NIght Walk at Callaway Gardens

Callaway Gardens is the beautiful botanical garden nearby our house. They cosponsor a night walk through their annual Festival of Lights for charity. Some friends of ours casually mentioned that they walked it last year with their little boy and really enjoyed it, so when I saw it advertised last week, I was interested in participating. We decided to do it without really doing a lot of homework to find out what was involved. Since I've never actually driven through the course, I had no idea just what I was in for. In blissful ignorance, we set off with our friends Carolyn, Ben, Will and Walker for the walk of our lives.

Just before we left, we walked up to the tent to check out the vendors and see if we could see Santa. When we got there, we were informed that Santa was taking a break, but I found him while I was checking out the food court. Brent and I parked the kids in the thruway that he'd have to pass through to get back to the Santa chair. I told Brent to stop him and see if he'd take photos with the kids, then left in search of a restroom. I came back to find these photos. Apparently Santa had been happy to stop and talk to the kids. Maura was in awe and wouldn't talk to him. When I asked her about it later, she said, "I didn't have any words." He was the coolest Santa that I've ever seen and I wish that we'd had time to get a "real" picture taken. We knew that he was the "real" Santa by what he was carrying in his hand--a bottle of Coca-Cola.
I was smart enough to bundle us all up before we started the walk. It was about 38 degrees that night so I had lots of hats and coats and blankets. We packed both kids up into the stroller, tucked blankets around them and set off. Everyone was happy, at least for the first five minutes. About five minutes in, Tristan started fussing, so we took him out only to find out he had a dirty diaper. We were far enough from the start of the walk and there were so many people walking in the opposite direction that going back was out of the question, so I had to change my poor baby in the frigid outdoors by the light of a flashlight. Fun times! Tristan then went into the front pack where he stayed for the remainder of the walk.

The entrance to Santa's workshop. It was really cool to see all the lights at such a slow pace. They had all the music playing as we walked along and we really got to enjoy the general atmosphere. My favorite part of the display was the butterfly garden where almost every tree had a butterfly on it. It was so beautiful. I felt like we were really walking quickly, but we never seemed to be making any progress.

Daddy and his little bear. This was on one of our many stops. We walked with a group that included six adults and six children, so the children were always having small emergencies that required a stop.

Mommy and her girl. Don't you love my hat? It's Brent's PT hat. I didn't have any winter wear down here because I never expected to be out in the freezing cold in Georgia. When I suggested that we do the walk, I thought it was supposed to be in the high forties that night. I also thought that the walk was three and a half miles and then you were able to board buses that took you back to the start point. Well, as we were in the midst of our hike, we discovered that it was actually five miles until you made it to the turn around point. Wow, the night was getting longer and longer! Our friends Will and Walker went with us. Will is two months younger than Maura and Walker is six weeks younger than Tristan.

Maura liked the fairies the best. She thought they looked like Tinkerbell. The beautiful swans were the last lights on our walk. Just after the pond was the pickup point. When we got there, the line was tremendously long and we knew it would take us at least thirty minutes to board the bus. We decided just to keep on going and gut it out for the last two miles. What we didn't know is that the lights were all done. There were no more butterflies, no more fairies and no more swans. Actually, there were no more lights of any kind. We walked the last two miles in complete darkness with screaming kids who were tired and cold and wanted to go home. It was so miserable that it actually became hilariously funny and we spent the last two miles laughing at ourselves and our situation. We really did have a good time, but I don't think I would do it again with such young kids if I was given the opportunity. We went home with tired legs, a blister and lots of "fun" memories. Brent is currently calling this event the Callaway Gardens Death March. Ha ha!