Mom's turn: Fieldtrip

We took a fieldtrip yesterday and were greeted by Gus the friendly turkey...unknown to us at the time!

Gus struttin' his stuff

When we arrived we were having trouble telling if he was in love with the Bug – or overly aggressive towards us! Thankfully it was the former. He followed us all the way up to the entrance of Oakley Plantation House. We were excited to see some of the original items and to learn about the house that had been completed in 1806.

Brooke modeling the slave's attire of the 1800's

It was owned by several generations of the same family so it has one of the largest collections of original antique items. Also, John James Audubon tutored one of the children for a summer and while he was there he drew 34 of his famous bird artworks.

They have several of his pictures on display however pictures didn’t turn out well due to the fact that you can’t use a flash inside. We enjoyed walking on the nature trail where he used to find his specimens to sketch.

Teeny & Brooke taking a rest and enjoying nature

Look at the beautiful Wisteria!! I love spring.

We saw several tung tree blossoms, birds, cherry laurels, and pitcher plants. We then went into the main house for a tour. Unfortunately, Teeny was not feeling well, so she and Travis sat outside and waited for me and Brooke to finish. There were several demonstrations around the grounds, too: bird demonstration with a barred owl,

She was a very beautiful, injured owl that would never be rehabbed enough to be released in the wild again...so the zoo was taking care of her

reptile demonstration with several corn snakes, and other various activities. Again, since Teeny wasn’t feeling well we skipped most of these and went back to the house to get some lunch. It was a wonderful place, though, and we all said how much we’d like to come back again.