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Friday, after saying "hello" to the newly hatched baby birds that live in the tree in our back yard and hello to the little bunny sitting in our back yard flower bed, we loaded up the truck and headed to the East Texas Bayou. The cabin we stayed in was very accommodating, clean, and suited us quite well. It was nice to not have to deal with living out of a tent. We explored the Bayou a bit, went on an alligator hunt where we gave passage and nourishment to far too many chiggers, secured ourselves a seat on a swamp tour by water the next day, made dinner, listen to the millions of frogs, played a few board games and called it a night.

Early Saturday morning we got up, made coffee, and headed out for a brisk early morning hike. Then we came back to the cabin, made some breakfast, and went on a guided nature hike. Afterwards, we went on a swamp tour by boat. That was followed by a trip to Uncertain, TX to see the lily pads in bloom, and then on the seemingly never ending hunt for Goat Island where we saw a beautiful white tailed deer, and Jess eventually climbed to the top of an abandoned oil derek. Then we came home, had dinner, and went out to the fishing pier in search of alligators. We played a few more board games, doctored our chigger bites, and went to bed.

Sunday morning we slept in late (7am.. haha) and decided to take a drive into the Sabine National Forest. For the most part, this was an utter waste of time though Jess and I did have lots of fun at a nice little picnic just on the Louisiana side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Eventually, we headed North again to Martin Creek State Park for a nice short walk on the Island. Then we drove through historic Jefferson, making a quick stop at the General Store for ice cream, and then on to Lake O'The Pines where we made our way on to an unregulated, unsupervised redneck beach. Those kids know how to party! We drove right out on the beach and enjoyed a great view. Afterwards, we drove back to Jefferson for dinner at the "Hamburger Store". Don't go there. Ever. Not worth it. at all. We made it home late, played trivial pursuit, doctored our chigger bites, and went to bed.

Monday morning we got up and cleaned out the cabin. We emptied our coolers, packed up the car, and checked out of the cabin. Then we headed to Daingerfield State Park. This was, by far, one of the most beautiful State Parks I've ever been to. (A camping trip is in order *soon*, before it gets too hot. I'm thinking this weekend or next.) Jess made a friend and then we went for a hike around a portion of the lake. We stopped in town for some Mexican food and then headed on to Bob Sandlin State Park. We just took a quick look around, there, and then headed on our way home. We got home around 4pm, unpacked the car, and called it a day.

I'm entirely skimmed up on my LiveJournal reading list with exception of "Josh":http://xaminmo.livejoural.com/ and "Jenny":http://lottasmiles.livejournal.com/ whose recent writing deserves some extra attention. If I missed anything important, please let me know. My BlogLines reading list is making some progress too. It's a lot easier to determine where I left off with BlogLines, so, I can be sure I didn't miss anything important there.

Tonight (Tuesday) is the "the show":http://gentlenews.com/theshow/, so be sure to tune in at 8:31pm Central. Afterwards, I'll head home and try to get some of the approximately 1,000 pictures I took this weekend edited.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I'll be working from home. Our dryer started making a terrible noise a few weeks ago. A repair man came out and said it was the motor and that our cheapest option was to buy a new dryer but that we could keep using the dryer until it broke. Well, it broke. Thankfully, through some social engineering on Jess' part, a repairman will be coming tomorrow morning to repair it free of charge. After work, I intend to catch up on some house cleaning, spend an hour on the book, and edit down the photographs from our weekend trip.