Ten Reasons Why You’ll Love Callaway Gardens

Located in Pine Mountain, Georgia, Callaway Gardens is a special treat for the entire family. Whether you’re seeking some rest and relaxation amid the beautiful tranquil gardens and easy walking paths, or prefer a weekend of adventure, Callaway Gardens has just what you’re looking for. Here are ten reasons, you’re sure to love Callaway Gardens.

1.  The history buff in the family will enjoy learning about the history of Callaway Gardens in the Virginia Hand Callaway Discovery Center or visiting the Pioneer Log Cabin that was constructed of hand-hewn logs around 1830.

 

2. The beautiful gardens, walking and bike trails that wind through the wooded grounds are perfect for the nature lover in the family.

3. Young and old alike will love the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center and marvel with amazement at the 1,000 butterflies and moths you’ll see flitting about.

4. The Birds of Prey raptor shows are really something to see as the birds soar about unfettered at the Discovery Amphitheater.  

5. With jugglers, acrobats and high-wire acts, the FSU Circus is sure to entertain you.

6. The brand new Light Striker Laser Tag attraction will get your heart pumping!

7. The Blaster Boats are really a blast! 

8. Sun worshippers will love soaking up the rays at the world’s largest manmade white sand beach at Robin Lake Beach.   

9. If you love watching Wipeout, here’s your chance to get in on a tiny piece of the action. Aqua Island is a large floating challenge course for you to slip, slide and climb all over.    

10. The thrill seeker in your family will love the adrenaline pumping, heart thumping, TreeTop Adventure, a series of zip-lines built around an aerial challenge course that will literally have you swinging through the trees.

There you have it, ten reasons you’ll love Callaway Gardens and I haven’t even mentioned the fishing,  golf course, tennis courts or water skiing that’s available. There really is something for everyone.   

What do you think? Are you ready to plan your own getaway to Callaway Gardens yet?   

Pine Mountain

This post is linked to OhAmanda and her Top Ten Tuesday link-up. 

Disclaimer: My family was invited to Callaway Gardens, with a group of bloggers,  for an expense paid getaway to check out one of the newest attractions, TreeTop Adventure in exchange for sharing our experiences on my blog and on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not influenced by Callaway Gardens. We enjoyed our visit so much that we extended our stay (at our cost) one night to make sure we didn’t miss anything.  Be sure to stop back later in the week as I share more detailed experiences from our visit.   

Free Admission to the Huntsville Botanical Garden when you Donate a Gently Used or New Coat for any Age

Whether we are strolling through the butterfly house, playing in the tree houses, checking out the scarecrows on Scarecrow Trail or  attending a special event, my family LOVES to visit the Huntsville Botanical Garden. I’m so glad that we have a membership because we use it all the time!

Thursday, October 21st,   the botanical garden will be waiving admission for anyone that donates a new or gently used coat for a person of ANY age for the Community Coats program that is affiliated with the local chapter of the Salvation Army! 

Find details here.

Field Trip Friday: Butterflies, and Lots of Them!

This week we thankfully got a bit of reprieve from the hot weather, but unfortunately we had to cancel our outdoor field trip because of thunderstorms.  By afternoon the skies had cleared up so the kids couldn’t wait to do something. Though we’ve visited our local botanical garden on several occasions, we’d not ever walked through the Nature Center/Butterfly House so we decided to see what we’d been missing.

The Butterfly House at the Huntsville Botanical Garden is said to be the largest open air house in the nation. The nature center is certainly beautiful.  There are some (dead) bugs on display, a couple skulls, snake skin, hissing cockroaches and a cage full of canaries, but the main draw is clearly the amazing butterfly house.

The butterfly is not only home to butterflies, obviously, but you’ll but also Turtles that bask in the sun and then dive into the cool water to regulate their body temperature. 

Button Quail that keep the insect population down.  

Bees, that live in their hive and anoles, Luna moths, corn snakes and tree frogs that we either did not see or weren’t able to get a picture of because the batteries on the camera died.  Our outing was a great opportunity for my daughter to practice snapping more pictures.

   

This was a great field trip for us as we begin reading From Darkness to Light to Flight which is published by the Institute for Creation Research.

This book tells the story of the remarkable flight and migration to Mexico that the Monarch Butterfly take each year.   I hope to give you a review of the book when we finish with it.

Thanks for joining me for Field Trip Friday. You can see more of the pictures we took on my Facebook page. You can read about some of our past field trips here.  If you’ve been on a field trip and you’d like to share it, you’re welcome to link up here using the linky at the bottom of the post. Until next week, Happy Field Trippin’!

Wordless Wednesday: A Sneak Peak of this Week’s Field Trip Friday

If you’d like to see more Wordless Wednesday photos, or learn how you can participate, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.