Our first stop was to get engine coolant. Since we were out early and didn't know when we'd be done with all we had planned for the day, we wanted to get this now since they closed at 4.
The Chattanooga agenda was a spur of the moment thing when I pulled up Chattanooga to see where it was on Google Maps. Rock City and Ruby Falls were marked and they triggered a memory of mine. I checked in with my parents and sister and sure enough, we went to both when I was a kid. I wasn't sure how old I was when I was there, but had some random memories.
Our timed entry tickets to Rock City were at 10:45. Due to the length of time spent in line buying the engine coolant, we arrived at 10:50, went potty, and got straight in5o the garden without waiting in the queue that snaked around outside in the hot sun. This also helped break up the potential crowd to travel through the same places at the same times.
As we wound through the garden, all I could remember was the swinging bridge and being confused about how to be able to see 7 states at once. When we saw the sign that directed us to choose between swinging bridge or stone bridge, everyone but Bear chose the swinging bridge so she hesitantly joined us. The others of us had to jump a little on the bridge to make it swing a little more, but we had to stop when Bear got scared, reminding me of my experience there with my mom!
Fat Man's Squeeze, Lovers Leap, Swing-a-Long Bridge, Fairy Tale Caverns- all became places etched into Bear, Moose, and Roo's childhood like they were mine. I distinctly remember the gnomes in glowing rock caves, covered by metal bars. They were too tall for me to peek into and I had to ask to be picked up at each cave, which turned into me being upset resulting in my family not getting to enjoy it as much. Roo didn’t need to be lifted up to see in, so I'm assuming when I visited as a kid, I was probably 5 or 6 years old.
We left Rock City and went to Costco to restock some food for meals- not snacks- and got their delicious chicken bakes for lunch. It always feels great to feed our whole family for less than $15! Bear was beyond excited to be in the town that Kane Brown was born in.
Once we found a place to park and unload our haul, we put everything away and were off to the aquarium. This aquarium was inside of two buildings (1st was River Experience, 2nd was Ocean Experience) right outside the gate of our marina and was highly recommended by our friend, Libby. It was amazing, too! Otters, river life, alligators, sturgeon, butterflies, lemurs, ocean life, sea turtles, sharks, jellies, and even a Giant Pacific Octopus all live there! (After reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, I was thrilled to marvel at the Giant Pacific Octopus in real life.) So many cool things to see in one place.
Dinner at Burger Republic was a recommendation from an employee at the aquarium. It was delicious. We told the kids we would go back tomorrow just for one of their shakes because we already had a plan for cookie dough/ice cream from Downtown Dough for dessert on our walk back.
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The next morning, we woke up to swimmers swimming by the boat in some sort of race. It was surprising to see them swim right outside the windows of the Cartermaran.
Our timed entry tickets for Ruby Falls this morning were at 9:50 AM. Today we got out early, so we didn't wind up being late like we were yesterday. It was a direct route, instead of weaving through a bunch of side streets like we did yesterday. There also was no traffic, which we chalked up to it being a Sunday morning. We ate on the run and finished our protein shakes in car to waste some time. We went inside and hungout in the gift shop until it was our time to go down the elevator 260 feet into the cave.
We were the third group in the elevator, so we were the third from the front for most of the tour. This was another nostalgic trip for me. I remembered being in the cave, but don't remember the falls, specifically. There was a cool light show.
Lucas, our funny and informative tour guide, said that in April, they had to close down the tours because so much rain was flooding the cave. It became very dangerous to have so many tour groups with the rising waters, with slow-moving evacuation routes. At the start of our spelunking, we were 260 feet under the mountain. By the time we got to the falls, we were 1,120 feet under- but not because we descended that much, we simply moved under more of land on Lookout Mountain.
Lucas suggested Purple Daisy for lunch, but it turned out that they were closed on Sundays, so we went to Hickory Pit BBQ instead. It was a small place with only 5 tables inside and a few more outside, but it was good. They won best BBQ in Chattanooga by Trip Advisor a few times. An employee there recommended the baked potato with butter, sour cream, cheese, and chopped pork with BBQ sauce on top, so we had to try it. Wow. We also got chopped pork sandwiches and ribs. We all licked our fingers and finished all of our food!
We skipped around on the way home- Harbor Freight, Home Depot, Publix, then went back to the boat to cool down and hang while Ben dropped off the rental car. That evening, we walked to get our delicious shakes at Burger Republic before turning in for the night.
❤️GMM❤️
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