Before I can plan anything, I have to check my calendar.
Having two people that work crazy schedules makes things rather complicated at times.
LSS, there are/were only 2 (possibly 3, depending on R's plans) days that they have off at the same time, and that R won't be coming in from working all night and going to bed.
Day before yesterday, Sunday, was one of those days.
It's still a bit early in the season around here for the leaves to have changed much, so I figured we'd go up North, where the leaves should be doing more changing.
Chattanooga, Tennessee is about a 2 hour drive from here, so close enough to make a day trip of.
Chattanooga has a ton of things to do, but I had particularly been wanting to ride the Incline Railway again. It doesn't seem that long ago since we last rode it, but if I had to guess, it'd been about 10 years or better.
Turned out the leaves weren't as turned/colorful as I'd thought they would be, but that was okay, it was still a pretty perfect Fall day with the overcast/clouds/rainy weather.
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| The circle is where the lower station is. |
At the top, we checked out the slightly overcast view from the Observation decks, and walked along the street to the Point Park, a Civil War Battlefield.
Kev checking out the view.
He spotted a fire station over a mile away, then found the fire engine in the shopping center parking lot, with it's cab lifted forward.
Eagle-eyed.
We didn't go into the Park this time, but just checked out the amazingly gorgeous homes along the street, and looked for Fall colors.
One house had some nice Fall-coloring in the yard:
As we were watching from the Observation deck, the clouds lowered ominously.
Soon, we were in the clouds.
We stayed on the mountain as long as we wanted to, then returned to the bottom, to the car, to head to our next stop, the Moonpie General Store, where we had lunch: the Moonpie meal consisting of a Moondog (hot dog), chips, RC Cola, and a moonpie.
Helpful hint: Don't do it.
Love Moonpies, and this is a great store for Moonpie and Vintage-style gifts and stuff, and the customer service was fantastic, but the hotdog lunch was worse than a Little League Concession stand. The buns were hard, the dogs were probably hours old by the time we got there.
So just go for the good stuff, and get lunch somewhere else.
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| It's a Southern thing! |
The plan got a bit messed up after there. I had planned for us to go on the Chattanooga Duck Boats
tour, but wasn't sure if it'd still be running with the weather (it had lightninged a couple of times).
We took a vote and decided to skip the tour this time, and go to the Mall instead.
On our way back to the car from the Moonpie store, we saw that we were walking right by the Duck Boats place, behind the Cupcakes shop, and that there was a Duck boat still sitting there, getting ready to go.
We ran across to see if we could catch the tour, but were just minutes too late, and it pulled out without us. Boooo!
Oh well.
We headed to Krispy Kreme instead.
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| Pumpkin Cheescake, Pumpkin Spice, Ghostbusters, Halloween Sprinkles, Spider Web... |
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| Kev's favorite place. |
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| Hot now! |
Especially good on a dreary, rainy day.
And although I don't like the taste of coffee, I loooove the smell. Coffee and donuts, Yum-Yum!
Later we headed on over to Ruby Falls to get in line for the Haunted Caverns scary attraction.
We got there early-ish, around 7:00, though it didn't start until 8:00, to get a good place in line. It was rainy, but that was okay. Perfect Fall/Scary-stuff type weather, I think.
At 7:45 they had the "Monster Parade", where the Haunted Caverns workers came parading outside to the tune of rock music and gathered in the parking lot. Which, at first, I was disappointed because where we were standing, on the sidewalk, was behind some bushes and we couldn't see them too well.
But then all of a sudden with loud music and screams, they broke and ran at us, jumping through the bushes and coming around the sides and "attacked" us. (Not really, but you get the idea.)
It was scary fun, and everyone got excited for the real thing.
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| Grave digger |
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| Scary Dan |
As soon as the elevator doors opened we were greeted by, "Boo!"
Haha! It was a worked dressed as a regular person who was supposed to be down there checking out for paranormal activity, but clearly she'd drank some of the "elixir" that had stricken all the residents of the town, Carrion Ridge, lol.
We went on into the caves and it got dark, and scary. With things jumping out and screaming, scaring the heck out of us. (Some of us.)
We went a good ways through the caves and obstacles, then they put us into an *elevator* that wobbled and shook, and had firecracker-like popping and snapping overhead.
We exited the *elevator* outside the mountain and got into a van that drove back up to the main entrance, and dropped us out in the parking lot where there was a whole nother scary maze set up.
I jumped and screamed my head off. So much fun!
(The thing is, these things are what you of make them.
Yeah, I knew going in that it was not real, and that nothing was actually going to hurt me.
Sometimes, I even saw some of monsters coming. I could have just said, "Oh", or "Um, eek", but they're there to scare you, and it's more fun for them and you when you scare and scream in response.
For all those that say, "Too fakey", "Not scary", or "I wasn't scurd", those people don't have a sense of humor or know how to go/get along. Aka, assholes.
Loosen up and have fun, FFS. It's up to you to enjoy yourself. You go in with a shitty attitude, you're going to have a shitty time. It's your problem if you want to be a miserable shithead, don't put the responsibility for your sucky attitude on others.
These people did a great job, and I/we enjoyed it very much.)
Anyway, even though it was rainy and the leaves weren't as colorful/pretty as I was hoping, and lunch wasn't too good, and we didn't go on the Duck Boats tour, it was still a fantastic Fall family day out!
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