Visiting the caverns

We live somewhat near Luray Caverns. There is a huge mountain between us and the caverns and a decent amount of flat & foothills, but it does qualify for spur of the moment trip status.

sidenote – when I lived in the suburbs, the first 25 or so years of my life, anything 30 miles or more away was a day trip. It was just too far to go without advanced planning. Now that I live rural and just buying milk is a 20 mile drive, anything under 120 miles is considered ‘nearby’

I enjoy Luray Caverns. They have an interesting history, are a nice ambient indoor temperature, involve just enough walking to feel you have earned an ice cream at the end and are a good ‘nearby’ place to take visitors when the weather goes all rainy on a holiday weekend (apparently everyone in a 100 mile radius agrees with this because the parking lot was packed, mostly with Virginia plates with nearby county stickers on them). We’ve been there 3-4 times in the 15 years we have lived in the area. I went once with my parents when I was kid, I think on the way back from Myrtle Beach. The only thing I remember about it is that they put a bumper sticker on my dad’s van while we were on the tour and he was FURIOUS about it.

We were last there when Havoc was a couple years old.  Mayhem was an infant. They were still offering guided tours then. Now they give you a headset with prerecorded information you access at different spots & let you follow the path on your own. It’s nice to go at your own pace but with everyone listening to their own headset it sort of stops conversation.

The caverns are huge and full of fascinating rock formations.

There is the fish market

reflection lake

Pluto’s ghost

The Saracen’s tent (though I think it has a different name now)

It’s cool, the rocks look like tried out stiff towels

This one reminds me of Jabba the Hut

Can you see the bearded man  & the dragon?

And a couple of fried eggs

We’re headed to Wheeling this weekend. I’m going to stuff myself with diCarlos’ pizza and hang out at Wheeling Park, just like I did every summer of my life until I was 20 years old.

Holiday weekend

We had a 4th of July party complete with fireworks. A bunch of friends came over. There were 7 kids 7 and under running around, getting in and out of the pool and splashing water all over the food.  There were 8 adults sitting around, shouting not to splash or squirt water in this direction.

note to self – move deck back a couple feet next spring

There were hot dogs, hamburgers, assorted dips, lots of chips, a fruit platter, a bowl of fruit salad and a lemon pound cake.

Then the whining for the fire works began, a full hour and a half before dark. We don’t do sparklers because most of the moms are afraid of letting the kids have them. The one mom who isn’t (me) admits to setting herself on fire with sparklers 15 years ago & so can’t argue with the danger. (but I would totally let the boys have them if it wouldn’t set off 5 other kids wailing to have them too. I was sitting down in a crowd, in a long skirt, after several beers, when my skirt caught fire. Not a situation the boys can repeat & it just smoldered anyway)

Eventually the men set off the display of roman candles, fountains & etc.

They were handled for the most part  sensibly. At one point I did ask my husband if he was *supposed* to be holding a Roman candle while it fired and there were a couple misfires – one into a tree and one up the hill toward the spectators. No fires or injuries occurred.

The one bit of carelessness was in disposal. Empty fireworks canisters were tossed into the burn pile.

Take a minute a guess where this is headed.

After the fireworks were over, we lit the bonfire.

BOOM! BOOM BOOM!

Dud fireworks shot out of the bonfire in a brief colorful display. No one had actually said “Here, dude, hold my beer & watch this” but it was definitely that sort of moment.

No harm done though, just a memory that will be recalled every July 4th from now forward.

It was a huge bonfire

That is my husband in the lower left corner spraying it, in the photo above & below, just to give some scale

It rained Sunday and that put the smoldering remains out. It also made it impossible to clean up the yard until yesterday. Sunday we went to Luray Caverns.  Photos from that tomorrow.

Weekly Winners – week 27

Some of my 365 photos.  The fireworks were very late last night, so they will be in next week’s batch.

Mayhem did a lot of work on his puter

Havoc practiced swimming underwater

The knights took the pirate ship

This is Smoke

And her brother Thor

  In macro news the army men have reached my keyboard

For more Weekly Winners please visit Lotus at Sarcastic Mom

Blog Hop Intro

I signed up for the MckLinky monthly blog hop and then being my usual forgetful self, failed to put up a post about it.

The theme this month is introductions. My failure to post about it probably says more than I can in words.

My name is Stacey. I am a nearly 42 year old, married, SAHM of 2 boys, Havoc age 6 and Mayhem age 5. I used to be a data analyst and am still a data geek.  I do various work from home gigs now. I read a great deal, mostly historic mysteries. I like to crochet and digi scrap. I take tons of photos for my 365 project.

Dinosaurs & Star Wars fill my days. 

I look forward to meeting some new people & visiting your great blogs.  If you add your link here, it will appear on all participating blogs at the same time.

Glued my pants to my leg

The morning is not off to rousing start.

There were wailed of frustration and anger at 6:30am from Mayhem who was paying Lego Indiana Jones & was stuck somewhere. It developed into shouting between Havoc & Mayhem about what do to, where to go & just who was going to drop out if they don’t listen.

Cats were rubbing all over my face in bed. I am allergic to cats. Yes, we have 4 of them. As long as they are not rubbing on my face & I remember to wash my hands after petting them I am normally fine.

I am still breathing with allergy wheeze right now

The coffee pot clogged, sending grounds & hot coffee everywhere. It had to be remade.

I went to find the wood glue to fix Mayhem’s sword.  I couldn’t find it but I did find that the chest freezer in the utility room has been sitting open since god knows when, possibly since noon yesterday. It is nicely defrosted & all the meats still seem to be solid blocks, but the waffles thawed and the freeze pops too.  Havoc was the object of an angry lecture from me because he was last person in there – getting freeze pops. So he can no longer get them himself but must as & wait until an adult can get one for him.

I didn’t find the wood glue but did find some craft glue, one of those press down on the pad & the glue comes out on the pad types. I did not realize it was leaking when I opened it. It dripped on my pants. I glued the sword, put the lid on the glue, finished my coffee, stood up and realized my pants were firmly stuck to one spot on my leg.

After all this I am really not looking forward to my personal trainer session this afternoon. It just can’t go well.