A day in the life of Kristine: Howe Caverns

On a weekend day-trip, Dave took me to a great little spot called Howe Caverns. After about a 2 1/2 hour trip towards Albany in the pouring rain and a quick stop at Burger King, we finally made it to the caverns. By the way, Burger King started this new thing where the tray liners are replete with "health information" for all the food on their menu...DON'T read it if you ever wish to eat fast food again in your life!! After seeing a hamburger listed with 85g of fat and 1300 mg of sodium, I wished I had packed a lunch. Anyway, we made it back to the freeway and then drove along a series of random country roads that made me grateful Dave has GPS in his car. I can't imagine how people got around in the back country without handy-dandy GPS directions!!

Arriving at Howe Caverns, we got our tickets and waited for the next tour while we wandered through the gift shop and oggled the mounds of homemade fudge for sale. The tour started by descending a HUGE 158 ft elevator shaft and entering the cave. Touristy and developed, it's far from real spelunking, but we had a blast taking funny pictures and playing to see who be the first to spot any cave gremlins. There was a lot of artificial lighting (along with rows of algae and other microlife responding to that lighting), brick-paved trails complete with steel handrails, and plenty of rsting stops along the way for those visitors that just couldn't hack being on their feet for the 80 minute tour. Dave joked about all the "naturally-formed" handrails, electrical chords, and emergency phones. We were a part of a small group of about 30 people following a sarcastic tour guide who recited the history of the cave's discovery, the number of weddings that had been performed on the heart-stone "bride altar," and random stories about what the formations supposedly look like.

Enjoy the pics!!
WELCOME!!