Bless her heart

Alex's first root beer (local VA!) with his cousins!

Fallen stalactite! 

Shaggy Dog - 7 million years old

The underwater lake

Alex and Eleni in the Shenandoah River

June 26, 2008

Here we are in Luray. It takes 2 minutes from our cabin to get to the Shenandoah River, 9 minutes to get to Luray Caverns, and 10 minutes to get into the historical town. In the course of 24 hours, we have visited all three.

Time slows down here. Maybe because it is family vacation time (my Mom, my step-father, my brothers, their spouses, their children – total 13), but I think it’s really because we are in Virginia. And, time really just slows down here. People ask you how you are doing here (and they really mean it). People let you get in the lane you want to get into because it’s just the polite thing to do. When you ask for directions, you might very well get the directions and the person’s entire life story.

We went swimming/wading in the river today and the kids tried to catch crayfish. Alex almost caught a catfish with his bare hands. Lunch and then down time and more down time. Around 2 PM, we headed into Luray and went to the reason most people come to Luray – the caverns.

Luray caverns were ‘discovered’ in 1878 (130th anniversary on August 3rd) by three men who were out hunting and felt a cool draft from a vent in a sink hole. At one point in the tour, our tour guide turned off the lights in the cavern to show us what those three men saw (or didn’t see – that was the point) as they searched around the caverns. I’m not sure I would have been so adventurous clambering down into the complete darkness with just one candle in my hand.

The best parts about the caverns:

Firstly, hands down, it was the temperature – 54 degrees (outside it was around 95 degrees)!

Secondly – another best thing was our tour guide’s accent. Jessica was around 20 years old and she sounded like she was a debutante straight of Gone with the Wind with one of those beautiful southern drawls. She was also blissfully positive. When we visited the memorial to Page County war dead at the last stop in the cavern, someone asked if any Page County military had died in the Gulf War or the current War in Iraq. Jessica didn’t seem to be aware that there was a war going on. Bless her heart (my sister-in-law from Virginia told me to add that. She said that you can say pretty much anything about anyone as long as you say “Bless her heart” afterwards. I’m not sure that is entirely true, but somehow, it sounds right here.).

Thirdly, yes, the caverns are pretty amazing.

In our hour-long tour we learned about the differences between a stalactite and a stalagmite and the fact that most of the cavern is made of iron oxide (rust) and calcite. Around thirty of us were shuffled in this dimly lit cave – together we descended to the lowest point of 167 feet under the earth’s surface. Alex and his cousins huddled close together and created all sorts of imaginary kid fears (Eleni was at the cabin taking a nap).

I’ve included some photos from inside the caverns. By far, the most impressive spots for me were the underwater lake – the 2,500 square-feet Dream Lake, the 170 ton fallen stalactite, and the translucent draperies. The kids liked Pluto’s Ghost and the great stalac-pipe organ (which played Mighty Fortress is our God on stalactites spanning 312 acres. seriously. I guess this made it into the Guinness Book of World Records even.).

And there you go.