The Lee Family: Chattanooga, Tennessee

On Monday morning we headed out around 9am with Buddy, our Christmas gifts for CK’s family and all of our stuff and headed to Chattanooga, Tenn. It was a smooth and easy 3 hour trip and I dozed and read while Sofia slept most of the trip in the co-pilot seat and Olivia read the entire time. Our plan was to take CK’s sweet Aunt Lila out to an early dinner and spend some time visiting with her in the nursing home where she has lived for about 2 years.

We landed in Chattanooga and we were all happy to stretch our legs, especially Buddy. It was in the mid-70s and perfect weather. We loaded up our rental car and drove straight to Aunt Lila’s place. We took Buddy into the nursing home with us and nearly all of the residents were so excited to see a dog! One sweet lady told us that she had a dog like Buddy and missed him so much but she “couldn’t have a dog in a place like this” and then nearly started to cry. It was heartbreaking. Olivia whispered to me “So, when you get old, is this where you go to live?” I told her that sometimes that is what happens…

We found Aunt Lila visiting a friend in another wing of the facility and she was happy to see us, even though she kept calling CK either her brother or her son. We last saw her nearly 2 years ago at CK Sr. and Connie’s 50th wedding anniversary. Since then, she has declined considerably and seemed unstable on her feet. Although her memory has declined and she wasn’t her usual talkative and outgoing self, she still came up with her funny zingers from time to time. For as long as I've known her, Aunt Lila has always been one of my favorite people. She’s always been funny, quick-witted, friendly and is very inclusive and inviting. So, it was hard to see her so different.

We drove to Cheddar’s for dinner around 4:30pm and we were all pretty hungry since our egg, cheese and bacon biscuit we’d had for breakfast that morning. The girls were both excited about Cheddar’s macaroni and cheese, which they’d had when we first visited Cheddar’s about two weeks ago. We enjoyed our meal and CK talked about some of his memories growing up on the farm when Aunt Lila’s parents were still alive. She was very sharp with her distant memories and loved to talk about those times. She also seemed to love to talk about her first great grandson, Lukas, who is Caitlan’s 9-month old son. They had recently visited Aunt Lila and she told us several times about Lukas and how much she enjoys him.

After we said our goodbyes to Aunt Lila, we headed to our hotel - The Riverview Inn on Lookout Mountain. It was about 30 minutes from Aunt Lila’s place and it was a beautiful and interesting drive. We headed about 1/4 of the way up Lookout Mountain and our little place was on the left. It is so cute and dog-friendly! We checked in and unloaded our stuff before we settled in next to the fire pit and the girls roasted S’mores! It’s such a charming place and we all looked forward to the view in the morning. Somehow, we were all tired and ready for bed by 8:30pm, even Sofia who had slept most of the flight to Chattanooga! We settled into our room that had two double beds and I put Buddy on the girls’ bed, so CK and I would have a little more room. The room is cozy and comfortable and we all read and relaxed. Unfortunately the beds squeaked a lot whenever someone moved, so none of us slept that well. Despite being so tired, I was awake at 7:30am for my usual morning walk with Buddy. Buddy was so excited, as always, and Sofia decided to join us! It was in the mid-30s, so I told her to stay in her pjs for the walk.

We made coffee and hot cocoa and head out. Our Inn is actually right at the base of the original road that was built by the Corps of Engineers in the 1930s. The road was narrow and obviously not used by modern cars, so it was really the perfect walking trail. The views were incredible with the river below and the rolling hills in the distance! It was such a peaceful walk and so much fun to walk with Sofia. She rarely walks with me and she’s such a delight to talk with one-on-one. We enjoyed reading the signs explaining the creation of the road and the history of Lookout Mountain. We walked for maybe a mile before turning around so we could have breakfast with CK and Olivia. We left Buddy in our room while we went to the breakfast room and had scrambled eggs, bacon and cinnamon raisin toast. After, we loaded up our things, checked out and headed to explore Lookout Mountain.

CK visited Lookout Mountain when he was a kid and we drove up to Rock City, thinking that was where he’d visited, but when we arrived he realized it wasn’t the right place. The drive up the mountain was so beautiful with dried up creeks, huge rock formations and gorgeous homes along the way. Some of the homes had incredible views of the valley. CK realized that where we really needed to be was Point Park, so we turned around and headed there. Again, it was a twisty and incredible drive.

We made it to Point Park, and realized that dogs were allowed as long as they were kept on leash. So, we got Buddy and headed into the Park. We had the entire place to ourselves and it was so beautiful and interesting, given the Civil War battle that happened on Lookout Mountain. We walked around and explored all of lookout points and the girls climbed on all the canons. We walked down to the little museum and the girls found several really cool rock formations that acted as lookouts, which made me a little nervous since the drop is significant! They loved it and Buddy loved sniffing and walking around, even if he had to stay on his leash. It is really a pretty extraordinary mountain and it was hard to imagine fighting for that important vantage point during the Civil War. Now it is just an imagine vantage point of the valley below. We explored for about an hour and then headed back to the car and drove back down the mountain to Ruby Falls.

Ruby Falls is a 145 foot underground waterfall that is far more impressive than I expected! CK decided to stay behind and keep Buddy company and hang out by our car while the girls and I headed into the visitor center and bought our tickets. Once we had our tickets, we walked through the gift shop and waited in line to go down in the elevator about 200 feet to the cavern. In the gift shop we found socks with "Buddy" on them! They were so cute, we had to buy them! We waited in line for maybe 30 minutes before we got onto the elevator and the lady working the tickets said it was far more busy than they originally expected.

Once we were in the cave, we formed into a group of maybe 25 people and then our tour guide took us toward the falls. Along the way, she told us the history of discovery. In the 1920s a cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert thought he could re-open the cave as a tourist attraction. In drilling down to create an elevator, he discovered a small passageway about 18 inches high and four feet wide. Exploring this opening, Lambert discovered the formerly hidden Ruby Falls Cave and its waterfall. On his next trip to visit the cave, Lambert took his wife Ruby, and told her that he would name the falls after her. There were stalagmites and stalactites that were nice, but not as impressive as I've seen in other caves. They were well displayed and light very well and it was a beautiful walk. However, in the 1920s and 30s, many of the visitors to the cave, broke off pieces of the stalagmites and stalactites to keep them as souvenirs. So, many were broken off. It was a nice, flat walk along the cave floor for about 45 minutes and many in our group were grumbling that they were tired of "all the walking." Finally, we came to the area just before the waterfall and waited until the tour group ahead of us were done. Once they headed out, we headed into an area that was nearly entirely dark but we could hear the waterfall. We walked up toward the noise just as the lights came on and the music started. It was absolutely amazing! The waterfall is huge and there is so much water coming down! It was so beautiful! Our tour guide said that in the nearly 100 years since the waterfall has been discovered, they had never figured out the source of the waterfall. She said that when it rains there is more water that falls, but otherwise it stays steady. It was one of the more incredible things I've ever seen!

After maybe 15 minutes, we headed out of the cave and headed back to the elevator. Somehow it took us much less time to get to the elevator from the falls than it did to get there originally. We took the elevator up to the top and CK and Buddy were hanging just outside of the visitor center. It took us nearly 2 hours for the entire trip and we were all hungry, but it was SO worth it! We loaded into the car and headed to the airport. Along the way, we stopped and got Chik-Fil-A. I'd really wished we had time to go try an interesting local place, but we really needed to get to the farm before dark. We loaded up into the airplane and headed to Florida. I really hope we are able to visit Chattanooga again for a long weekend. It's such an interesting and beautiful place.

All set to go!