Traveling Tales: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I apologize in advance for the length of this post and all the pictures you'll have to load (especially if you're on a crappy dial-up connection like I am).


I drove around a lot in a rented minivan.

Lucky for us, gas is cheap in the Midwest. If, by cheap, you mean $3.60 a gallon. *Sigh!*





I went to a minor league baseball game.

FIL snagged some sweet seats behind home plate at a Miners minor league baseball game (yeah, it sounds like I stuttered, I know) against the Chillicothe Paints. We ate hot dogs and popcorn and drank lemonade. Tres flirted with the people behind us. Uno and Dos -- who were delighted to discover that real life baseball is a lot like Wii Sports baseball (but with better graphics) -- alternately paid attention, danced in the aisle, and dragged me on unnecessary trips to the bathroom. Though we all had fun, I'm grateful for the Miners' decisive victory (6 to 2, I think?) so we didn't have to sit through any extra innings.



I lazed around while the girls played with their grandparents, aunt, and cousin.





I went back to Metropolis!

I'd been through Metropolis, IL -- including obligatory stops at the Super Museum & Gift Shop and the giant Superman statue -- once before, innocently unaware that my future husband lived a mere 40 minutes away. (Actually he was probably in Oxford, MS at the time getting his PhD. But still.) I'm a total sucker for kitsch; Metropolis is my kind of town.



I spent time at Kentucky Dam Village State Park

Our family plus MIL and DH's nephew stayed in a cute little 2-bedroom cottage with a view onto the golf course (though DH didn't play, thanks to the 105F-degree heat index). We had a mouse and a broken sofa bed the first night, but both of those issues got resolved so we declined the resort's offer to switch to another place.



We specifically chose a cottage instead of lodge rooms so that we could save money by cooking our own food, but then DH declared, "I didn't come on vacation so I could cook things! Let's eat out!" And I didn't disagree. ;-)

The restaurant at the lodge is great, but if you go, make sure you also check out the Catfish Kitchen on US 641 out toward Benton. I don't eat fish at all, but those who do raved; I ordered the chicken and it was fantastic. Tres really liked the ambiance (see below). Dos liked the butter.



Kentucky Dam Village is part of an area known as the Land Between the Lakes, but we didn't actually play in any lake water. Instead, we swam at the resort's pool every day. The girls were much more confident in the water than they had been earlier in the summer; floaties helped, as did the kiddie pool (2ft 9in at its greatest depth).




We also spent a day at a water park. Tres -- my only baby who's ever been happy in the water from her very first bath on -- cooed and squealed and clapped as soon as we got there. Uno and Dos floated in tubes down the lazy river with some apprehension at first, but soon warmed up. Before long, they were splashing in the "tad pool" (sans floaties!) and racing down water slides. By the end of the day, Uno refused to leave. She moped on the shore of the kids' play area, wishing she could live there forever; after documenting her heartbreak with my camera I had to physically drag her away.



While at LBL, we also went mini golfing (or goofy golfing, as the girls called it) a couple of times. Man, it was hot.



Back in DH's hometown, I turned 33

DH, in an incredibly sweet gesture, bought me the new-ish REM CD. (It's sweet because he doesn't like them at all, and he usually gets me things that he wants me to have, lol.) His super romantic gift presentation style (unwrapped, still in plastic Walmart sack, price sticker visible, receipt at the bottom, and a "Here, I got you this") came in handy this time because he accidentally got me a Reliant K CD instead of REM. I have no idea who Reliant K is, but I exchanged it with no problems. Yay DH! :-)

I took walks around town with the girls

To exciting places such as DH's elementary school (below), which is now a senior living center. (Insert DH-is-old joke here.)



I went fishing

Or rather, DH did. The girls and I mostly just went along for the ride. (You want to know what's creepier than fish? Fish with whiskers.)




I went to the Evansville Zoo

Our local zoo membership gives us benefits at other national zoos who are part of the same accredited association, and apparently Evansville is one of them. We got in for free! That's always nice.

The zebras and giraffes hang out together at this zoo, and one particular giraffe kept following a particular little zebra around wherever it went. I commented on it and Dos said, "That's because he's the zebra's mother." I told her it didn't quite work that way. "No, he is his mother. See, he's bigger and the zebra is littler, so that means the giraffe is the mom and the zebra is the baby." Well, okay then!



I went back to Chuck E. Cheese!

Although we haven't been to one since we left West Texas, the girls still talk about Chuck E. Cheese all the time. You can imagine how thrilled they were when we pulled up to this one. :-)



That's all, folks!

And thus concludes our fabulous two-week vacation to Southern Illinois and surrounding areas.


~RCH~