Mammoth Cave National Park

On Sunday, our original plan was to drive directly to Chattanooga from Louisville. However, Henry and I got to talking about all the caves in the southern Kentucky area. He had noticed various signs for them along the way. Of course, Mammoth Cave is probably the best known, and since I'd never been there myself, we decided to stop for a visit. This was Henry's first-ever spelunking experience.

The cave is not as beautiful as others I've seen, such as Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico) or Jewel Cave (South Dakota), yet it is fascinating for its history and for the fact that it earns its name. There are over 400 miles of known passages in the cave. We walked about two miles of it and were in the cave for about two hours, entering through its historically most popular entrance (there are 27 known entrances, as I recall). Shortly after entering, the guide told us about the salt peter mining that was once done inside the cave. This photograph shows one mining location and is where I took my first photograph of Henry inside.

We were as far below the surface as 310 feet and had lots of steps both down and back up. Though I didn't get a picture, we managed to work our way through some very tight places, including "Fat Man's Misery" and "Tall Man's Misery."

Early visitors in the 1800s used candles to make their graffiti. This spot was interesting, showing an elaborate name, address and date. I believe it was a Lewis from Farmington, Connecticut in 1839.

Here is the historic entrance as we approached it at the end of our tour.

After the cave, we drove on to Chattanooga, where we checked into the Choo Choo Hotel, but more on that later.

Ravinia and Louisville

I'm at the end of the first day of travel with grandson Henry. We are on our way to attend the Lionel Collectors Club of America convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Yesterday, I drove to Henry's home. Betsy and Pete had decided that an evening at Ravinia to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) would be a perfect kickoff for us, so we packed up a picnic and headed there for the evening. I had never been before to this over 100 years old venue for music.

There are sculptures on the grounds plus theaters, an outdoor auditorium, food and beverage offerings, and plenty of picnic space.

Ravinia is really a wonderful facility in which to hear a concert, and I look forward to going there again sometime. Those seated in the auditorium see the orchestra directly, but the rest of us have access to large screens displaying the musicians, and there are excellent speakers to distribute the sound throughout the grounds.

They make some effort to keep the noise down, but really, I heard no one creating any kind of disturbance or sound while we listened to two excellent Beethoven pieces. Read more about Ravinia here.

Today, Henry and I began our trip south to Chattanooga with a first night's stay in Louisville. After checking into our hotel (the beautiful old Brown Hotel in downtown Louisville), we walked over to the Louisville Slugger Museum. One of the sidewalks leading up to the museum had a series of these memorials to individual ball players who had used Louisville Slugger bats.

At the entrance to the museum is this enormous bat. Henry is standing at the left of the base of the bat to give you some perspective.

A special exhibit right now is of several major league ball parks modeled with Legos. Of course, this was right up Henry's alley. He especially liked the one of Wrigley Field which may have been the most detailed and accurate of them all. It was certainly the largest model.

I got a shot of Henry with the Babe. There were lots of interesting exhibits and memorabilia.

Henry got to pose with a historical bat for this photo. This bat was a signature Mickey Mantle bat and had been used by Mickey back in the day. Henry was kind enough to select that one from several choices so that I could get a little vicarious thrill, since Mantle and Roger Maris were my boyhood Yankee heroes.

One huge wall exhibits all the signatures of players who signed with Louisville Slugger for their bats. Here is Roger's signature.

Part of our visit included a tour of the factory, which is adjacent to the museum. They allowed no photographs in that part, but you can take my word and Henry's that it was truly fascinating. For example, they used to turn bats by hand on lathes at about 30 minutes each. Today they turn one in about 30 seconds using computer-controlled CNC lathes. After the tour, you could arrange for a bat to be made with your own name on it, so I thought Henry needed one!

Tomorrow we head for Chattanooga and more adventures.

A Birthday, A Project and A Jazz Fest Weekend

A few days ago, we got together with Eleanor and her family to belatedly celebrate her sixth birthday. She is in a science camp this summer, so we thought she could make good use of a microscope. I'm waiting to hear about all of her discoveries.

Finished a couple of projects recently, including this bed. I came across the plan awhile ago and found it interesting because of its use of two contrasting kinds of wood, inlays, and other features. Quite different from our usual furniture choices, but we think it looks nice in one of our guest bedrooms. I may try to come up with a matching night stand design and build one or two of those also.

