Saturday was Mer’s “day,” and she had quite a surprise for me. I ran in the morning with Jim, and then got ready at home. Mer was playing the piano, and I was listening, when the doorbell rang. Mer did not react, and I did not want to really answer the door, but I finally got up to see who it was after they rang the bell and knocked. I’m glad I did – it turned out to be our friends Eric and Shanna. They were in on the surprise, and were there to spend a chunk of the day with us. As a happy bonus, their band, Bethesda, has just released a music video, so we watched that. It was excellent, and can be seen here.

We all piled into Eric and Shanna’s new car, which is very nice. It is a small SUV, which they got to help Shanna on her thirty-minute commute, especially during the winter. We had a fairly long drive, so it was kind of them to offer the newer and more comfortable vehicle to drive. We headed west on the interstate, getting off near Sandusky. We headed to Bellevue, a small town. We were going to eat before the outing event, which I had guessed by reading signs was going to explore Seneca Caverns. We ate at a small mom-and-pop restaurant which I liked very much. The waitress was blunt in her recommendations of what was good and what was not, so we trusted her, and everyone liked the food.

After lunch, we drove the short distance to Seneca Caverns. It is an underwhelming site at first – just a parking lot next to a small building, which were both next to corn fields and a cemetery. I always picture that caves and caverns lead into the side of a rocky hill, but this is not always the case. Seneca Caverns bills itself as the “caviest cave in the United States,” which seemed lame until we asked them about it. They make the claim based on the fact that the cave is more or less in a natural state – they have added lighting and cleared out some sediment, but the paths and “stairs” in the cave are all natural.

We waited about ten minutes for a tour to start, and there were about ten of us in our tour. The cave is a crack in the ground, formed by a river that flows there. No one knows where the river comes from, and they do not know how deep it is. The river rises and falls based on rainfall, and on this day we could get to seven levels before hitting the water. Divers have confirmed there are at least thirteen levels, and it is common for an eighth level to be accessible.

I have to say – the cavern is really cool. I loved it. Eric was also vocally into the cave, and I think Shanna enjoyed it too. It was not too claustrophobic, but there were still areas that were hard to get through. It had multiple levels which are accessed by natural stone stairways. Our teenage guide told us creepy stories about voices in the cavern when no one was in, and people showing up in pictures when there was not a person around, and other things like that. There were engravings of people’s names from a hundred years ago. It was just a ton of fun. The tour lasted about an hour, and I will certainly go again sometime, maybe during a drier season so we can go down another level. The cavern goes over a hundred feet into the ground.

After touring the cave, we swung by a Catholic retreat area, the Sorrowful Mother Shine. It was very nice – it had a large outdoor chapel, a smaller indoor chapel, and lots of small chapels/shrines that could hold four to ten people. It had a very extensive grounds, and were very peaceful. We all agreed that we could have spent a good amount of time there if we had not needed to get back home. We’ll have to make more time for the Shrine next time we go.

Mer had “won” the tickets for the cavern at the CVCA auction and had kept the secret for months. I hope they come around again next year so we have an excuse to go back.