The Tennesse Aquarium

Hello again,

Now that was one fine aquarium.

We spent the day here in Chattanooga at the Tennessee Aquarium, and it was a dazzling experience, the kind that leaves you feeling bigger and brighter and popping with a new sense of the earth's marvelous diversity.

Any public aquarium is a window into a realm of life that is usually out of sight and out of mind.....and I have fond childhood memories of visits to California's Marineland, which was always on the itinery when relatives visited, along with Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, the Los Angeles County Museum, and oftimes the San Diego Zoo, too. But the best of the new aquariums are designed to enlighten as well as showcase, and that was certainly the case here.

One of the two main buildings, for instance, begins with a ride up a long escalator. Then you begin to follow the journey of a raindrop as it moves from the mountain streams to the rivers and finally to the sea, experiencing the kinds of lifeforms that live along that raindrop's path, from stream fish and river otters to turtles and alligators and lake sturgeon that can live up to 100 years. There are huge tanks full of huge and various fish, and smaller tanks with astonishing lifeforms such as weedy seadragons and long-necked turtles. One entire room was devoted to the fascinating story of seahorses.

The other building takes you on an exploration of the ocean life on our planet, and while there are no whales or dolphins in this downtown facility (this isn't Sea World, after all) there is a wondrous array of fish life and more. Some of the "more" include a penguin exhibit, and a delightful Butterfly World enclosure, where dozens of different butterfly species from all over the world flit above your head.

As I said, it's an amazing place. We stayed there from it's opening at 10:00 a.m. till 6:30 p.m. - with time out for a lunch at the nearby "Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger".

I took - surprise, surprise - some photographs during our visit, but it's late at night as I write this in our hotel room at the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo Choo, so I'll have to share them later. For now, I'll content myself with this shot we took this morning of Wendy on one of the original Chattanooga Choo Choos. Tomorrow we head to the Nantahala National Forest, in the Great Smokies, for two nights of camping. Our highlight looks to be a self-guided trip on an 8-mile stretch of the Nantahala River that we signed up for, a stretch that has class 2 and 3 rapids. It has been a long time since we last paddled a raft through rapids, and Wendy never has, so we'll see how that turns out! We won't have internet out there, so you may not learn the outcome for a few days.

And then, on Thursday, we plan to drive to Nashville for the Olympic Champions gymnastic show. Wendy's really excited about the chance to see Shawn Johnson perform in person.

Talk to you later. Bye for now,

Randy

Our Chattanooga Excursion, part one

Hello everyone. It's Sunday, October 12, and it's the beginning of Wendy's Fall Break - a nice interlude in the academic year that's part of the Murray school system, and which we've taken advantage of every fall that we've been out here. Two years ago we traveled to Washington D.C., introducing our daughter to the nation's capitol. Last year we ventured down to Florida, to a place called Panama City......just in time for a rather noxious red tide, as it turns out.

Well, this year we decided to wander down into our neighboring state of Tennessee, to Chattanooga, a city made famous by a song, and spend three days enjoying this picturesque town on the banks of the Tennessee River, before heading to the Smokies on a camping trip.

We left Murray yesterday around 5 p.m. for Henry Horton State Park about an hour below Nashville, which is where our neice Sarah, her husband Tres, and their little boy Jet live. It's usually a 3-hour trip, but yesterday it was a 7-hour trip - mainly because it took us 3 hours - I kid you not - to travel one 7-mile stretch of I-24 due to an accident up ahead. We still don't know the exact nature of the accident, since we were detoured off the highway before reaching it, but it must have been major, since traffic was held up so long. We either sat unmoving or inched along during that time, since we were trapped on the Interstate; there were no offramps at all in that section.

But we did arrive at their home sometime after midnight, and after visiting this morning, embarked for Chattanooga.

