TALLADEGA COUNTY — Plenty of people took advantage of the Labor Day holiday Monday, along with almost perfect weather and decided to head out to Cheaha Park to swim, hike, fish, grill and generally just enjoy the day.

Mark and Rebekah Gilbert of Alabaster, their children and friend Jennifer Elam of Wellington made Chinnabee their destination for the second year in a row.

“They used to live here, my wife grew up in this area,” Gilbert explained. “We just thought it would be a good place to go. We like to take advantage of the state parks, we’ve gone to Oak Mountain a couple of times, too.”

“It’s not really a tradition yet, but after two years, it will be kind of hard to break,” Rebekah Gilbert added.

A couple of tables over, four generations were catching up, with several of the younger ones visiting the park for the first time.

Etheleen Jones, her daughter Peggy Grubbs, Grubbs’ daughter Sarah Gilbert, husband Brad and children Sawyer, Brayde and Hanna Wolfe had a busy afternoon.

“We’re just enjoying the day,” Jones said.

“It was really more crowded than we expected when we first got here,” Sarah Gilbert said. “But we got to go fishing, and get in the water a little bit, and the boys caught tadpoles. They almost drank them at lunch, as a matter of fact.”

Whitney Alford of Alexandria made her first visit to the park Monday, with a group of friends from the Anniston-Oxford area.

“The guys come up here every chance they get,” she explained, “but we’ve never been. We’re really enjoying the water and just having a day off from work and school.”

Russell Vaughn of Lincoln spent much of the afternoon fly-fishing. “I’ve traveled a great distance to be here,” he said. “I’ve just come out for the day to get outside for a little while.”