The Parthenon

We slept in on day 3 and then drove about two hours north to Nashville, Tn.  Our first stop was the Parthenon.  Yes, the city of Nashville has a full-sized replica of the ancient Greek Parthenon- complete with gold statue of Athena.  I thought it was cool because the actual Parthenon is in ruins and is in Greece (thus making it very doubtful that I will ever actually see it).  This is a nice (and close) substitute.  I tried to explain the significance of this building to the kids, but all they remember is that this is where Percy Jackson fought the Hydra.  The kids have also taken an interest in parkour, and there were lots of "obstacles" in the area around the Parthenon for them to practice their skills.

Ruby Falls

After leaving the aquarium, we drove to see Ruby Falls.  Ruby Falls is a 145 foot natural waterfall that is located inside of a cave.  We traveled in an elevator about 260 feet below the surface and then hiked through a cave to the falls.  Along the way we saw many stalagmites, stalactites, and other formations.  The cave was small but well lit.  The guide said that we were lucky to be here on this day.  Due to the heavy rains the night before, the falls were  receiving more water than usual and were twice the normal size.  He said this only happens once or twice a year, so I guess it was good luck that we got to see Ruby Falls in all of its glory.  Ruby Falls was lots of fun.  The kids thought it was cool to see a waterfall inside of a cave.  

Tennessee Aquarium

 As the forecast predicted, Tuesday was a rainy day.  Fortunately, we had enough indoor things to do to keep us occupied.  We started our day at the Tennessee Aquarium.  What makes the Tennessee Aquarium so good is that it is located in two separate buildings- one for freshwater and one for saltwater animals.  In my opinion, the freshwater building is the nicer one- so we went here first.  We saw all sorts of fish, otters, alligators, frogs, and other creatures.  There was a freshwater touch tank where the kids got to touch the sturgeons.  The otters were very active and were also a favorite.

 After finishing up at the freshwater building, we took a lunch break at the River City Brewing Company- a favorite from our previous trip to Chattanooga- and then returned to explore the saltwater building.  There were also touch tanks in the saltwater building.  The kids enjoyed getting hands-on with the rays and other sorted fish.  The saltwater building contained lots of species of marine life- including penguins, sharks, jellyfish, and even a butterfly garden .  This is a great aquarium, and we enjoyed our visit.

Cloudland Canyon

 Cloudland Canyon State Park has to be the most beautiful state park in Georgia.  I was amazed at the beauty I saw.  After leaving Rock City, we drove 30 minutes to this park.  It was not originally in the plan to do either this or Rock City on the first day, but the weather was going to be bad the rest of the week, and I wanted to make sure that we got all of the outside stuff done on the one day that we knew it would be good weather.  Unfortunately, that meant we had to shorten our hike at Cloudland Canyon.  Instead of doing the 5 mile West Rim hike, we ended up doing the 2 mile Waterfalls hike.  The kids were not sad at all about this because they like waterfalls.  There were several falls in the park, but the one that we visited was Hemlock Falls.  It was a a lovely waterfall, and the trail down was nice.  It was the same trail back up, and it was much tougher journey up than down.  The kids still did well with it, though- they left Brian and I in a cloud of dust.  This park is in the extreme northwest of Georgia, so I don't know that I'll ever make it back this way.  But, if I do I would definitely be interested in checking out some of the other trails in the park.

See Rock City

We woke up super early on Monday morning and drove six hours to Chattanooga, Tn.  Brian and I first visited Chattanooga back in 2007 when Olivia was just a few months old.  We really enjoyed our visit to that city and have been wanting to go back ever since.  We arrived in Chattanooga shortly after lunch and headed straight to Rock City.  Rock City is a park on Lookout Mountain that has a path through large, naturally occurring boulders.  The path winds through the rocks and leads up to "Lover's Leap", which offers views of seven states.  It was pretty foggy on the day that we went, so we probably only saw about two states.  It was still a good view.  Our kids LOVE hiking, and this was the first of many hikes that we did during the week.  Both kids said that going to Rock City was their favorite thing that we did on our whole vacation, so I guess that means it was a hit.

Fall Break in Tennessee

Last week was our school's Fall Break, and our family headed to Tennessee for five days/ four nights of fun.  We squeezed a lot of activities into our short time away.  The next couple of posts will detail the various things that we did on our trip.

Garth Brooks

 Brian and I are not huge fans of country music, but we do like Garth Brooks.  We both had his CDs when we were young, and I even had his poster hanging in my closet.  Garth is on tour this year for the first time in over a decade, and Jacksonville is one of the tour stops- which is amazing in itself because most of the singers I'd like to see pass over Jacksonville and go to Orlando or Tampa instead.  When we realized that Garth was coming to Jacksonville, Brian and I knew that we'd like to go see him.  As it turns out, all of my sisters wanted to go too, so Cassie ordered tickets for all the sisters and their significant others.  Let me just say that this was without a doubt the BEST concert I've ever been to.  Garth was awesome.  He played all of the oldies and he had the crowd on fire all night.  We had seats on the side of the stage- third level, but I don't think that there was a bad seat in the entire house.  At one point he took a break and Trisha Yearwood came out and sang about four songs.  She was also very good.  I just cannot say enough about how good of a show Garth put on.  We didn't get home until after 1 a.m., and I was tired and hoarse the next day, but it was worth it.