Some of you may remember the Glenn Miller song "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which was popular in the 1940's. It's a great song - a far sight better than most of the slapdash slop you hear on the airwaves today - and it's pretty much the theme song of the city. It's also the theme of the hotel we're staying in here - the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo Choo, part of which is actually the old Chattanooga railroad station the song mentions. Here's what it looks like as you enter from the street. As with any pictures, you can click on it to enlarge the view:





We parked at the Chattanooga Choo Choo station, then, and walked down towards the river, heading for the excellent children's Science Discovery Center.



Inside, Wendy had a ball trying out the many fascinating and fun hands-on experiences in the Discovery Center. Here's the view as we approached it, and the observation tower we later climbed:



There was an interesting musical exhibit:





And one large section that helped the kids develope empathy and respect for the challenges handicapped children face:






As I said, we climbed the Observation Tower, and here are two views from that lofty lookout:





There were several other fascinating things to do at the Discovery Center:

Five o'clock came too quickly, the Discovery Center closed, and so we caught the free trolly back to our Choo Choo hotel. The weather, by the way, was very sociable; clear skies, with temperatures in the low 80's.

Tomorrow we plan on visiting the Tennessee Aquarium.

Check back for an update. Time to turn in, so cheers from Chattanooga.

Randy

Walk To School Day

This was Walk To School Day, and I went along to help out. Wendy and I met the walkers at a local bank, where the kids each got a ticket making them eligible for prize drawings (the grand prize is a new bicycle). After everyone assembled, off we went on the 7-minute perambulation to the school. It had rained yesterday and during the night, so we were lucky all we had were overcast skies.

I was surprised by the number of kids participating; one estimate put the number of students walking our route at about 200!

Here are four photos I shot of the event:

Wendy and her friend Tara waiting for the walk to begin


The crowd of eager walkers grows:


A different kind of Main Street parade:



And arriving at the school:

You can see that Fall has fallen onto the town. Well, that's all for now. Have a good one!

Wildcats Bully the Bulldogs

At the end of week 3 in our U-10 soccer league we were in first place, and the Bulldogs were in second place. They had not lost a game since losing the opener to us, 3-0. They were tough and tenacious, and if they could beat us, they would move into a first-place tie.

We played each other on Saturday, September 27.

It was a swell morning for soccer, and our girls looked swell in their new Wildcat shirts, which I had just picked up from the shop the day before. We were missing one girl, so we had to play with eight.

Neither team scored during the early part of the game, but then Wendy broke through the Bulldog defense and booted a goal. 1-0, Wildcats.

The Bulldogs don't give up, though, and they came back with a goal of their own, tying the score at 1-all. Mallory, and then Wendy, played a strong first half at goalie, scooping up several shot attempts. Towards the end of the half Mallory maneuvered her way through their defenders, and smacked in a goal. The half ended 2-1, Wildcats.

Mallory kicked another one in early in the second half, putting the Cats up 3-1. Meanwhile, Linda was playing an excellent goalie, and the other girls were thwarting Bulldog scoring drives again and again, clearing the ball, stealing the ball, and moving it to our opponent's end of the field. But the Dogs kept coming, and finally scored another goal. Now it was Wildcats 3, Bulldogs 2. There was still a lot of time left on the clock. The tension mounted.

Then Wendy, who had been lobbying to get back on the offensive line, (I'd been playing her as defender, to tighten up our defense), finally got her wish, and got the ball, too. With determination in her eyes, she drove the ball downfield, with three Bulldogs on her heels. The two Bulldog defenders came up to meet her, but she deftly dribbled past them, and sent a solid shot right into the net, past their diving goalie. Wildcats 4, Bulldogs 2.

And that's how the game ended. So the Cats are still undefeated, with a record of 4-0, and the Bulldogs are now tied with the Mustangs at 2-2. It's warm in the cellar, because that's where The Heat are, with a record of 0-4.

Next up are the Mustangs, on Thursday.

Don't you wish you were there to see it?

Here's a handful of photos I shot during the action on Saturday (click on the photo to enlarge):

Warming up:

Kickoff:

Mallory snares the ball:

Wendy drives towards the goal (she scored on this one):

End of the game:

The girl's run through our first "Parent's Arch":

The wonderful Wildcats