Ruby Falls

We had such a fun morning at the Chattanooga Classic!  it was a GORGEOUS day, about 70 degrees and sunny outside.  We went to the hotel to change clothes, then walked to catch a tram and found a Mellow Mushroom for lunch.  After filling up, we decided to try out Ruby Falls since we had never been.  We walked back to the hotel, got in the car and went.

Walking around downtown Chattanooga.

Getting ready for our walk through the caves

The girls were actually really excited about going.  The building looks like a small castle, so of course they thought that was pretty cool.  You take an elevator down 206 feet, then go into the caves to walk.  It's a 1/2 mile walk to the waterfall, then 1/2 mile back.  By the time you make it to the falls, you're more than 1,200 feet under Lookout Mountain.  We ended up at the very front of the line, so we could hear everything the tour guide had to say.  Luckily our guide was a college student who was super friendly, because Madelyn asked her questions the entire hour that we were walking.  It was HILARIOUS!  At school Madelyn has been learning about geologists and different rocks and minerals, so it was really cool to be able to apply that learning to real life.

The walk was beautiful.  There were tons of stalactites and stalagmites and beautiful pools of water.

As we neared the falls, they have the light off as you go into the large room so that all you can hear is the water.  It's the tallest underground water fall, and it was just breathtaking!!!





 At the end of the walk, they have a nice outside playground and an area to get some awesome views of Chattanooga. 

We let the girls play for almost an hour before heading back to the hotel for showers.

Clint and I talked about where to go for dinner, and wanted to try a local restaurant that was within walking distance downtown.  We got on Yelp and found a place called Tupelo Honey that was only a few blocks away and had rave reviews.  We put our jackets on and walked around downtown to get to dinner about 7:30.  The food was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!  They brought out complimentary homemade biscuits with blueberry jam, and of course, Tupelo honey.  We must have really chowed down on them, because a few minutes after they had been devoured a waitress came by our table and told us they had made too many orders of fried green tomatoes, so they gave us an order for free.  YUM.

All of the food was delicious, and we really just enjoyed talking about the day.  Madelyn and Aubrey have learned (from their silly Dad) about wet willies, so Madelyn surprised Clint with about 15 of them during the course of our dinner.  I was lucky enough to snap a shot of her awesome reaction every time she surprised him. 

LOVE how giddy she is!!

That entire day was just about as close to perfect as they get.  Everyone was happy, there were no attitudes or major meltdowns.  We walked back to the hotel and got in bed.  Right as Madelyn fell asleep, about 9:45 all of a sudden the fire alarm in the hotel went off.  Poor Aubrey was terrified!  We put on jackets and shoes and walked down the stairs to head outside.  Luckily, they Convention Center, which was about 10 steps from the hotel, was unlocked because it was COLD out by then.  We watched and reassured Aubrey that there probably wasn't a real fire and everyone would be fine.  3 fire trucks came and cleared the building within about 10 minutes.  We found out later that it was from someone smoking in the stairwell! 

Overall, we had another FABULOUS weekend in Chattanooga!  It's becoming one of our favorite cities to visit.  Good thing, because we'll be back in January for a cheer competition :-)

Until next time....