This is us right before departure: clean, well-rested and organized. This state of affairs would not last.
Our first stop was the Mayfield Dairy in Athens, TN.
Matt loves the segments on Mr. Rogers when they visit factories and see how things are made, so the milk factory seemed like a good choice. He liked watching the bottles of chocolate milk being filled, but was less than thrilled with being made to wear a hairnet on the factory tour.
We went next to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, a place I loved to visit as a child and knew Matt, my little train fanatic, would love as well.
The Choo-Choo has a great model train layout, which hasn't changed much since I was a kid. I found that very comforting. Matt loved it, especially the all small details in the layout, including firemen getting a cat out of a tree, a car that had run off the road into a river, and the working traffic lights.
We also took a trolley ride around the Choo Choo complex, which was interesting. At one point the driver took a bump in the road too fast and knocked off the power cable to the trolley, which he had to hop out and reattach. He said it was okay for him to fool with the electric cable because he was a "bad conductor." Yuk yuk yuk.
After a little bit of downtime at the hotel, we took Matt to his first ballgame to see the Chattanooga Lookouts. Well, all right, in all honesty, he went to his first ballgame when he was still a baby,
but we lasted barely half an inning before being driven out by thunderstorms. I don't think that counts.
He is quite a bit bigger now and somewhat enjoyed the game experience, especially the popcorn and funnel cakes. The stadium also has huge baseballs outside, and Matt had to sit on every. one. of. them.
He did quite well in the hotel overnight, something I was concerned about. But, he took to it immediately and quite enjoyed getting to play in the pool and lounge around in bed.
We spent all day Sunday at the Tennessee Aquarium, which is much improved since I lived in Chattanooga years ago. Matt enjoyed himself much more than our last aquarium trip, especially after seeing penguins and getting to pet a sturgeon.
Penguin exhibit:
Boy(s) thrilled with penguin antics:
Loving the Nemo tank:
He especially liked the tanks that featured tunnels where children could go into the middle of the tank and pop-up, prairie dog style, to see the fish. Very, very, cool feature.
As close as I will probably ever come to a shark cage:
Before the trip, Matt asked specifically to see jellyfish, and the aquarium did not disappoint.
This might have been a lovely picture, except that I have a boy. Who is four. And is currently infatuated with making silly faces.
Matt also enjoyed the turtles, and the turtles loved Matt. Seriously, they loved him. He is apparently the Turtle King. Every time we saw a tank with a turtle in it, the turtle would spot Matt and make a beeline (turtle-line?) for him. Then they would sit and stare at each for a few minutes. I think he can speak whatever the turtle equivalent of Parseltongue is. Just a little creepy.
All told, it was a very successful trip. Matt did a great job of being flexible, which is sometimes challenging for him. Charles got see a ballgame (or about half of one) and eat at his favorite BBQ chain. And I got to spend some uninterrupted time with my two favorite guys, which is rare and wonderful these days.
Next mini-vacation: Louisville? Nashville? All suggestions welcome...
No comments:
Post a Comment