Over our winter break we went on a short family vacation to see Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. We loaded up our car Wednesday morning and started out on the 7 hour drive down there. On our way we passed through Indianapolis and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. The Old Spaghetti Factory.
Shea is happy to be out of the car and had fun looking at the Christmas tree in the lobby.
Mmm...You can't beat pasta and ice cream.
Enjoying the sights of downtown Indianapolis.
Once we finished eating we continued the drive to Cave City, Kentucky. I know all of you wished you could have spent New Year's Eve there! The kids had fun being able to go swimming and checking out the hotel room.
The next morning, after our fabulous free breakfast, we headed out to the National Park. It was a quick 20 minute drive to the Visitors Center where we picked up our tour tickets to see the caves. We went on the New Entrance tour which was about 2 hours long. It started out with a bus ride to take you to the entrance of the cave.
Shea had to be independant and sit by herself and didn't want anyone touching her.
Here we are in the cave. To begin the tour you have to go down a lot of stairs. The cave was incredible. There were these big open areas, narrow areas where you can look over the stair railings and see far, far below. (It made me a little nervous how far the drop was) But it was totally worth the trip.
The girls all did a great job. Leah took it nice and slow going down the stairs and mentioned everytime she felt a drop of water on her.
Some of the neat formations we got to see. They say it takes about 100 years for a stalagtyte to grow about an inch.
Shea is happy to be out of the car and had fun looking at the Christmas tree in the lobby.
Mmm...You can't beat pasta and ice cream.
Enjoying the sights of downtown Indianapolis.Once we finished eating we continued the drive to Cave City, Kentucky. I know all of you wished you could have spent New Year's Eve there! The kids had fun being able to go swimming and checking out the hotel room.
The next morning, after our fabulous free breakfast, we headed out to the National Park. It was a quick 20 minute drive to the Visitors Center where we picked up our tour tickets to see the caves. We went on the New Entrance tour which was about 2 hours long. It started out with a bus ride to take you to the entrance of the cave.
Shea had to be independant and sit by herself and didn't want anyone touching her.
Here we are in the cave. To begin the tour you have to go down a lot of stairs. The cave was incredible. There were these big open areas, narrow areas where you can look over the stair railings and see far, far below. (It made me a little nervous how far the drop was) But it was totally worth the trip.
The girls all did a great job. Leah took it nice and slow going down the stairs and mentioned everytime she felt a drop of water on her.
Some of the neat formations we got to see. They say it takes about 100 years for a stalagtyte to grow about an inch. Mammoth Caves is the longest cave system in the world having over 300 miles of caves. It was really neat to go see.
We had to refuel with a picnic lunch after our tour.
We had a fun trip it was nice to go and do something different. Hopefully the kids will remember it. I can see it now...Remember when mom and dad took us to mammoth caves and made us go on that really long hike down all those stairs and we could have fallen and died, and then they turned out all the lights and it was completely dark and I couldn't see anything because we were so far below ground that no light got that far. Ahhh, sweet childhood memories!
We had to refuel with a picnic lunch after our tour.
We had a fun trip it was nice to go and do something different. Hopefully the kids will remember it. I can see it now...Remember when mom and dad took us to mammoth caves and made us go on that really long hike down all those stairs and we could have fallen and died, and then they turned out all the lights and it was completely dark and I couldn't see anything because we were so far below ground that no light got that far. Ahhh, sweet childhood memories!
3 comments:
What a fantastic trip. I really love caves. And yes, I have childhood memories of caves. Your girls will remember and tease you like you guys tease us, but it is worth it.
My family loves The Spaghetti Factory! I didn't know there was one in Indianapolis...
-Kim Bode
I went there years ago, I remember where the people had thrown torches up to a ledge to light the rooms. And I remember the complete darkness.
Fun!
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