Vacation Wrap Up

Okay. This will be the last vacation post of this year.  With all the boating, swimming, fishing, and other water activities, we thought we would throw in a couple non-water outings to round out the week.

Tuesday (the only slightly rainy time of the week) We went to Lincoln Caverns.

It was amazing!  It is hard to believe something so beautiful is right under our feet and we might not have ever found it if someone in history hadn't been looking for a place to get a few moments alone or somewhere to get out of the weather.

We were guided underground along a lit path between giant columns of amazing minerals.

 

 Some of the passageways were a little narrow.


Both of the little M's were fascinated by the formations and the colors.

After walking around underground for about an hour the boys got to pan for some gems.

Both got a few big nuggets of some fun minerals. It was a really fun day!




Thursday (our last night at camp) we left the campground for the "city".  Having read this blog before, you know we are a ball family.  So how could we go an entire week without some sort of ball experience?  We didn't, have no fear.  We went to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates' Farm team, the Altoona Curve, play a home game.  

Just a little trivia here so you will understand some later information in the post:  Altoona Curve refers to the railroad.  There is a sharp curve in the track near Altoona called the horseshoe.  The ball team, giving a nod to local surroundings adopted the name and the railroad theme.

The Curve has three mascots:

 

This is Steamer.  As in steam engine.

This is Al Toona 

(get it? Altoona Curve, Al Toona, he's a fish!   Is this thing on? Anybody out there?)

 

And last but not least is Diesel Dawg.  

Diesel and Steamer roamed the stands during the game throwing/shooting prizes to the fans between innings and just doing the general mascot stuff.  And where was Al during the game?  He stayed in the green wall of the outfield.  He only made an appearance when the Curve scored a run.  Unfortunately, we didn't see him much during the game.

Our seats were right down front with lots of leg room.  But the guys stood for most of the game because we were the only people in the entire section.  My wonderful hubby even caught a foul ball right off the bat!  It was a very fun night (even if our team didn't win the game).