The Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal wait for ships to pass through, as seen during our Panama 2024 trip.
During our stay in Panama, we crossed the Panama Canal several times by bridge, going from one side to the other. But near the end of the trip, we went to the Panama Canal Visitor Center at the Miraflores Locks.
The setting sun creates orange tones among the blue tones of the clouds and the sky, silhouetting palm trees on the shore on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi, as seen during our Hawaiʻi 2023 Trip.
The lighthouse at the Yacht Club Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida lights the way for the Friendship boats and other watercraft around the Epcot Resorts, as seen during our 2024 Florida trip.
Of course, the lighthouse is actually just a decorative item, as it does not serve a real purpose in the lake there. And its light is not any brighter than the other lights of the resort area, either. But it still makes for a nice photo opportunity, especially at night.
When you think of Mammoth Cave National Park, you probably think about walking through a dark cave deep in the earth, and it is true that the cave tours are the main attractions at Mammoth Cave. However, there are above-ground hiking trails to be discovered there, too. On our first visit, we decided to go for a hike before our Historic Cave Tour.
After checking out our options, we decided on the Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail, partly because it starts out very near the Visitor Center, which was where we parked for our cave tour. However, we knew that we would not hike the entire trail, as it is over 9 miles long, and then we would have to hike the same 9 miles back to the Visitor Center. But we thought that we could walk for a while, keeping a watch on the time, and then turn around and go back. There was even a cemetery on the map that we thought we might see. So we each grabbed a bottle of water, as it was already getting hot out, and we set out on the trail.
Looking down the shore at Waikīkī Beach on the island of Oʻahu during our 2023 Hawaiʻi Trip, because you can never have enough beach photos.
Believe it or not, this photo was not used in part 9 of the trip report, although the trip report does have a photo looking down this same general direction at Waikīkī. And this photo has much different processing than those trip report photos, too.
Our spot on the beach at Cocoa Beach, Florida, is marked by our chairs and umbrella. Plus some drink holders to keep our drinks out of the sand, too. This was during our July 2024 Florida trip, by the way.
A look at the Walt Disney World Dolphin hotel at Walt Disney World in Florida1 in the early evening hours. Except that in this view you cannot see either of the two large dolphin sculptures on top of the building. Take my word for it - they are still there.
For one of our Summer of Fun 2024 adventures, we stayed in a small cabin in West Tennessee. Here’s a look!
The front porch light gave off a welcoming glow, and there was a fire watchtower in the background. And the moon, too.
Now for the backstory. In the spring, Laura and I attended the Taste and Tunes fundraiser for Harding Academy. They gave away prizes, and one of the prizes was a 2-night stay at Serendipity near Brownsville, Tennessee. And we won the drawing! So we picked a time that worked for us, which ended up being in early August. We had a nice, small cabin to ourselves, and it was good.
Continuing with our Mammoth Cave National Park tour where the previous post left off…
About halfway through the tour, we came to a large area with benches. There, we sat to rest for a few moments while the ranger guide told about some of the history of the cave. This was also the portion of the tour where all of the lights were turned off to demonstrate total darkness. I did not bother taking a photo of that, however. And the glow-in-the-dark shirt of the guy in front of me kind of ruined the darkness a little. After that, we moved on to the dripstones portion of the tour, and these photos will move on to that as well.
As you may recall, we visited Mammoth Cave National Park as part of the Summer of Fun 2024. We enjoyed it so much that we went back for a second visit.
Because Mammoth Cave is so large, deserving its “mammoth” name, there are several different tours available. So for our second visit, we decided to take a different tour from the Historic Tour of our first visit. The Domes and Dripstones tour sounded interesting, partly because we did not see many dripstones in the first tour, and those are common in many caves around the world. Plus, the length and difficulty level were about the same as the Historic Tour, so we knew that we could do it. We made sure to have a reservation before we went, just to be sure that we got to go on the tour that we wanted.
