Summer Vacation, Part Two: From Marengo Cave to the Louisville Slugger Museum

Alrighty, continuing with the summer vacation pictures and updates, we hit the 2nd leg of our journey in which we visited Marengo Cave in Marengo, IN and the Louisville Slugger Museum in Louisville, KY.

The cave was really fun, lots of great formations to see, and the boys' constant clamoring to spot a bat hanging from somewhere in the cave (sadly, there were none, and I think we pointed to a small ceiling formation and claimed it might be a bat just to satisfy their curiosity). I believe that Kian conked out partway through this cave tour, and had to be carried through the end of it (another theme you'll see repeated in the very near future) which was an interesting challenge. Nothing like lugging the equivalent of a 30-pound sack of sand through the twists and turns of a cave!

Awwww...family pictures at the little waterfall just outside of the cave entrance and gift shop. Those light-khaki shorts would never be the same after being gnarled up by Kian's mud-drenched shoes as I carried him around the cave during his nap.

The cave entrance, and our capable tour guide.

One of the only shots of any of us that was worthwhile from inside the cave...I think this is the beginning of the end for Kian's consciousness on this tour.

A couple of the formations present in Marengo Cave. The top one is called "cave bacon" (picture included here because, really, who DOESN'T love bacon?), and the bottom one is some form of a stalagmite that had a given name which is escaping me right at the moment.

Thus begins the next adventure, our visit to the Louisville Slugger factory and museum in Louisville. This was a pretty neat experience, one the boys really loved, although Jack started the trip in a bit of a bad mood - hence his absence from the above picture.


Jack brightens up long enough for me to take the "My Bambino with THE Bambino" picture.

That's more like it, a proper family photo op.

This is the little room in which the factory tour ends, and where they hand out the mini-bats to the kids. The boys were so geeked up for this portion of the tour, it's like the factory didn't even exist, nor had the tour through it in the ~30 minutes prior to this occur. Of course, the bats didn't survive long in their possession - they were placed in time out the moment one was used to threaten one of the boys with a knock to the head by the other boy (I forget who menaced who, but likely Kian to Jack).

Batting practice.

A couple of cute pics of the boys as we ended our visit to the factory and museum. It's amazing to me how quickly they can go from a crummy mood to a great one, then to somewhere in between and back to a great mood again. I mean, it happens with all people, I suppose, it just seems like the drasticness of their swings is both extreme and sudden. Regardless, we're quite lucky to have 2 guys who, overall, are a breeze to handle and are quite receptive to the parenting and discipline styles Laura and I employ.

(K)