There were 2 Gunpowder Falls State Parks (why?). We had a 50/50 chance to pick the one with the Falls. We picked wrong. This one was a huge park with camping and playgrounds, and a little beach area, but no trails and most decidedly no Falls.
That's ok. It was 2:00 by this point and the kids were ready to get wet!
We had snacks and sandwiches throughout the day, and then after swimming for a couple hours we all sat down for a proper lunch, right around 4:00. We ate pasta salad, veggies, cheese and crackers, and cookies. Also, getting old is awesome for lots of reasons, not the least of these being wonky picture eyes.
We weren't totally sure if we were swimming in a river or the bay, but turns out it was an almost completely non-flowing river. The Gunpowder River was named after the native Americans planted a crop of gunpowder hoping they could grow it. Which actually isn't crazy, because, hello popcorn. Lots of weird things they had to try and learn, and this particular one just didn't pan out. It's a good story now.
The beach was small and the water was crazy murky. At first D wouldn't go in because she was afraid of crabs and jellyfish. After a few minutes she decided she'd swim. It's gotta be here timing and her choice. There was a rope sectioning off a swim area protected by the breakers. Then Daniel swam out to the buoys and they said "swim area" on them, so we figured it was fine to swim out there. And also then the girls only wanted to hang out on the other side of the rope, which still wasn't deep, but most people were swimming in the protected area.
We'd borrowed noodles and inflatables from aina's when we picked Abby up, since Laura thought it was a swimming lake. In our defense, the websites were it super informative and we were just looking for the site on the list, but that wasn't informative either. Anyways, we were glad to have all of the swim stuff. Everyone ended up swimming out to the buoys, some of us more than once.
It was fun, but we've got little beaches a lot closer to home, and I was ready to check out some Falls! So after a few hours we loaded up again, ready for the next phase of adventure.
We also loved the osprey nest right by where we parked.
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