Chattanooga: Aquarium, Fireworks, and Choo-Choo

We attended church outside of New Orleans and then embarked on another big day of driving.  We were in five states in one day: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.  And may I state for the record that it is absolutely amazingly dull that stretch of I-59 is?  As far as I could tell from the freeway, Mississippi and Alabama are largely unpopulated.  (And may I also say that when we drove through Baton Rouge a few days earlier I pulled out the Garth Brooks?  Oh, yeah!)  Here is Natalie in her road trip tent:

Super cozy!  She refuses to nap at home anymore, but she did a lot of napping in her car tent, for which we were all grateful.

Chattanooga was lots of fun.  I chose it as a place to stop for a few days on our route because there were lots of fun things to do there with kids.  Our first stop was the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway:

 The website says: "Known as “America’s Most Amazing Mile,” The Incline’s trolley-style cars climb through the natural beauty surrounding historic Lookout Mountain at a breathtaking 72.7% grade – straight up!"  It was a really fun ride.  When we sat down in the car at the bottom, we were reclined.  By the time we got to the top we were sliding out of our seats! Here is a look at the tracks--you can see the station at the top:

The view from the top of Lookout Mountain was fantastic.  We walked to Point Park, site of a key Civil War battle.  The mountain is so steep that the soldiers had a hard time loading the cannons--the cannon balls kept rolling back out!  Here we are at Point Park, the Tennessee River below us:

Next we visited the Tennessee Aquarium, possibly the best I have ever been to.  There are two separate buildings, the Ocean Experience and the River Experience, and in each one you rode an escalator to the top floor and worked your way down.  The exhibits were beautiful and interactive, lots of fun for kids.  I was sure I would prefer the Ocean Experience, but the River Experience was even better.  Our favorite part was a touch tank where we could pet sturgeon--we'd never done that before!  Here we are touching stingrays on the top floor of the Ocean Experience.  One guy whom we named Flappy passed us over and over again so we could touch his slimy back.  Natalie could have stayed there all day:

 Ella and Nat got up close and personal with some huge lobsters:

The next day we had an unexpected extra day in Chattanooga due to massive power outtages in Virgina, where we were headed (more on that to come) so Greg ran the trails up to the top of Lookout Mountain (and acquired a tick, which he discovered on his leg while we were driving the next day--I'll spare you that picture) while the girls and I got very lost following a faulty map to the Chattanooga Zoo, which we did eventually find.  (Oh, did we giggle as we drove around in hopeless circles.)  The zoo pamphlet propaganda made me laugh:

"Imagine a zoo that's specially designed to bring the animals up close to you.  Imagine a zoo where you have time to notice the subtleties of animal behavior, instead of being pushed along by an impatient crowd.  Imagine an exciting and diverse zoo that's still easy to navigate with strollers...or little legs.  That's the new Chattanooga Zoo!"

Translation: "This is the tiniest zoo you have ever been to."

Still, it was nice.  We especially like the peacocks that were kind enough to strut their stuff for us:

For some reason Chattanooga celebrated The 4th of July on the 3rd (this seems to be all the rage these days--last year Centerville, Utah celebrated on the 2nd.) so we got to take part.  We had yummy Greek food downtown, then walked across the 122-year-old Walnut Street pedestrian bridge to Coolidge Park.  Here we are on the bridge, crossing the Tennessee River:

On the river's edge at Coolidge Park we rode a beautiful vintage carousel and played in an interactive fountain, then settled down on the grass to enjoy live music, eat sno-cones, and watch the fireworks.  It was a relaxed, family-friendly event on a beautiful night, and it is now the 4th that all future 4ths will have to live up to.  I loved being together as a family, celebrating our love for our country.  Here are Ella and Nat on the grass, celebrating in style: