Chattanooga

We took a spontaneous little trip to Chattanooga on Tuesday til Thursday and I make no bones about saying how proud we are to have packed up the kiddies and ourselves and survived and enjoyed our time away from home.

We stayed at a wonderful Hilton Garden Inn using Josh's hotel points. Free is always fabulous, no? We got ourselves and Anna a King Jr. Suite, and a second room for Noah with 2 queen beds in it that he shared with his Mimmie and Papa. We loved being right there in the downtown area because everything was within walking distance. And we loved the indoor heated pool.

Not long after checking in, we made a beeline for the Tennessee Aquarium and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there. It was divided up into two buildings, one for fresh water stuff and one for salt water stuff. There were also birds, a butterfly room, an otter, snakes, frogs, ducks, penguins, and on and on. For the record, I like this aquarium MUCH more than the Atlanta one.

On the way home we hit Mellow Mushroom (yum) for dinner and after that, it was straight to the pool with Noah while Anna went to bed. The next day we walked right next door to the Children's Creative Discovery Museum, followed by lunch at a nice little diner-type place called The Blue Plate, followed by a 3-D IMAX movie that left me in stitches. Rather, Noah left me in stitches as he would float his little hands out in front of him trying to touch the sea creatures that seemed so lifelike through the 3D glasses. At one point some sea lions get closer and closer to your face, whereby Noah (who was sitting in his Papa's lap) would throw his head back and push against Papa in effort to get away from those menacing creatures. Hilarious.

We topped Wednesday off with more swimming, this time with Anna who turned out to be a total waterbaby, and dinner at Sticky Fingers. After Anna went to bed, Josh and Noah and I took a walk to the water play areas and got some Ben and Jerry's.

The weather was wonderful. Noah almost got run over, but that is another story. Needless to say, I had one of those momentary heart-in-your-throat experiences.

Thursday we headed home, but not before we enjoyed another free buffet breakfast, a walk to the Riverfront (sadly, it was too early in the day to ride the water taxi to Coolidge Park) , playing at a closer park, and a trip to the Incline Railway which boasts being the world's steepest passenger railway. Josh, being afraid of heights, was a little green around the gills on the way up, but he survived nonetheless.

What follows is a little collage of some shots from all three days. It was such a fun time and we will definitely go back one day. There is so much more to do in that area. I totally recommend it.