Brazos Bend State Park

One of the paths around one of the lakes in Brazos Bend.

After a wonderful three days with the Embrees, we decided to let them have their lives back and today we stayed home. The day dawned . . . hours before we got up, but that’s not the point. It dawned slightly overcast but lovely. When Elise went outside to check the temperature to help her decide what she was going to wear for the day, she said, “Mommy, it feels like nothing outside!” I used to describe this kind of day the same way when I was a kid- it doesn’t feel warm and it doesn’t feel cold. It feels like nothing.

Elise got everyone’s breakfast for them – cereal for all, but everyone had a different kind. After a leisurely breakfast (and some sewing on Elise’s part) we headed out to see this park we have been staying in since Friday, but have yet to explore. There is a Junior Naturalist program here, similar to a Junior Ranger program in the national parks, so we worked on that first thing. Right away we could see that this park is beautiful. It is one of the prettiest state parks we have seen so far. There is an observatory on the park property that is open to the public on Saturdays. On Elise’s paper, she had to walk the path to the observatory and write down the names of the planets, written on the light posts, as she passed them.



This path took us across a wetland that was full of activity. We saw herons, egrets, vultures chasing each other, ducks galore, and one huge alligator sunning itself on the bank. It was a wonderfully noisy place and we loved listening to the birds and waterfowl constantly talking to each other.




An egret in flight.


These vultures chased each other most of the time we were out there.


We headed back to the nature center to turn in Elise’s work and ended up talking to the volunteer there. While we were petting the baby alligator (if you can call it petting when you touch an animal that in a year or two will outweigh your daughter) she told us that this particular brood of alligators came from a nest here in the park. The nest had been raided by the staff because it was infested with fire ants. While the alligators were still in their shells, they were safe. As soon as they hatched, however, the ants would swarm the hatchlings and probably kill them all. Everyone down here takes fire ants very seriously and I am beginning to understand why. If baby alligators can’t survive them, I’m going to give them a wide berth!



Once Elise had become a Brazos Bend Junior Naturalist, we were free to explore the rest of the park. In addition to the Brazos River that runs through the park, there are four sizeable lakes and three others that are smaller. We walked around one of the smaller lakes when we were getting Elise’s badge. On our bikes, we now rode around one of the large lakes, over another and to the edge of a third.


Taking a clementine break during the bike ride.

To our delight, we saw another alligator sunning itself in the water, on the edge of the lake. This one was only four feet long but he was the closest one we have seen in the wild. We watched him for a good five minutes and he never moved – never.



During our walk today, I came upon this writing on a plaque along one of the trails.

In the end . . .

We will conserve
Only what we love;

We will love
Only what we understand;

And we will understand
Only what we are taught.

I love this. I have gained such a respect for nature on this trip and Elise is fascinated by all this nature around her and keeps saying things like, “This is so cool!” when we are out and about. I hope that all of us continue to be awed by God’s creation when we get back home and return to the grind.

Last night, as we were coming home from the Embrees’ we came upon our first armadillos. Snarfling around near our campsite, there were three of them completely oblivious to us. I had our highbeams on them and they didn’t seem to notice. Their sight must be extremely poor. Maybe that’s why we see so many of them on the side of the road, no longer living.



Oh! And here is the picture of our homemade Holy Family that I promised to post. Cute, huh?!