Spelunking!

After watching the TV show, Berenstain Bears Lost in a Cave, Anna has been asking and asking, "when can I go spelunking?" Growing up Matt & I had each visited Howe's Caverns in upstate NY a number of times, but we were worried she wasn't quite ready for this type of experience. It includes an hour drive to get there and an hour long tour that you really can't leave - like if you have to go to the bathroom or you feel scared. You're just stuck in the cave for the full hour. So Matt tried to search for a little wild cave near us that he could take her to and let her walk around at her own pace. Matt couldn't find anything like that and she just kept asking. So finally he decided to just take a chance and drive an hour west to skyline caverns, a cave much like Howe's, but near us in Front Royal, VA. Well, it turned out to be a great day!

All week Matt & Anna have been talking about today. Based on her Berenstain Bear's show she had a lot of ideas about how it was going to go. She planned to wear a "spelunking suit" and a hat and carry a backpack with a snack, drink, and flashlight in it. She really did need to pack a "spelunking suit" this morning since it was 100 degrees outside and 54 degrees in the cave. She packed up all her snacks and they made a quick trip to CVS to buy a flashlight to replace the one that broke (after much use getting ready this week).

Matt & Anna arrived at the cave just in time to join a tour. As they were about to walk into the mouth of the cave Anna announced, "This is very exciting!" Anna liked the tour guide, but during the first half of the trip, spent much of her time exploring darker parts of the cave on her own with her flashlight.

There were even some crevices that only Anna was small enough to get into to get a look with her flashlight. Because the lights in the cave were only turned on in the space the tour was currently in, Anna liked to shine her flashlight back to the previous room so she and other people on the tour could look back at the dark spots. On the second half of the tour Matt & Anna stopped several times for snacks from Anna's backpack. During one of these snacks was when they turned off all the lights. Matt thought Anna would be scared, but she loved it and just kept eating her snack. Anna really liked the lakes:

Despite Matt's concerns, Anna walked herself for almost the whole tour and carried her pack the whole way:

I love spelunking!

It was a great day. At dinner she asked if we could find a cave that would be good for Abby to go spelunking. Then as we put Anna to sleep tonight she said, "Can we go spelunking again tomorrow?"