We decided to take a long weekend to hang out in Chattanooga. It was fun. And hot. Hot and fun. Friday was not so bad because we took in a lot of indoor activities. However, after exhausting all of the indoor fun we were left with outdoor activities for Saturday. So it was a much shorter day. The agenda included:
Friday:
Children's Discover Museum
Tennessee Aquarium (River Building)
Swimming in the outdoor river feature
I-Max - Whales and Dolphins
Tennessee Aquarium (Ocean Building)
Saturday:
Not Much
Hotel Pool
More Not Much
Coolridge Park
More swimming in the outdoor river feature
Candy Store (ahhhh air conditioning)
More Not Much
Dinner
More Hotel Pool
BED!
Sunday:
On our way out of town we decided to stop and SEE ROCK CITY! I'm so glad we did. It was really a highlight of our trip. We took a few hours to tour the gardens, and we still got on the road by about noon and home by three.
Ok, let me say a few words about the Tennessee Aquarium. It was $100 for the three of us to take in the Children's Museum, the I-Max movie and both buildings of the aquarium. It was more than worth it's price tag. Oddly enough the first aquarium building (the "river" building, as opposed to the "ocean" building) was the best attraction. I was shocked by that. One of the most unexpected surprises of the tour was the genuine bluegrass band playing live when we got to the Tennessee River exhibit inside building one. Dancing? Yes!
So I've posted lots of pictures over in
the Gallery. I'm working on getting the descriptions on all of them. But for now, enjoy our vacation with us!
As we pulled into the garage on Sunday Eliot was already saying that he missed Chattanooga, and when could we go back. He missed his "special bed", which was really just a fold out sofa. His favorite part of all of the trip was the hotel swimming pool. I tried to tell him that we could go swimming in Birmingham, too, and that we should enjoy all the attractions that we didn't have at home. But then he countered with, "yeah, but we can't take an elevator to the pool in Birmingham!" He has a point, ya know?
All in all, it was well worth the time, effort and money (as vacations usually are). I don't know if we'll be going back to Chattanooga, but it certainly inspired us to find some new and interesting places to visit.
Update: something I didn't notice before, but in this picture, Eliot is blowing a little bubble out of his mouth as he contemplates the butterfly. funny.
