Carolina Beach

In His continued graciousness, the Lord gave us an unbelievably beautiful day for yet another Field Trip Friday.  This time we headed to Carolina Beach in the southeast corner of the state.  72 and sunny...5 days before Christmas!

Carolina Beach State Park is the most delightful mix of pine and sand.  It smells divine, kind of like Christmas mixed with the beach.  :D  We ambled the trails there for 3 hours, and if the sun wasn't starting to set, we could have easily stayed longer.

Of particular interest to us at Carolina Beach State Park was that it sits within a few dozen miles in North Carolina where Venus Flytraps grow wild.  We have a 9-year old who just loves a good Venus Flytrap, so we hoped to see some of these carnivorous vegetables.  Or their cousins: pitcher plants, sundews, bladderworts, and butterworts.  Granted, we Barnettes aren't big botanists.  But how can you not love a plant that eats an animal?!?!

"Be vewy, vewy quiet:  I'm hunting Venus Flytwaps!"

Well, unfortunately we didn't find many of the flytraps we sought.  Apparently a poacher has come through the state park and stolen most of them.  Wanted posters were all over the park for him. (So if your crazy uncle shows-up on Christmas Day handing-out suspicious-looking Venus Flytraps as gifts for everyone, he might be the culprit...) But we did find the occasional pitcher plant, as shown above.  And we found green anoles, such as the one camoflaged in the greenery, below.

We found GIGANTIC pine cones!

And we found lichen fields.  

When you pick them up, they feel like hard sponges.

We also found lots of deer tracks, and Spanish moss growing from trees.  And we saw pine trees actually growing right out of the sand.  Cool!

But of course, any trip to Carolina Beach State Park wouldn't be complete without... some time at Carolina Beach.  What a beautiful December Day to visit the ocean!

Had our legs not been so tired from the long walk through the park, we would have rather enjoyed a long walk on the boardwalk.  We'll do that next trip.

I am so thankful for a husband who never tires of spending his day off with me and the kids.  

#BestHusbandEver

Note: There's a GREAT article in the November 2013 issue of Our State magazine in which Michael Parker makes his comical case for why he believes the Venus Flytrap should be the state flower of North Carolina, and why the  Outer Banks mosquito should be the state bird of North Carolina.  Ha!