Category Archives: Locations

Mammoth Cave

March 8, 2019 C Burke Leave a comment

This is a delayed post from July 2015. As you know, my child is now 13 and sees the world a bit differently. It is always fun to look back on our adventures.

Do you want to explore a big hole in the ground? It’s 450 miles long, and counting. It is a lot of fun!

Living now in the midwest, Kentucky is a lot closer than it was when I was growing up in New England. My daughter and I recently decided to take advantage of our proximity to this national treasure and head out for a week of fun. We met my parents who live in North Carolina and headed out for adventure while my hubby was off studying hard.

Now, my parents and I have been to Mammoth Cave before. I was, perhaps, still living in their house the last time we visited. Even though it was far away, they still managed to pack their 3 kiddos in the car and get us out into the world to enjoy something new as often as possible.

Though most of our group had been to this giant hole in the ground before, kiddo had not, so off we went. We camped in an RV park nearby (my parents have a travel trailer) and drove into the National Park each day. There were shenanigans all the way in and out of the park I might add. My parents, my child, and I are goofy people, especially when we are together. We behave in public but in private cars, not so much.

We took 3 cave tours over the course of 3 days. The first was called the Gothic Avenue tour and we entered through the Historic Entrance. It is a very interesting place. We saw historic graffiti and had a pleasant, well lit walk.

The second, called Frozen Niagara, went well. Kiddo loved it, we saw cool stuff and we were in the cave for about 20 minutes. This tour does not start at the Historic Entrance but at a little door in the woods. Fun, and a pretty drive on the bus to get there. Kiddo was a pro by now and knew not to touch anything and even asked the guide good questions.

The third tour was, well, different. The Star Chamber tour is actually really cool. You tour only with lanterns like people did in the 1800s. They also, for about 2 minutes, plunge you into complete darkness, as in can’t see your hand in front of your face darkness. You get to see sections of the cave that you won’t on other tours and I highly recommend it. Actually, I recommend it IF you have older teenagers or if your group is all adults. You see, 10 year olds might freak out about the dark and the creepy. Kiddo DID NOT care for this one. To make things more complicated, while we were in the cave that night a HUGE storm came up. Now, during a terrible storm like that in Kentucky, the safest place to be is in the cave. It is the ultimate basement, good tornado safety and all. In fact, we were so far in, we couldn’t hear the weather at all; we only knew because our guide was notified. Once we got back to the Historic Entrance we could hear it through the door though. Yes, they were right, it was a BIG storm.

Do you know what the park rangers do if you are on an evening cave tour (the last and only tour currently underway) during a storm like that? Well, they are very careful with you, that’s what. They take your safety very seriously. You get to stay in the cave until the gigantic storm passes…with your lanterns…still on a tour your daughter doesn’t want to be on for one second longer…fun!

No manner of convincing my child that we were safe, that the rangers were trained for this and had everything under control, that we couldn’t be left completely in the dark even if the power went out in the entrance area because we had our own lanterns (and flashlights, and smartphones for that matter) worked. She was, thankfully, old enough to keep herself from throwing an actual fit but she was furious with her mother!!

So the next day we decided to stay above ground and see how Corvettes were made. Both my child and my father thought it was the coolest thing ever. My husband was so jealous when we told him about it. My daughter now can pick out a Corvette from way down the road. In truth she is still looking for the grey one that was delivered to someone who lives in our county while we were there. The county isn’t that big and the license plate is easy to remember so I’ll let you know if we find it.

Weird things happen on vacation folks! That ought to be my tagline.

Also, visit your National Parks. You won’t regret it. You might get funny stories but you will be glad you went.

Adventures, Camping, Explore, Locations

Wherein Mama Doesn’t Think We Are Funny

April 1, 2017 C Burke Leave a comment

Have you ever been to Rocky Mountain National Park? If not, go there soon and bring your sense of adventure! Fourth of July is fantastic as are the hiking options. I’m headed back at some point but a little wiser this time.

So, you know how you go camping in a national park and have large animals walking through your campsite whenever they please? Of course you do. They even join in you the town park for fireworks. After several days of this you notice that you have seen more elk than you knew existed but you haven’t seen a moose. They live in the park too and you’ve never seen one. Naturally you insist one morning that you and your husband drive around the park to find a moose, like people do. Your husband is a nice guy and agrees. After about 30 minutes of driving slowly and looking around, you pull into a picnic area. In the distance, through the trees, you see elk by the hundreds, as usual. Out of the corner of your eye you catch a glimpse of something moving in the trees near you. A large, brown animal emerges, it is a moose! Yay, mission accomplished!

