There are no hotels or fast food restaurants in Washington. Nothing to take away from the wonderful peacefulness. I'm sure there are more crowds on days with big events (like Civil War Days this weekend, Nov. 3-4), but there were only a few other people milling around here and there. We were the only ones on our tour. It was so nice.
We bought a family pass for $30, which will allow us to come back for a year PLUS visit many other state parks in Arkansas for a year.
The kids got to practice pumping water, which took a lot of muscles.
They also got to try visit this outhouse. But only for pretend. There were different sized holes for adults and small children. I don't think we'd ever seen a multi-stool outhouse before.
We were watching the chickens that were roaming freely around this house. We enjoyed seeing the heirloom variety that looks like it is wearing fancy pants.
They learned about candle making and got to dip their own candles.
I think this one is the largest magnolia tree in Arkansas. I'm pretty sure the kids wanted to move in and live under the branches.
checking out the pioneer home
We spent a good amount of time with the blacksmith. He was a really nice man. The kids (and baby) were captivated watching the fire and listening to the clink-clink. This shop is a recreation of James Black's shop from the 1800's. Black, Washington's most famous blacksmith/bladesmith, created the original Bowie knife for Jim Bowie.
They got to hold these very serious knives.
You (who are 16 and older) can actually take classes to learn the art of knife making, which I think sounds cool, in Washington. There are all kinds of classes and educational programs available all year for homeschoolers, school kids, and adults.
After our walking tour, we ate our picnic lunch at a table under the pecan grove. One noteworthy moment: as the kids and I were eating, they started playing around, using their imaginations, and I heard myself say, "Come on guys - eat! We've got to go."
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I thought, "Weird. Why did I say that? Is that what my life has become?" Because generally, we ARE in a hurry, and we do need TO GO. But we weren't in a hurry at all this day. We were enjoying being in the moment. I immediately said, "I'm sorry; I don't know why I said that. We aren't in a hurry. Have fun!"
The man explained a little bit about the original newspapers and how Washington's was the only paper continually published throughout the Civil War. The kids got to take turns rolling ink on the stamper, then cranking it through the printer.
Their next choice was the B.W. Edwards Weapons Museum, which is across the street from the print museum. The man asked the kids to locate the very smallest and very largest guns.
I let the kids use their Car Bucks to buy gifts from the visitor center gift shop. Sissy chose this pioneer bonnet. Dash got a wooden rubber band gun, and Tornado opted for a wooden sling shot with clay marbles.
Here is a brochure of Washington that contains a lot of helpful visitor information.
4 comments:
What a great field trip! I love days like that :-)
Thank you for linking with Collage Friday!
What an awesome field trip!!
We drove through Hope on our way to Little Rock, AR this past summer.
Sorry I didn't make my way over sooner, I just realized I never commented on my link up from LAST week. Oops! Time gets away sometimes. Looks like a great field trip!! Thanks for sharing it with us at FTF!!
Just loving all the hands on activities you were able to do! We've lived here for 23 years and not once ventured to Hope. Usually our trips to Little Rock are to AR Children's Hospital and we usually don't have find for a lot of fun. This really looks like it was an awesome field trip! What fun "learning" as they explored.
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