The Oh-So-Exciting Okefenokee

Let’s call this DAY 3.  Perhaps it was Friday.  Perhaps it was Georgia.  We know it officially said the Okefenokee Swamp Park.  We also know it wasn’t the Okefenokee Swamp we were trying to go to.  Apparently there’s more than one part.  But it was interesting, to say the least.

 

Our admission tickets included a tour of the park by train. There’s no better way to see the wilderness than to the tune of an aging diesel engine.

This brave Seminole died so that sweaty white people could feel cultured.

Andy loooooves trains!

We saw no birds. No birds!

 

Some tools that help make turpentine! Turpentine is made using sap from trees. Turpentine has many uses. Many cleaning products include turpentine. Did you know that turpentine is used as an ingredient in many cosmetics? 

 

Turpentine!!!!!

A bear made out of dead vines. Sweet.

 

For fifteen glorious minutes, we were allowed to explore a place called Pioneer Island. It wasn’t so much an island as it was a part of the park that we drove by on our way in that is completely accessible by foot or by car.

An indigenous swamp creature. 

Proof that we are taking video, even if we aren’t able to upload it.

Caitlin loved the goats. Andy just fed them boiled peanut shells.

 

Look! An alligator! And it has a second face that comes out of the middle of its upper jaw! Must be all the turpentine in the water.

Caitlin was a differently-abled bear in a past lifetime.

The set for their nature show. It depicted what life was like for the Cherokee Indians who lived in the area before the government sent them on a happy little hike to Oklahoma.

 

“Lure of the Wilderness”? Our favorite movie of all time!

The sign reads, “Seminole Village.” Apparently they were very small.

The reptile handler at the reptile show. He whispered to the snakes.

Seconds later, we were rushing to the hospital.

The tour guide kept pronouncing this as “Haffert,” so we thought Caitlin might be the Okefenokee heir.

 

What a day! We learned so much about so many things. Too bad we’ll never get to come back.