You raise your camera and as you look through the viewfinder (because it it 2003 and you still use film) you notice the moose looks closer and it appears there are two. You also notice that your very even-keeled husband has thrown your new car into reverse and is kicking up gravel as he hits the gas. Your camera leaves your face and you see a mother and a calf moving towards you, QUICKLY! You have visions of hoof marks on the hood of your car, through your windshield, and probably on the humans inside. You are ever so grateful that your husband is a steady and confident driver. He peels out of the picnic area and you both breathe a sigh of relief.

Then you see it.

In the passenger side mirror, mama is not happy and both she and the calf are now chasing your car down the road …and gaining on you! Mama leaves the road and runs along side your car until she is even with the front of the car and proceeds keep up! Before she decides to dart into the road and your car, your husband gives it a bit more gas and you finally leave the moose in your mirror for good. You are grateful that you do not yet have a child because there might be some interesting language escaping your mouth.

You decide not to look for any more large game. Lesson learned folks, when the animals in the park come near you on their own, they know you are there and they don’t care. When you happen upon them and startle them, you better have skills and luck on your side. It certainly does not help that moose are the least social members of the deer family and prefer to be without the company of other moose never mind humans. (Thank you internet, I learned something today.)

Did I mention I have issues with animals? My issues precede this event by a couple of decades but this encounter didn’t help.

Moose photo credit:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:User:Wojsyl
Poland Kampinos Alces alces 1
Caption added by DreamDepartExplore

Adventures, Explore, Locations, Road Trip

I LOVE Door County

March 18, 2017 C Burke 1 Comment

Just what we needed!

As you know, I have a very scientific way of choosing vacation spots. 😉 Even so, we happened upon a perfect spot for our family to unwind and enjoy time together, Door County, WI.

It took a little longer to get there than we planned as we hit some VERY strong storms on our way up but we made it in one piece. Our cottage was just south of the town of Sturgeon Bay and was on Green Bay itself. The views were gorgeous.

We happened to visit the first week of June when the weather was perfect by my standards – sunny and mild. Also, everything was open but there were very few other vacationers as most schools in the state were still in session.

We had a wonderful time meeting new people in the area. Some places not to be missed:

Cave Point County Park

Peninsula State Park

Patawatomi State Park

View from the top of the Patatowami State Park Observation over the water. Great view was worth climbing the open wooden tower!

Downtown Sturgeon Bay
Hands On Art
Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant

Yup, those are goats on the roof at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant!

Sunset Grill
Sunsets over Green Bay in general – chase them people!

Our first sunset in Wisconsin. This is the view from our cottage for the week!

Europe, Flying, Kids, Locations, Packing, Philosophy, Planning, Travel tips

Why I Fly Carry-On Only and You Should Too

February 3, 2015 C Burke 6 Comments

There are lots of theories on packing for a trip, this is mine.

Plan very carefully, pack only what you need and then you can fly with just a carry-on anywhere you go. When you fly carry-on only you get to skip the ticket counter and the quibbles and problems of other people trying to check items in line ahead of you, you get to skip the baggage fees, you get to skip baggage claim, the airline can’t lose your luggage and once you reach your destination you move with ease through transit. All of this leaves you with more money, more time, more flexibility and less stress. Yay!

Despite every single person I know telling me I was crazy, last October my family of 3 traveled for 11 days in Europe with just 3 carry-on sized backpacks. This made our lives so much easier. We had no trouble getting our luggage in our tiny rental car while we had it, we had lots of floor/table space in our friend’s home and hotel rooms, we moved with ease through Tube, train and Metro stations not to mention the streets of London and Paris. The friend who took us to the airport even commented, “It looks like I’m taking 3 kids to school not a family to the airport for a European vacation.”

How did we do it?

We used 2 carry-on size convertible backpacks and 1 smaller one for our daughter. We also rolled our clothes and used packing cubes.
We packed small toiletries and shared the space in our 3 allowed (1 per person) 3-1-1 bags.
We used technology to our advantage with phones, iPods and eReaders serving as our entertainment.
We made sure everything we brought could be used at least 2 ways.
Each person packed a limited amount of color coordinated clothes;
- 4 long sleeve shirts
- 3 short sleeve shirts
- 2 sweaters or hoodies
- 3 pairs of pants
- 2 pairs of shoes
- 1 semi-formal outfit for the wedding (did I mention we attended a wedding too?)
- 1 warm jacket
- 5 pairs of socks
- 5 sets of undergarments
- No more than 3 accessories (my daughter and I took scarves and my husband chose not to take anything).
- 1 pair of small gloves
- 1 warm hat
- 1 small umbrella (we were headed to England after all)

Some simple math would indicate that we didn’t have 11 of anything. My friends, laundry is YOUR friend on a trip like this. We stayed with a friend the first 2 nights and made use of her washer before we left her home. From there on out, we did laundry as needed at the hotel either in machines or in our room. I do a lot of hand-wash laundry at home managing my daughter’s dance clothes so it took no time at all. (To be perfectly honest, we pack this same way regardless of where we are flying not just on international trips.)

