Coasterholics

Any summer trip to Chicagoland would not be complete without a trek to Six Flags Great America. We're definitely putting our season passes to good use! Today we picked up two more adrenaline junkies. M and J had a great time hanging out with their cousins K and D, one from each side of R's extended family!

Hoosiers

Having lived here in California for 15 years, we're used to driving long distances to get anywhere: 4.5 hours to Las Vegas, 5.5 hours to San Francisco or Sacramento, and 6 hours to Phoenix. And that's on a good day with no traffic, of course! 

So whenever we come back to visit our families, I'm always looking at a map and figuring out where else we can go for a side trip. And in the Midwest, multiple states are within 4-6 hours! Woohoo! Today our Las Vegas-equivalent drive would take us from Louisville to Indianapolis, and finally to Chicago. First stop - the Indiana Statehouse!

Bats and Horses

From Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP, we headed north to Louisville. Our next stop was the Louisville Slugger Museum. Many years ago, before basketball was king, the boys played a few seasons of Little League. And at the time, Uncle K talked about us all going to Louisville to check out the factory. So, it was especially fitting for us to visit now.

Put me in, Coach!

My Old Kentucky Home

First thing this morning we checked out of our room at the Mammoth Cave Hotel and hit a drive-thru in Cave City for breakfast since we were going to lose an hour traveling to Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP. 

Going Underground

When I was planning out our travel itinerary, I asked M to research the cave tours at Mammoth Cave National Park and pick out the ones that looked interesting. In no time at all, he handed me the names of the tours that he wanted to do. Now, it's really not that hard to come up with a short list when your sole criterion is the word "strenuous" in the description of difficulty! Thanks for taking your not-as-young-as-we-used-to-be parents into consideration, son!

Waiting for the Grand Avenue Tour to start

Two of the tours he picked weren't feasible because we don't have ankle-high hiking boots. Either one would have been fun to do since both involved real spelunking - climbing, crawling, etc. Instead, I bought advance tickets online for the other two on his list... the "very strenuous" Grand Avenue Tour in the morning and the plain ol' "strenuous" Violet City Lantern Tour in the afternoon.

Time Travelers

First thing this morning, we said goodbye to my folks and headed for parts unknown... to us, at least! Any place south and east of Champaign-Urbana is unexplored territory!

What a difference a year makes!