Will and me at the conclusion of a 7-mile canoe trip down the Blue River.

I really meant to write about the last leg of our whirlwind tour of Southern Indiana last week sooner, but you know how it is.

You get home, you unpack. There is laundry to do. The yard needs to be mowed. The milk in the refrigerator is chunky and there's not a whole lot in the cupboards, so you have to go to the grocery store.

At work, people have been piling things on your desk since the minute you walked out the door. It takes you three days to even see your desk calendar.

I think we're recovered now. So here's the last chapter of Jamie Barrand's "What I Did on My Summer Vacation."

We woke up Friday in the Leavenworth Inn ... a place I highly recommend if you ever find yourself in the area. It is absolutely breathtaking. I've been thinking for a while about painting our bedroom, but I couldn't decide what color to paint it. Our room at Leavenworth in was the prettiest shade of yellow I've ever seen (and yellow is my favorite color), and the trim was all done in bright white. It was so simple, but so pretty.

I took photos so I can match a paint for our room.

I usually don't sleep well away from home, but a feather pillow top mattress coupled with high thread count and lightly scented (I think they'd been ironed with rose or lavender water) sheets and a soft quilt proved to be some kind of sedative.

When we checked out of the Inn, we went down the road to The Overlook restaurant, which is nestled into a hill right on the Ohio River.

They gave us a table right by a window, and as we ate breakfast we watched the antics of a variety of birds gathered at the feeder. There were robins, cardinals, doves of some sort, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds and two of the biggest bluejays I've ever seen in my life (I asked the waitress if they put steroids in the birdseed).

After breakfast, we were off to Marengo Cave.

We decided to take two tours -- the Crystal Palace and the Dripstone Trail.

Our tour guide for the Crystal Palace was named Damian. The first thing he showed us when we entered the cave, he showed my son a bat that was hanging in the entryway.

My son had been pretty skittish about bats, but this little guy was smaller than your average field mouse.

Damian took us through rooms filled with awesome formations. I marveled at the fact that things like caves just happen in nature.

Damian showed us a large pool of water that looked bottomless. He explained to us that it was an optical illusion ... it was really only 5 or 6 inches deep, but looked deeper because the roof of the cave was reflected in the water.

At one point, Damian showed us what total darkness was like. He flipped off the cave lights, and we were plunged into blackness. We literally could not see our hands in front of our faces.

Toward the end of the Crystal Palace tour, we sat on rows of benches and watched a short movie and light presentation, which was projected onto the cave wall. I was particularly interested in the fact that the cave was discovered in 1883 -- by two school children.

Our guide for the Dripstone Trail was Tonya. That room of the cave was much more open -- the walkways were expansive. The formations, which Tonya pointed out looked like soda straw, ice cream cones, elephants and dinosaurs, among other things -- were much more spread out.

Tonya showed us places where people used to square dance in the cave, as well as a place where a preacher gave sermons. She said people have even gotten married in the cave.

Andy and I are planning on renewing our vows on our 10th anniversary in two years ... we're thinking about doing it there.

The thing that struck me the most about the caves -- aside from their awesome beauty -- was how engaged my son stayed. He's 7 years old and has the attention span of a gnat, but he was interested in the cave tours from start to finish.

We had lunch with Carol Groves, the park manager. I told her how impressed I was with the knowledge of the tour guides. She said they go through quite a bit of training.

I asked Carol how many people go through the caves each year. I was shocked when she told me it was between 65,000 and 70,000.

The caves also offer "crawl tours." I'm claustrophobic, so I wouldn't go for one of those. But I thought it was a cool idea. Plus, the people who do those tours get to wear those cool hats with the lights on them.

Tip for cave tours: Wear waterproof shoes. There are some pretty deep puddles down there. I wore flip-flops. Rookie mistake.

After caving, we stopped in at Cave Country Canoes on the Blue River. I hadn't been in a canoe since summer camp in the seventh grade, but was willing to give it a go.

We decided to do the 7-mile trip instead of the 12-mile one. The lady at the counter said the trip usually took 2-4 hours, but would probably be on the short end since the water in the river was up and would move the boat along for us.

We got fitted with lifejackets and paddles, and we were off.

I am scared to death of the water, and I was not prepared for how wobbly the canoe was. It took Will (who is also scared of the water) and I some time to get comfortable. My husband told me the water was shallow, and every now and again I'd dip my paddle down to the bottom to make sure I could still touch if the canoe overturned.

Once I stopped thinking about the scene in "Lonesome Dove" where the Irish kid gets bucked off his horse into the Nueces River and is attacked by water moccasins, I felt OK and actually enjoyed most of the trip. There were all kinds of turtles sunning themselves, but I never saw a snake.

At the conclusion of the canoe trip, we headed for home.

We had a great three days together, my boys and me. A lot of quality time together is a wonderful thing.

It reminded me that I'm lucky to not just love my family, but also to like them.