If you end up doing laundry in your room, I have two suggestions;

Do it as soon as you arrive, it will have a much longer time to dry,
Consider bringing a clothesline to string in the shower, though the lovely European heated towel racks will do in a pinch and are actually much faster what with being heated and all. As a rule hotels don’t love you doing your laundry in the room because they worry you will string it up everywhere or leave it draped over all of the furniture and ruin the finishes. If you keep it in the bathroom, especially in the shower, you will have no problems at all.

Trust me on this, 20 minutes of managing your laundry will certainly be worth the aggravation and space you save.

When picking out clothes, choose 1 color palette so all of your clothes will go together. Be sure to bring pieces that layer well so that you will be warm enough if it gets colder than you are expecting. We only had one day that was really cold, of course it was the day we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and later experience the tail of a hurricane sliding through Europe. Nevertheless we had fun and got some great pictures.

Happy Travels!

*Note: I have no affiliation with eBags, I just happen to like their stuff and have had good luck with everything have I purchased thus far.

Europe, Flying, Kids, Locations, Packing, Philosophy, Planning, Road Trip, Travel tips

I’m your mother, not your valet

January 27, 2015 C Burke Leave a comment

My child hears this one a lot. I believe in teaching her to do for herself; as much as possible and as soon as she is able. I’m not lazy, I’m trying to teach self-reliance, life skills and a good work ethic. This is especially important when we travel. There are so many things to learn and when we are traveling or getting ready for a trip it all seems FUN!

When my daughter was teeny tiny, we did everything for her of course. However, since she was about 4, she has been responsible for carrying her own carry-on or managing her own bag in the back seat on a road trip. She could bring whatever toys or games she wanted but it had to fit in the little rolling backpack we got her. Her clothes fit in a carry-on suitcase with mine and her father and I managed those. As she has gotten older, she has gotten incrementally more responsibility. Just this last fall when she was 9, she packed her own convertible backpack and small purse/entertainment bag and jetted off to Europe with us for a wedding. Since we all had backpacks and flew carry-on only to Europe for 11 days, we were all REALLY careful about what we brought knowing it would be on our backs through airports and train stations aplenty. I was so impressed by her ability to cull her choices to those she knew she would need and those that she would use often enough to justify carrying. She was even very careful about her purchases knowing she had to carry them. She came home with postcards, pictures, a couple of books, bookmarks and candy. She’s 9, of course there was candy. She saved her money all year and we converted it to pounds and euros. She got to spend it on whatever she wanted but if she ran out, that was it. Thus continuing our lessons on budgeting. She was really careful with her money and even had some left when we came home so she could show her class what it looked like during her presentation. She made a scrapbook full of the pictures, postcards and her travel journal entries. (Whereas my scrapbook is still in pieces in a bag waiting for this weekend’s crop!)

Since she started reading, my child has been responsible for getting us to our gates for our flights and helping us find exits on road trips. Have we ended up heading down terminals we didn’t need to be in? Sure, but that little girl can now navigate an airport with the best of them, even in French if she has to. With family all over the country, she will be allowed to fly on her own at some point and I will know she has the skills she needs to get from point A to point B managing her paperwork, money, etc. as she goes.

LondonHeathrowAirport

All this planning and self-reliance has earned her the ability to help plan our trips. When we went to Florida a couple of years ago, we met Winter the dolphin for Dolphin Tale at her request. When we went to Europe this last fall, she got to choose museums and other locations to visit.

Our adventures encompass everything from science, math and literature to architecture, history and art of all kinds. There is no major structure, just listening and talking. I always do some research before we go, usually with my child, and for everything else there is Google.

So please, give yourself a break, don’t be your child’s valet at home or on vacation. Have your kids pack and carry their own bags, manage their own money, lead the charge through airports, do their own laundry, keep their stuff organized. Teach them the difference between credit cards and debit cards, what it takes to earn money, and to manage every day expenses. Teach them to deal with disappointment when things don’t go their way. Teach them to travel and to see the great big world around us, to enjoy what others have created, to celebrate differences and understand that this place would be really, really boring if everyone was the same. Encourage them collect states and countries along with you. The memories and the stories will last a lifetime.

This is all very easy for me to say, it is how I was raised so I don’t know any differently. My parents made sure we had all the necessary life skills to survive in the world. They also made sure we saw as much of this great big country as possible and taught us both how to travel and how to it love every minute of it – even if it doesn’t always go as planned. The missteps and surprises make the best stories anyway.

Airport photo credit:
By Jnpet (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons