Vacation Part 1
A bit over a week ago Jocelin and I went on vacation. From the beginning, the vacation was subject to frequent changes. Due to work stuff for Jocelin and I we moved our departure from Wednesday to Thursday and from Thursday to Friday. Ultimately, we left Friday late in the day to head down to Indianapolis.
In Indy we met up with Elsie and Carol, friends of Jocelin's from when she lived in Indiana. We went out to a Steak & Shake before we continued on our way to a hotel in Shelbyville. The hotel smelled a bit of mildew but was otherwise decent (and relatively cheap). Saturday morning we woke up and went to dive Blue Springs Quarry.
Blue Springs was an interesting dive site... the liability release was very informal and the operator of the site was both funny and casual. The diving was good but not so impressive that we lamented our late arrival. We did a couple dives and were satisified that we had seen most of what the quarry had to offer. We left Blue Springs, returned Jocelin's dive equipment to the shop, and continued our drive down to Louisville Kentucky. In Louisville we met up with Meg and Jason, two of Jocelin's good friends. We spent the night with them and enjoyed a nice dinner at Alameda and a few drinks and some billiards at a local pub. Meg and Jason had plans on Sunday so Jocelin and I continued South to Mammoth Caves by ourselves Sunday morning.
The Mammoth Caves were very cool. Our first tour was several hours long and culminated at Frozen Niagra, a spot in the caves where limestone deposits have formed what looks like a stone waterfall. It's a beautiful spot and the trip to get there really impresses upon you the sheer size of the caves.
Our second tour in the caves was in the Great Onyx Cave. As it turns out, Great Onyx isn't really part of the Mammoth Cave system (or at least they don't know for sure that it is - since neither cave system is completely mapped they may connect without people knowing it). To be honest, I enjoyed the Great Onyx tour even more than I did the first Mammoth tour. First, it was a lantern tour which means we were carrying Coleman lanterns instead of going through brightly lit caves. Second, the caves seemed to have more natural depositions. Stalactites and stalagmites were very common and there were some stupendous formations. Our tour guide had been working the caves for three decades and was both knowledgeable and capable of sharing his knowledge in a way that was enjoyable and enlightening. Overall it was a great experience.
Sunday night Jocelin and I drove back to Kalamazoo so that she could go to another work thing on Monday. It wasn't the original plan but it worked out well as our vacation would otherwise have been ridiculously busy. Part one of our vacation was a great success and I'd definitely like to go back to the Mammoth Caves again.
In Indy we met up with Elsie and Carol, friends of Jocelin's from when she lived in Indiana. We went out to a Steak & Shake before we continued on our way to a hotel in Shelbyville. The hotel smelled a bit of mildew but was otherwise decent (and relatively cheap). Saturday morning we woke up and went to dive Blue Springs Quarry.
Blue Springs was an interesting dive site... the liability release was very informal and the operator of the site was both funny and casual. The diving was good but not so impressive that we lamented our late arrival. We did a couple dives and were satisified that we had seen most of what the quarry had to offer. We left Blue Springs, returned Jocelin's dive equipment to the shop, and continued our drive down to Louisville Kentucky. In Louisville we met up with Meg and Jason, two of Jocelin's good friends. We spent the night with them and enjoyed a nice dinner at Alameda and a few drinks and some billiards at a local pub. Meg and Jason had plans on Sunday so Jocelin and I continued South to Mammoth Caves by ourselves Sunday morning.
The Mammoth Caves were very cool. Our first tour was several hours long and culminated at Frozen Niagra, a spot in the caves where limestone deposits have formed what looks like a stone waterfall. It's a beautiful spot and the trip to get there really impresses upon you the sheer size of the caves.
Our second tour in the caves was in the Great Onyx Cave. As it turns out, Great Onyx isn't really part of the Mammoth Cave system (or at least they don't know for sure that it is - since neither cave system is completely mapped they may connect without people knowing it). To be honest, I enjoyed the Great Onyx tour even more than I did the first Mammoth tour. First, it was a lantern tour which means we were carrying Coleman lanterns instead of going through brightly lit caves. Second, the caves seemed to have more natural depositions. Stalactites and stalagmites were very common and there were some stupendous formations. Our tour guide had been working the caves for three decades and was both knowledgeable and capable of sharing his knowledge in a way that was enjoyable and enlightening. Overall it was a great experience.
Sunday night Jocelin and I drove back to Kalamazoo so that she could go to another work thing on Monday. It wasn't the original plan but it worked out well as our vacation would otherwise have been ridiculously busy. Part one of our vacation was a great success and I'd definitely like to go back to the Mammoth Caves again.
posted by KzooJason at 8:54 PM
1 Comments:
I'm proud of you for taking such a cool trip. And for being to laid back and accomodating for Jocelin's schedule. How cool that you saw some of the US...we keep going to Europe, but I still haven't seen alot of the states! You're a step ahead.
Post a Comment
<< Home