Little Bug is very much into caves right now because of a Berenstain Bears book, Lost in the Cave that she loves to read.

There is a cave near the cabin and we decided to take her see it!

It was about an hour’s drive from the cabin and Sweet Pea fell asleep in the car on the way over.

We let her finish her little nap while Grandma, Gramps, Little Bug and I walked over to a beautiful stream. Dave stayed with Sweet Pea in the car.

Little Bug and Gramps explored the area.

Once Sweet Pea was awake we got in line to enter the cave. The cave is 52 degrees Fahrenheit year round so we had to bundle everyone up!

Gramps and Little Bug were the first ones in the cave.

A real cave!

One part of the tour took us down a very narrow “hallway” in the cave. The tour guide told us that if we were claustrophobic we may not want to be the first to go down the hallway because it was going to be close quarters down there. We let others in the group go before us and we trailed behind. We were not allowed to touch the cave except while walking down this path.

Grandma wanted Sweet Pea to be able to touch the cave, too!

Little Bug can recite a rhyme from the book about stalactites and stalagmites word for word:

This is the largest stalactite in this cave.

At one point during the tour the tour guide turns off ALL the lights to show just how dark it really is half a mile under the earth in a cave.

And oh.my.goodness…it was dark. The darkest I’ve ever seen. I like to sleep in complete dark, but this dark (cave dark) is so dark that your eyes never adjust once the lights go off. There is no natural light down there whatsoever. The tour guide had us put our hand in front of our face before she turned the lights out and when the lights were out your hand literally disappeared before your eyes.

I knew they were going to turn the lights out during the tour and I was a little worried the girls would be scared. I kept whispering in their ears when the lights were off, “Mama’s right here.” They were fine.

The tour guide told a story of some teenage boys who went exploring in this cave back in the early 1900’s. They made two bad mistakes though: they only took one lantern with them and they didn’t tell anyone where they were going!

600 feet into the cave their lantern broke and they were left in complete utter darkness!! I cannot imagine!

They ended up following the stream out. It took them two days and they suffered from hypothermia, but they made it out alive.

And I am sure the sunlight never looked or felt better than on that day!

I am so happy this little girl got to go in a real cave! She was very tired on the drive home because, in her true vacation fashion, she was up at 6:45am (instead of her normal 8/8:15am).

After naptime we read Lady and the Tramp which is another favorite story of Little Bug’s right now.

Then we went to Lifeway bookstore and while I was shopping I heard someone say, “Miss [my maiden name]!!”. I turned around to see one of my former students walking towards me with a big smile on his face. I hadn’t been called that in forever and it was SO good to see him!

He was in my first class and just graduated high school this year!

I was overjoyed to see him! That is probably one of the best things about teaching – seeing students that were once way shorter than you. He towers over me now!

- Elaine