Camp Hattaras has a 9 hold mini golf course that the kids enjoyed too. The at fishing ponds weren't great so the boys gave up after about an hour of no bites. It think they may need to restock their ponds. I learned a few things on this trip. I like that with each trip we learn a little more about how to perfect this whole camping experience. OR maybe it's not be be perfected but the funness is that it's not perfect at all and we are all learning. 

Here's what I learned:

• I (not my husband) will make the camp site reservation for two reasons: 

1.             There is strategy involved that my husband doesn't consider. Mostly that being near the bath house   is essential for us girls. 
2.            Driving an extra hour to the campground is no fun for a mommy or kids who have been in a car for several hours already.

• Camping at the beach is WINDY! There will be sand in every crevice of the camper, car and your body.
• PLAN! PLAN! PLAN!  I wasn't nearly as organized this time and it was evident. No towels were packed and the kids had no toothbrush.
• Take an earlier ferry from Cedar Island. 4:30 was too late!
• Apply sunblock to myself when applying it to the kids.
• Take bikes
• The pouring rain doesn't have anything on our little camper. Not a drop of water came in during the monsoon we experienced while we slept Saturday night.

We asked the kids what their favorite part was:

• Taylor said the surf shop and ferry ride.
• Landon said the ferry ride, ice cream shop and getting a treasure chest from the gift shop.
• Kenly said getting a new bathing suit and the pool.

Here are a few pictures from OBX, NC:

Grillin' and Chillin'

Super cute little camper lights. The wind was too strong to leave them hanging.

Our three little campers







Happy Campers

We finally did it. After years of dreaming and talking we finally broke down and bought a camper. Instead of taking a big vacation each year we'll take several mini-vacations instead. We set up the camper in the back yard the first weekend we had it. Our boys and a couple of their friends had fun camping in the back yard. We even lit a little fire in the pit and had s'mores that night.

Our first real trip was to Tabor City Jellystone. I called a couple weeks in advance to make the reservation for Easter weekend. The lady that answered was beyond friendly and helpful. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or her! She could tell how excited I was to be making our very first camping trip reservation.  I  had printed a map of the campgound already so I had a general idea of where we wanted to be...near the bath house. Our camper has a little shower and toilet but we only want to use those in case of emergency. Being close to the bath house is priority when camping with three kids (ages 8, 5, 3). I had also printed off the calendar of events for the weekend which happened to be tons of fun stuff for the kids! Candy bar bingo, fishing, egg hunts, games, ice cream, hiking, playing basketball, swimming. These are the things we managed to squeeze in during our weekend at Jellystone. 

Before we left I had made a menu of what we would eat all weekend. I knew we wouldn't eat out and I wanted to be prepared. Here's what it looked like:

• Friday dinner: Grilled hot dogs
• Saturday breakfast: cereal, milk, fruit
• Lunch: Subs with fruit and chips
• Dinner: Chicken kabobs (my mom and dad came for the day and got pizza from the snack bar too)
• Sunday breakfast: Cereal

Things we'll remember for next time:

• Take an entire box of bandaids. All three kids bled within 24 hours of being gone.
• Take fishing poles and bait.
• Put the awning up on the camper before raising the camper up.
• Take a broom.
• Rent a golf cart when making the reservation.

Here are a few highlights from our first camping trip.



Taylor became a pretty good fisherman



Just like home.



Our little set up



On the "HEY" ride with Booboo the bear

Hiking the nature trail



Sunset on the big pond




Saturday night's feast