Mammoth Cave

April 28th was Jr Ranger day so we headed to Mammoth Cave for a quick trip before an evening of horse racing at Churchill Downs.

This cave system is the largest in the world measuring 392 miles. It was nice and cool down there- 54 degrees, a good 25 degrees cooler than above ground.

Over the years the cave has been used as a hospital for TB patients, hoping that the cool weather and constant humidity would improve their health. It didn’t and the hospital was closed 10 months later. A mushroom farm gave it a go, but was shut down due to poor management, not enough water and high shipping costs. Christmas carolers like the acoustics so it’s been used for that as well.

Various bat species live in the caves and we saw a few of the little brown bats. They are the size of your thumb and look like a “hairy chicken nugget”. Great description! We learned about White Nose syndrome. It's killing bats across the country. It irritates their skin so they can't sleep during hibernation and they die from not being able to find food. They had us walk across mats that were soaked with a mixture of Lysol and water after exiting the cave so we wouldn't track the fungus other places if their cave has it, but they haven't detected it yet. Bats save farmers in Kentucky alone 1.2 million dollars in insecticides.

Kentucky Derby museum

We had so much fun at the Kentucky Derby museum that we spent six hours there! There were many interactive exhibits- we were able to “bet”, call the race, ride the horses and more.

We watched an exciting video, toured Churchill Downs and had lunch. I enjoyed a Hot Brown- English muffin with turkey, tomato, bacon and mornay sauce.

The waitress came by after lunch and asked me "Can you hold dessert?" I'd never heard that before. I declined and then found out the rest of the table had different opinions. We shared a nut torte- it was similar to a pecan pie, but with peanuts and some melted chocolate at the bottom.

We saw a retired thoroughbred out back, shopped in the gift shop and the kids went back to their favorite exhibits. We were excited to return the following night- opening night of horse racing.

Lincoln's birthplace

Lincoln was born in Sinking Springs, Kentucky, and lived there for two years before moving not too far away to Knob Creek.

A log cabin that dates back to the early 1800s stands inside a memorial to commemorate his birth. The memorial has 56 steps, one for each year of Lincoln’s life.

Inside the visitor’s center we watched a video about his first seven years in the area before moving to Indiana. We saw tools they would’ve used and a scene of what their home could’ve look like. They also had Lincoln logs so the kids built cabins.

In town they had statues of Lincoln as a boy and as president at a roundabout.

Touring Taft's Turf

We toured William Howard Taft’s birth place in Cincinnati. His nickname was “Big Lub” because he was a chubby baby that grew into a big boy and an even larger man. He was over six feet and weighed 335 during his term in office- our heaviest president.

His son bought the house in the 1950s, which had changed hands and become apartments. He wanted to restore it to when his father was a child. He ran out of money and the national park system took over and finished the project. The family kept wonderful records of every home improvement they did, the items they had in the house and where they were located so it was easy to recreate the layout. For example, they knew from notes that this type of piano fit right in between these two doors.

The Taft’s liked expensive things, but didn’t want to pay for them so they were creative. Their cast iron fireplace was painted to look like marble, their floors were painted to look like tile and the pine doors were painted to look like oak.

Taft studied law and held several public offices, including the two highest offices in the country- president and supreme court justice. He was our 27th president and rode in on the coattails of Teddy Roosevelt because Roosevelt didn’t want to run for a third term. While Roosevelt signed many executive orders, Taft created laws. In the White House he was more conservative than Teddy. This frustrated Teddy and other Republicans and it split the party when they both ran against Woodrow Wilson in the following election. Wilson won.

Some interesting facts about his presidency- they were the last family to keep a cow at the White House. Mrs. Taft planted the first cherry tree and then the Mayor of Tokyo sent 3,000 more as a gift. Taft was the first president to throw out the first pitch at the start of baseball season. He was the first president to have a motor car. The first airplane, the Wright Flyer, was purchased by the government during his term. The first woman to head a federal bureau was appointed during his term.

Creation Museum

I’m a bible believing Christian. I know some people find the stories in the bible hard to believe, but after a visit to the Creation Museum they might change their mind. The Creation Museum is based on scripture. They believe dinosaurs lived, created on the sixth day, based on scripture. Noah took them on the ark, but they have since become extinct.

This is 1% of the ark size according to the bible. They are building a full-size ark; it will be complete in two years.

In the planetarium the stars in our solar system are explained with the bible as the starting point instead of “man’s” starting point of millions of years ago with a big bang. Mt. St. Helens eruption was shown as proof that our planet doesn’t have to be millions of years old. Mt. St. Helens carved a smaller scale Grand Canyon in just four hours and an area like the Badlands in ten days.

It was just incredible to “walk through the bible” and see everything from creation, to corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, the cross and consummation. Things were explained, shown by video, backed up with scripture. There was a lot of learning in the two days we spent there. I highly recommend a trip to the Creation Musuem.

Longaberger basket in Ohio

I have a couple Longaberger baskets and was happy we were in the area to see their headquarters in this giant basket building. A friend that sells the baskets said that the handles have a heated core so that icicles won't form and then fall onto the roof.

Children's museum Pittsburgh

While looking for things to do in Pennsylvania I found the Crayola factory tour. I remembered watching Mr. Rogers tour it so it made me wonder if he was from the area. After some research I found out he was and that some of the items from his tv show were at a children’s museum in Pittsburgh. The kids were thankful for a relaxing, playful day at the museum, but I was the most excited one of the bunch.

There were some other cool things at the museum- a gravity room that plays tricks on your mind- and my stomach.

A giant kaleidoscope that "picks up" what you lay down and shows it on the wall. Faith had to check it out and became part of the design.

Shadow pictures

It was a fun day of play time!