Kentucky/Indiana Vacation

Better late than never...here we go.

We left after a long night/morning of packing for Illinois.  Of course, like always, we were a bit later than we would have liked.  We had to stop at the bank since we were refinancing the house and that took a little longer than planned--and then a few other things came up as well--like the garage sale in our neighborhood I HAD to go to.  (Okay don't laugh at me.  I go to these people's sale every year--their kids are 2 years older than Ky and Alaina--I pick up lots of clothes that are in GREAT shape for really cheap prices...And if you are still laughing at me because you are one of those "brand" name people--when I say "nice" I mean brand name quality clothing that I could probably sell for more than I bought it for AFTER my kids wear it.  We are talking an investment here....Okay now you are really laughing at me....Do you see how my mind works?)  Anyways--back to my story...

So off we go to Illinois.  The plan originally was to leave early enough to go to the Children's Museum in Rockford in the morning and then off to visit Grandpa Herbst, Aunt Linda and Aunt Janice.  But like all things--I couldn't find our membership cards until the last minute--so yeah--we were late...

But we got to Grandpa Herbst safely and had a WONDERFUL visit with him.  In fact, one of the best ever.  It was past his nap time so he was probably overtired, but he was a lot of fun.  He kept calling Ky "Charlie" and really enjoyed watching the kids. He also gave us a peek at the young man he once was.

After the visit Aunt Janice & Aunt Linda took us for ice cream at Oberwiess.  (Do they know us or what?!)  What a yummy and fun time!  The cashier even brought out balloons for the kids. We had a wonderful time visiting with our Aunts before beginning the official "vacation".

The rest of the day was spent driving to Indianapolis.  On the way, we tried stopping at a Bob Evans, but were unable to find one.  (We don't have Bob Evans in Wisconsin.)  Instead we ended up stopping at a Denny's that was very smoky--ICK!  It is always funny going to out of state restaurants that don't have the no smoking ban yet.  I am so used to not being around smoke, that now when I am, it is just overwhelming.

We got to Adam & Liz's in good time and were able to plan the next day with them. Saturday we slowly got up--what can I say--it's the weekend!  and were off to Conner Prairie.  Liz used to work there and gave us all the fun "behind" the scenes stories.  It was a VERY hot day though, and made the outdoors difficult to really enjoy.  I felt sorry for all the characters dressed in their garb--especially the blacksmith!  What a job on a 90 degree day!

I think the kids most enjoyed tormenting, I mean playing with the animals.  There was this poor mule that Alaina kept following around.  I think she found his tail intriguing.  Ky also got to meet his buddy Diego who was making special appearances that day.  (Talk about another hot gig.  Can you imagine wearing that giant furry costume?!)   Alaina cried and didn't really want to get near him.  I could tell that Ky was being very shy--but it was a fun experience.

At one point on our long journey Ky was being obstinate so we went to the doctor (at Connor Prairie--remember 1800's characters) and asked him what we could do about a naughty child.  He said that he had just the remedy.  He told us that we needed to go outside and find a hickory tree and then cut off a branch about yeah long and yeah wide.  He then told us that we needed to apply it to his buttocks area.  It was all very funny and well done for his character.  That man sure thought quickly on his feet!

After that we were off for some dinner.  We ate at a yummy place (Liz--what was the name of the restaurant?  I don't remember.)  They had awesome barbecue.  And there was SO MUCH food.  We were stuffed.  I know Adam and Rob definitely had lots of brisket left over (it became dinner the next day.)  At one point in the meal Alaina reached over and grabbed some spicy food off of Liz's plate.  Oh, how I wish I had had a video camera on her!  She started scraping it off her tongue and making faces and then began to cry.  I guess she learned her lesson--don't take food off of other people's plate!

On Sunday, we enjoyed another lazy morning before we headed out for ice cream at Handel's, a local ice cream place.  Ky got Dora on a stick, while Rob and I enjoyed some of the flavors.  I had chocolate raspberry truffle and it was DELICIOUS!  This place definitely had 2 thumbs up from me.

