Family Fun in Chattanooga!

For quite some time, I've wanted the four of us to go to Chattanooga... we finally had the perfect opportunity to go!

arrival to our hotel

It's only a three hour drive to get to downtown Chattanooga, which was perfect! The kids and I picked Matt up from work at 7:00 and we hit the road. We were so happy to see that our hotel was just right across the street from the Tennessee Aquarium and just two blocks from the kids discovery museum... talk about convenient!  We parked at the hotel, unloaded our stuff, checked in, and headed to the Tennessee Aquarium. It was GREAT! Absolutely FANTASTIC!  The kids loved it, and Matt and I did too! I think my favorite part was watching the penguins and the jelly fish. The seahorses are very cool too!  Zoe was definitely excited when she got to pet a legless lizard! Can y'all believe Zoe wanted to pet a lizard? She did! And, she loved it. We got to see a little owl show, a hedgehog show, and the penguin show. Very cool!

This cage used to be used by the workers to feed the sharks. One shark attacked and bent the cage rail. They don't use this cage anymore :)

After about four or five hours at the Aquarium, we headed to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream! YUMMO!

I think it's safe to say that after waking up early, driving, walking at the Aquarium, and walking around Chattanooga our kids were worn out! We decided to order a Mellow Mushroom pizza and eat in at our hotel. The kids got to swim, which the loved. As soon as Luke and Zoe's heads hit the pillows, they were out. Luke slept all night, I was worried.

The next morning we took our time getting ready and enjoyed being together just lounging around. We headed to the Kids Discovery Museum. WHOA! That place is like a wonderland for kids!!! Zoe and Luke were the perfect ages to enjoy practically every section of the museum. There were exhibits from dinosaur sand digging to water wonder tables to musical instruments to a dress up theater... it was really a neat place for kids! I loved that it was so clean. I mean everywhere we went, it was so CLEAN and, there were tons of workers there to assist you along the way. It wasn't very crowded either, so that was awesome.

There was a honey bee exhibit which was neat. You could watch bees through this glassed in area with a magnifying glass. It was cool. And, you could dress up like a bee keeper. Perfectly fitting for my pool boy Matt, since we kid him about looking like a bee keeper at the pool.

This was part of the three level obstacle course. Zoe and I loved this!!! Luke did too, but once was enough for him.

This was neat too. Kids stand in the middle and pull the string. A gigantic bubble forms around the child. Zoe was thrilled.

After a few hours there, we headed to Lookout Mountain. It's just a five minute drive from downtown Chattanooga. We rode the incline trolley bus up the mountain. Zoe was absolutely amazed. Luke, not so much. (in fact, he fell asleep on the way down the mountain).

The view was cool and we enjoyed that experience :)

 That was the last stop on our agenda. We'd highly recommend taking your kiddos to Chattanooga for a quick overnight trip. One really cool thing is that most places are free admission when under three years old. Which was awesome because Luke is still two... for about 8 more weeks. So he was old enough to walk around himself (and not be tied down to the stroller) and he could really interact with each museum.

We headed back to BG after visiting Lookout Mountain. Matt and I think we will take a little trip back to Chattanooga soon to visit Ruby Falls and Rock City. Neither place has a stroller friendly path, and it's a minimum of a mile plus walk. Soooo, we're saving that until next time.

I love my family!