On our first day of vacation, the highlight was the Louisville Zoo. Our second day was rainy so we decided to check out the Louisville MegaCaverns. These caverns were old Limestone quarries and they take jeep guided tours through the caverns. I found the info online and then saw a brochure at the concierge desk and decided the boys might enjoy it. I really wanted to do a real cave, but I thought at 2 and 4, the boys really aren't ready for spelunking!
In some ways, this cavern tour was great. We rode on a trailer the entire time, I learned a lot on the trip, I didn’t have to yell at the boys for touching things they weren’t supposed to, Molly stayed in her car seat the entire time and slept, and we saw some pretty cool things. But in other ways, I didn’t think it was worth the money. It cost just shy of $20 for me and the three kids. Ryan and Molly were free (under 3), so I just had to pay for Tyler and myself. I did get a $2 off coupon from the concierge desk at our hotel, so if I wouldn’t have had that, it would have been over the $20.
A couple of the things I learned….the difference between a cavern and a cave is that a cavern is man-made. The Louisville caverns are around 100 acres in size and around 90 feet under the city (mainly the Zoo!) There are approximately 18 different business that use the caverns for storage (data, equipment, or supplies), including PODS, private individuals storing boats, cars and RV’s, and even the city of Louisville. The Louisville Caverns became privately owned in the late 1980’s but before then was originally a limestone quarry and was even a fallout shelter during WWII.
One of the highlights of the Louisville caverns is that they have a zip line and ropes course tour. Our hotel concierge actually highly recommended that and said the tour was just so-so. I really wanted to do the ropes course tour, but obviously with 3 kids in tow that wasn’t an option. I think if I were to ever go back, I would definitely skip the cavern tour in favor of the zip line!
So, after the caverns, we headed to the Mall at St. Matthews. While we didn’t actually make it into the mall, I was able to go to one of my favorite stores that Cincinnati no longer has…World Market! My plan was to hit a couple stores and then go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch with the kids. We don’t make it there very often, but the boys love playing in there. I figured it would be a good incentive for behaving while I shopped. Unfortunately, the Chick-Fil-A was under renovations and wasn’t open! The kids thought I was making it up because they could see the Chick-Fil-A and they could see the play area but couldn’t read the signs saying it was closed. I had two very unhappy kids!
By the time I circled around trying to find another place to eat, it was late and so I just decided to go to McDonald’s. While we do go to McDonald’s a lot because the one in our town has a great play place, I think I have only purchased the boys kids meals there once or twice, so I treated them to the kids meal of their choice. They got two “cool” MegaMind toys that shoot, so they had lost of fun playing with them the rest of the day. That kinda made up for the no Chick-Fil-A…though I would have been much happier with the first choice! I still don’t think that Tyler gets the whole vacation thing though, because when we decided on McDonald’s for lunch he said, “OK, let’s go to McDonalds and then we can go on bay-cation again after lunch.” J
After lunch, we went back to the hotel and caught up with my husband. The afternoon schedule for his convention was just the exhibition hall and since he had already visited all of the vendors he wanted to see, he was able to hang out with us for a few hours. We took the kids swimming in the hotel pool. It was great because we were the only ones in the pool so it was like having a private swimming session. I had taken swim jackets as well as floats for the boys and they were in heaven! The only pool we normally swim at is the YMCA pool and they don’t allow floats so it really was a treat for the boys.
Also, it was Molly’s first real swimming experience. We have taken her to the Y twice but she slept the entire first time and the second time I had her in a baby carrier and only got her feet in the water. This time she got in up to her neck and even enjoyed time in a float! She didn’t cry at all, so I have a feeling she’s going to be a water bug just like the boys.
For dinner, Steve had to go back to the convention and I didn’t feel like taking the boys out by myself again so we decided to have a pizza and movie night. I know, we had pizza for lunch on day #1, but we don’t normally order pizza at home, so I didn’t mind having it 2 days in a row. Plus, it was really the only restaurant within walking distance that had easy takeout (at least that I could find via the GPS thing). The boys enjoyed pizza and a VeggieTales movie and I enjoyed not having to get them to sit still and eat their dinner. After all, this is my vacation as well!
All in all, day #2 of vacation was a hit.
