Marietta Ga and Kennesaw National Battlefield - Keels go to Canada day 2

 We got up that morning to 67*, it was glorious. We ate breakfast at the hotel (a huge money saver for us since there are 6 of us, free breakfast goes a long way) then headed out for Marietta were dad would be for work for the rest of the day and part of the next day. As you can see, the temps in Marietta look just as glorious as can be for this Florida family.

Arriving in Marietta a little early, we stopped at a mall to kill some time and let the kids move around a bit. We walked in the food court area and the kids immediately said  "Look! A Chick Fil A!" I know, you are not surprised by this, we weren't either.
 
I took the girls to the Family Bathroom, which had a small sink for the littles and a rocking chair. Now, I know that my kids seem to take forever in the bathroom but I'm not sure a rocking chair is really necessary. On second thought, maybe it is.

We ended up eating lunch at the Marietta Diner with some of Pauls co workers. After lunch dad went to work and mom and the kids set out for Kennesaw Battlefield. On our way we saw the big KFC chicken with a moving beak.

We arrived at Kennesaw with no problem. We were not able to see anywhere near all of the park, it is huge. We did walk through the museum and the interactive trail for the kids. Throughout this trail the kids picked up sticks and hid behind trees pretending to be soldiers in the war, lots of pretend shots were fired. About halfway through this one mile loop. 3 out of 4 kids needed to go to the bathroom - one at least was in a diaper already. Seems that after traveling, walking trails seems to... move... things along in your digestive system. The last half mile was more making sure we didn't go to the bathroom on ourselves than pretending to be fighting in the war.

Once we finished the trail we sat at the picnic tables and completed the workbooks for our Junior Ranger badge at Kennesaw. This was mommas favorite part. Doing school, outside, under the trees, and beautiful weather to top it off.

The park rangers at Kennesaw gave so much attention to my kids, they were genuinely interested in the kids and the educational value of the trip we were on. The park rangers there really stuck out to us because of the time they spent with us and the quality of the kids Junior Ranger books provided at this site.

I don't really think that all Junior Rangers get as much stuff as what my kids got when they left Kennesaw. We had a squeezeball Bison, extra Junior Ranger books to work on at home (can you say homeschool materials?), pencils, NPS tattoos, stickers and even wooden coins. The swag pictured on the table is just from one kid, each kid had a bag full of this stuff. No other park was this nice to us. Using this as an example to the kids, I encouraged them to spend time talking to the park rangers, ask about what they do and show an interest in learning about their park and helping keep it clean. Sure, the kids want to get more junior ranger stuff and that might be their motivation at this point, but it helps form a habit of talking to people and showing interest in others.