Carnivals & Caves

Paul and I have been trading time in a little town close to here for what we're calling "artist retreats." A colleague of mine loaned us her keys for the summer, and we've each been out there for a couple of 2-day getaways. It's a cute, sleepy place, where pretty much everything closes up on Sundays. Gorgeous Amish farms and lush green hills in every direction. It's been a great place to work. And it also offered an opportunity for family play: a Fireman's Carnival! We decided to take the kids on a Sunday (Solstice Sunday, in fact), and told them all about what they could expect: rides, games, funnel cakes, if mama is very lucky. (Cath, remember funnel cakes?!) They were thrilled and we made the 1/2 hour trip out to Millheim and walked over to the fire station to find: no rides, empty game booths, one slimy hot dog stand and a tractor pull contest. 

Cue kid meltdown.

Except, they held it together long enough for us to say, "HEY! Let's go get TREATS! It'll be GREAT!" and then ushered them over to the darling coffee house up the block, where the owner informed us that the company who was bringing the games and rides pulled out at the last minute. Wow. How depressing. Thank goodness for strawberry smoothies!

But strawberry smoothies only hold so much distraction power, so we shifted gears fast and remembered that we were just up the road from one of the campiest tourist destinations in central Pennsylvania: Penn's Cave.
This would be our second trip there, but our first with our own kids. Paul and I took my niece, Lauren, when she was little and visiting, long before we got married. It was exactly as we had remembered it. Cheesy fun!

Panning for "gold." Really, you buy a bag of dirt that's been studded with small gemstones for $5 and wash them in the slough. We did get some pretty aventurine and amethyst. 

Waiting for our cavern tour, Rudy busts a move.

And Josephine "vogues"

The cavern tour was pretty fun really. You have to climb down these endless stairs into the Center! of the Earth! (feels like it to a mild claustrophobic, anyway), and get into the most rickety wooden boat, and a wise-cracking near-teenager pushes you off into the freezing cold water, shining lights onto the various stalagmite and stalactite formations with names like "Garden of the Gods," "The Leaning Tower of Pisa," and "Angel Wings." There is one spot where they've wired colored lights up onto the rocks and when you go by, they turn them on. Blue! Red! RAINBOW! Oh, tacky tourist trap. You saved the day!

Tired (and broke--entrance fees are insane) parents. We got enormous ice creams right after snapping this picture.