Chattanooga Fans

This past Easter we decided to head to Chattanooga a day early (we go there every Easter to hang with my cousins and family) and visit some of the places we've been meaning to check out for the last several years.  Chattanooga's Tennessee Aquarium is a great place to spend an entire day (www.tnaqua.org), and though it was a perfect day to do just that, we had other adventures in mind.  We made our first stop at our hotel to drop off the Easter 'goods', it was Easter weekend  and we were prepared! Didn't want those happy's to melt! Then we went straight to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (www.tvrail.com) and bought tickets for a short, but sure to please, train ride.  While waiting for our train we wandered around the parked cars.  The girls climbed around those that they could get on.  Ty was just in awe, he walked around and around stopping at times to check out the 'wheels', or to pat the cars.  He just loved it all!  Trains and Trucks and Cars.. makes his heart happy!  

The ride was great... lots of information was shared by the conductor (who worked an 'r' into Chickamauga every time he said it..'Chickamargua'), we went through a man-made tunnel (impressive), the car was air conditioned (always a bonus), we were able to avoid any seat belt complaints as there are none (this IS a big deal) and it was less than one hour from start to finish.  We're fans!

After the TVR tour we headed to the Chattanooga Zoo.  Our last trip to the zoo was about 4 years ago.  It went something like this:  We followed detour signs to find the entrance..under construction.  We pulled up to the ticket counter..literally our car was parked in a gravel lot beside the free standing ticket counter.  Our expectations begin to sink.  We entered, walked the entire zoo in 30 minutes (all animals in 70's cages that we swore we were reporting to PETA... again another sign they were remodeling...probably thanks to PETA) and ended at the 'petting pen'.  In this pen there were goats... who wanted you to feed them.  Brian (he's such a city boy) allowed Kendall to climb the hill in the middle of the pen...and she was curtly met by a ram who head-butted her right off his mound.  Lesson learned.  As we were leaving we noticed the lonely camel and snapped our list pic of him as we carried our dazed and confused 4 yr. old to the van..which was a very short walk.  Here..let me show you a pic of the camel...

Wait..this one is better..without the top of someone's head blocking the view:

Yes.. if you are an observant viewer you'll notice the train car behind the camel. That is a popular 'f' slang there, right above his nostril.  We feel certain the goats left it for us.

So you see, our expectations were .. well there were no expectations.  We knew they had bunny petting stations and it was Easter, so there you have it.  I am happy to report however that the zoo has been re-vamped..it now takes about 45 minutes to walk it.  The lot is paved with a beautiful entrance, and you have to walk 1/4 mile to reach it which is pretty standard for most zoos I do believe.  They had a great Easter themed day at the zoo and my kids loved petting the bunnies and enjoyed the egg hunt, etc.  Though it is a small zoo the price is appropriate for the experience and they have an indoor carousel, so who cares about the rest!?  And yes.. my girls pet the goats..this time Brian was wise to their ways and steered clear of the hill.  The camel was still there too.  Interestingly enough, the train cars were not.  All in all our Chattanooga Zoo experience was very enjoyable and we will return!  (www.chattanoogazoo.net) 

By this point the kids were BEGGING to go 'home', they were pretty exhausted.  But check-in time wasn't for another 1 1/2 hours so we had time for one more adventure.  We 'Yelped' ice cream and the best ratings were given to The Ice Cream Show only minutes from the zoo.  To our delight the location was right at the pedestrian bridge, so we parked..ordered the MOST AMAZING ice cream and walked half way across the bridge (over the river) and enjoyed the river views.  We also checked out the Art Museum, though it was closing there were still some really cool exhibits outdoors.  Really a beautiful, beautiful area (the art district).  Our day ended at the hotel where the kids got to swim, eat pizza, sleep on a fold out couch with their own t.v. and wake to the Easter Bunny happy's!  What a great success! 

If you are planning a trip to Chattanooga I must also recommend:

Chattanooga Duck Tours (www.chattanoogaducks.com) - this is a great way to get off your feet and enjoy a different view of the city!

See Rock City and Ruby Falls (not for young kids though)...ride the Incline Railway if you can!

My friend Nancy said they went white water rafting with their 6 and 9 year old..so much fun!

Grab lunch at Tony's Pasta Shop and Trattoria then jump into Rembrandt's for chocolate treats, both found in the Bluffview Art District.  

