Trip to Chattanooga

As I mentioned, this weekend (Sat-Sun) we went to Chattanooga, Tennessee with Josh's parents, Regenia and Milton. It was a really good trip and we are so grateful to them for treating us! We left Birmingham around 9am on Saturday and met Regenia and Milton (aka: Gigi and Papa) in Chattanooga around 11:45 am cst at Abuelo's mexican restaurant for lunch. Afterward, we headed to check into the Staybridge Suites Hotel right outside of downtown Chattanooga. Regenia and I had originally picked out the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel downtown bc they had a package with aquarium tickets and we thought the boys would love the train atmosphere, but we were disappointed to find some negative reviews involving musty smells, etc. (would not be good at all for our sugar baby with mild asthma, H) so Regenia graciously moved our reservations. After having no luck finding availability in the immediate downtown area, she got us some fantastic rooms at the Staybridge Suites. (It turns out that there was a National Rowing competition there this weekend.) Josh, the boys, and I had a king suite that had separate bedroom and sitting/tv areas. I forgot to mention that this was our first ever hotel stay with the twins and, let me just say that this was THE WAY TO GO! Bedtime was a complete breeze after letting the boys skip nap. They fell fast asleep on the car ride back to the hotel. However, had they been awake for bedtime at the hotel, it wouldnt have been difficult at all, because we could separate ourselves from them and watch the Alabama vs LSU football game in the other room!

Ok.. Back to the trip... After checking into the hotel, we headed to downtown for the aquarium and then dinner at Sugar's. We would not recommend eating there. While our server was very pleasant and attentive, the food took forever to come and was not that awesome. The aquarium was pretty impressive though! There are two sections, the ocean exhibit and river exhibit. Having also been to the Georgia aquarium a few months ago, I'll tell you that the ocean exhibit at the GA aquarium is way better and the river exhibit at TN aquarium is way better. We also noticed that, especially without a nap, JHs short 2.5 year old attention span is drastically shorter. Whew. That sweet boy was practically dragging us through the entire thing, barely slowing down. H, on the other hand, was all about stopping to look and soak it all in. He's always been more of a "studier", soaking things in. I think they both had a great time in their respective viewing methods. Sunday morning, we got up and headed to the Tennessee Valley train depot (not sure of exact name but that's close) and took a one hour round trip train ride. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy riding on trains and thinking it would be fun for our little family to take a train trip somewhere in the future. Obviously I'll keep you posted if it ever happens!

Thanks again for the fun trip, Gigi and Papa! It was so fun exposing the boys to new experiences and getting to spend time with you. Xoxo