A Great Day for a Field Trip!

Yesterday, we were scheduled for a field trip. As of Monday, I wasn't sure we were going to make it since Nicholas was/is still fighting a head-cold but we decided we needed a fun little excursion and I'm so glad we did!

Our destination was the Olentangy Indian Caverns in Powell. Even though it isn't too far from our house and it's close to the zoo, we've never been. I've seen the signs for it along the road, but we've never made the time to check them out. Now we know what we were missing!

It's an underground cavern formed naturally by an underground river cutting it's way through the limestone. How cool is that! They have found artifacts down there that suggests it had been used throughout our states history by the Native Americans.

We had a private tour scheduled (perfect!) and our tour-guide was truly a lovely person, eager to share all her knowledge with our kids. She was also very patient with our group that had quite a few very little people going down steep, slippery steps sloooowwwwly :)

I didn't get any pictures of the beginning but it's basically a big hole in the ground with a wall built around it! Very cool and a little scary!
Here's some pictures of our tour:
This is deep underground folks!
See the big protrusion in the rock to the left of us? They call that their sculpture of the famous chief, Leatherlips who had been executed nearby for not joining forces with Tecumseh. His name was Leatherlips because his word was not easily broken, like a strip of leather, and since he had already signed a treaty to not attack the settlers, he would not go back on his word, even when facing death.
Cuties!

There was quite a bit of green down there. This has happened since the addition of the electric lights. There's constant moisture dripping down from the surface so with the addition of the lights, they have moss where it was once only rock.
The one of the largest beehive stalagmites:
More green:
If you're wondering how I got my claustrophobic self down in there and enjoyed myself, this picture shows how really big a good deal of it was:
There were plenty of places that were tight too. Fortunately, I could focus on helping Megan through therefore distracting myself ;) I don't have any pictures of the place that is the skinniest. I was busy with my death-grip on Megan ;)

We had a wonderful time there! There was so much history and cool facts. My kind of place :)

Thank you, Angi, for setting all this up! We missed you and your gang, but I can now fully appreciate why you didn't want to take Creux!