Chattanooga

E had a tournament game and lost on Friday night- that meant the end of baseball season so we headed home and planned a trip! We booked 4 nights and the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel (in Chattanooga, TN of course) and headed out the next morning.

Saturday night we saw a variety show at the theatre next to the hotel and ate dinner in a train car.

Sunday we explored the Tennessee Aquarium so W could at least see some fish for Father's Day if he couldn't go scuba diving. We saw a 3D IMAX film and took a boat tour of the Tennessee river. G was the most into seeing all the fish- she liked the puffer fish, the cuddle fish, and the penguins. E really enjoyed petting the sharks and sting rays and T just walked around singing fish songs. We topped off the night swimming on one of the hotel pools.

Monday we went to Lookout Mountain. We took the incline railway to the top of the mountain and visited a National Park at the Lookout Mountain Civil war Battlefield. the girls learned about how the sandstone and dirt is washed away from the limestone leaving cliffs and rock formations and spent most of the day asking "is that limestone?"

We also visited Rock City Gardens and climbed through all the rock formations and checked out the scenic views, and went to Ruby Falls which is a huge waterfall inside a cave.

We decided that since we were in Chattanooga we should spend out last day doing "train things."

We checked out the hotel lobby which was a train station until the early 1970's and then took a trolley tour of the grounds to hear about how the trains came in and out of the station and see some of the tracks and refueling stations. The first half of the trolley tour we couldn't hear the conductor because we were in the back and he was in the front talking and looking forward to control the car. The second half he switched the direction of the trolley and we were right up front in the optimum position to see sparks shooting down from the ceiling and flames beginning to burn on the roof! Everyone made it off safely but it was quite exciting for a few minutes. T had brought her bear Sarah with us on the tour. T wasn't scared because she was a big girl, but Sarah is little and she was scared all day long after that. T said Sarah thought the sparks were cool at first until the conductor started yelling for everyone to get off the trolley. Then she realized that wasn't supposed to happen.

Here is our crew getting on the trolley

Getting ready to go

And watching them put out the trolley fire (from a safe distance!)

After everyone calmed down we visited the model train museum and saw this warning

OUT
OF

ORDER

Press to run Trolley

We were grateful that Sarah was willing to get back on a train so that we could ride a real train trough the Missionary Ridge tunnel and watch them turn the locomotive on the turntable before visiting the train repair shop. We finished out trip to Chattanooga with a dip in the hotel pool followed by eating at the Station House and enjoying the entertainment of the singing waiters before saying goodbye this morning.