Escape from the City

Well, we succeeded in leaving Chicago for a few days of Spring Break. But only to find ourselves in 30-degree weather somewhere else! The landscape got greener as we drove south, and lots of dogwood was in bloom--but it SNOWED while we were in Kentucky. April in the South isn't supposed to be like that! Anyway, we had a nice time with Patrick's grandma (on the Iber side), who hosted us for two days, taking us to New Harmony, a 19th century attempt at a utopian community that now has picturesque old cabins, and several antique shops in Newburgh, the town where she lives. We bought a rocking chair that's supposedly from the 1830s-40s. It's beautiful, and comfortable, too. Grandma Liz fed us very well, and I really enjoyed getting to know her a bit.

We drove a little farther southeast on Friday, to Mammoth Cave. They don't allow people in the caves without a guide, and the tours were pretty crowded. We spent a little while walking around on the trails outside the caves (with freezing fingers and toes) and saw some interesting things, including sinkholes, the surface outlet of an underground river, and some frozen caterpillars. They look like they're moving, don't they? They were swarming all over each other on a twig, except that they were completely still. Patrick suggests that they might start moving again once it's warm enough. I hope they haven't been killed by the frost. It's kind of creepy.

I guess you'd probably expect to see some pictures of the cave, but I'm not going to post any. For one thing, I don't really like the way any of my pictures came out. Most of them are blurry, and everyone has already seen pictures of stalactites and stalagmites. (If you haven't, just do a Google Image search of "Mammoth Cave," or try this link to the Mammoth Cave National Park website.) Besides that, I was really struck by the effect when our guide had us all sit down (there were rows of benches in a large underground chamber) and then turned out all the lights. That's what a cave really looks like: totally black. There's something strange about illuminating it, even though there are some beautiful formations. Or maybe what's really weird is going through them with a hundred other people on a big tour. Anyway, I liked the tour we went on, but the only picture you're getting is of Patrick, sipping hot chocolate when we returned to the cold, cold surface. The caves themselves stay in the 50s all year. Oh another aspect of the the tour that was interesting: a kid asked the guide how old the caves are, and she gave two answers, which she presented as 1) what you get if you ask someone who thinks that the earth is 6000 years old (she did not make any reference to religion), and 2) what you get if you ask a geologist, someone who studies rocks and science. This got me thinking, how old do other major religions take the world to be? Leave me a comment if you know ...

Here's a final picture from Indianapolis, just to prove to you that it really was cold and I'm not just a wimp from California. Usually fountains don't freeze, because they're turned off in the winter. It is April, so I guess they turned this one back on thinking that it would be warm enough. The effect is cool, anyway.

Well, back to work! This should be an exciting month, in any case. Patrick's uncle, George, is coming to visit with kids Sophie and Annie; Na'amah is coming to Chicago for a conference; Patrick is going to DC for 2 weeks, and I'll go out for a weekend too to see Steve and Sanne! I'll keep you posted. Knitting pictures to come!