We set out for a fun trip to Ernie Miller Nature Park and hoped to see what it was all about. Many others have been and said it is beautiful and fun for the kids.
We parked the car and started walking down a trail to the visitor's center. A butterfly landed on Everly and then parked on each of the kids before flying off.
Magical!
If we had turned around there and headed back to the van, it would have been a lovely trip.
Then we went in and were ignored by the help desk lady while we tried to figure out exactly what we were supposed to do there and how to go about it.
We did a goofy "treasure hunt" and looked at a couple of depressed owls in their cages.
We finally figured out where a trail head was and started on our way when the full horror of this being a "Cicada year" unleashed itself on my little girls. My word, the sound is deafening and they are literally falling out of the trees. They are everywhere on the trail, making the job of not stepping on one of their huge, crunchy bodies the sole focus of our hike.
Laney simply stopped about 50 meters in and refused to go another step. I started to give her a lecture about why she need to get over it and enjoy the beauty of nature when I realized that I actually would prefer to not go another step either.
We started back to the van and the girls asked me to open their honey sticks that they received as a reward for answering an owl question posed by the grouchy desk lady.
After gnawing on the tops of four of those impenetrable sticks, all four of them announced that honey is not that great. I agreed. Not exactly a refreshing trail treat on a muggy, humid Kansas day.
SUPER FUN!!
And we didn't even get to watch the stinking birds! We don't get to cross it off our blasted list!
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