Arizona Trip

A family wedding provided the opportunity for my whole family to travel west a few days after New Years, to a part of the country we had never visited and another part that we had last been to almost 17 years ago. 
The wedding was in Florence, AZ, just south of Phoenix, at a lovely winery plopped in the middle of barren, rocky landscape. We enjoyed time together as a family and also time reconnecting and catching up with extended family that we hadn't seen in a long time. 

Cousins

We took a day trip up to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, which we had visited on our Big Trip in 2002.  The first visit was in late June, and January in the snow was a very different experience!  The vistas were breathtaking and magnificent, which is how I remember it from before, but the freshly fallen snow from the night before added a new dimension and contrast. The 3 hour drive up from Phoenix was amazing as well, as we traveled through the Sonoran Desert dotted with Saguaro cactus,  the red rock cliffs of Sedona,  switchbacks through forests up the Colorado Plateau,  wide flat grassland,  dark basalt hills and extinct volcanoes, and then of course, the massive vistas across the Grand Canyon.

 Our family, with the exception of the oldest who had to return to NC for work, spent a couple of days in Sedona after the wedding, enjoying a mini-family vacation. I don't take lightly the fact that we still are able to do this, with children now in their 20's and 30's.  The bond between siblings in our family, and the fact that they enjoy spending time with each other and even indulge us parents, is something I treasure. 

Short Week in Massachusetts

We just got back from a short week in Massachusetts - drove up on Sunday and back on Saturday. My mom and I were talking this week about how years ago when my kids were small, I used to stay up there with the  kids for 3-4 weeks!  Mark would drive up with us and then fly back home to work, then fly back up to spend the last couple of days before driving us all home. Then as the kids got older and there were jobs and sports and classes and missions trips to work around, the trips got shorter.  This time, it was just 3 of us for the first time ever-  me, Mark, and J - so we didn't even need to drive the big van!  That felt really strange.

We stayed with my parents and got to visit both my and Mark's family, since we grew up in neighboring towns and went to the same high school.  My  niece, who is 10, slept over at Grammy and Grampa's for the week so she could hang out with us.  That is the one good thing about living far away - when we visit, we LIVE together for days and days.  It doesn't really make up for the time spent apart, but at least it helps.  We had perfect summer weather all week -  mid-80's, with 60's at night. So much more comfortable than the 100's that were baking things here at home! 

J and Mark got to go to an afternoon Red Sox game at Fenway Park, which they both LOVED.  They also got in some good games of badminton in the backyard during the week, and J and I played bocce on Grandpa's real bocce court!

On another day, the 3 of us, my mom, and my niece went out on a Whale Watch with Capt.John Boats, out of Plymouth, MA.  I had done that with my 3 older kids when they were young, and now J got to see the humpback and minke whales spouting, surfacing, and diving all around us.  The naturalist on board the boat narrated the whole time, telling us exactly what we were seeing and also interesting information about the whales, their habits, and the things that she and other researchers are studying and learning about them!  It was VERY cool! 

Going to the Drive-In movie was another treat that we look forward to every summer. It brings back memories of me and my 2 brothers and my sister, clad in pajamas, laid out with our pillows and blankets in the back of our family station wagon with popcorn and drinks brought from home, watching "The Sound of Music" or "Fantastic Voyage" or "The Pink Panther".  Later, it was me and my friends or me and my date....
This time, it was me, Mark, J and A,  watching "Captain America", still eating popcorn and drinks brought from home.  

Trip to the Creation Museum

As part of our Kentucky camping trip last week, we journeyed up to the northern part of the state to camp at Big Bone Lick State Park in Union and visit the  Creation Museum!  This has been on my list of "things to see" for several years, since the museum opened, and friends who had visited already had raved about it. 


The museum lived up to our expectations. It is a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility which brings the biblical account of Creation to life.  The "Men in White" show and the Planetarium show were excellent.  The walk-thru exhibits showcasing the Garden of Eden, Noah's shipbuilding site, and more, were enchanting.  And the gardens outside the the museum, with pathways, bridges, gazebos, and pond, were stunning.  We even found lunch at the on-site restaurant, Noah's Cafe, to be reasonably priced, amply portioned,  and very tasty.  Yes, you should go.  

We enjoyed this campground too, although the sites were a bit close together, without many trees.   Thankfully, the weather cooled off and was just perfect for the last 2 days, so we actually enjoyed sitting out at the picnic table and going for walks around the campground.  We did have to make one trip to find an Urgent Care Center ... .again... for Amanda's ear.  Her ear infection flared up again, and required a THIRD antibiotic and this time, antifungal drops as well. 

 We dropped in at McD's or Wendy's a couple of times to hook up to wireless internet and check our email.  Hopeless, I know.  All of us.

Mammoth Caves National Park - part 2

I had quickly looked through the different tours on the national park website before we left home, and printed off the descriptions of the ones that sounded most interesting.  There were a couple of "extreme" cave tours that I immediately crossed off the list - no crawling on my belly or handclimbing up walls or squeezing through tiny spaces for me. I figured the "extremely strenuous" tour wasn't a good idea at my age and level of fitness either.  But I did think we could handle more than the "nice and easy" walk through the cave.  So I underlined the Moderate hikes, and noticed that some tours included parts of other tours. For instance, the New Entrance Tour included the Frozen Niagara Tour and more, so no need to do both of those. 

