Chattanooga! Day 2 - Ruby Falls

A very important part of this whole adventure was the hotel.  We stayed in the Embassy Suites mainly because, well, its a suite.  It worked out well that we had 2 rooms for Mark and I to be up at night and the kids to be up in the morning.  They also had a great breakfast and an indoor pool.

For Day 2, we had a couple of options, but it was suppose to rain all day.  Suppose to.  I'm not so sure about the weather app on the iPhone.  At any rate, we decided to go to Ruby Falls since it was not out side.  Ruby Falls is a underground waterfall and you have to hike walk on a paved path through a cavern to get there.  After buying tickets you take an elevator down like 200 feet.  That is ~ 2 Tom Winkopp buildings!  That part did freak me out because you can see the rock sliding past.  But then you get to the cavern and its just fine.

Honestly, I didn't take many pictures because it was dark.  This was not like a government run park, this is a private business.  In some ways it was good because there was flat screen tv's down in the cavern for the history lessons, and lots of speakers.  In some ways it was bad because of the mood lighting and the cheesy music.  However, Ruby Falls was pretty cool and very dramatic how they did it.  They play cheesy music as you were walking up and just at the crescendo, the lights come on and there it is.  Very dramatic.

James loved it.  He loved all the rock formations and asked lots of questions about them.  Andy.  Not so much.  Why are we talking about more trips with him?

Outside the falls, there is a nice playground set up where I made the kids run around and play on and picnic tables.  You can kind of see it here.  

There was also an overlook to the valley below.

After we ate our go picnic lunch, we went back to the hotel.  Again, it was supposed to rain all day so we just planned on letting the kids swim and Mark and I worked out.  And we had plans for the afternoon.  We really did, but Andy, bless his heart, something happened to his eye and he was really inconsolable.  We gave up on doing anything else and just sat in the hotel room with Mellow Mushroom pizza and watched Shrek on tv.  Not really a bad way to end a night.  

It was a very nice venture into travel with the kids.  They are so easy and fun at this age (sorry Becky) and although Andy whined the whole time we were there, now he says he "wants to go back to Tennessee!"  Good times.