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eagerly wanted to go were suddenly terrified, begging to leave. There were mechanical dinosaurs that moved and made noise and "jumped" out at the visitors. As the children clung tightly to us, we couldn't help but chuckle and giggle as we remembered similar childhood experiences. And just as we did when we left some place that terrified us as children, our children jumped up and down wanting to go again.

We had to move on to the lake though, that was our destination after all. So finally we were really heading to the lake, with a quick pit stop for snacks on the way. When we got there, it was more than we could have hoped for! The whole lake was surrounded by woods that gave it that wonderful lost in the middle of nowhere feel. There was a wonderful picnic area right on the beach, so we had a relaxing lunch, lounged around for a bit and went into the water.

Cave Mountain Lake has a great little white beach with a roped off area that is perfect for young children to play and swim in and still feel safe. My youngest wanted to practice his swimming while my oldest true to form sat at the edge of the water and built a sandcastle complete with a mote, a retaining wall and a flag. My youngest at the time was fast asleep just a few feet away. I was carrying my fourth in my belly, and sitting there on the beach with my family was complete bliss. There were only a few other families there, one family with a few tween age kids about 30 feet to one side of us and about another 6 people spread out across the beach on the other side of us. Soon my oldest child made friends with one of two other kids on the beach. When it was time to leave the beach there were so many other things to see the kids were eager to move on.

When we pulled in we noticed that they had hiking trails, plenty of picnic tables and a huge pavilion with a fire place. Off to the side of the swimming area there are trails to follow that lead to fishing spots and I hear the fishing there is pretty good. It wasn't until we got there that we found out there was a campground there, so we wanted to drive through and check it out for future reference. The campsites are beautiful and well maintained with a fire pit in each one. There was also a new bathhouse that appeared to be new this year. We had spent less than four hours at Cave Mountain Lake and fell in love with it.

The kids are still taking about that day and can't wait to go back. It was such a simple little trip to a lake that turned into so much more. They talk about being scarred and being brave, about learning about Stonehenge and how much they want to go back to camp at Cave Mountain Lake. When we set out on our journey that morning we had no idea just how wonderful our spontaneous little trip would be.

Learn more about this author, Lisa Curcio.
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