Journey to Connecticut

This weekend marked the last of our lacrosse roadtrips, and the last of five straight weeks on the road.  We did four lacrosse trips with one family weekend in the middle...but not a whole lot of memories to show for it!  So, the hope was to make this last one a big one.  Last year we tried to do something fun on each trip--the lantern festival in Syracuse, the fun activity place with Jacob's teammates in Massachusetts, and a whole bunch of stuff on the trip to Philadelphia.  I had to miss the Jersey trip, though they did do a team pizza party, and if I did go I would have pushed hard for the Jersey Shore!  But this year, nothing was working out.  It was just Jacob and me for the Syracuse trip, and we were pretty beat on Saturday night so the gluten-free bakery and dinner out were all we could muster.  Philly was still during school, so we couldn't really extend that trip at all, and our game schedule pretty much dashed any hopes of other activities, so IKEA had to suffice.  In Saratoga we were all just too darn hot to do much of anything, though the evening team gathering at the hotel was nice.  But as far as family activities, we were sorely lacking.  I was determined to have this trip make up for it.

Originally we wanted to leave Thursday, but Jacob had practice that night, and given the challenges we've had this year, Craig really wanted him to go.  He also had a therapy appointment that day, so I finally gave up trying to make that happen and settled on Friday.  Of course, practice ended up rained out anyway, but I guess it was good to have a day to pack and take care of a few things after Wednesday's hellish hoop assembly.  My goal was to get out the door by 9am, which meant an early-ish morning for me, but I calculated that we should be able to hit up both Howe Caverns and a baseball game in Hartford.  I tried to leave a good amount of buffer since I know we stop a lot, but it became apparent as we drove that it would be tighter than we thought.  We left about 15 minutes late, but I wanted to stop for caffeine and in general it just seemed to take forever to get going.  Then, when we made a stop near Utica, we ran into our lacrosse/school/church friends on their way to another tournament, so the chat with them took a bit longer than planned, which was fun but tightened things further.  I think we arrived around 1pm at our first destination: Howe Caverns!

I went to Howe Caverns on my 8th grade class trip.  It was our second stop after the Baseball Hall of Fame in nearby Cooperstown, and I remember it being pretty cool.  Craig had never been there, and while I wasn't sure the kids would love it, they were intrigued enough and I figured it could be one of those family bucket list things you just do to say you did it.  So we did.  Of course, when we walked in there was a huge line for the cave tour, at which point I realized the baseball game would most likely not happen that night.  We had to buy tickets and then had about a half hour wait--not bad, but more than anticipated.  We did run into Jacob's teammate, his sister, and their grandparents (who were subbing in for the weekend since their parents had to attend a wedding).  Small world yet again! 

Finally it was our turn to go into the cave.  It's always 52 degrees down there, and I knew that I did fine in shorts and a jacket as a kid, so that's what we did.  In the end it was pretty chilly and we were really ready for warmth by the end.  I think that sort of killed it for Jacob more than anyone, but he was still a good sport...thank goodness!  The tour was cool.  There was a lot of dramatic lighting throughout that highlights cool areas of the cave.  I think it was mostly white lighting when I was there years ago, but I assume the advances in LED lighting have changed things!

The view coming off the elevator

Stairs up to the bridal altar and Winding Way

Lots of mineral deposits

The Chinese Pagoda

You're not supposed to touch any of the mineral deposits because it prevents them from growing further, but there were a couple that were done and could be touched.

I have pretty much the same picture from 26 years ago!  The one on the left is called the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

One of the more memorable parts of my tour in 8th grade was the story about a mouse that escaped from someone on the tour, and it was kicked down into the water, which was cold, and the mouse was so cold that it froze to the ceiling.  They still tell that story.  The kids believed it!

Sort of gross to think of that as a mouse!

This is the one they take souvenir pics in front of.  In our rush we forgot to even look at ours!

This is the Pool of Peace, so called because the water is so still it acts like a mirror.  Hard to see where it starts and finishes, but look closely at the circle near the center of the picture.  The top half is real and the bottom is a reflection.

This is called the pipe organ, and a formation across from it ends up amplifying sound to "play" the organ.

Wow!

At the end of the walking tour is the boat ride.  We ended up at the front of the boat on the way out, which was cool.

Starting view!

This was a hole in the rock with dramatic lighting at the far end of the boat ride, before we turned around and floated back.

Ready to start going back!

After the boat ride we had to retrace most of our steps to exit, which was fine since everything looks different coming from a different direction. 

Near the end was the Winding Way, which I remember loving because it was a super narrow tunnel.  I have a picture of a friend and I in it, and I was eager to experience it again!  So, funny story.  As we entered the tunnel I was looking for a good spot to take a picture.  The first picture I took was the one on the left, side by side with the one from my first visit:

If you study the rocks, you'll see they're at the exact same spot!  What are the odds?!

In the end, we were all relieved to be done and get back up to pleasant temperatures, but I think as a whole we all enjoyed it.  It was neat to see what nature does on its own and to relive little parts of the tour that I remembered.  I was disappointed they didn't shut the lights off in the cave like they did before, because it's rare we're ever in that amount of darkness!

Back in the light, we walked across the parking lot to the activity that I think sold the kids on the whole trip.  But first, isn't the main building just adorable?

And how gorgeous is the view?!

The boys were excited to pan for treasures!  For $20 we got a giant bag of dirt that promised to provide all sorts of rocks, fossils, and more.  The boys each got to do about four rounds of running it through the water and revealing their treasures.  We got all sorts of cool rocks (we have to really study the charts we were given to identify them), arrowheads, shark teeth, and more.  Clearly the bags are set up to have a certain content and I have no idea what's real and what's not, but it was fun to see what popped up.  Both boys have a nice-sized Ziploc to sort through now that we're home, and I think that was a highlight of the trip for them!

Inside the building there was a cool fountain that you see behind Carter below.  The top half turned and water ran down the sides., basically disappearing into the floor.

A boy and his treasures!

We headed out knowing we'd have to miss the game, but it was definitely worth the stop.  Our route back to the Thruway took us up on the hills opposite the site, and I was excited to get this picture...

We still had a long drive to Connecticut, unfortunately, so it turned into a pretty long day.  We tracked down a Chipotle for dinner in Massachusetts, and finally arrived at our hotel in time to see a pretty sunset over the airport across the road.  Jacob had napped in the car and still fell asleep almost instantly upon arrival.  Carter took a little longer as Craig and I caught up on life a bit before bed, but we were all out pretty early, which was important since we had a very early morning and long day ahead!  But I'd call day one a success!