Our second tour was the Snowball Tour. In 100 degree heat, just the name sounded quite appealing! The temperature inside the caves is about 54 degrees year round, and although we all brought sweatshirts, I had mine tied around my waist most of the time.  It felt WONDERFUL in there. Of course my hubby was freezing - we are the couple that has him wrapped up in a quilt while I'm lying on top of the blankets with the ceiling fan going full blast. But I digress. 

The Snowball Tour entered the caves at the Carmichael Entrance, a different location than the New Entrance. The almost 200 stairs at this entrance went straight down underground, like walking down the steps of city hall, rather than winding in a spiral down a shaft.  This was a wider, flatter, more open cavern which led us for 1.5 miles through places like "Clevelands Avenue", to the Snowball Dining Room, about 250 feet below the surface.  

 We learned the names of every single kind of rock inside the caves....

Limestone. Limestone.... and limestone. 

The Snowball Tour gets its name from calcium carbonate deposits growing on the ceiling and walls. It looks like snow!  

Only clear water bottles are allowed in the cave - no bags, backpacks,camera bags... but on this tour you are allowed to bring lunch in a mesh bag or clear ziploc bag.  I packed sandwiches, cheese & crackers, and granola bars in a mesh beach bag for our picnic way down under. Box lunches were available, as well as vending machine fare. The dining room had a number of picnic tables, as well as rest rooms, which were a welcome amenity.  

We were fortunate to have fairly small groups of 40 or less on all 3 tours, and the guides were very personable and informative. They stopped and shared lots of interesting facts about the history of the caves, its exploration, its geology.  Jason wanted to be right up front to hear everything that the ranger had to say! 

One of the things we learned about was the early tour guides, when the caves were privately owned, back in the mid-late 1800s. These young men, many of them African-American slaves or former slaves, explored miles and miles of cave, and led groups of curious people through the passageways. One way that they earned tips was to write the name of the person on the ceiling, using a candle attached to a long pole.  This was called smoke writing. Some names were carved, some were painted.  After the land was bought by the federal government, the practice of writing on the walls and ceilings was halted. But there is a lot of fascinating history in those names and dates. 

Our final tour was the evening Star Chamber tour, which was conducted by gas lantern light. 

This was very cool, as we entered through the historic natural entrance and heard about some  historical uses of the cave - the saltpeter mine, the tuberculosis huts, the church where a congregations actually held services. Then there was the "giant's coffin", and the "star chamber", in which the ceiling, darkened by smoke from years of lantern light, was chipped by enterprising young guides who threw stones to expose flecks of white stone, thus creating a "star" for a grateful customer.

looking back at the light ... it is DARK in the cave

Mammoth Caves National Park

We have lived in 3 different states and traveled quite a bit with the kids, but Kentucky is someplace that we have never visited before this summer! We love to camp and have visited many of our country's National Parks. For a long while, Mark has wanted to see Mammoth Caves - just because it sounded COOL! Well, we finally took a trip up to Mammoth Caves National Park in KY last week , and it WAS cool - both literally and figuratively! 

The park is located in a pretty rural area of south central KY, about 30 miles northeast of Bowling Green. We camped at Nolin Lake State Park, just north of the national park.  Since it was July and VERY hot and muggy, electric hook up for our tent trailer was a high priority, and something the national park campgrounds do not have. Even though we don't have AC in our camper, we do have clip on fans which make sleeping a bit more comfortable. This state park campground is fairly new, with huge sites that are nicely separated. Many of them are in full sun, but we scored one of the few sites in full shade.  Again, a big plus when it is hot! The campground was nice and quiet, with many families and not many of the big rig RVs. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a campground in that area.

The drive to campground wound through country roads and was very picturesque. We were confused when we came upon this road sign. 

Fortunately, waiting ahead was this little ferry across the Green River.   It took us a few minutes of indecision before driving aboard, wondering if our conversion van pulling a camper was going to fit --- but it did.  No worries.

We went on three different cave tours, each 2 1/2 - 3 hours long,  and they were all different and all very interesting!   The first was the New Entrance Tour.  This tour was probably the most strenuous of the three, but was listed in the brochure as Moderate and was very doable.  We entered the cave through the "New Entrance", which is a manmade entrance opened up in the 1800's by one of the early cave owners and guides. You start off by going down a narrow stairway through a natural  shaft where at times you have to duck or turn sideways to fit.... !!!!  Our guide told us that the steel stairway took 3 years to design and 3 years to install, and were designed by a submarine engineer!   You could see through the grid flooring and if you don't like heights.. DO NOT LOOK DOWN!

Here we go!  

I don't know about this!!!!

down....down....down.....down......

some low ceilings - watch out, tall man!

Duck!

Can you imagine walking through here before the pathway was built?

After a while, we came to an area of amazingly beautiful rock formations, an area called Frozen Niagara.

flow stone

amazing "drapery folds"

looks like icing on a cake!

There is a lot of family bonding that takes place when we go on camping trips together.

to be continued...