Mammoth Cave

During the second day of our trip to Illinois, we stopped in Kentucky at Mammoth Cave. We took a 2-hour/2-mile tour through the cave, and we had a great time. Our tour guide was a colorful former Vietnam Vet, former drill sergeant, native Kentuckian, who was related to one of the original owners of the cave when it was still privately owned. He possessed a great talent for spinning tales and engaging the crowd of 100 tourists. I didn't get a great picture, but here he is at the beginning of our tour.

As we approached the mouth of the cave, cool air rushed over us, banishing the humid stickiness that enveloped the rest of the park.

We descended 200 stairs into the cave and began the tour. Overall, it was relatively easy. There are some tight spaces, and several places where the trail narrows the crowd into a single file line. The trail was rough and dark, but doable with common sense.

The cave itself is enormous in certain parts. The Rotunda Room, one of the larger parts of the cave, could easily hold a baseball stadium. Several sections open up into cathedral-worthy heights. Other sections, such as Fat Man's Misery and Tall Man's Agony, are not for the claustrophobic. They are true to their names, but fun to traverse through.

The biggest disappointment lay in the fact that Mammoth Cave is, in general, not a growing cave. There are no stalactites, stalagmites, or bizarre mineral growths to see. Intuitive Monkey was discouraged because he had looked forward to finally seeing them, only to discover that there weren't any there. He got over it and still had fun careening through the rocky darkness, as did we all.

If we had had more time, it would have been fun to camp in the rest of the park. It was a luscious, wooded, green forest filled with hiking and bike trails. Maybe we'll make it back some day.

More pics, just because.

Monkey says he's not mad in this picture, just trying to look tough.

Out of Commission

I won't be blogging for a few weeks. It's been hard, in general, to blog lately. Having the kids at home for the summer has kept me busy and also made it difficult to focus much when using the computer.

In addition to all that, my mother was involved in accident with a horse she was transporting a few days ago. She was trampled and has a broken leg and possibly broken ribs. We are heading up to Illinois for a week and a half so I can help take care of her for a short while as she begins to recover.

It will be just me and the kids because DH has already used two weeks of vacation; one for my surgery and one when we were up at his parent's house, keeping watch of his father while his mother was out of the country. He also has some significant deadlines he must meet by the end of the month. Despite the fact that it means I have to do all the driving, it's OK. At least we won't have to worry about what to do with the dog.

I have a little side trip, to Mammoth Cave, built into our travel time on the way up. We'll be taking the Historic Tour of the cave. I'm as excited as the kids are about it. Intuitive Monkey wanted to know if he would get to wear a miner's cap, with a flashlight on the top of the hat.

Anyway....Pray for me, and my kids, and my mom. For my mom....that she would recover well. For me and the kids....that we'll travel safely....and that we all survive with our sanity intact after so much "quality" time together in a car. :-)

Vacation Part Deux

Personality profiles couldn't give a better contrast between these two boys.

Vacation

That's where I'm at.

Lots of time poolside.

Lots of food I shouldn't eat.

Lots of lazy sleeping in.

A Couple of Days to Myself

Phew....I'm tired...but in a good, satisfied kind of way.

Between having people for the Holidays and visiting others for the Holidays and all the gift-giving, chatting, driving and recovering from Christmas, I had been feeling irritable and tired in the having-to-follow-other-people's-schedules kind of way.

That drives me nuts.

My mother-in-law had planned on us for a visit beginning on Saturday and going through the New Year. I was actually looking forward to it, but as it grew nearer I realized that by the time we got back from the trip I would only have a couple of days off before returning to work and the daily grind. Even those days were filled with dentist appointments for the kids and myself, and an event the next day that had been planned for some time.

ugh...wall to wall scheduling.

Who had the bright idea to arrange all of this stuff during Christmas Break?! oh yeah...that was me.

At the last minute I talked it over with DH and he agreed to head up to his parents for a couple of days while I got my head in a better place, filled a jewelry order that came in on Christmas, and paint Intuitive Monkey's bedroom--something I had been planning for months, but could never carve out the time to get done. I would join them on New-Year's Eve.

I love my husband. He can be so sweet when he isn't driving me crazy. :-)

So, for the last two days I have cleaned and scrubbed and sorted through closets and dressers, donating things to Goodwill. I have redecorated our bedroom, picked out paint colors for it, and started painting our son's room. I have packaged up all the last minute gifts I bought but didn't get in the mail on time. I made more jewelry. I played music all weekend long and sang obnoxiously loud. I let the dog sleep in bed with me, as a placeholder for my husband's spot. I slept late and wandered through Target and Lowe's at a pace that would drive my family insane if they were with me.

