A dark, cold (and cool) detour!

For the moment, you'll just have to just trust me when I say that we spent a week at the beach in Florida. I'm still so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of blog-worthy photos that I just don't yet have the courage (or energy) to tackle them. So, in the interest of posting something, here are the photos from our detour to Mammoth Cave on the way home. It would've been a great trip on its own, but that the fact that it perfectly broke up the journey home with a chance for us all to stretch our legs and run around - well, that made it fantastic! Here are some photos from our journey down to about 10 stories underground. (No small feat for this claustrophobic-mama.)
At the starting gate (we opted for the self-guided, leave-when-you-wanna-leave option)...
The Descent...

Josie's "I think we're in a cave" face...
I think we were allowed to touch it...
It's harder than you might think to take a photo in a cave...
So the problem with taking pictures in a cave is that all the pictures look like they were taken in a cave...
Not just any park bench, this one's 100+ feet below ground...
Josie decides to sit for a spell...
Finally, we figure out the "night mode" setting on the camera and manage to snap some good family photos that include a little cave backdrop...

Notice the cuddling, because it was um 54 degrees.

Josie was getting very sleepy and also a little bit frozen...
So we played a little bit more...
Then resurfaced (whew)...
And, mission accomplished: Josie was back asleep before we even hit the highway.
Oh, one last thing - we "promised" Josie bats but there were none. So Louie and I did our best flapping-batwing impression while Josie called out "Here Bat, Bat, Bat". We also had fun playing with the echoes. Josie's repeated quote if you ask her about the cave - "Bats in da cave, Cave kinda dark, Cave very very cold." Couldn't say it better myself. :)

Now, like bookends, you have the beginning of our trip and the end of it. I promise that the good stuff from the middle will be coming soon! And I hope it will be worth the wait. :)