Nearly nine years ago, I made a little step stool for first grandchild Henry, which allowed him to wash his hands and brush his teeth at the grown-ups bathroom sink. Since then, I've made another for each additional grandchild and also a couple for friends. Thank goodness I made a template from the first one, so I can crank these out pretty rapidly now. So, here is Frederick's made from the last of some red oak that I acquired from a good friend.

Like Betsy says, his blue eyes and blond hair may be here for good.

With Betsy's family here for the Independence Day weekend and Jazz Fest, we decided to have a cookout on Saturday. Betsy and Henry played some bean bag toss.

I think Betsy may actually have plunked one directly into the target hole on this toss. Nice form!

Grilled some yummy pork and hot dogs.

With the hot temperatures and humidity, the Slip-n-Slide water toy was a big hit.

Penny didn't seem to mind that the water from the hose was cold. She just walked right through the sprinkles.

Betsy tried out this old swing. I saved the round wooden seat from years ago when we all lived on Court Street, and now it hangs from a new rope in an oak tree at our present home.

A good day for water toys!

Out West

 We traveled to Colorado about a week ago to spend a few days with Travis. Helped him with some projects around his condo, repairing various things and helping him make plans for some enhancements. We also found time to play, including 18 holes of golf at a nine-hole course called Mountain Vista, that has great views of the mountains in the distance. That's the Anheiser-Bush brewing facility across the road in the background. Golf, mountains, and beer!

Temperatures were quite warm while we were there, but the humidity and breeze made being outside really nice. I think we could have easily enjoyed playing 27 holes, if time had permitted.

I'd always wanted to visit the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins. Their most famous beer is called Fat Tire, which you may well know, but they have lots of others and some seasonal brews as well. Their tours were all filled up, so we didn't get to do that, but you can sample the products and view lots of their operation through windows into the work areas. We might have acquired a couple of new T-shirts too.

Later, we all used our hotel's swimming pool before dinner. Here is Travis about to cannonball his mom.

Terrific Father's Day Weekend

This past weekend, we traveled to the Chicago area for a couple of different reasons. On Saturday, there was a lovely graveside interment service for Kathie's mother, followed by a luncheon for everyone attending. I took this picture of Kathie and Gail after the service. I know their mother would have been very proud of her two girls and their kind words of remembrance.

On Sunday, I was treated to a memorable Father's Day with Betsy and her family. After a breakfast outing, we all decided to walk to the city pool to enjoy the water and fun on such a warm day. Here are the three delightful grandchildren with whom I spent the day.

Frederick was eager for some swimming!

Henry and Clara showed Nana the big pool.

Pete chose not to go for the slow immersion approach to getting used to the water.

Henry had a fun little toy that he could toss into the pool and then recover by searching for it on the bottom with these goggles.

Dad helped Clara with some floating and paddling exercises. Or maybe he was just tickling her.

Betsy brought Frederick out for a dip too.

I don't know who this lumpy old guy is. Even though he claims not to be all that into swimming, he sure had fun with all the activities available at the pool and with the grandkids.

One of the features of this pool complex is a water slide. Henry and his mom are preparing here to descend using a two-person inner tube.

And here they are at the end of their run.

After some coercion, Henry got his grandfather to agree to try it with him. He said he had a much faster ride with the extra weight I brought to the experience.

Meanwhile, Clara tried out her own water slide in another area of the pool as well as other water toys.

Henry got ahead of us during the walk back home, and we found this awaiting us at the front door.

Later we enjoyed a cookout with Pete's folks. Frederick likes hanging out with his mom while she works in the kitchen.

Henry and Clara really got into a computer game that Nana brought along.

I enjoyed watching Frederick chew on this frozen washcloth, something his mom gives him to help with his teething. Soon he was throwing it on the floor, and as many times as I picked it up and put it back on his tray, he would throw it down again. This was clearly a "train Grandpa to do funny tricks" exercise. Maybe Betsy will post a movie of that. It became quite funny.

This is an old photo, but I throw it in to mention that on Monday I repaired a door on the wee house that I built for the kids a year ago. While I was doing that, Henry and Clara came up with a number of accessories for the house that we had to add as well, including a mailbox, a bulletin board, hanging a picture, and planning for some curtains (which I understand they worked on after we left).

All five of my kids took the time to call me and wish me well. One of the nicest Father's Days I can remember!