Oatland Island Wildlife Center and Tybee Island

Isa loves anything in the big cat family.

Today we ventured to the Oatland Island Wildlife Center.  Michael and I are pretty finicky about supporting wildlife centers because so many of them are poorly managed and terrible to the animals.  This one made both of us happy.  We saw a lot of healthy animals and really enjoyed the two mile loop of trails to see it all.
The cougar was definitely well cared for and was snoozing happily right next to the viewing area. 


 Here we were staring at the sleeping cougar and all of a sudden Gabi has blood on her hands.  There was a moment of mommy panic until I realized she'd pulled out her tooth.  So we cleaned her up and took a picture.  Too bad we didn't remember to get the cougar in it too.


Then we were off to see the alligators and the other animals who were once so injured they can't be returned to the wild.  Owls and eagles, a bobcat and a fox or two, and some beautiful wolves. 

How many alligators can you find?  I think there are four.

Here's an alligator up close. 

Look at the life size bald eagle's nest replica.  This was so exciting for Gabi who has been watching a nesting pair of eagles for months now for school.  I don't think the eggs are quite to scale though.  :)

 I really enjoyed the hiking trail, which at times became a lovely boardwalk.  It was very soothing to walk among the flora and fauna - at least until we saw the alligator warning signs.

 

 But of course we all made it safely back to our car without alligator attack (though we did experience no-see-um attack), and we were off to Tybee Island.

The Tybee Island Lighthouse is really fun to see.

 

Its official.  My kids LOVE the beach.  Being five hours from the ocean was the number one reason I was able to relocate them from everything they had ever known to a small town in Alabama.  Today they literally jumped for joy.  Okay, once the first one had the idea it really just kept rolling, but still, they were really happy.

 I have been keeping these little plaid beach cover ups for YEARS waiting for my girls to get big enough to grow into them.












I love being with my kids at the beach too.  They can be AS LOUD as they want (which is especially good for Gabi) and when the beach is this empty they can run and scream without bugging anyone. I love watching them be crazy.  I have always liked the water, but its more fun when they are around.  And I will never tire of a good sandcastle. Luke decided his Messi jersey would make an excellent flag for this one.  He's supposed to be the flagpole. 

After returning to the hotel tonight I discovered that in all our adventuring today we walked almost 10 miles!  And that doesn't include all the crazy running around they did at the beach!  Its no wonder they were so very tired tonight.  That brings the walking total for the last 3 days to 25 miles.  Maybe a slower pace is in order for tomorrow!