It's good to be alone sometimes.

I realized that it's good that I have my family, otherwise I would be a compulsive workaholic, always finding some sort of project to start or a hobby with which to tinker. I never really thought of myself that way, and I'm not sure why. I always love to accomplish tasks. Whenever the kids are up at their grandmother's, I always clean the carpet or upholstery--washing out the past and resetting a clean slate from which to start. I reorder the house, reordering my thoughts at the same time.

Restful Weekend

DH and I were privileged enough to stay at a Bed and Breakfast in St. Petersburg this weekend to celebrate our 10 Year anniversary. Thanks go to my in-laws, who are so gracious to treat us to these luxuries; things that we would normally never be able to enjoy on our own budget. What can I say? They're nice people!

Here's a few pics:









Before checking in, we stopped at a local "winery" which really wasn't a winery in the sense of acres upon acres of vineyards. Instead, it was a place where they produce a variety of non-traditional wines made from a citrus fruit base and other various juices and flavors. We were able to sample about eight different wines, ranging from a mango wine all the way through to an orange/coffee wine called Midnight Sun. It sounds worse than it tastes! I actually liked it, although it was a strange combination of flavors to get used to.

We wound up purchasing a bottle of wine made from coconut, pineapple and orange flavors...yummy pina colada!

After exploring the winery, we headed over to the Bed and Breakfast to check in. The room was beautiful, though I would have liked warmer colors than the cool blue. The bed was enormous with a huge, elevated, carved headboard, something I would imagine seeing in a castle or museum. The bathroom was impeccable and featured a whirlpool tub that could probably fit a small country within its cavernous depths.

After check-in we hit the streets of St. Petersburg, browsing through artsy shops and listening to a cover band rockin' out to The Eagles and Bon Jovi. One of the art stores we entered had the coolest metal sculptures that I SO would have bought if I had $300 to spend a superfluous sculpture that amused me. Alas, I don't have that kind of money so I took some pictures. Only one turned out well.


I'm a dog person.

For dinner, we walked to a local Indian restaurant and were treated to a delicious chicken curry and warm, freshly baked naan. mmmm. naan. I wish we had an Indian restaurant near us! I am so jealous of you St. Petersburg!

I have more to write about, but this post is already dragging on with all sorts of details that probably bore everybody else in the known universe.

more later.

Back From Vacation

Thanks to my lovely in-laws, we enjoyed a three-night, four-day beach vacation with them.

An all-time, world record for changing into swimsuits, in less than 1.613 seconds, was set by the boys as they hurriedly raced to get to the beach. We spent the late evening floating on the waves in the Gulf, lulled by the gentle rocking as we lay on neon colored inner tubes. Eventually this turned into a game in which we were trapped by the Legion of Doom in the ocean. We were to frantically call for Superman to come rescue us from our evil captors. Meanwhile, we had to battle it out, ramming into each other and splashing one another with our salt-water death rays. Yes. With boys everything becomes a battle of immense proportions between the powers of good and evil.

In all the fun, I forgot to bring the camera and missed capturing a stunning sunset.

The next morning I crept into the boys bedroom at 7:00 am. They were already awake, of course, ready for the next adventure. I suggested we sneak down to the beach, before everyone else was up, and go for a walk. In our pajamas. The Rationalist replied,"That's crazy!" After much wrangling he decided to humor me and he accompanied me down to the almost empty beach. We watched the tiny coquinas being swept here and there by the waves, digging themselves back into their sandy habitats when the water receded.


The Rationalist, fascinated by the tiny animals, put a kabosh on the walking part of the adventure. Instead, he tried to save stranded coquinas by picking them up and tossing them into the water, or poking them down into the sand with his finger. I had to tell him to stop helping them, or their tiny shells might be crushed. "I didn't know that," he said matter-of-factly.

Once again I had left my camera behind and missed the opportunity to photograph an enormous rainbow over the Gulf.

The most exciting part of the trip was the mastery of the boogie board and wave surfing. Intuitive Monkey seemed to grasp the intricacies of finding the perfect wave, at just the right time, to obtain maximum force and longevity of ride. With his blond hair, he looked like the quintessential surfer. He was a natural.


Surfers in action

On Vacation

Y'all have fun now, y'hear?!