Veteran's Acres

We have a local park/nature sanctuary in Crystal Lake that we like to visit occasionally. It seems like we only manage to go about twice a year even though it's only a few miles away. It has a beautiful short hike that the kids can easily manage. And there is a nice playground and picnic shelter too. Usually we start at the end that has the playground and after we fill the little one's tummies, we head out on our hike. It circles around a fairly large pond where we have to search for frogs (did not see any this time) and other wild life. (Baby ducks this time) Then we make a pit stop at the nature center where they have some wildlife in cages for our viewing pleasure. They have a couple iguanas, various turtles, bunnies, a couple ferrets, love birds. And there are also a lot of hands on activities that kids always love. The sky was a little overcast on this day, but it made for a very comfortable hike. 7-10-06