Sightseeing Part 2

Here are some more places John and I visited on our honeymoon! 

A Walking Cave

I normally don't like caves but John wanted to go so I thought I would give it a try.  Boy, I was a real trooper, as this was the second cave we visited on our honeymoon!  It was a 45 minute tour and the most unusual thing about it was the hibernating bats!

The first thing we saw was a fossil.  It was a cephalopod.  The cephalopod is an ancestor to a squid.  The tour guide said the fossil was in a layer of rock that was dated to be four hundred million years old, so they knew the cave was the same age.  On the way out we also saw fossils of ferns and shells.

The first room we went into was called "The Ballroom".  There have been weddings, receptions, and even square dances held in there!  I would never want MY wedding in there!

We saw a lot of stalactites (they come down from the top of the cave) and stalagmites (they come up from the floor of the cave).  We saw a giant stalagamite formation.  It was freestanding.  It was thirteen feet high and eight feet across! 

We also got to touch a stalagmite.  It was in the shape of a camel.  It has been in the Guiness Book of World Records!

The grossest room to me was the one where the bats hibernated.  There were hundreds of bats.  John thought it was interesting!  Two of them woke up when we came in the room and started flying around.  I screamed.  One of the bats flew down and jumped in my hair.  The tour guide told me not to scream because the bat would get confused.  He said bats get confused when women/girls scream.  He said their high pitched screaming voices are very soothing to them, and they think that the women are calling to them to come over.  So they fly towards the women.  They don't understand when the women get upset.  I will never scream when I see a bat again!

Another interesting thing about this cave is it used to be used as a hideout by a man who was a Robin Hood type of robber.  He used to live in the cave some of the time and legend has it that the money may still be in the cave. 

The cave was also used a lot by local Indians.  The temperature stays a constant 48 degrees, and the Indians came in in the wintertime to get out of the cold.  You can still see the black soot on the walls and ceiling where they lit their fires. 

This was a fun trip for me after all, except for the bats!

Reptile Zoo 

The next day John and I visited a Reptile Zoo.  I went because John really wanted to, even though I am really afraid of reptiles!  But it turned out to be a fun experience.

We went and saw a presentation about reptiles.  But first we went and visited individual exhibits.  I really hate snakes, but saw some that were beautiful.  I saw a green Mamba.  He was neon green.  I also liked the Rainbow Python.  He was 22 feet, rainbow and irridescent and glittery.  

We saw two full grown alligators, a male and a female.  The male was twelve feet long and the female was nine feet.  The male was in the water and the female was on land.  They ate rabbits.  It was an awesome sight seeing alligators close up like that.  I am glad that the pen that held them had an enclosure that was about ten feet high though!  

Then we went to the presentation.  We saw a movie on reptiles and amphibians.  You know, reptiles are your friends!  But not always! 

Then the tour guide took out a real live alligator!  It was two and a half years old.  It looked about two feet long.  The first thing it did was pee on the stage!  And then it started hissing.  It did not want to be there.  She had ahold of it by the neck.  Then she clamped its mouth shut and brought it around for everybody to touch.  It felt bumpy on top and very, very smooth on the underside.  Yes, that is right, I touched a real live alligator!  John says whenhe touched it, it gave him a good hissing!  

Next she brought out a boa constrictor.  She wrapped it around herself.  It was about four feet long.  She brought that around too.  Yes, I hate snakes, but yes, I touched it!  Because I will never have a chance again in my life to do it probably.  

The tour guide said not to touch the snake's head.  She also said don't touch it if you were handling your pet hamster before you came to the show, because the snake would mistake you for prey! 

Then we went to see a Monitor Lizard.  As in a Monitor Lizard from the Galapagos Islands that Steve Erwin the Crocodile Hunter is always talking about!  We watched it eat it's lunch.  I won't get graphic here.  Enough said. 

After this I got a new appreciation of reptiles (well sort of, lol!).

Now that our honeymoon is over, it is back to the grindstone.  We have been going full force with everything we have had to do.  But that is another story for another day...

Love, Krissy  :)