North by North West - June/ July Trip Day 1

I should probably mention that my Brother in Law - BIL - and his family live in the Philippines full time.  They have a house in Florida and fly to major cities in the US about once a year, but his daughters have never been on a true American Road Trip.  So they drove to our house from Walt Disney World and then we drove together towards Chicago.  

Our first stop together was for lunch in Nashville:

We looked around downtown Nashville for just a second.  We ended up eating at Joe's Crab Shack because it fits in well with my BIL's strict diet.

We had a great lunch and stopped just inside the Kentucky state line for a rest break.  I mentioned that there were so fun stops ahead, including Mammoth Cave.  We called about tours at Mammoth Cave, but most were 2 hours long.  We didn't want to take that much time out of our driving that day, so we ended up deciding to visit a much smaller cave called the Lost River Canyon Cave.

Lost River Canyon Cave had great reviews on Trip Advisor, so we gave it a shot.  We really enjoyed our tour.  First our guide explained about the Big Blue Hole:

Then they took us down to the entrance of the cave, which happened to be set up for a wedding reception later in the evening - so pretty!

Then our guided gave us some history of the cave, including the Jesse James link:

After putting on the kids life jackets (adults didn't have to wear them) we were ready for our boat trip!

My only complaint was the over hang to get into the cave was super-d- duper low, but once inside it was neat to hear the facts and history of the cave.

We journeyed on and ended up at a Hampton Inn along the way.  When we got into our room, JR sat in this chair.  My niece thought it looked like he was in a high chair!

And she wanted her own photo in the chair:

We settled into our rooms and the kids went swimming:

Closing out with this photo because I know usually most people just put up the best photos of themselves, but I think this photo is too funny not to share.  In my defense, I had to wear a tshirt because I had to wear a 'tight, supportive' sports bra after my biopsy.  But add in my glasses and my hair tied up and it is hysterical!

Next up: Family time Chicago style!