Wow it feels like forever since we last got to take a trip! Chris and I were hoping to visit Mammoth Cave with the family last summer, but... Covid happened. We knew we wanted to get there this summer once the restrictions started getting lifted and so many people were getting vaccinated. It had been over a year and a half since the boys had seen their girl cousins so they decided to join us which was really cool.
We decided that going all the way down and back in one day seemed like a bit much, so we considered visiting Nashville and making it a 2 day trip, but in the end we decided on Louisville, KY as the other city we added to the trip. We drove to Louisville on day 1 and visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory as our first stop in town.
The bat out front was crazy huge and there were tons of people taking their picture next to it.
The boys each got to choose a bat to hold and pose for a picture in the museum part of the facility.
These were the options.
Then we went on to the factory tour where we learned everything about how they make the bats, from how they choose the wood, how they create the least amount of waste, all the different types of wood, and all the different levels of bats they make. They even have farmers who take the wood shavings to use on their farms.
They had so many machines for making the wood into the right shapes.
They even hand dip them once they are in the right shape.
At the end of the tour we each got a small bat to take with us. Brett couldn't stop talking about it the whole tour. And then we finally got our chance to take a photo of the boys next to the giant bat as we left.
After we left the tour, we headed over to check into our hotel. They boys were IN LOVE. I guess they haven't stayed in many hotels so this was such a treat and they would've been happy to just sit in there and watch tv all day if we'd let them.
I wanted to go take a walk down by the Ohio river so we headed back to downtown for a walk. Unfortunately, the temperature was crazy hot (upper 80s/90s) so no one wanted to be outside in the sun unless water was involved and we forgot to bring swimsuits, oops. We walked up to the start of the walking bridge but that was all that we could take so we headed back to the car and left. Oh and the cicadas were insane on the drive. They were busting ALL over the windshield.
The views sure were pretty, so it would've been great if the temperature had been cooler.
The walk to get up to the bridge was a big spiral.
Since that didn't take as long as we were hoping, we decided to go to an indoor amusement park to beat the heat. There was a Malibu Jack's really close to our hotel and we all had a blast!
We started with putt putt
I got a hole in 1!
This was the hole that I got it on.
Then the boys wanted to ride a roller coaster and I was shocked that they enjoyed it so much... it looked awful to me!
And then as a final activity, we decided to try out the go-karts. They were SO MUCH FUN!! I think Chris and I enjoyed them more than the boys, but it was such a memorable time and a great experience.
The next day we got up, had breakfast, packed up, and hit the road for the rest of the way down to Mammoth Cave.
Heading down to the mouth of the cave. I didn't know what it would look like, but it was just incredible!
The ceilings were just so crazy to look at. They are flat because of the sandstone that formed them, so there aren't any stalactites or stalagmites. It is also really dark, so photos don't do it justice. I didn't even bring the nice camera because I figured it would be too hard to get good photos (especially since you're not allowed to bring in tripods or monopods).
Big pits.
I was scared to drop my phone, so this was as close to the hole as I got.
This is what it looked like to walk down the main corridors of the cave. One of the rangers said this area has a ceiling height of 42 feet.
This is one of the biggest and most well-known rooms, The Rotunda. It is about a quarter acre in size!
The cousins on our way back to the visitor center.
After we finished our tour of the cave, we ate some lunch and then it started pouring. The rain was off and on so we couldn't do any of the trails (although no one felt like doing them anyway because of the miles we'd already walked that day). We also got our National Park Passports and got our first stamp! We're hoping to visit a lot more national parks over the years. They boys also got a junior ranger badge, but they had to fill out an activity book to earn it and it was decided that it wasn't worth it, so that will probably be the only one they earn.
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