carlsbad day two!!

today was such a fun day! new mexico is an hour behind san antonio which probably explains why we keep waking up so early. today we got up and went to the lake again after breakfast. we were the only ones there and it was so relaxing. my back has been bothering me a lot since i have been pregnant so a little over a month ago i started going to physical therapy. my therapist really encourages me to swim as much as possible so we have been doing just that. it feels so good to stretch underwater and be weightless. i 'water jog' and doggy paddle around a lot which is a bit of a work out, haha. 

 on our way to the caverns we stopped at a gift shop for some funny pics.

after that we went to the caverns for our lantern lit left hand tunnel tour!!!!

seeing the caverns and formations lit by only candlelight was a great experience. i kept getting the feeling that we were underwater. it looked so much like ariel's dads house on the little mermaid and the flickering candles made it look like water on the ceiling. we blew out the candles and sat in the quiet darkness again on this tour and luckily everyone behaved themselves. 

 the last thing we did underground was walk around the big room which was amazing!!! big does not begin to describe this cave, it was unbelievably large! i wish pictures depicted it better because there were some really cool formations. you'll just have to take our word for it and maybe a trip down here yourselves.

 behind the park ranger is the 'natural entrance' to the caverns, aka where the tens of thousands of bats fly out every night. we waited until dusk then saw them all circling the entrance and flying off into the distance. we weren't allowed to take photos because i guess our electronics give off noise when they're on and these are country bats not city bats. (so the ranger said)
this was our last day at carlsbad national park and we had soooo muchhhh funnnn. i am just so grateful to be spending non-stop time with jon.
tomorrow we are headed to Guadeloupe mountains national park!