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We woke up Saturday morning and after a quick breakfast of oatmeal and bananas in our room, walked two blocks to the Children's Discovery Center.
After a good 20 minutes on a giant indoor playground and a quick 5 minute tour of the water play area, we ended up here:
It seemed to be a dude's paradise because Warren spent no less than one hour building a car. (During that time Jiro and I visited almost every exhibit on the first floor--twice--and had two trips to the bathroom. On our second trip I discovered he had pooped in his big boy underwear. Awesome!)
Next we went to the paleontology exhibit which was also right up Warren's alley.
Our next stop was the second floor where they have their rotating exhibit. Lucky for us the exhibit was about Japan. The whole floor had been turned into a Japanese village. Here we are hanging out in a Japanese livingroom. While Satchel and I look at the family photo album, Jiro plays keyboards and watches TV.
Of course, we had to check out the kitchen. The monkeys went straight for the fridge!
Next we checked out a series of funhouse mirrors before climbing to the top of a lookout tower.
Then we went on the roof to play with the ergodynamic swings and merry-go-round, blow giant bubbles, and play a enormous game of Connect Four.
It was a good two hour visit. We ended our stay with a nice lunch in the museum restaurant. Warren had a burger, I had a turkey panini, and the boys split a pizza.
Once fueled up, we went in search of the sprayground we heard was on the other side of the river. We walked about 5 blocks to the riverfront and hopped on a water taxi. It cost $3 bucks each round trip, and was pretty cool. It took about 15 minutes to cross the river and we enjoyed the view of the city on both sides.
The sprayground was super fun and clean (a nice change from Peabody Park).
Once the boys were sufficiently watered, we dried them off and went for a ride on the carousel. Then we walked along the street and checked out some local shops before buying the boys an ice cream cone.
We were having such a lovely time, we decided to walk across the pedestrian bridge rather than ride back in the water taxi. Here you can see a nice shot of the sprayground/carousel:
Check out the adjoining park! It looked like they were setting up for some live music. (I was totally wishing I had my roller skates--look at that smooth circular sidewalk!)
Once we got to the other side of the bridge, we discovered a whole other water wonderland next to the aquarium. Once again, we put the boys in their bathing suits and joined the hordes of other people enjoying the attractions.
Another angle.
The monkeys were in heaven!
We were finally able to drag them away with the promise of food. But we didn't get far before they begged us to walk along the riverfront to a brand new playground they spotted as we boarded the water taxi earlier in the day.
After running around for a good 30 minutes, the monkeys were finally ready to move onto the dinner portion of the evening. We walked a few more blocks and then took the free shuttle to the Chattanooga Choo Choo and had dinner on one of the trains. It was no surprise that Jiro totally passed out! (He did wake up in time to eat.)
We dragged ourselves back to our hotel room around 6:30pm, totally exhausted, and rested for about 10 minutes before being cajoled into going to the hotel pool for a swim. What a day!
2 comments:
the sprayground was definately not there when we went!
Holy crap! I'm exhausted just by reading your posts. Sounds like an excellent time. You could write some serious travel for families guides to some of these places you've visited. It's hard to find that kind of info when you're trying to plan a trip.
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