Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Meramec Caverns - Hide-out of Jesse James

While we were visiting the inlaws in Missouri, Adam, Anne, Nathan, and I went and checked out the awesome Meramec Caverns. Truly an amazing place! We had a great time and our tour guide was pretty funny. Here are some pics from our adventure. At the Cave Entrance! Haha, Nathan's cracking up because he's giving Adam bunny ears. Unfortunately they are hard to see with this camera angle. The first cave room is HUGE! It's ballroom size, it gets booked for parties, it can fit a lot of chairs and there's even a discoball. In this picture, Nathan is boogie-ing under the discoball in the dark ballroom. Adam and Nathan posing in a room full of stalactites and stalagmites, ... and "soda straws." Just gorgeous and immense! Illuminating the caves in different lightning makes them look so mysterious-o. Going up the big stairs to the Wine Room. Excerpt from wikipedia about the Wine Room in the Meramec Caves: "The fifth level of Meramec Caverns includes a "Wine Room." The Wine Room is home to the world's rarest cave formation, The Wine Table. The onyx table stands six feet high and is supported on three natural legs. Known as an aragonite formation, this structure was composed almost entirely underwater. The Wine Room and the Wine Table are adorned with grape-like clusters called botryoids. Originally called the Wine Room because of these grape clusters, the cave now claims that it is called that because of the "whining" that visitors do when they learn that the room is accessible only after climbing numerous stairs." There are only three of these "tables" in the known world and this is the largest one. It doesn't appear to be able to support its own weight anymore. Either that or someone broke it. Check out those large "bunches" of "grapes"! Playing around in the slippery caves. Now onto the Stage Curtain room, complete with stadium seating. We're going to see a light show and listen to Kate Smith sing God Bless America.

7 comments:

Elizabeth said...

wow the pictures turned out really well. i totally want to go there now.

Sarah Welsh said...

Adam looks SO much like Dad!!!

Great pics, you TOTALLY make me want to go there!

Bryce & Cherise said...

cool pics!!! you should add me to your list! :)
-cherise

Elizabeth said...

Oh my gosh. Caves are the COOLEST!! There's a couple near Austin and I went to one a year or so back and I had no idea how cool they were. Looks like so much fun!!

Danelle said...

Thank you everyone! Wow, I can't believe how fast you check the new stuff. i'm still slow at this. The caves were super-amazing! (Cherise, I will definitely add you on my list of blog goodness.) :)

Sher said...

Hi Danelle. I saw your blog address on facebook, so I thought I'd come over to check it out!
These are some cool pictures!
What have you been doing?
Sherrie (Jensen) Shepherd

MoM K said...

Very cool pics! I never did go there while we lived nearby for 5 years! I wish I had now. Hey, congrats on your new apartment near Forest Park. that is a cool place too. go the the Boat Dock and listen to the old bands on friday and saturday nights for us! (Aunt Karen)