Lookout Mountain, Tennessee

Yesterday the boys and I ventured out to Lookout Mountain.  It's part of the Cumberland Plateau, which is part of the Appalachian Mountains.  We visited three separate attractions in the area- Ruby Falls, Rock City, and the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway.  We really enjoyed our time together - we give this "field trip" two thumbs up!!!

First stop...Ruby Falls

We started out by descending 260 feet into the mountain by elevator (right under this "cavern castle"!)  By the end of the cave path, we were standing in front of Ruby Falls, 1120 feet underground!!!!

Complete with music and a light show :-)

It's hard to capture in pictures just how cool it is...

The whole experience was breathtaking...

Look, Bacon!

 A donkey!

The boys asked great questions and were really into learning more about how Ruby Falls was discovered!

Thank you Mr. Leo Lambert for discovering this gem!

Wow!

Next stop...Lookout Mountain Incline Railway

Riding "America's Most Amazing Mile"

Aaron was amazed at the steep grade of the track (72.7% near the top!!!)

Eek!  It was a long way down...

Waiting to go back up...

WooHoo!

On top of the world!

Last Stop...Rock City

Rock City is a botanical and geological wonderland!!!  We saw many ancient rock formations, over 400 native species of plants and trees and walked along the Swing-a-Long Bridge!!!

We'd come here every day if we could!

Mushroom Rock

Getting fancy!

Brotherly love

Lovers Leap

The Swing-a-Bridge...it spans 180 feet

We made it!

Taking a break to smile for his mama!

That's a big rock!

Helping the delicate balance...

Fairyland

The gnomes were making moonshine!

Crazy cool!

What a view!!!  We could see 7 states, 1700 feet above sea level!

The seven flags of the seven states

As if we weren't high enough, Braden decided to do a little extra climbing!  He was able to ring the bell at the top!

We really loved this part of our journey! 

Chattanooga, Tennessee- May 2014

On Memorial Day, we left Maryland and headed for Tennessee.  It was a beautiful drive through rural Virginia- we never realized how expansive Virginia is!!!  We planned this trip to coincide with some business Bryan had in Georgia, but we are very thankful we stayed in Tennessee!  The people are friendly, the lake we are staying on is clean, refreshing, & full of big ol' fish and the vibe here is so easygoing and laid back.  What a great way to start out summer!  Here are some highlights of our Tennessee trip...

Putting on the Tennessee sticker

Our boys are growing up...

Big Ol' Bass... Caught from our waterfront campsite

Look at those happy faces!

Our little piece of Chester Frost Park

A better angle of our campsite

Doesn't get much better than this

They have a great beach area here at the park that Aaron and I love!  We swim and relax at the beach while Braden fishes!

Aaron swimming with friends

There's Braden fishing on the dock with his new friend, Matt.  Aaron and I were on the beach :-)

Great BBQ here in Tennessee!

And all the frog legs you could ever want!

We checked out Raccoon Mountain yesterday.  Crazy cool cavern!

Wow!

Looks like a man with a beard!

We learned all about stalagmites, stalactites, columns, chandeliers and other cavern terminology that I'm sure will serve us well in the future!  

We also took a spin on the go- carts!

The boys had the track to themselves...Aaron held the lead for the longest time :-)

We are close to a nuclear power plant, so we made sure we educated ourselves on what to do in case of an emergency...

And we decided against eating the catfish...

Tennessee has beautiful parks - we visited this one after work one day...

They had a great playground with a cool "zip line"!  Aaron loved it!

We have explored the park and the surrounding areas looking for fish...

Braden usually finds them...

Bodie has really gotten into fishing with his dad...he helps with his now infamous fish yelp/cry/strangled bark...our neighbors love us!

Boy, is he sleeping well these days!!!

In case you were wondering, the answer is YES!  Aaron IS getting in plenty of gaming time :-)  

Here we are...still smiling ❤️