With the beautiful weather today we decided to take a drive and do something outside.
As I was backing out of the driveway I asked Michelle if she would mind taking a “scenic route” up to Green Bay. Shaelin really needed to take a nap, and I didn’t want to get up there so soon that she wouldn’t have a chance to get some rest. Since this was agreeable we headed east on US-10 towards Two Rivers, then north to Mishicot, and finally west back towards I-43.
When we were nearly back to the freeway I spotted one of the typical brown road signs that indicates a state or county park. It said something about caves, and me, well, I can’t resist checking out caves. A short drive off of Manitowoc county trunk R brought us to the Cherney Maribel Caves State Natural Area. Shaelin was sleeping, so Michelle stayed with her in the van while I took the older girls down to see what they were all about.
Mercedes had a really interesting comment, coming from a 6 year old just finished with first grade: “Dad, I wish we could save all of the forests and jungles.” I do, too, and I took this opportunity to let her know that one way we could help was to follow the park rules. For instance, we should stay on the marked paths. “It’s not so bad if one person goes off the path,” I said, “but imagine if a lot of people did that.” Sadly, I missed my chance to let them know that another great way to help would be to make sure we don’t litter; someone left a big toy plastic dump truck near one of the caves on a side path. It was disheartening to see, really.
Shaelin woke up with the slightly-too-excited girls returned to tell Mom about the caves. There wasn’t much to see. I’m definitely a bit jaded, though, having seen grand wonders like Carlsbad Caverns and Mammoth Cave. From a child’s perspective I guess this might have been kind of neat. I only wish I had the camera with me. Then again, the mosquitoes may have carried it off if I had.
We took a brief intermission in our day at this point to stop and get a snack from Storheim’s Frozen Custard. Naturally the food was followed by a frozen treat; how could one go to Storheim’s without getting custard? We kept it modest and only got one sundae and a float, but mmm-mmm, whooo-eee, that’s good stuff.
The second half of our trip was a visit to Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary. The most amazing part of this is that, bottom line, it doesn’t cost a penny to visit. We first visited the Observation Building and its Resch Conservation Wing. Here the girls saw a boa constrictor, fruit bats from eastern Africa, a variety of birds, a turtle, and various native Wisconsin fish. Outside the building is the Raptor Theater, where several species of hawk, falcons, and owls live, as well as a bald eagle pair. Not surprisingly, Mercedes and Regan spotted the eagles’ nest before the rest of us. That part of the trip ended seeing a pair of the smallest and most brightly colored of the North American falcons, the American Kestrel. They truly are beautiful birds.
Next we visited the Nature Education Center. This was mostly an excuse for the girls to blow off steam. We herded them as best we could but with all of the kid-friendly things in the building it was a little difficult to get them to slow down. The most interesting thing was a real, live beehive, and I witnessed first hand the “dance” that honeybees use to communicate with each other. One particularly industrious bee was shaking up a storm but his peers didn’t seem to get the picture. The big hit, though, was the slide from the upper level down into the “beaver lodge”. That alone was a good 10 or 15 minutes of time while we rounded up kids and tried to get them all in the same place at the same time… in spite of the fact that we had one adult at the top and one at the bottom. This was definitely a demonstration that if three kids get three different things in mind they can easily overwhelm the two of us.
Finally, we started to take a walk to the deer habitat and lookout tower, but part way down the road one of the park employees told us he was going to lock up the gates in that part of the park. This wasn’t so bad as it was getting on to evening and the mosquitoes were starting to stir here, too. Besides, it gives us a nice day trip for later in the summer. We can check out the rest of the wildlife sanctuary in the morning and hop over to Bay Beach Amusement Park next door in the afternoon. Next time we’ll remember our tickets, of course!
What was originally going to be an hour or two turned into an all-afternoon event. It turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected.