Weekend Trip to Chattanooga

Chattanooga. Chattanooga. Chattanooga. I just love saying that word. If you're Emery, you say "Chat-anooga," but if you're a local, it sounds more like "chad-anooga." The word is Cherokee and I forgot what our tour guide said it meant. I do, however, remember that he said "Chicago" is also a Cherokee word and means "lover of wild garlic" (why does my brain remember random things like this?).

Here we are eating cupcakes and walking around downtown in the pouring rain. I kind of loved watching little Emery walk around, holding onto her adult-sized umbrella.

Speaking of adult-sized, check out Pete's cupcake! It was filled with ice cream and now I'm convinced I need to invest in a jumbo size muffin tin so I can make something similar.

A highlight of our trip was Emery being brave, steering the DUKW (vehicle that drives on land and then launches into the water to become a boat) around the Tennessee River. We had lots of fun on our little amphibious truck tour.  The entertaining tour guide was a local and we enjoyed hearing about the history of the city, good places to eat, and fun things to do.

Probably the best thing we experienced was the Tennessee Aquarium. I'm no connoisseur of aquariums, but this place was awesome! It had two buildings---one for salt water animals and one for fresh water animals, and the fresh water building was particularly interesting! We started at the top (we being Pete, me, Emery, Cam, and Bob--our beast of a double stroller) of the 4th floor and wound all the way down to the bottom. It really never got old. I was totally getting hooked reading all the informational plaques about different rivers/lakes around the world and then gazing into the tanks to see the different kinds of fish that live in them. I was surprised by the amazing fish/turtles/alligators that are in fresh water lakes and rivers.

petting stingrays

pretty macaws

relaxing with a pretty view of the Tennessee River

This alligator snapping turtle really scared me. The big one looked like it was trying to kill the smaller one and these odd-looking creatures just looked like they belonged in prehistoric times, not the swamp lands of the South.

Notice the DANGER sign...I'm not surprised.

A replica of the world's largest known turtle shell

 Other adventures included eating yummy pizza and playing at Coolidge park, where the fountains are free and the carousel is $1. Emery has a slight obsession with carousels---she loves them. Cam hasn't really caught on yet, though, as you can see he's mid-yawn in the photo below.

There were so many other fun things we didn't get to do in Chattanooga, and we really liked this cute city. Our trip there made us think how fun it would be to live in a place where there's water (river, lake, or ocean) nearby. We ended our trip with a walk on the Pedestrian Bridge. As you can see from the grumpy Emery photo (and Pete playing along), it was time to head home!