DeGray State Park - Last Days of Vacation

As you can guess, the week at DeGray State Park in Arkansas flew by - on Thursday we got up and drove to Diamond Crater State Park. We thought it would be about a 30 minute drive and an hour later we arrived. We got there, rented the necessary equipment to dig for diamonds and watched a short demo from a Park Ranger telling us the proper procedures to look for diamonds in the dirt - literally. We found out a few things pretty quickly - #1. If you want to find a diamond, you have to be committed enough to stay for more than an hour - maybe even days. #2. There is a reason why there is a water playground on site - it's HOT!!!!! #3. I don't mind digging for diamonds but not sweating profusely for them - YUK! Seriously, it was a good/fun experience and Wayne and Rob did find us a spot in the shade, but it was just flat hot and about an hour of digging is all we could take. We found some jasper rocks and calcite (that looks like uncut diamond) but not diamonds. People evidentally do find diamonds, there had been several found the previous day and there was a guy we met that had dug such a huge hole - it took him 2 days to do it. WOW! Then, he had to look through all that dirt. It was pretty neat to have the rangers i.d. the pretty rocks we did find and Kelsie got even more for her collection. We decided to skip the water park and just spend our time driving back to lake to swim there. So, we made it back to the lake and found a beach place where we cooked out hotdogs for dinner - it was windy so it was an adventure getting the fire lit but we finally got it and it was a great evening outside, the kids playing. After that, we fished until it was way after dark. On Friday, we got up early and went out to the lake for the last morning- we had to check out by 11. Friday morning was so cool b/c we spotted a bald eagle. We tracked it in the boat and watched in for a long time - got pretty close to it as it was perched in a tree and we got pretty close to the shore to get a good look. Unfortunately, noone had a camera - bummer. It was really cool for the kids to see. We packed up and headed home - our vacation was so fun, I don't think any of us really wanted it to end but it did give us some refreshing to come back with renewed energy for a busy Fall.

One of the better "landscape" pictures taken on one of our morning walks.
Kelsie is ready to dig for diamonds.
The kids out in the field - will we ever find a diamond in all this dirt?
Kelsie and Wayne digging up our little shaded plot of dirt.
Kelsie using the water method to sort through all the gravel and dirt - once you shift it a certain way, the larger and heavier stones (hopefully a diamond) go to the bottom and the middle. You turn it over like a cake pan and sort through the stones in the middle.

Wayne kneeboarding - he did great and impressed the kids and the adults with his tricks.
We dropped all of our dinner fixins off so we could go out in the boat and have more space. Once we got back to our picnic spot, we had a visitor squirrel who was very interested in our hot dog buns. Luckily, he only ate 2 but he stalked us for a while knowing we had food.
Kelsie and Brock decided to set up a little camp of their own for the squirrel so he would leave our food alone. It was complete with Cheese Nips, bowls of water and club cracker snack sticks.
Tori enjoying some quiet time fishing at dusk.

The Robster manning the dogs.
Brock and Tori trying to take pics at sunset - Brock was so funny - this was the cute one.
Our last sunset cruise.

Brock and Kelsie dug this fish swimming pool on our beach for the fish we caught to be able to swim and then make their way through the canal to the lake. They had fun making it while Wayne, Rob and Tori fished and Donna and me sat in the boat listening to tunes and visiting. Such a peaceful and quiet night.