Point Lookout State Park

 

 

 

 

 

This is a late entry for Friday, March 18th:

We were supposed to be attending a homeschool movie, Robots, and as we left the house we all commented on what a warm, beautiful, sunshiny day it was. Musa then looked at me and asked if instead of the movie, could we go to the beach. Retta joined in, pleading to go to the beach. I was thrilled, that instead of spending the afternoon in a theater, they choose to be outdoors.

We decided to go to Point Lookout State Park. They took their buckets and shovels and such, I took my binoculars and birding guides, we threw together some snacks and off we went.

We started at the picnic area, the kids busily playing in the sand. Retta was in rock/shell collectors Heaven. She found so many beautiful rocks, one which was perfectly shaped like a heart.  We had the entire beach to ourselves. We had fun being very quiet and listening to the different sounds of nature.

We could here the Loons and Grebes off shore. Musa enjoyed watching them dive for fish and would count to see how long they could stay under. It was quite remarkable. We could her a woodpecker, but never did locate him. I saw a beautiful bird, medium sized with a bright yellow tail. It appeared to be a type of warbler, but flew away before I knew for sure.

Musa found several flat rocks and asked me how you throw them to make them "skip."I explained to him, cautioned him it sometimes takes some practice, therefore not to be disappointed if he wasn't immediately successful. He walked to the water threw it and it magically skipped about 6 times. He gleefully danced a jig, teasing me unmercifully (which I deserved) that I should have more faith in him. He continued to skip rocks with little difficulty.

As we left the picnic area and headed to the truck a large raccoon sauntered by. Retta was so excited.

                                                       

As we left we noticed a small house that appeared quite old. It was a small smokehouse that was used in the late 1800's-early 1900's to smoke meat. Musa was intrigued with the idea there were no refrigerators. We imagine how the meat must have tasted.

On the way out of the Park, we stopped at all the historical sites. We we so intrigued with all of the history. We often comment, since moving to Southern Maryland, that at times it is as if you can feel the history of the civil war under our feet. This is the feeling we got as we were were reading the history and imagining how the area must have looked during the Civil War.

One historical site mention the word "redoubt." Musa asked me what that was and I honestly had no idea. We decided to look up some things when we got home. We saw signs about Fort Lincoln and also about a smallpox hospital that had been built during the Civil War. There was also a prisoner of war prison.

When we arrived home, we had a blast looking up things online and furtheringour education of Point Lookout, the Civil War, Hammond General Hospital, what a Redoubt is, what a Sibley tent was, what smallpox was like, POW's and the frightening conditions they faced. I think it really struck Musa that he had just been walking around the very area where all of these things had taken place before him. That sort of history lesson one tends not to forget.

To our delight we also learned that Point Lookout is notorious for being haunted..to the degree that the Rangers are required to keep records of sightings of ghosts and mysterious sounds. We also learned that there is a cabin you can rent.....we decided we HAVE to go and spend a night and see if we can see a ghost!!!