It started out like many mornings this vacation, with a late breakfast of Grandma’s steel cut oatmeal:
For the activity that day, we decided on the Inner Space Cavern, not too far to the north. While waiting for our tour, Andy looked at the map of the cave, thinking of caving in his youth:
Meanwhile, Leilani found the playground:
And Jim helpfully recorded the unconventional story of the cave–discovered by freeway:
The visit starts with a short tram ride down into the cave, only 30 feet (10 m) below the surface:
The blue lights in the background indicate passageways where the cave continues:
There were lots of little rooms and passages with neat formations, here soda-straws:
Flowstone:
And draperies:
From the beginning, Jim and Andy started lagging behind to take pictures:
Sometimes we caught up to take group photos:
But then we fell behind again:
This was the biggest room of the cave:
At the furthest point was little room with 3 pretty lakes, with colored lights for effect:
This one is called Half-Moon Lake:
Another short tram ride (for effect) back to the surface:
Out near the playground, they had sluices for people to “discover” gemstones hidden in dirt sold inside. Sonja and Leilani and everyone else ended up finding little pieces of colored rocks in the gravel all around:
That night, we went on another parent’s night out. We went to a closer, vegetarian restaurant and then to see the movie Tron. When we got home, Leilani was still watching her movie with uncle David and Grandpa Jim:
