As my wife and I started envisioning what an awesome retirement would look like for us, we agreed right away on one thing:  that our travel bucket list includes visiting all 62 national parks in the USA. To help us celebrate our progress and decide where to go next, we got a really cool wall map that enables you to scratch off the places you've been. This summer we decided to head to Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave National Park.

What an unexpected and delightful treat that turned out to be! The cave was, well, mammoth—it's the longest known cave system in the world. Even more surprising was the scenery outside the cave—spectacular! My words and even my pictures can't possibly do it justice. But, of course, I'll try!

We were there for two full days. I might like to have had another day to try one of the back-country hikes, but alas, we had other places to go on this journey. Also, my wife is struggling with foot issues, so she wouldn't have been able to go anyway. So this is how we approached it:  in the mornings, we went on two different (but somewhat overlapping) cave tours, then in the afternoons my wife rested while I went on photography hikes.

Here are some things to consider if you are thinking of visiting this gem of south-central Kentucky:

The location of this hotel was quite pleasant, in the Cave Mill part of town--it was near quite a number of restaurants and shopping. 

As I alluded to above, we've never been particularly fond of staying in the outdated and over-priced accommodations available in some National Parks; we'd rather stay someplace more comfortable and at the same time, more reasonably priced. So in this case, we opted to stay in nearby Bowling Green, KY, which was about a 30-minute drive from Mammoth Cave.

In Bowling Green, we stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites, a Marriott property. The room was comfortable, clean, and quiet--just about all you need for a room you won't be spending a great deal of time in. It was reasonably priced as well. 

One particularly pleasant surprise is that it was across the street from the hotel was a Donatos Pizza, a welcome sight after spending most of the day in the car! The pizza was excellent and reasonably priced. There were even 2 different options for a gluten-free crust.

Another great find during our time in Bowling Green was the India Oven restaurant. The food was outstanding, which was yet another delightful surprise for our time in Bowling Green.