My husband and I recently embarked on a road trip adventure to celebrate our ten year anniversary. It's rare we get to travel together for any length of time so this vacation was a real treat for me!
We decided we were going to go to
Florida to visit family after stopping in
Kentucky.
We packed up the car, kissed our beloved poochie Austin farewell and hit the road. On our way down route 17 we had a little mishap with a pothole. I won't go into details on that, but I will say the guys at
Carstar of Owego fixed my car back up after returning home.
The first day we drove to Kentucky so that we could explore
Mammoth Cave the very next day. We awoke early and drove an hour or so to get to the cave. When we arrived we realized the gates were not open. Others were also in the parking lot waiting. We tried the doors, but were very puzzled as to why we could not gain access. After going back to the car and waiting a half hour or so we began to see workers arriving. We then noticed a sign on the door reading
Central Time. When we finally entered and received our tickets for the tours we were told by the guides that the caves are right on the edge of the time zones and my phone did not update to let me know we were an hour ahead of schedule.
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| I was ready for my caving adventure!! |
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As we were looking around and reading some facts and history, I came across a particularly interesting wall.
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| Early photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. |
Frances Benjamin Johnston sounds like my kind of gal. Entering a cave with a camera and potentially explosive powders to light up and capture the beauty, she became a pioneer in photojournalism. I can not imagine how she even photographed with the equipment she had available as I had challenges trying to with fancy new gear.
Check out some of her images in a book she published in the 1800's called
Mammoth Cave by Flash-light.
I am no
Francis Benjamin Johnston but here is my attempt at photographing in the dark, damp caves with no flash.
After exploring the caves we worked up an appetite so we had to have some ice cream. While ordering we noticed that in the coolers they had boxed water. I had never seen anything like that before, but I thought hey what a great idea to reduce a footprint and not use plastic.
After having our fill on
stalactites and stalagmites we hopped in the car and began heading south hoping to get ahead of the winter weather that seemed to be following us!
We arrived in Florida to a bit nicer weather and settled in for our next few days of fun in the sun. Staying with family we were treated to some great food, ice cream, wine and awesome company.
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| This little guy was part of the welcoming committee. |
We had a few plans for the stay in Florida. After seeing the movie
Dolphin Tale I convinced my husband we needed to go to the
Clearwater Marine Aquarium. We arrived early as per the websites suggestion of high traffic during spring break hoping to miss the crowds. It did become rather busy by the early afternoon.
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| Turtles look flat when you photograph them in the water from a certain angle. |
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| I decided I loved watching the otters. They were so playful. They twirled, zigged and zagged through the water. |
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| Beautiful view from the aquarium. |
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| Nicholas having some fun. |
Being the sports fan that I am, of course we watched some ball. We had a nice tour of
the University of Florida and took in a
softball game. During the game the
Gators took on
Texas A&M where the
Aggies turned a rare and stunning
triple play.
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| She had my dream job! |
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| The moon was looking cool surrounded by clouds and a plane flew right by. |
We also caught some spring training action as the
Phillies took on the
Orioles.
One of the nights between games we went to a cool little, dog friendly town called
Dunedin. There were fun shops, craft breweries, restaurants, stunning views and good times.
We went to the
Dunedin Brewery to sample some craft beer. My not being a beer drinker I was mostly taking in the cool vibe environment where a
DJ was spinning records and a band was setting up outside.
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| DJ 45 Revolver spinning at Dunedin Brewery. |
Soaking up as much sun as we could as often as we could, we were sad to get back in the car and head back to snow. My little princess though needed to see us!
Until next time
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