Fossil Hunting at Purse State Park

 It's the last day of summer vacation.  How did that happen so quickly? This year the summer just flew by and I'm totally not ready for fall!!
Today we drove to Purse State Park in MD for our annual fossil shark tooth hunting expedition!  It was a beautiful day and we were pretty successful in our hunting. Brendan made a lean-to shelter for the kids out of driftwood which they loved.  Aidan made swords out of driftwood.  Emmy and Aoife played in the water and Declan preferred to stay out of the water and on the sand. Declan found a deer femur which was the best thing of the day!
We found bunches of shark teeth. It was lowish tide so the hunting was a little easier than when the tide is high. We didn't stay too long. Everyone was getting anxious for school the next day. It was nice to be able to relax outside one very last time before the crazy starts all over again!

Purse State Park

We spent our last day of summer at Purse State Park in MD hunting for fossilized shark teeth.  It wasn't quite as empty as it was when we went last year but it was still nice and relaxing!  The kids had fun and we found quite a few teeth.
School starts tomorrow - Middle School for Aidan and a new school for the girls.  Everyone is looking forward to school but really just wants to get the first day over with!  Here's to a good night's sleep tonight!!!

Fossil Hunting at Purse State Park

 I had read this post on Kid Friendly DC and have been wanting to go for a while so this morning we drove down to Purse State Park in MD to meet the Sharps and do some fossil hunting.  It's about an hour drive from here - with no traffic - so it wasn't really that far!  Once we got there, there was a short (maybe 10 minute) walk from the parking area to the shoreline.  You have to cross the street to access the path - there's a small sign that says "beach path" and has two shark teeth carved on it!

Once we got to the water, we turned left and walked down the beach maybe 200 yards to where a small stream came into the river.  We started digging and found shark teeth!!  We ended up finding most of our teeth just lying on the top of the sand in the piles of small rocks.  It was very relaxing to just sit in the sand and sort through piles of pebbles.

The girls also fished for minnows and tadpoles in the smaller stream and swam in the river.  We had a really fun and relaxing day.  There were a few other people there but not enough to notice.  We had a nice picnic and just enjoyed the peace and quiet.  The kids enjoyed being with their friends and there was very little crying!

If you're thinking of visiting, just check the tide charts before you go (search for Potomac River/Liverpool Point).  We got there 2 hours after high tide and left right at low tide.  If you go at high tide, there would be very little beach to play on or look for fossils on.  There are also no facilities so make sure you bring enough food and water!  This website is fun to look at before you go to help you know what to look for!