Chattanooga

Angelus and I recently took a trip down to Chattanooga Tennessee to visit Ed, who has been working there since February. It was a really nice visit, but incredibly difficult too. This work situation has taken a tremendous toll on me and our family. We miss Ed very much and he is working harder than he ever has before, 12 hour days, 7 days a week on a miserably hot construction site. Please keep us and him in your thoughts and prayers. He is a wonderful provider and has made a great sacrifice in order to take care of his family, but our life is just not complete without him.

Now on to the highlights, Chattanooga is full of historic and natural beauty! Sitting near the south end of the Appalachian Mountains, the views and rock formations make this place a wonder to behold. To the left is the Incline Railway that takes you from Chattanooga to Lookout Mountain.

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Here we are now at Point Park, a former Civil War battleground. Angelus fell in love with canons and all things "civil war" related. He is now the proud owner of a civil war reenactment play set. I admire his love of historical toys, first Wilbur and Orville Wright's airplane, now the civil war.

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Rock City is more of a "created" tourist trap than natural occurring beauty, but really neat none-the-less. An amazing walk through of rocks, cliffs, water falls, and such.

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A carriage ride through downtown Chattanooga.

"Dalmatian's most important task has been his role as a coach or carriage dog, so called because they were formerly used to run in attendance of a coach. To this day, Dalmatians retain a strong affinity for horses, often naturally falling in behind a horse and cart in perfect position. Particularly in the United States, the use of Dalmatians as carriage dogs was transferred to horse-drawn fire engines. Today the Dalmatian serves as a firehouse mascot but, back in the days of horse-drawn fire carts, they provided a valuable service. Dalmatians and horses are very compatible, so the dogs were easily trained to run in front of the carriages to help clear a path and quickly guide the horses and firefighters to the fires. Dalmatians are often considered to make good watchdogs and it is believed that Dalmatians may have been useful to fire brigades as guard dogs to protect a firehouse and its equipment (including the horses)." ~ Wiki

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Ruby Falls is beautiful waterfall deep inside a cave, other than being herded like cattle through the caverns and tunnels, I enjoyed myself. It would have been nice to just be "set loose" down there to find the falls ourselves, but I understand the liability issues that would cause.

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Here I am feeding shrimp to a stingray at the Tennessee Aquarium!! ahhh!