Kids love the Chattanooga Discovery Museum, within walking distance of the Tn Aquarium.

At the Tn Aquarium purchase tickets for the IMAX 3D..it's totally worth it!  And if the weather is right, go ahead and let them wear their suits..there's plenty of water play around the aquarium.  

Add a little Twist...

The single most asked question I get regarding my beautiful boy is 'who did his hair?'  Answer: Me.  Immediately they reach down to touch his hair (are they checking to see if it's a wig??  do they doubt my ability and expect to find some nylon mesh against his scalp?), and by now he even knows it's coming and obligingly allows them a moment to inspect before he flashes them his dimpled smile at which point they melt and lose their train thought which then leads them to ask 'How do you do it?'  Ok.... let's just say that is the equivalent to asking how to tie your shoe.  Try to talk someone through tying their shoe for the first time ever without a shoe to exhibit it on.  It's not an easy sell.  But fixing Ty's hair is not hard,  really.  However, you just gotta see someone do it.  We knew we wanted to try to Twist/Lock his hair from the first time we went to Ethiopia.  It is a common style there among the older boys ... the younger boys have short cuts.  And babies either have a fine baby fro hair or shaved.  When we returned home with Ty we were invited to dinner at our friend's,the Yate's, house.  Their son's family now lives in Ethiopia and their daughter Summer is doing amazing things in the Korah region (check out Project 61 here). That same night Summer was flying in with her Ethiopian 'son' Worldu, and guess what?  He had the COOLEST hair!  Did you know that hair transcends all languages? So grateful for that~ as Worldu and Summer gave us a tutorial on the steps right there in the Yate's livingroom while listening to some Ethiopian music via Brian's blackberry.  (If only there were dogs barking and coffee beans roasting we would have been transported right back to the EGH (http://ethiopiaguesthome.com/).)  We left there feeling confident that our little guy was going to have Worldu's hair and we couldn't wait to get started! The next several weeks many websites and blogs were read, products were trialed, suggestions were made (some good some bad...good:  make sure you wet the hair before trying to style, pick out the hair while wet with conditioner; bad: after you shampoo add baby oil directly to the hair and style..ok there aren't any worse than that one so I'll stop here.)  Ty's 'curls' as some call them have been referred to as Locks by my most educational supporters (aka the check out clerks at my Kroger) and known as twisting by others.  If you look either of these up on Youtube.com you're likely to find Twisting as a form of braiding and Locks are definitely associated with Rastafarian freeform styles. Locking is more or less the correct name and he would certain look like a cool little 'Marley' if we didn't pick it out every 3-4 days and start over.  In an attempt to give you a shortened, most simplistic explanation... you know when you're nervous, or bored..some use it to flirt..and you twist a strand of your hair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ol_iisVm2w&feature=related) well that is what we do with it.  We wash and condition (see products below) and while still nice and damp we squirt a few spritz's of Kinky Curl's Spiral Spritz all over hair.  Then using Kinky Curl Custard (a small dab for each few sections) we begin our flirty twist.  In the end we get this really cool hair.  That others enjoy inspecting!  

Another important part of hair care is regular cuts. However, you MUST find someone who knows how to cut this ultra fabulous hair!  So don't be afraid to say no to your Redken Specialist and seek out the girl who spends most of her life in Haiti cutting hair for the orphans or go right into Penney's and look for the friendliest black lady who knows a desperate mama when she sees her and is way ok with tellling you what you SHOULD be doing without stomping your pride.  It may take a few tries..but they're out there!

Here are our treasured products:  Kinky Curly works wonderfully with Ty's hair...the price is worth the effect!  I first started out with the Jamaican Mango and Lime Locking Products (found at your local grocery store) and even now sometimes I'll still use them.  The Mango and Lime No More Itch works great on Ty's scalp too, which tends to get pretty dry.  

Looks at those beautiful strands... love it!

After washing, conditioning (and picking out while conditioner is in hair), this is the look right out of the bath. No more long tendrils..those things got bounce!

Here's a pic of Ty's first cut...

This is his blowout...pretty fab right?!

Followed by a deep conditioning treatment...snacks and t.v. are a must at this point.

And rewarded with his fave..a blue lolli!  Makes for a happy boy!

Here's another view.. taken several months later (considerably longer).