Summer Bucket List: Cave

Before you go spelunking...you need to fill your belly because there aren't concession stands in the corners of a cave and if there happened to be some natural disaster and you found yourself trapped in said cave, you would wish you had filled up your tank to tide you over until the rescue teams could drill a bore hole to pull you back up to where food could be found. I'm a planner.

 We decided to make the trip to The Bean Palace Restaurant at War Eagle Mill for some tasty lunch. Surely that would stick to our ribs.

The name is fitting. It is a Bean Palace. Nothing fancy...just yummy food served on the top floor of an old building from the 1800's. 

One great thing about dining with Tom, on the top floor of a historic building, is the inevitable conversation about how we will all die if a fire breaks out. That always revs up the 'ole appetite. Turns out he's a planner, too.

Lunch was soooo good. Club Sandwich. Ordering a club sandwich is always a gamble. There is nothing worse than eating a club sandwich that has been bastardized (most often occurs at establishments comparable to IHOP)....and there is nothing BETTER than eating a club sandwich that has lived up to it's potential. The Bean Palace has that kind of club. Woo Nelly. Their homemade coleslaw was delicious, too.

The kids brought their friend, Emily, along for our outing. 

She is quite resourceful and imaginative.

She's like a mini MacGyverette.

Definitely the kind of kid you want with you if you get trapped in a cave.

In fact, the tour guide's flashlight went out and she just happened to have a spare to offer him.

After lunch, we explored the Mill and enjoyed some time in the sunlight before we went underground.

We eventually made it to the cave. Bryce knew that there was no sun in the cave so he removed the lenses from his sunglasses and created his own spelunking glasses. Looks like we have another planner.

Our guide was great. He was awesome at walking downhill, backwards, while talking.

Bryce was so impressed that he tried it, too.

I was too slow to capture it on my camera! 
Tom and I were laughing so hard as we watched him stand next to the guide, walking backwards down the hill with the most serious expression he could have.

You could tell he was focusing and trying not to wipe out.

 Fossil Rock

The entrance to the cave. Year round A/C.

We were so happy we got a fast talking tour guide.

I think we all suffer from a mild case of ADD.

We like the speed version of things.

Tom and I could probably knock out the Chicago Museum of Art in about 20 minutes.

 Looking up from "snake pit".

It was in this general area that the ground got wet and slippery. We were walking down an incline (me in my flip flops because I failed to plan proper spelunking footwear) when I slid backwards and wiped out...in my white shirt. It was precisely the time that he was explaining how EVERYTHING was covered in bat poop and how in the movie "BATMAN", when all the bats are swirling around him...how that isn't really accurate because there would be pee and poop dripping off of Batman if it really happened that way.

 Now "everything" included myself. Pic to follow, don't worry. 

The tour lasted about an hour. Bryce was not amused when the guide turned off the lights and flashlight to show how dark a cave really is. This was just after we had seen a bat...so it wasn't appreciated much.

We came back into daylight and I showcased my bat poop covered self. 

Hot, right?

 We sanitized ourselves as much as we could and then made a last minute stop at the Susie Q Drive-In for a shake. 

While waiting for our shakes to be made, we saw a man pushing an empty wheelbarrow down the road. Why? Because stuff like this always "shows up" in my day to day dealings.

I used to think I had some freak magnetism. However, I've come to believe that God knows how much I love to laugh...and so he lets me encounter the "unusual" just to show me He loves me.

 The ice cream was yummy. The day was great.

Another thing checked off our Bucket List.

Success! (Minus the wiping out in a pile of bat poo, of course)