Monday, May 08, 2006

A Day at Callaway
Saturday we drove down to Callaway Gardens - http://www.callawaygardens.com/. We first stopped by LaGrange and picked up our friend Vicki. In the midst of a lot of days with not so good weather, Saturday was beautiful (78 degrees and sunny). Abby was very excited to see Vicki, her dogs, Scout and Fisher, and to meet her new kitten, Gilmore. The dogs were happy to see Abby and Gilmore was more fascinated with just what Abby was. Vicki's boyfriend gave her Gilmore at Halloween so little Gilmore is still a kitten. He really cracked me up because he acted a little scared of Abby (he has never seen a little kid before) and yet he stayed very close to her just checking her out. It looked like he was saying "what IS she?"

Before she was even dressed, Abby got the things she was going to take with us and put them literally beside the front door. She was so excited!


When we first got there, we started by feeding lots of very large turtles (plus some very large and very sneaky fish). You can buy a handful of food and Abby liked throwing one tiny pellet at a time.


After lunch at the Country Kitchen (delicious food by the way), we checked out the view. Before you worry that this looks like something Michael Jackson would let his kids do, the view is very deceiving. :-) The other side of the little fence was really no drop at all as the ground was level there. The view was really pretty though!

Next we went to the butterfly exhibit. It is really cool and Abby loved walking around it. In fact, she made 3 tours around.

After the butterflies, we went to the beach for a little while. Since the official season opening isn't until Memorial Day, there were only a few people hanging about. Next time I will have to take Abby's bathing suit (or "baking suit" as she still calls it).

After the beach we headed back to the other side of the lake to watch the Birds of Prey show. We had just enough time to partake in a little ice cream snack before the show. We managed to snag a front row bench and got to see Tildon the Hawk, Willow the Owl, and Vinnie the Vulture up close and personal. My favorite was Vinnie. While we waited on the bird show, Abby did her own little parading.

Abby checking out the statue of Mrs. Callaway and her dog.

After the bird show, it was time to head home. Abby was sound asleep before we even got out of the gardens. She slept all the way back to our driveway.