Lynches River County Park

Last Saturday, we loaded up the family and drove over to Lynches River County Park for the Fall Frenzy Festival. I want to commend the organizers of the event for an amazing job! Everything, other than food, was absolutely free…and who doesn’t like free entertainment? We listened to a local elementary school chorus and watched a dance school perform before the kids realized there was a hayride about to leave. The hayride took about 20 minutes and the children were captivated the entire time. After the hayride, it was on to see the farm animals. My youngest calls the roosters “Cockadoos” and didn’t understand why I wouldn’t let him pet them. They did get to pet quite a few animals, which they loved! After some hand-sanitizing it was on to the next event.
Lowe’s had a crew of helpers on hand to help the kids build wooden fire trucks. (By the way, they do this once a month in-store at their Build and Grow clinics.) We headed over for face painting and bouncing on the inflatables to burn off some energy before lunchtime. After hot dogs and french fries (a healthy lunch, I know) the kids played for a bit on the playground. I think they would have stayed on the playground all day if we hadn’t enticed them into going to see the big truck and tractors. They climbed, honked and ran around the equipment until we dragged them, with flailing of arms and gnashing of teeth, to the car. I know we missed quite a bit of fun but there is only so much you can do when small children are involved.
Lynches River is a park that I often forget about because it is a little out of the way but it is really not much longer of a drive than most of our other favorite parks. They did a great job organizing this event and they have a lot of events happening on a regular basis. If you haven’t been to check out their Environmental Discovery Center, including the Tree Top Canopy Walk, you need to go! There is also a fantastic riverwalk which winds through the woods and over the river, giving you the “nature trail” experience, without the fear of stepping on a snake or tripping on a root. Most times I have been out to the park, there are very few other visitors. Hey Florence! It’s time to get out of the house to visit this fun and educational rescource!

(via guest post)