We drove down Saturday afternoon and checked into our hotel. After settling in, we headed out to the free shuttle that took us up a little street with theAquarium at the end. We got off mid-way to the Aquarium and strolled around. There was a two block long Slide the City water slide event. We did not participate but Sidney wanted to. There was only one touristy shop to explore. The two main streets only had restaurants. The touristy shop was a really cool general store and focused on Moon Pies. Moon Pies are manufactured in Tennessee.
"The sun's in my eyes!" We had sunglasses with us but they had not put them on yet.
We had dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Here are photos of the kids after we had eaten.
During our stroll, we had scouted out a cupcake bakery that sold other things. We returned after dinner. Sidney selected some cake pops. Cleo had a mint chocolate cupcake. I got a chocolate frosted vanilla cupcake. It was not great but it was a fun experience.
After we returned to the hotel, we changed into our bathing suits and went swimming in the SUPER chlorinated and tiny indoor pool. It got very crowded right before closing at 10pm but Cleo got a chance to practice her swimming.
In March 2015, we switched the kids to a different swimming class at Adamsville Recreation Center. They now go Monday and Wednesday, 5-6:15pm. They are both confident and much better swimmers. Sidney needs to work on his Australian crawl a bit more and Cleo has to kick less but it's been an impressive improvement For the past 3 Sundays, I have taken them to our subdivision pool for 2 hours. It has been a lot of fun. It also provides them extra time to get comfortable in the water and work on what they learned in swim class that week.
Back to Chattanooga. We woke up early on Sunday and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We had purchased a package that included our hotel room, tickets to the Aquarium, Imax theater, children's museum, and breakfast at the hotel. When we go again, we will stay at a hotel closer to the Aquarium because it was nice not having to drive around and just rely on the shuttle. But it would be even better if we did not have to wait for the shuttle when we were ready to go somewhere that wasn't walking distance.
The Aquarium has an area that allows kids to touch stingrays, horseshoe crabs, and little hammerhead sharks. This picture captures Cleo touching a stingray. Sidney wasn't quite ready to try touching any of the sea creatures.
Next was the butterfly room.
Admiring the snow crabs.
Whew, that was close!
Getting a short rest in a rock nook.
Roger being attacked by a killer shark boy.
Cleo looking at a cute, tiny swimming turtle.
Three turtles balancing on a log.
The grounds outside of the Aquarium had this cool structure with raised sidewalk and a little pool beneath it. I preferred this Aquarium to the GA Aquarium. The one in TN was more spread out and less crowded. The GA one always has crushing crowds which makes the experience less enjoyable. I do love the huge shark tank in GA with its whale sharks. But I can see why other people like the TN one better as well.
In the gift shop.
After lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, a restaurant I have managed to avoid eating at for all these years, we went to see a movie at the Imax theater about lemurs. I had a very good black bean burger so I will no longer avoid that restaurant. Unfortunately, the movie projector was not working and stopped around 5 minutes into the movie. We got a rain check.
Next, we walked two blocks to the children's museum. The museum was amazing.
Here Sidney is pulling cranks in order to shoot water.
Cleo wrangling pulleys.
There was an awesome music section. Here Sidney is playing a large violin.
Cleo strumming a guitar.
Roger playing the steel drums. We both miss going to the Brooklyn Labor Day Parade and listening to the amazing steel drum players.
"I need more cowbell!" Roger said that and Sidney handed him the cowbell. Hilarious. If you don't know why that is funny, please go to You Tube and google Christopher Walken & cowbell & Will Farrell.
In the theater room.
There was a Thomas the Train exhibit. Sidney posing with Victor.
The exhibit took Sidney back to his childhood. We donated the train table that was in the playroom after Sidney went around a year not playing with it.
Cleo making sure Percy got his coal so he could continue to be a very useful engine.
Thomas and friends.
We headed back to Atlanta around 4pm. TN is a 2 hour drive from Atlanta. We stopped off in Kennesaw and had dinner at Sweet Tomato. It's a buffet that serves salad bar, pizza and soup. The kids prefer Golden Corral because of the steak and cotton candy but Roger and I need a long break from that restaurant. Cleo and Sidney don't love Sweet Tomato but they will need to learn to love it. Plus, we have a steady supply of $24.99 coupons which are good for dinner + beverage for the 4 of us. Golden Corral costs twice as much as that.
The kids are enjoying their summer. May 22, was the last day of school. They went to the Southwest Arts Center for the first week. The last four weeks they have attended Xanadu Camp which is run by the Atlanta Public Schools and is for gifted & talented kids and high achieving students. The kids loved and can't wait to attend next year. Here is a pic of them from June 25. We went to the camp to watch their end of session performance. We will upload the performance on YouTube. Taylor Hartwell is in the photo with them. She and Sidney went to Kids R Kids together and we are friends with her parents and aunt (Keisha Duck) & uncle (Kevin Duck).
On Monday, they start Camp Best Friends at Grant Park. We used to live in Grant Park when we first moved to Atlanta. It's a soccer and tennis camp. They will go to that camp for 2 weeks. Then, they will go to Camp Cascade. Roger is going to do something golf related with them the last week of the summer. They start school on Aug. 3.
Sidney and Cleo are not returning to Deerwood Academy next year. They both got into Kindezi Old Fourth Ward. It's a new charter school that has a sister school, Kindezi West Lake, that's been very successful. I am very excited for them. The school will focus on STEAM - science, technology, engineering, art & math. Also, their model is focused on classes of 6-8 kids per teacher! Currently, the school will go K-5 but will grow to 8th grade. We needed to find an alternative for Cleo and Sidney so that they could avoid the middle school we are zoned for, Bunche Middle School. Bunche's test scores are terrible. It's not safe and it has an all around terrible reputation. You can imagine how happy and relieved we are!
Next weekend we are caring for Alexandria and Quintin. Leslie and Quintin are dropping them off Thursday afternoon because July 3 is a holiday. Quintin and Leslie watched Cleo and Sidney when Roger and I went to Las Vegas for Memorial Day to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We have all sorts of fun activities planned for the kids, including taking the kids to see Inside Out. I cannot wait to cry and cry - the reviews say that the last 20 minutes make all the parents weep. ;-)
Someone at camp yesterday must have mentioned the Supreme Court ruling allowing for same sex marriage. The kids said something about it but couldn't remember who told them. I explained it to Cleo and she said that it was good because she planned on marrying one of her friends. She said she did not want to marry a boy. I asked her why and she said she wanted to marry someone who understood her. ;-)
I will write again when I can. Have a happy Fourth of July!