After Ice Cream we walked through the Art Institute's gardens.  The kids had fun in the crazy house.  I enjoyed the flower area by the river which had a lot of butterflies.  And then there was a ledge.  First Ky, had to walk on it.  I was okay with that--it was even with the ground on the other side, and I just made sure to stand next to him on the "Drop-off" side that got bigger and bigger.  Well then, of course Alaina saw Ky do it so she HAD to do it as well.  Talk about making me nervous.  She did fine though.  That girl is definitely an adventuresome one!

On Monday morning we left for camping in Kentucky.  The plan was to visit Mammoth Cave.  We did not make reservations for camping--and now we are very glad we didn't.  We had planned to camp at Nolen Lake Park.  It was the only campground near Mammoth Cave that had a lake.  I thought having a lake was an important aspect in our camping with the kids (especially with some potentially VERY hot days) so this is why we chose that campground.  I had called ahead because I noticed that many of the Kentucky Parks did not have sites reserved.  It turns out that school starts in Kentucky in early August--so the only campers would be out-of-state ones.  When we were browsing the Kentucky sites, we were not very happy with the limited info they had, and honestly after calling a few times, I was a bit concerned about how great the sites would be as well.  This is why we didn't reserve sites.

We got to Nolan park and there was no one in the office.  We found a man mowing the lawn and he said "just pick out a site, set-up, and we will settle up with you later".  Hmmm...

Well we saw a few sites but they were all crammed together in a treed area--and I mean crammed.  There would be no privacy.  We went to another office and found a lady working the desk.  We asked about other campsites and she said "SURE!  Just let me xerox you a map of the park".  She dug a hand drawn map out of her filing cabinet and copied it.  All the other sites we found we did not think we would actually be able to fit our tent in the area allotted.  We are VERY glad that we didn't make reservations. 

At this point we called Mammoth Cave NATIONAL park (Nolan lake was a Kentucky park) and they said that they had sites available.  We let the kids play in the lake for a bit and then left to find a campsite at Mammoth Cave park. 

To get to Mammoth Cave Park we actually had to take a ferry across the river.  The kids LOVED it.  I felt sorry for the ferry operator.  What a boring job!?  back and forth, back and forth....

We were so happy to finally get a nice normal camping site at a park that was ran professionally.  While we worked to set up the tents the kids lost it.  I mean LOST IT!  They were screaming and crying--yeah--it was not a happy day.  They were overtired and were done being crammed in the van.  The people around us must have thought that we were lunatics (and to those people I apologize.)  By the time we were done setting up, Rob and I were losing it--and we STILL had to make dinner.  We got it done though and then threw the kids in bed.  WHEW!  With the crazy campsites and driving, that day was crazy!  Mental note--never plan on camping in a Kentucky park again!

Tuesday, so in case you didn't know, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the largest known cave system in the world.  They currently have almost 400 miles of cave system charted--and would not be surprised to find more.  We were very excited to be able to take a vacation so nearby and get to explore a small piece of this cave system.

We took 2 tours.  The first tour we took was the New Entrance Tour.  This entrance was found/created by a man who sold cave tours to make money.  Eventually he sold it to the park.  This tour had a lot of sharp turns and took quite a bit of negotiating, which was not easy to do if you were the one holding Alaina.  It was really neat to see the formations.  (I think our pictures don't even do justice the the actual beauty of the cave.)

We went back to our site for lunch and Ky found a stick bug that he was very excited about.  Unfortunately, I don't think it survived the love of a four-year-old.  After that we went back to Nolan Lake.  It was the last really warm day that was predicted and we figured we would take advantage of it.  The lake was beautiful.  Nobody was there, so it was like having the place to ourselves.  The kids LOVED it.  The water was beautiful, with exception of the fish that would come and nibble on you.  The only downside was Alaina was getting a little TOO brave in the water.  She was not afraid to walk out shoulder deep.  Yeah...we gotta get that girl some swim lessons.

That evening we returned to the campsite where we paid $2 to shower.  Yes at this campground you have to PAY to shower.  My shower was quite horrific.  I was with Alaina and the water went from hot to cold- there was no in between.  I ended up burning her in attempt to get the soap rinsed off her.  Yeah--we did not take anymore showers at the campground.  I was done.  I also went and got my money back.  I was not happy at all with that experience.

