He was so excited! We had nearly convinced him that he probably wouldn’t get presents until he got back home, so this morning’s bounty caught him completely by surprise. While he examined his new DS and TMNT game, we packed up ourselves and the car.
We said goodbye to the cabin and were on the road, headed to Chattanooga on Highway 74 by 9:00 a.m. On the road we passed several groups heading out to raft on the Nantahala River. The town and areas reminded us of the Big Cedar Lodge area around Branson. The river was also fun to watch and looked really inviting. It was difficult not to stop and wade.
At Lake Hiwassee we saw some impressive white water rafting. The groups started at the Hiwassee dam, shot a huge waterfall at the dam’s edge and then headed down river for several more rapid areas until the pull-out spot just prior to where the lake widens. It looked absolutely like the most fun thing in the world. My husband thought they were crazy and said he would never do that. So, I guess I will place my hope with my boys and pray that I will have someone to experience some white water rafting with someday.
After that it was a fairly uneventful drive to the Georgia Visitor’s Center on I-75. We ate lunch out of the cooler and grocery bag again and then headed to the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We stamped our National Park passport and grabbed the junior ranger book. (They don’t have a program for anyone less than 3rd grade so we opted to not do the activities at this time to keep the peace.) And then we toured the Visitor’s Center.
Now, I’m sure that if you are in to the civil war and all, this is a fascinating area and museum. The boys did enjoy walking through the gun and cannon display. And, there was one exhibit with a map and lights showing how the battle progressed and where the forces went. It looked a little like a video game and held the boys’ interest.
The Battle of Chickamauga began when the Union army took Chattanooga – a town that afforded the Federal army an extremely strategic position for supply lines to armies raiding into the deep south. The confederates attempted to regain Chattanooga and met the Federals at Chickamauga. General Rosecrans held them fairly well until the fighting got intense and there were some fatal communication errors.
At one point in the middle of the fighting, General Rosecrans thought that a gap had opened in the Federal line. In reality, he had received poor information. He did not verify the scout’s erroneous report. Instead, he sent orders to the regiment one section over to move and fill the gap. This action opened a real gap and gave the Conferederates a perfect spot to break the Federal line and win this particular battle.
They chased the Union army back to Chattanooga and spent the winter holding it under siege from nearby Lookout Mountain. General Grant didn’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. He attacked the Confederates on Lookout Mountain and routed them. Chattanooga remained in Federal hands and became an extremely important and valuable position as the Federal army marched to take over the Deep South.
Most of the exhibits required reading very much above the 8th grade level. Since we have two very important folks on our tour that are not even there yet, we breezed through the museum and went on to the auto tour. Unfortunately, I must say that this didn’t really get any better.
The boys were actually pretty disappointed. I don’t exactly know what they were expecting, but I think it was something like life-size wax figures poised around the battlefield in actual battle stances. High expectations, maybe? There was one very cool monument erected at the sight where General Rosecrans made his error in judgment and opened the gap in the Union line. It was an 85 foot high tower that you could climb to the top of. One of the people coming down said there were 136 steps. Having just walked 4.5 plus miles the day before, this seemed like chump change. And the view at the top was definitely worth it.
After the battlefield, we headed into town to check into our hotel. We stayed downtown at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Convention Center hotel run by Holiday Inn. The hotel is a restored train depot and tracks in the center of downtown. They have restored and repurposed 37 passenger cars into hotel rooms decorated in the Victorian style. For a few hundred dollars, you can stay the night in one of them and get free tickets to the downtown Aquarium and IMAX theater. Another perk that we didn’t even realize we had was a free engineer’s hat from the gift store for each boy. How cool was that?
After we unpacked our stuff and checked out our really cool room (it was like sleeping in a museum), we headed for the downtown aquarium on the free, electric trolley system. The aquarium boasts that it is the largest, fresh-water aquarium in the United States. I believe it. It is a study of the flora and fauna in the Tennessee River Valley. You ride an escalator up to the very top where the river starts in the Smokey Mountains and you continue by walking down into lower levels of the museum as you descend downstream. Eventually, you end up in the Gulf of Mexico just like the real river does.
The whole thing was really great, but if we had to pick our favorite areas, we would probably pick and exhibit about turtles showing turtles from all over the world. There was a sturgeon touch pool that was really cool. There are two buildings to the aquarium – one on fresh wa
ter and one on animals of the ocean. This second building had a butterfly garden at the very top that was super cool and where we spent much time. It also had a touch pool.I can say with some first-hand knowledge now that I would rather touch a sturgeon with my hands than a manta ray.
Once we had exhausted the museum’s, it was across the street to the IMAX where we watched a 3-D show on the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. It was a fabulous film about water conservation and the very critical problem that is occurring in the Southwest. There were some impressive pictures showing just how much of two lakes have been depleted due to excessive use of water. The movie, which is narrated by Robert Redford and (I’m sure) partly funded by Bobby Kennedy is definitely worth experiencing if it comes to your area.
After the movie, it was back to the Holiday Inn – where kids eat free! – a quick dip in the pool and then back to bed. What a full day! I fell asleep in bed watching a documentary on Carol Burnett and didn’t get around to posting this blog. For that, I apologize.
