After watching The Croods the night before, we launched this theme with a trip to Cave of the Winds. Though I knew I had to be extra gracious to the kids if they got scared, I had no idea I would spend the 45-minute tour being clutched by 2-3 kids at a time, while still trying to navigate the narrow passageways, steep stairs, and slippery rock floors, and still try to take pictures. Needless to say I really didn’t have the opportunity to unhook my hands long enough for a photo, but it was amazing, fun, and a good experience for my sometimes-timid girls. Theo and Alex were happy as clams most of the time, holding hands and exploring within eyesight, but Theo got tired at the end and wanted me to carry him.
The only regret I have this summer, while doing all of these wonderful things with the kids and really exploring our local area, is that Mike can’t join us for much of it. I’m so glad we’ll have two weeks together as a family at the end of the summer.
The kids all had to pick their favorite thing about the cave to tell Mike about later. Theo’s was the “wishing fountain,” a pool at the beginning of the tour that was full of coins. Penny’s was the “Old Maid’s Kitchen,” a section of wall that holds thousands of hair pins, barrettes, and coins as an omen of good luck and fortuitous marriages. Evelyn’s was the “Giant’s Bleeding Heart,” a dripping, red-hued rock formation that was growing out of a cavity veined in rock which looked like lungs. Alex’s was a rock that you rubbed for good luck before ascending some steep steel stairs. And mine was the fact that, during the “absolute cave darkness” part of the tour, I was never really intimidated because Alex’s sweatshirt was glow in the dark!
I enjoyed a comment that Penny and Evelyn both made when the tour guide warned us to “suck, tuck and duck” through a short, narrow entrance called “Fat Man’s Injury, Tall Man’s Headache.” The girls assured me that I was “tall and skinny” so I’d have no trouble at all.
Then Alex deflated my balloon a bit when he asked me a question on the drive home.
Alex – “Mom, how long ago did William Shakespeare die?”
Me – “A long, long, long, long-long, long time ago.”
Alex – “So…like when you were born?”