That night Rob and I enjoyed a couple of beers by the fire.  I think I actually drifted off.  As we were preparing to go in our tent we noticed it was starting to sprinkle.   I put the firewood under the picnic table and thought nothing more about it until....we woke up to POURING rain a couple of hours later.  It stormed and stormed.  I had hanging laundry--it was soaked.  The firewood--wet.  And around 4 AM or so I got up out of bed to notice the bottom of our tent had become a water bed.  I would step and I could feel water squirting out from the sides of my feet.  It was coming in the tent through the seams of the tent and getting our bedding wet.  Alaina was in luck being elevated in her pack and play.  The rest of us had bedding that was getting sopping wet.  Aroudn 6 AM--it was still pouring and rain was starting to come in a little bit through the top of our tent.  Our tent held up well--despite the TORRENTIAL downfall.  And I am not exaggerating.  Around 6 AM we were able to look out and see that our entire tent was submerged in water.  And it was still pouring.  The kids got up around 8 AM.  Rob and I had had little sleep trying to keep bedding up and dry.  It was still raining.  We were lucky that I remembered that there was an umbrella in the van.  I ran and got it and we took turns running to the bathroom.  We ate breakfast in our tent (not a good thing when you have little ones) and stayed in the tent. 

We decided after a while, that SINCE it was still raining, there was nothing better for us to do, but to go on a cave tour.  We drove to the tour area and discovered we had just missed the last tour we wanted to go on.  At this point we went to a shelter and prepared lunches and ate (while it continued to pour.)  We then returned back to catch the Historic Tour. 

The history behind the caves was fascinating.  We found out that it was a status symbol for the really rich to visit the caves.  People would come dressed as though it was a black tie affair--men in tuxedos and women in huge petticoats, heels and parasols.  Many left their mark in the cave by paying their tour guide to "burn" their names in the cave with a candle.  It was so neat looking at names of people from over a century ago.

When we left the cave it was still lightly drizzling.  We decided at this point that we would drive to the local town--cave city.  And let me say--this city was a joke.  Signs were falling down and misspelled.  People were trying to sell "cave" rocks out of their front yards.  Buildings and amusement parks were decrepit and looked closed.  After driving around I told Rob we HAD to stop somewhere--just to say we did.  So we stopped at the fudge shoppe.  It was the only store open in this series of buildings--most of the buildings were molding.  It was just really weird.  We bought some fudge from a guy who had half of his store taped off with caution tape--yeah weird.  I think I felt sorry for him.  He then tried to convince us to visit the wax museum.  He told us how FASCINATING the waxed Abe Lincoln was and how it all felt so real--"No thanks, sir."  I think we will pass on this one.

After that adventure we were still scared to return to our "flooded" camp.  We made our way down a short path to a cave opening where a man died in.  It was a huge news story in the 1920s.  On our drive back we had a lot of fun watching the butterflies.  Kentucky has TONS of butterflies.  They are ALL over the road.  We probably hit over 100 of them. 

We returned to our wet site.  The good news was--the puddle under our tent was gone.  The bad news--everything was wet and muddy.  We ended up moving our tent up onto the cement driveway for the night.  We were a bit concerned it might rain again--and we needed the tent to have a chance to dry out--and we didn't want to have to walk in and out of mud to get in the tent.  Let me tell you--having a muddy campsite made it very difficult to have both kids out.  Rob and I managed though.  We put the kids down early and it all worked out. 

We were more than happy to leave the next morning--though much of our stuff was still wet and some stuff was even starting to mildew.  When we packed the van--it stunk of wet stuff.  And we still  had several days left of our vacation (I am sure you can picture how bad it smelled by the end.)

Thursday morning we were off to Louisville.  We had a hotel reservation there and were going to take in some of the sights.  On our way we stopped at the Jim Beam Distillery--it only seemed right, being in Kentucky.  The kids did not necessarily enjoy the tour, but they did LOVE the fire truck they had there.  They also loved the bourbon chocolates!  Yum! (and yes they were safe for kids.)

