Monday, November 2, 2009

Injun or Native American Tweet?

You decide. Eli had fun dressing up and visiting the neighbors. Toward the end I think he understood the concept though he couldn't quite get the 'Trick' out, just 'Tweet'. He did understand when people allowed him to grab handfuls of candy, though it all got recycled (minus mom and dad's handling fee) into what was given to our trick or treaters (of which there weren't many... sigh... such is life in the hood).

Here are a few pictures of Eli's first official 'tweet' Halloween:


....ah...shee

For those of you not hip to Eli lingo, this is how Eli says 'Tennessee'.

We traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee on Sunday to check out the big sights since dad is pretty envious of their riverfront effort.

Pappa graciously allowed us to use his minivan. With all of Eli's things in tow - pack and play, high chair, all the underwear he owns, diapers, various and sundry clothes and toiletries, oh and lets not forget the toys and books, we drove halfway on Sunday, thinking it a bit much to ask Eli to sit in the car seat for 8+ hours.

We stayed in Marietta, GA Sunday night in a Hilton courtesy of Hotwire. If you haven't checked it out yet, do. You can get great last minute deals on hotels. The hotel was very nice. Unfortunately there was a wedding reception, so around midnight, the attendees started stumbling down the hallway loud and drunk toward their rooms. Luckily only mom and dad were awaken and annoyed.

Monday morning we were on our way and stopped in Rome, GA (http://www.romega.us/) to visit Tom Centola. After determining there were way too many breakable things in Tom's house we took a tour of the yard and neighbor's koi pond. Eli very much enjoyed the gravel. Tom took us on a short tour of Rome and explained how Rome got it's name to Jimmy. We had lunch in a cool spot downtown called the Harvest Moon Cafe. Eli enjoyed the greeter outside.



After lunch we were headed to Chattanooga! First stop when we got there was to scope out how far the house we were staying in was from downtown. The house is in the Fort Wood historic district - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Wood_Historic_District - close to downtown, but a little too far to walk with Eli and stroller in tow.



We cruised around downtown to get our bearings then headed out to explore on foot and found a wonderfully steep hill right on the river. And what do you know, someone left pieces of cardboard large enough to sit on and slide down the hill. Oh what fun was had!




The riverfront was pretty neat, but we only saw one side and didn't realize what was in store for us! We checked into our house to explore what we had in store. We knew from what we saw online it would be beautiful, but wow, how beautiful it was (and by the way is for sale... if you are interested check out http://chattanooga-tennessee.olx.com/858-oak-st-iid-46433882), so beautiful we decided to confine ourselves to the second floor and use the pocket doors to keep Eli safely away from the stairs. He did however find the pilot light in the gas logs in one of the 6 fireplaces and burned two of his fingers to the point they had blisters.

Tuesday morning we headed out to the '....ah...shee' aquarium (http://www.tnaqua.org/Home.aspx). It pretty much rained all day and was yucky but the aquarium had a lot to offer. We checked out the 'River Journey' side first and the concept was neat... follow a rain drop as it flows from the top of a mountain to form streams, swamps, lakes and rivers throughout the world. So we started at the top which featured otters! Eli really enjoyed this side, as did mom and dad. There was lots to see and touch and lots of giant catfish, sturgeon, turtles, a sea turtle (in the Gulf portion) and a special traveling sea horse exhibit that was neat.



After an afternoon nap we visited the Ocean Journey. At the top was a stingray and shark petting pond that mom enjoyed. Eli like the shark hand dryers a little more. Next were penguins! Not sure what got into Eli here, but he tore around a ramp in the penguin exhibit like a mad man running and shouting. Guess he had had a very restful nap! He wasn't so much into the larger fish, but really enjoyed 'hiding' in the caves that dotted the exhibit area and provided nice little niches to view the fish from. The jellies were really cool. We highy recommend it if you're in the area!

Wednesday we visited the Chattanooga Nature Center - http://www.chattanooganaturecenter.org/. It wasn't all mom thought it was cracked up to be but there was a really cool tree house and trails that were easy for Eli to walk on after the rain the previous day. He really enjoyed peeing in the woods.


After a nap we headed out to for a cupcake (from Chattanooga cupcakes of course) and to check out the other side of the river. There we found a lot of space to run and play, a water park, a vintage carousel and the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge, one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world. We also made our way to the Chattanooga Choo Choo (which was a bit of a downer.... the beautiful historic train terminal was a Holiday Inn lobby). For dinner Wednesday night we checked out the Terminal Brewhouse - http://terminalbrewhouse.com/. Later we found the Greenlife grocery store and lived it up!



Thursday morning we got things packed up and started to head back home. On the way home we stopped in Resaca, GA at Little River Farms - http://www.littleriverfarms.com/pettingfarm.htm. Eli needed a llama fix since its been months since he's seen Duh or Silverado. Fortunately they had 3 here and a few bus loads of kids visiting... just what Eli needed! Mom and Eli enjoyed the llamas, miniature donkeys, the hedgehog, chinchilla, turkeys (say gooble gooble Mr Turkey), peacocks, goats, you name it, they had it!