Vacation and Reading at Mammoth Cave National Park

Last week, my family made the sixteen hour drive to Cave City, Kentucky.  Yes, I said sixteen hours and yes, I said Kentucky.  Several years ago, one of my son’s researched Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system in the world, for a school project.  I thought that his project was very well done (and I’m not at all biased), interesting enough to entice me to want to visit and reminded me of our tour of Wind Cave.  However, soon after I became pregnant and long road trips were delayed for awhile.

I highly recommend going to Mammoth Cave.  We had a wonderful time.  We have quite a bit of an age gap between our children.  The boys are fifteen and Magpie is almost three.  Magpie went through the caves fine and in dangerous spots (what I perceived as dangerous anyway) she was held or her hand was held.  The boys had a great time winding through the tunnels and peering over edges.

Spring along Lost River Cave

During this marathon road trip, we needed stuff to do.  So I went to our local library and checked out some books on CD to help keep us entertained.  Here is the detailed list of what was accomplished on the road and off:

Five books on CD were listened to:

• The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
• The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
• The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne Duprau
• The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Durprau
• A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

I readily admit that I only half listened to these books; I was completely engrossed in the two books that I had brought for the trip and was also trying to entertain my three-year-old.

Two mesmerizing novels were finished:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Both of these books were really, really good.  Not very often do I find two great books to read in a row, especially on vacation!  Usually, I bring a back-up book just in case I bring a really bad one with me, but my back-up (Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian) was not needed.

One mystery novel written by a local author was engulfed by my husband:

• Red Knife by William Kent Krueger

Five children books were skimmed by my daughter:

• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch and Sheila McGraw
• I’m a Helper by Reader’s Digest and Christopher Moroney
• A Very Special Critter by Gina Mayer and Mercer Mayer
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond

I don’t think that I brought enough books for my daughter because by the end of the trip these books had gotten old!  So we had to whip out the “penguin movie,” aka Happy Feet.

Eight Choose Your Own Adventure Books by R.A. Montgomery were reread and reread and reread:

• Mystery of the Maya
• Lost on the Amazon
• Journey Under the Sea
• Beyond Escape!
• Space and Beyond
• The Lost Jewels of Nabooti
• War with the Evil Power Master
• Secret of the Ninja

There were also some movies watched, some staring into space, some silence, some radio listening, some bickering, and some snoring, but we all made it back to Minnesota in one piece.  Well…except for two coloring books that had a little too much coloring done to them.