Caves Are Phallic... and Other Field Trip Musings

On Wednesday I chaperoned Nicole's 5th grade class field trip to Skyline Caverns in Front Royal, Virginia. Nicole and I had both been inside caverns before, but not Skyline specifically. I was assigned to a group of six 5th graders (including Nicole). A school bus was the method of transportation used to shuttle everyone to and from the caverns, which are about an hour away from the school. One thing I noticed was that the minute the kids were all seated on the bus, the electronic devices immediately came flying out (MP4 players, Nintendo DS, etc). Therefore, I didn't feel guilty about whipping out my phone and surfing the web. Sweet! Despite the technological savvy possessed by these kids, they genuinely seemed awestruck by the natural beauty of the caverns, especially the anthocites on the ceiling near the end of our tour. Anthocites are a type of rock or crystal formation that are only known to exist in three caverns in the entire world. Another thing I've noticed about caverns in general is that the stalagmites tend to have a very phallic look to them, and Skyline Caverns were no exception. :). These caverns even had some vaginal-looking holes in the ceiling, and I certainly hope the kids didn't notice me snickering and taking pictures of the various Beavis-and-Butthead inspired rock formations. After the tour, we had lunch and went through a fun mirror maze before heading back to the school. I'm really glad I took this time off of work to chaperone the field trip. Kids this age are really fun to be with. :)