Howe's That?

 We went to Howe caverns recently. Just a quick vacation for a little summer fun. The boys were a little nervous about being underground in dark scary caves, but Snickers recovered quickly and enjoyed the sights. It took Doodlebug a little longer to get comfortable, mostly due to some bridges and high places (he isn't very fond of heights or anywhere that you can see down below your feet). But after the boat ride at the halfway point he was fine. Apparently after the terrifying thrills and chills of the boat ride (a placid drifting down a mirror smooth stream and back), the caves were nothing! And Sweet Pea spent the whole tour snapping away madly with her camera. I don't think she saw any of the caves except through the camera lens!

Aside from the tour of the caves we panned for jewels, visited the gift shop, ran up and down the huge concrete "Howe Caverns" letters on the side of the hill outside the building and went to the bathroom several thousand times. (A trip to pizza hut on the way there involved several quarts of lemonade.)

Then we stayed in a hotel between Howe Caverns and home for the night. Let me tell you it was not the best hotel. It seemed like it should be. It was expensive. It was crowded. It was sparkly and shiny and hotely. But in the entire hotel they had only Two! Elevators! I don't mean two banks of elevators like in a normal hotel. I mean two measly elevators. For all 3000 guests. And one of them was out of order. What!?!?!? This is a joke, right? No, unfortunately it wasn't. Eventually we found the stairs and that cut out several hours of waiting for elevators that evening.

But the room was nice. A suite with a bedroom with two double beds, a bathroom and a living room. And, with two double beds and a pullout couch and three kids you can imagine the arguments and wheeling and dealing and cajoling that went on regarding who was to sleep where. It was finally decided that Mommy and Daddy would get one bed. Snickers and Sweet Pea would get the other and Doodlebug would get the pull out couch. I thought Doodlebug would hate that idea. Sleeping all alone in a separate room while the rest of shared a room. But he insisted. That lasted right up until the lights went off.

He wasn't afraid, it was just too noisy for him to sleep. It really was much quieter in the bedroom. So, I dragged the mattress off the pullout and squashed it on the floor between the two beds and he slept there. Everyone was happy and slept as well as you can in a hotel.

Breakfast the next day was nice. I spent about an hour and a half gathering up everyone's food, running back for juice and syrup and bacon and pancakes and milk and cereal and eggs and juice and bacon and more juice. Then I finally got to sit down to cold eggs while 6 little eyes and 3 little mouths urged me to please hurry up. It's time to swim in the pool. Sigh!

So, we get to the pool. The very cloudy pool - much like our aquarium when it was overrun with snails. It was super warm like primordial stew. I'm sure there were strange and mysterious micro-organisms in there evolving into many legged creatures with hairy eyeballs. But hairy eyeballs and all, I swam. The Hubster couldn't quite bring himself to really swim - he was too oogied out by the state of the water. And, while I might have been as well, I was too excited at actually having the chance to swim for the first time in 10 years! Yes, I think it's the first time in 10 years I've been able to swim without a child on my hip or my back or in my arms. All three kids can swim without help now. So I just pushed all thoughts of the grossity of the water from my mind. There was certainly enough hair in there to make several nice wigs. It all came from the eyeballs of those strange and mysteriously evolving creatures - transparent and wiggling like jelly and skittering around the water with their hairy eyeballs.

(Needless to say we scrubbed ourselves pink and raw in the shower before leaving). But despite the hotel, we managed to have a nice (if somewhat short) vacation. Before going home we stopped for a game of miniature golf (fun!) and some ice-cream. (yum!)


Quack!