Maribel Caves and Sunday Drive

Today, we explored the Maribel Caves of Wisconsin. While it certainly wasn't the Meramec Caverns in Missiouri that host the rarest and largest cave formations in the world, it was a fun time spent together as a family (minus one child who had to work.)

  

 Yes, you will indeed get dirty, guaranteed!

That one looks scary...I don't want to go in there.

 Andrew cleaning off his muddy hands on ferns.

 The guys scoping out the next cave location on maps...

...while the girls enjoy gazing at the Twin River.

One bushy-headed Knight whose wife was too tired to cut his hair the day before, holding a wee boy who was afraid of the rocks.

 Ents or....Tree Huggers

 Heart shaped rock winking it's left eye- cool!

Teen girls. Finally! braving the cave.

 

Inside

 Survived: the muddy floor, drippy ceiling, slimy walls, and BIG cave spider!

 

There are a lot of shady and scary stories surrounding the hotel pictured above. I chose to focus on the postive....mostly. Austrian immigrant Charles Steinbrecker designed the hotel to resemble health spas he saw in Innsbruck, Austria.  He died in 1892 before it could be built.  Eventually it was built in 1900 by his sons, Father Francis Steinbrecker and Eugene Steinbrecker.  It was built with limestone from the area.  Thirty masons, commissioned by Father Francis of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Kaukauna, completed the project in four months.  The Steinbrecker family ran it as a health spa hotel and retreat for clergy.  When Father Francis died in 1927, the hotel experienced a change in clientele which included bootleggers, mobsters, and "slaves" (edited). It went through several ownership changes until it was purchased in 1986 by the present-day owner Bob Lyman.

  SUNDAY DRIVE...

We drove by HERE on our way home. It is a Heavenly scene; a little piece of Europe right on our own soil in America. Behind the walls are devout little souls praying for the world. They have a special place carved in my heart. When we lived near their old residence at Our Lady of Good Help, we attended daily Mass there. I loved listening to the Carmelites sing the Gregorian Chant that gracefully flowed out of the side grills from the left side of the altar and filled the quaint little chapel. They are cloistered, so we never had to the chance to see them with the exception of the one called an extern, whom sat in the front pew on the left side. But I do know that there were seven of them at the time, because I counted the "Amens!" after they received Holy Communion. ;-)  They will always be a fond and joyous memory to me. They left behind many items at Robinsonville when they built the new monastery in Denmark. One of the items was a four foot statue of St. Therese the Little Flower who now graces our entrance; another was a tinsy tiny little St. Joseph table statue. We discovered a note that had been rolled up and tucked inside the bottom of the statue imploring St. Joseph for a large specific sum of money. He heard that prayer and interceded for them, because they obtained enough donations to build something greater for God: the Monastery of  the Holy Name of Jesus.