Chattanooga

After leaving the Space and Rocket Center, we drove to Chattanooga about an hour and a half away. We stayed at a Historic Hotel of America - the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel. It was nice, but unless you stay in the train cars that have been converted into rooms, the rooms are actually just normal, if not, OLD. Being there and imagining all the trains coming in during the war, etc, was cool. There were some shops and restaurants right there, and the kids ate FREE. Chris and the kids went swimming while I visited several shops. One shop, Sweetly Southern, had MOON PIES - and a new crunchy cookie kind in mint and peanut butter. We watched Biggest Loser and then went to sleep getting ready for our BIG DAY on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we had a breakfast buffet at the Gardens Restaurant and then headed out to Ruby Falls.

Family shot in front of Choo Choo. Kids received free engineering caps as part of our hotel package

Historic Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel

Future train engineers

So we arrived at Ruby Falls - the kids had their walking sticks, and we started the descent 1100 feet underground to see the famous Ruby Falls. When Leo Lambert first went into Lookout Mountain, he was gone for 17 hours and came back telling of a beautiful water fall he had found. He then took his wife, Ruby, and hence the waterfall was named Ruby Falls. Here is a picture of some of the cool formations we saw along the way.

Here is the crystal chandelier and the totem pole

Beautiful Ruby Falls; this shot was taken without a flash. The waterfall is 145 foot drop and is 1100 foot underground.

We left Ruby Falls, and finally found our way to Rock City. Here is a picture of the kids in front of their fall decorations. I was kind of scared, because I knew that Rock City was atop Lookout Mountain, but nothing can take the place of seeing the beautiful scenery and the fall colors and basking in God's creations.

At Rock City, you go on a marked path and along the way see several different formations of rocks, etc. Here is Fat Man's squeeze - why do they not say Fat Woman's squeeze. It was so tight, I had to take my camera bag off my shoulder.

Another tight squeeze at Needle's Eye

Mushroom Rock

Family shot at the spot where you can see 7 states on a clear day along with the Smoky Mountains

Only Chris and Rachel were brave enough to go out on this tiny ledge

Lover's Leap: legend says an Indian from one tribe fell in love with a woman in another tribe. Her tribe didn't like that, so they threw him over this ledge, and she loved him so much, she lept after him to her death.

So from Rock City, we headed to the Incline Railway - the steepest incline railway in the world. This is a shot of Jason and me before the thing actually starting moving. Neither of us do heights and knowing it would be a straight shot up the side of the mountain freaked us both out. We both did fine until we returned, and then Jason was okay, but I cried until we got halfway. Chris said we won't do it again, but we had tickets with our Mountaintop Adventure package with the hotel. It was okay, but I was really scared.

This was the start - you can't see the track straight up the side of the mountain

From the top of the Incline Railway, we walked 3 blocks to Point Park - where The Battle Above the Clouds was fought during the Civil War. Lots of neat Civil War cannons and places to see right where General Grant stood looking over the battle.

Rachel at Point Park

Jason at Point Park

Moccasin Bend and the Tennessee River

Had to have one shot of Jason and Rachel in the fall leaves - might be our last chance

We LOVED the Chattanooga area; we ended our trip getting to see another dear friend from our Florida days, Pamela Ironside. Their family is very dear to us. Forgot to take pictures, but we enjoyed breakfast with her right outside Knoxville. Thank you God for such a wonderful trip!!