Pardon me boy...

We spent the first part of our Spring Break with a quick getaway in Chattanooga. It was great! We were supposed to go back in October, but it was the beginning of the eartastic winter we've had and the week that the stock market tanked- so we postponed until now. Although it was a rainy weekend- we had a great time!

We started with a visit to the Tennessee Aquarium and were pleasantly surprised at how much we all LOVED it! Dawson could have stared into the water for days, and David was identifying all of the animals in the water by days end. I had not seen the sharks myself- and BELIVE ME- this is as close as I EVER EVER EVER want to be- they were scary looking-I am talking Mike Tyson tatoo face scary. We also loved the penguins, otters, stingrays, and catfish, we even started looking for the dogfish...:)

Did I mention he could have watched for hours????

Next up was the Children's Museum- which was good, but going on no nap for the day kept it to a brief visit. But the highlights for my boys were yet to come. We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel in an old train car- they have permanantly parked them and converted them into hotel rooms. Thanks to a recent Facebook post, I had low expectations of the quality of the room and went into it with the attitude of a campout- I guess not much can be done to air out an old train car on a rainy weekend. However, my boys did not notice my predjudices one bit- they were beyond themselves to sleep on a train!

One side of the train car...

The other side of the train car...did you notice the luggage bars and individual lights still on board? We did, and subsequently wanted to turn on every light! Yes, I had to turn off about 30 lights when we left for dinner that night.

Our front door for the night!

The Chattanooga Choo Choo!

And if that weren't enough excitement for my train enthusiest boys, we went to the Tennessee Valley Railroad for a ride on a train. There was a yard full of trains, all of which were identified by engine type. Then they had the most charming train station- though seemingly new looked straight out of the golden age of rails. We then waited for our engine- which was a bona fide steam engine (one of the last built of its kind). We had a lovely ride through a wonderful tunnel and some other scenic views, to another station and trainyard. There they had a turntable where we watched the train turn around (like the one outside Tidmouth sheds for you Thomas fnas). We then had a tour of the repair shop and saw some wonderful trains being restored. The conductor who led the tour made a point that stuck with me- it is important to preserve the history of the railways as they were an essential part of the Manifest Destiny of the 19th century that made America the country it is today. I thought I was simply taking 2 little boys on a joyride...who knew it was the first of many (possibly to their dismay) educational adventures! A pictorial highlight of events:

Won't you choo choo me home???