Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a spelunker.  I loved to explore caves.  There were times when I dressed in coveralls, donned a lighted miner's hat, and propelled down ropes and scaled sides of cliffs, just to get a glimpse of things you just can't see in the sunshine - underground waterfalls, amazing rock formations, and even a bat or two.  Really, I did!  Really!  Steve, pick your mouth up off the floor - there are things that I did in my wild and crazy youth before I met you that you don't know about.....

So, imagine my delight when Haley, my sister-in-law, suggested that we meet in Marianna and explore the Florida Caverns.  These caves are in a state park and are accessible only with a tour guide (after you pay $13.00 plus tax for yourself and your 3-year-old for the experience - well worth the price, if you're wondering).  Gracie was over the moon about the prospect - she was going to get to go in a CAVE just like her heros the Little Einsteins did in their first feature-length film.  And even better, she was going to get to go into the cave with Blakelyn, one of her hero-worshipped older cousins.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if her other hero-worshipped older cousins, Matthew, Ruby, and Emmie could have been there, too.  Mecca that would have been - a 3-year-old's Mecca.  On Friday, my parents drove over and on Saturday morning, we got up and made the few hour trek to Marianna.  Now, let me preface the rest of the story with this simple fact:  Steve was not with us - he had to work.  If he'd been there, I can guarantee the rest of the story would not have happened the way it did.  Never in a zillion years would the same scenario have unfolded, simply because my husband is not a disorganized ninkampoop. 

I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself.  I'd gotten the girls dressed and loaded into the car reasonably close to our expected departure time.  I'd made brownies and egg and olive salad for sandwiches for a picnic for all nine of us (my parents, my girls, me, my brother and sister-in-law, and my two nieces).  I'd printed out directions so I had a vague idea of where we were going and had all the camera batteries charged and all the picture cards wiped clean and ready to fill with what I knew were going to be awesome pictures.  When we pulled into the visitor center parking lot, I was so excited to see my family and share the caves with my big girl (while my baby girl spent some great bonding time with her grandmother).  The little girls were all so excited to see each other!


We walked down the long hill to the visitor's center and bought our tickets for the cave.  After I paid, the park ranger handed me my receipt and said, "Hold on to this - you'll need it when the tour starts."  We had about twenty minutes until the next tour, so we looked around the gift shop and I stopped Abigail from pulling her klepto routine with more than one rubber reptile.  Since Gracie was hungry, the girls and I walked back to the van to grab some chips from the picnic basket and then had enough time to check out the Daddy Longlegs that a couple of little boys had found:


Then, we heard the call to start walking down to the cave door.  My brother and his family headed down the path, chasing after Miley, who took off at a toddler's run.  I opened my wallet to pull out the receipt and found two Wal-mart receipts, the card with Gracie's best friend's phone number, and a couple of candy wrappers.  No cave receipt.  As I watched everyone else fade away as they walked away from us, well out of shouting distance, I felt the panic rise up in my throat.  And it must have shown on my face because Gracie looked at me and said, "What's wrong Mama?  Let's go with Blakie."  I gulped down my anxiety and searched harder.  No luck.  My mom and dad (they were staying with Abigail, remember?) told me to take a deep breath and look again.  Still no luck.  Now, $13.00 is not a lot to spend for a cave tour and $26.00 is not too much to spend to make your oldest child happy.  So, I took off at a sprint back to the gift shop to buy another set of tickets.  The park ranger at the cash register smiled and said, "You don't need to buy another set of tickets.  I'll vouch for you.  But, if they've already left, they'll have locked the cave door and you can't get in - you'll have to wait until the next tour."  And the tears threatened.  I told him, in a slightly choked voice, "You don't understand - my daughter wanted to go with her cousin.  We came all this way to meet them and she was so looking forward to it."  He just looked at me sympathetically.  Dejected, I walked back to the bench where Gracie was waiting and explained to her that there was nothing that I could do, that I'd lost the tickets and we'd have to wait until the next tour.  And, like I expected, she started to cry. "But I wanted to go with Blakie, Mama."  So, I started to cry, too (after a few choice words hurled at myself under my breath).  I scooped my big girl up and told her we'd walk to the car and see if maybe we could find the receipts - I guess I was just hoping to distract her.   As we walked past the gift shop again, the same park ranger who was at the cash register burst out of the door holding a flash light.  He walked very quickly, with a purpose, straight up to Gracie and me.  "Is this the little girl who wants to see the cave with her cousin?"  And Gracie nodded and I swallowed the lump in my throat.  "Well, let's go then - they can't be more than a room or two ahead of us - we'll have you caught up in no time."  And that's how Gracie and I got our own personal tour of the first part of the caves at Florida Caverns.  As we were descending the 45 steps to the door of the cave, I told Gracie, "You know how you're always asking me why I'm so NICE to people?  Well, this is why - because be people do nice things for us."  And she nodded, as our hero of the day, led us into the cool dark underbelly of the park....

The whole cave tour was great and Gracie was thrilled once she met up with her cousins.  Now, you think she might have actually let me take her picture, after all the trouble we went through to get there, but this was the best look she'd grant me inside the cave: