The next morning after a yummy breakfast at the hotel we headed out on our next adventure! Again, we drove just a 5 hour day and it was a perfect amount of time in the car.
We were heading to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky! I was so excited to take the kids on a cave tour. I didn't take many pictures in the car because seriously, a lot of the trip had signs like this. We were lost more than a few times and I think it took us an extra hour due to the gps not taking us to the right places! By the time we saw this sign, we were on the other side of the national park, where evidently they have a boat ride (that was closed) that took you to the correct section where the caves are. How to get there by car? We had no clue. Ha! We hadn't seen a gas station or bathroom for miles, and when we saw this sign we just had to stop and laugh. And take a picture, of course.
We finally found it and thank goodness we had planned for extra time and our cave tour wasn't for another hour! I was starting to get nervous we would miss it!
So, mom and I were both a little nervous about this spelunking adventure. We hate bats. I mean HATE them. Like, are terrified of them. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it in front of the kids. And we had a positive attitude about it. But still... BATS!! So I actually called the offices before I booked and asked if there were bats in the caves. Ha! After a long pause, I think they either thought I was crazy, or it was a prank call.
There are bats. But apparently they don't like the parts of the caves where the people are so they stay away. Usually. One can hope. So here we were waiting for our tour.
The kids were so excited.
And most of my pictures look like this. Because seriously. We were in a cave. And it was dark, and there was very little light. We couldn't use a flash. And I was watching for bats.
It was absolutely breathtaking though. Something else I had never seen or done before. It was super hot outside and it was like 50 degrees cooler in here. It felt awesome.
I tried to take a picture of our group walking along a path in the cave.
Some places had a little more light- but not much!
We walked down a bunch of stairs and the view looking up was just amazing. It is hard to describe. I just recommend visiting! It is another must see!
Then we had this awesome tour guide that saw my frustration with not being able to use a flash so he flashed his flashlight on the kids for a nanosecond so I could snap one picture of them!
On our way out! We saw no bats! So I call it a win-win.
We have yet to go anywhere they don't take you through a gift shop on your way out. Even cave tours! Ha. They wanted these spelunking hats...I had to admit they looked pretty cute. And would have been very handy in the cave!
After our tour we drove to Bowling Green, which is about 30 minutes away from the caves. We had an awesome dinner at Smoky Bones! It was a BBQ place we all loved. Then we headed to our hotel for some swimming and relaxing! We had a longer drive coming up the next day!
