Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chattanooga, Tennessee Trip

(AKA: What the heck were we thinking? trip)

 Last weekend, we decided to take a little family vacation up to Tennessee. We needed a little getaway before life gets crazy with Riley and Chloe going to school. We thought Chattanooga would be perfect because it was only 2 1/2 hours away a had lots of fun looking attractions. 

The car ride wasn't too bad, as long as I sat in the back and made faces at Lucy, and kept a movie going for Chloe, the girls were good.

 Our first stop was the Tennessee aquarium. The aquarium is split into 2 different buildings; an ocean life exhibit and a river life exhibit. We started with the ocean exhibit. Chloe really liked looking at the different fish, penguins, and butterfly room. As for Lucy, well she screamed for the first half of that exhibit, before FINALLY falling asleep.

 We thought we'd take a quick little snack break before going to the river exhibit, and also let Chloe cool off in the little stream. I can say without a doubt that the little stream was her favorite part of the day. Forget the fish, we should have just let her play in the water. The second exhibit turned out to be a disaster. About 5 minutes in, Chloe started complaining that she wanted to go home, and right on cue, Lucy started screaming. We tried to get out of there as quickly as we could, while still attempting to look at the fish, but this place is a maze. 

Back at the hotel, we thought for sure the girls were going to go down for naps without any fuss, because they were both exhausted and ornery. Nope. Even in her own bed at the hotel, with the lights off and her blankie, it took almost 3 hours of "Chloe lay back down," and "Chloe close your eyes" before she fell asleep for maybe an hour. Lucy was fussy off and on the whole time too. And then bed time was pretty much a repeat of nap time. This happened every nap time and night time for the 3 days that we were there. 

 On day 2 we took the Incline Railway up to Look Out Mountain. The train ride was about a mile long at a 75 degree incline straight up the mountain. It was fun and a little freaky all at the same time. Thank goodness Lucy only screamed for the 30 minutes we had to wait in line, and not on the train. 

 At the top of the mountain, there was an incredible view of the city, as well as a really redneck gift shop. 

 We found a really cool park that had a carousel dating back to the 1800's that we got to ride and a great splash pad for Chloe. This was probably the best part of our trip. Both girls were happy and having a good time. 

On the last day of our trip we wondered around a farmer's market and let Chloe get a balloon animal made. She asked for a pink and purple pony. She was over the moon excited about her balloon. 

 What Chloe was doing instead of sleeping. 

 Where Lucy slept. I know it's ghetto, but it actually worked pretty well.

So, if we learned anything from this trip, it's that:

1. We're never traveling with small children again.

2. It was the free or cheap things that the girls loved the most.

3. We're SOOOO grateful that Chloe has her own room to sleep in. 

And 4. We love our little family, but at this age, there's no such thing as a restful and relaxing vacation.