Weekend Getaway in Chattanooga!

Handley has been on Fall Break Thursday of last week to Tuesday of this week, so soccer and cheerleading were both cancelled for last weekend.  Robby had a suggestion last week for us to get out of town for the weekend and we booked a quick weekend getaway in Chattanooga.  We left Saturday morning after breakfast and were there in just about 2 hours. We made our way up Lookout Mountain and had lunch on a nice patio on top of the mountain.  It was a perfect day and lunch was delicious.  

Next we drove around a little and then stopped at Ruby Falls on the way back down the mountain.  It was an obvious tourist attraction with a lot of people.  Robby though he remembered going here as a kid and explained to us that we would take an elevator down to see a waterfall inside a mountain.  That was accurate, the part he failed to remember was how long this little excursion actually took.  

Here we were after riding the elevator 260 feet into the mountain.  We were walking on a path through a cave.  The kids were loving it at this point and thought it was really neat we were in a cave.  

Then our tour guide took our group further and further along the path that the original cave explorers took in 1929 (except they had to crawl through areas like the picture below for most of the way).

Along the way we saw all sorts of formations and crystals that our tour guide explained to us.

And, while all of this was very interesting, it was a little lengthy for our young audience and it turns out we walked a 1/2 a mile to get to the waterfall.  And I ended up carrying a grumpy, tired, and whiney Hudson for the entire 1/2 mile in and 1/2 mile out.  He was miserable and wanted nothing to do with the water, the tunnel or my suggestions to have him walk or let Robby carry him.  My arms were sore the next day!

When we finally saw the waterfall it was pretty neat and they had it lit up with special effects, so that was fun to see.

So happy to finally have made it.  

When it was over we couldn't get to the car and get a paci to Hudson quick enough!  Ha!  We went straight to our hotel downtown and checked in just in time for Hudson to take a nap and the rest of us to see the UGA/UT kickoff.

The girls were super excited to say "cheers" with their complementary water bottles and none of their silliness could have woken their very worn out little brother (still sleeping in the background).

After halftime we woke Hudson up and decided to go exploring the city.  Since we stayed downtown we could walk everywhere.  We made our way down towards the river and saw these fun bridges the kids loved climbing up and over.

They were located right beside the Tennessee Aquarium (which we would visit the next day).

Along the river was so much fun.  There just happened to be a bluegrass festival going on so there was music, vendors, and a lot of people walking around so we spent some time watching boats and paddle boarders go by.

Then the girls got into some sort of crazy posing mood and wanted me to take their picture over and over.

And Harper wanted to take a picture, too.

Then we just let the kids run around and play on the grassy lawn by the river.  The girls did more posing and cartwheels.

And Hudson was the happiest he had been all day just playing with his football.

Next we walked backed through the streets of downtown and found the Moon Pie store, which are apparently made in Chattanooga.  Handley loves moon pies, so she was in for a treat.  The kids all got stickers and picked out a sweet to have after dinner.  Then we found a restaurant to eat at and when we walked in we were in SHOCK to see the UGA/UT game with a 1:30 left and to see us loosing.  We had left the hotel at half-time thinking we had it in the bag.  Our server happened to be a UGA fan, too, so he didn't mind that we were glued to the TV and in no way ready to order until the game was over.  It was a close one, but thankfully we (barely) pulled out a win.  The girls were cheering proudly!

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and because Hudson had slept so late I knew there was no way he would be ready for bed. I had packed the kids bathing suits because our hotel had a heated pool so I surprised them by telling them we could go swimming at night (something they LOVE to do).  We let them swim for about 45 minutes and at almost 10 PM they were finally in bed.  The girls begged to let Hudson sleep with them and he seemed excited about the idea of it, but just after this picture was taken he was asking to get in the crib, so that's what he did.  All of us slept great that night and it was fun to have us all 5 in one hotel room...just like a big sleepover!