Amish Saturday's in Todd County - Free

For those of us from Todd County, seeing the Amish in and around the community and shopping at their businesses is pretty much the norm, but it's not the norm for many people even just 20 miles away.  I've always felt Todd County was special and it seems as though many things are coming together this year to really be able to promote the county, increase tourism and Saturday's seem to be the best day to come for a visit!

Jefferson Davis Monument State Park - Fairview, KY (FREE)

The Jefferson Davis Monument is probably somewhere that most everyone has been to at some point but rarely ever goes.

I started taking M there about 2 years ago.  She was fascinated with the monument when we would drive by......and according to her Goofy lives in it.  Weird, Rapunzel would make much more sense, but regardless, we had to go.

I'm considering this FREE because once you go up, I don't see a need to go up in the monument every time, but if it is new to you and the kids, its worth the $3 for you and $2 for kids to get to say they went up and got to point out Pilot Rock and see Elkton from afar.

Since we are past going up in the monument, what do we actually "do" there?

I just really love the wide open space and it's fun to walk, run, skip around with the kids and see what all you can find.  One particular spring day we just sat around in the grass and made clover necklaces, bracelets and crowns and watched the clouds go by.  In my opinion, these are what memories are made of!

It's just a good place to let their imaginations run.

Obviously there is the play ground, and it's actually in really good shape, some of the grills that surround the pavilions are not that great, and a few of the benches have seen better days but it always seems to be clean and pretty well kept.

They do rent out the two pavilions if you want to have an event there.  There's a smaller one and the larger pavilion.   I actually opted to have M's 4th birthday party here, the kids were able to play on the play ground and run around and fly kites I brought (another great thing to do there in the spring especially on the front lawn), we grilled hot dogs and had an Easter Egg Hunt for the kiddos.

It was perfect, cheap, and I didn't have to clean my house : )  For a bunch of 4 years olds, it was "awesome."

The bathrooms on site now are also pretty clean every time I've been in them, so that's also a big plus!

One of my favorite things as a kid, and M does the same thing now, is to jump around on the exposed limestone rocks in different areas of the park.  There's a ton up around the playground and others down on the East side of the park.  M had me playing Captain Hook and Wendy with her last night when we stopped by after school for a picnic and to play.

It's probably not somewhere that you will spend hours and hours, but it's a great place for the kids to be kids, to use their imaginations again and unplug from technology and just play.

Take some time one afternoon and just let them be kids.

Also, this time of year by around 5:30 the playground is actually shaded by the trees and it was a great time to be there.  No one else was even at the park, we had it all to ourselves : )

They don't really have a true Facebook page, but there are some details listed HERE.

Tips:

• Good to take a blanket, have a picnic, let the kids play on the playground
• Going up in the monument is a sight to see and worth the $3 to do it at least once
• Take plenty of drinks
• Have a scavenger hunt or fly some kites, having a slight plan will make it that much more fun

Dunbar Cave State Park - Clarksville, TN (Free)

I hate to say it, but, growing up here, I had never been to Dunbar Cave. 

I've driven by it a million times, but never really paid it much attention.  Sure it's some kind of cave, but I've been to Mammoth Cave, who needs to see Dunbar Cave?

Well, I was wrong, I think everyone needs to go by Dunbar Cave!

Thanks to Facebook, and the Clarksville Now Facebook Page I realized a few weeks ago that Dunbar Cave offered FREE nature programs!  They don't seem to post them on their website, but do on their Dunbar Cave Facebook page.

We decided to go to the August 15th Lake Life Program from 6:30-8 pm for kids age 4-12.

You can see more details on this and other programs they have HERE.

It was only my daughter and one other child right at her age (4-5).  Parents came along.

We started in their Nature Center/Visitor Center where we sat in their conference room and the leader, Amy Wallace, started by showing the kids a few books to identify different animals that we would hopefully see when we did the hike around the lake.

The kids enjoyed naming off the animals in the books and then she had various plastic toy animals as well so the kids could touch and talk about each of the animals.

Then she gave a good explanation of what we would be doing while walking around the Lake Loop, a nice asphalt trail that goes more than half way around the lake.  It also goes past the cave, so you get to see the Cave entrance as well.

Amy then lead us around the Lake Trail where we would look at different plants, try to spot fish, turtles, birds, bats, crawfish and many other lake critters.

Unfortunately on this day, it was hot and the lake was low and there just were not a ton of wildlife to see, but the kids still had fun walking around and searching for the critters!

The cave entrance was neat, the cave itself is closed, and has been for the past 4 years, due to a disease that was infecting the bats.

But, to top off the Lake Life tour, right at dusk, about 6 or 7 bats put on a show for us and flew around above our heads much to the delight, and shreeks, from the kids! 

It was a great way to spend 1.5 hours on a Friday evening, the kids learned by doing and best of all, it was FREE!

TIPS:

• bring bug spray
• wear comfortable shoes
• water bottles if hot
• flashlights for the kids to look for salamanders at the cave entrance
• camera

~Rhonda