Congaree

    Our final stop on the way home was Congaree National Park. It's one of the newer parks in the system and preserves a big area of old growth swamp. It's also the first park of many that we have planned for this year.

The first of many National Park gates

    The kids were overwhelmed with the displays in the visitor center and ran from display to display. The girls took turns reading about the animals and plants that are commonly found in the park and we bought the kids their own junior passports for the national parks. Each one got to stamp their passport with the date and name of their first park before heading out on a little hike.

    An elevated boardwalk loops around some of the oldest trees in the area so we set off for a short hike. Riley had a scavenger hunt brochure that kept her occupied while Sully kept pointing out birds for me. It was a couple of miles round-trip before we got back to the visitor center. From there we piled back into the car for the long ride home. It was a fun trip and after 3,100 miles we pulled into our driveway in the middle of the night with three sleeping kids and a lot of great memories.