Family Summer Trip 2021 - part 1

Our 1st stop... Right outside Chattanooga on the Georgia side. Diesels first vacation and long rode trip. He did so good and was so excited to come along. and when we were stuck in traffic, we put the windows down and he took the only seat available...Caroline's lap lol

But when he wasn't on her lap, she took advantage of her space - with her eye mask! lol

We finally got to our AIRBNB. It's so cute on a big piece of land. The owners have farm animals and we got to meet them.

Day 1 of TN...

Hike 1 was Glen Falls Tail. Quick and easy and perfect for the dog. Had fun little waterfalls for us to climb around

It's amazing to me that I was a little cool in the morning, to need a light weight long sleeve!

Hahaha - I just love this family photo - with Diesel's head popping in.

The next day we went to Signal Mountain - this one about killed Diesel, I think with all the steps.

But we found water, again! That's always the goal - to find water, right?!

Hike 2 was Signal Point. This was the girls favorite. Ron hated me because it was SUPER rocky and step and the dog was trying to go faster than he could go lol but it was a lot of fun and the lookout views were so good!

These "steps" right here... I don't know if I'd call them steps lol

This water hole was a place called "Suck Creek." I think we were just searching for a place for the kids to play in water and came across this. It was perfect.

Autumn even found a rock to jump off - the ultimate find!

Back to the house to find the goats out back to play with!

The nights were beautiful to watch the sunset over the mountains, or hills, I guess... I don't know what they were. lol

And the nights were cool! I mean - c'mon. In June?!

(where there's a kitty, you'll find Caroline)

The kids were so excited to find Lightning Bugs!!!

Summer is complete now - lightning bugs in a jar.

Day 2 - Today, we went to Cloudland Canyon State Park and climbed down 600 stair steps (not including the actual trail), climbed over tons of rocks just to travel down the creek part, and found 2 beautiful waterfalls...oh, then climbed back UP those 600 stairs steps (plus more trail). Then we walked around downtown Chattanooga for a few hours.

Whew. My legs are toast. Lol. I'll definitely be doing a stretching yoga later!

Autumn will forever remember getting to feed the pig at our AirBnB.... it was so cute, and the most memorable part was when the pig peed on her.

Day 3, Hike at Foster Falls.

We COULD have just gone straight to the falls from our car, Buuuut what would be the fun in that?? Lol

We took the LOOOONG way (2 miles long) to get to the falls. The first part was nice and flat, easy 1 mile hike. But then I said, oh, it's a loop if we take this pass!

At that point, the terrain turned super rocky and steep in some areas. The kids did great! But the poor FL dog doesn't have his rocky climbing shoes we stopped and let him rest a lot and at one point, Ron even picked him up to carry him a bit (80 pound dog, mind you lol). He made it, and enjoyed the water once we got to the falls.

But for us humans, the hike was fun! The kids love climbing all over the rocks. We even saw rock climbers in action along the way. So fun to watch.

We finally got to the waterfall, and the water was cold, but how often do you get to swim with a waterfall??

Autumn and I went rocky climbing behind the waterfall - that girl is a beast! I need to take her rock climbing when we get back!

Day 4 After our quick little hike in 2 different time zones 🤷‍♀️ we headed to racoon mountain caverns (which we heard was better than ruby falls) we got there early, so we had some time to play around a bit. Then we went into the caverns. It was cool, but I'm not sure it was worth the money.

After that we headed down to downtown Chattanooga for a late lunch, then decided to try walking around downtown one more time. Good thing, because the highlight of the day was REAL BOX SLEDDING!! (We've taken the girls before but the grass didn't even compare to this smooth grass to slide down!) We probably spent over an hour, and we have grass burns and grass stains, but the kids never wanted to leave. (Honestly, all the free stuff is so fun!)

Some shaved ice and a carousel ride, then time to head back to the airbnb to (hopefully) help feed the goats.

Day 4 We just took a .25 mile hike to sunset Rock.

That short little hike was in 2 different time zones while walking back and forth on the rock lol. We were so confused!

Tomorrow, we're leaving this place and heading over to stop number 2!