When we got to Louisville we were ecstatic--SHOWERS!   BEDS!  DRYNESS!  Our room was AWESOME.  We had purchased our stay on priceline and paid very little for our room (I think we paid 35% of the normal stay price!)  We had this OUTRAGEOUS window that was on the river and we could see everything.  The kids loved watching the tugboats and ferries.  It was so neat!

Back to the showers.  We all showered and it was WONDERFUL!  At one point Ky pushed Alaina off of one of the beds and we had a bit of a scare.  The beds were elevated and she was standing on it.  I watched her fly off and hit her head on the floor (I mean she literally landed on her head)--and she really cried.  She is a tough girl, she only cries when she really gets hurt.  I called the doc and everything.  God watched out for her though and she was fine.

After our showers, we took a walk through some of the parks in Louisville.  The kids had a lot of fun, they had a lot of playgrounds made for different ages.  From there we stopped at an Italian restaurant for dinner.  I had a FABULOUS lasagna.  The kids really enjoyed themselves.  At one point, Ky put 2 straws in his drink and you could just see that he was plotting something.  I then asked him "Ky, why do you have 2 straws?  You don't need 2 straws."  He was very quick on his feet to answer.  You could see in his face that he knew he was busted.  But then he got this "Aha" look.  He replied to me, "I have 2 straws so I could share with you!"  Smart boy!  For that, I let him keep the straws.

The next morning we were off to the Louisville Slugger Factory.  The kids had fun finding the baseball bats that led the way to the stadium.  The museum part was pretty interesting.  I liked seeing Babe Ruth's bat with notch marks on it for each homerun.  Ky & Rob both got to hold some really old famous people's bats--I don't remember who--however Rob should.  Unfortunately the camera ran out of battery power and since we walked to the factory, we did not have more with us. 

Shortly after the factory tour we all received little bats.  I SPECIFICALLY told Kylan not to hit his sister with the bat.  And what did he do.  Once I had my back turned "Crack" right on her head.  Yeah, it did not make for a very good last 20 minutes at the museum.

After that it was time to go--to the local winery.  Of course we had to stop!  We went to the River Bend Winery and had a tasting.  The kids were good.  We gave them crayons and pictures as we tasted the different wines.  It was very good.

On the way back  we stopped by some fountains and let the kids play before we hit the road back to Indy--but first a detour to the local ice cream place.  And let me tell you, the bakery was SOOOOOO Tempting!  If we are ever back in the area, we will stop so I can get some cookies and pie and more ice cream.  It was all very yummy.  Definitely a memorable place. 

When we got back to Indy, we were bummed to find out that Ma & Pa Vander Heyden would not be joining us.  The boys took a ride in Adam's Javelin to get some pizza and we hit the sack for the next day--Day at the Indy State Fair! 

It's been a few years since we have been to the fair and boy was it memorable.  Deep fried butter, peanut butter sandwiches, pickles--you name it--they deep fried it.  There were also the cheese sculptures and the cockroach races.  It was all fascinating.  Of course the kids like petting the animals the most.  And poor Aunt Liz was sneezing because of her allergies.  We didn't make her suffer too long though.

We left the fair in the early afternoon to hit the road for home.  We had a wonderful time!  Thank you Adam & Liz for your hospitality.  It was a wonderful visit.  You are ALWAYS welcome here.  Camping in Kentucky again---uuuuhhh...only National Parks.  Louisville was wonderful. 

Our vacation next year will be in Wisconsin.  We try to do an "every other year" traveling vacation outside of the state.  All in all it was a good vacation, despite the Kentucky surprises.  (And we only lost a few things due to water damage & mold--that's pretty good!)    So finally--here it is mid-November and I finished our August vacation blog.  I feel really lousy about being so behind, knowing that I am missing writing down memories.  I am going to try harder to put some things on the back burner so I can catch up on this blog.  These years with the kids are flying by TOO fast to lose the memories because I didn't have time to write them down.  (Can you believe Ky starts school next year!  And he is starting to read on his own!  Alaina is NONSTOP talking!  And is potty trained!  YEAH!  Okay...I will catch up and give you all those details, I promise!  But here is this blog entry along with a few other ones...