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| the walk from the museum to the mounds |
Our adventure began on Friday with a trip to Chattanooga. Theron's dad is in Erlanger Hospital. He wanted to take his mom for visiting hours. We arrived at 3:00, too early for the 4:00 slot, so we had a snack at the nearby McDonald's. Inside the restaraunt was too chilly and outside was very toasty. We chose the outdoors anyway. There was no playground, but the children enjoyed watching the little sparrows that came close and ate whatever they were offered. Josiah also spotted all the insects that many would overlook.
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| 132 steps and a great view |
At 3:30, Theron and his mom decided they would rather wait in the more comfortable hospital, so we drove them over. Since the kids were not allowed to visit CCU patients and this McDonald's did not have a play place (strange if you ask me), I took the kids on a tour and we saw the huge train yard and water treatment facility that are close to the hospital from the comfort of our van.
We made a wonderful discovery as we went over the bridge to get a better view of the train tracks and yard. Chattanooga Zoo! The kids were so excited. I was skeptical. We only have 45 minutes or less and I don't want to spend a bunch of money for such a quick trip to the zoo. Believe it or not, I paid $25 for admission, an ICEE (to keep me cool, it was a hot day) and a souvenir for each of the kids. And we saw everything in the park (quickly) and got back to the hospital for pickup with time to spare. It was an excellent way to pass the time
Friday night was spent at Theron's mom and dad's house in Ducktown. It was another long drive, but some things needed to be taken care of there. On our drive home, we stopped at the Etowah Indian Mounds. Since we are studying Ancient Egypt and the pyramids and one of our books mentioned the Indian mounds in North America, I thought we might try to go see some. When I looked up the site on the internet, I noticed that they were having a free day. Can't beat that!
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| view from the top of mound A |
You can see why the chief of the village would live here, so he could keep an eye on everything. Everytime a chief died, they burned him and his house on the top of the mound and buried it, making the mound higher. It is interesting to think about this being a busy village where people once lived and farmed. The mound you see in the distance was used for gatherings. It had posts around the perimeter, but no roof.
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| We can make it! |
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| there's a cool breeze on top |
Sorry there are no pictures of the zoo. I did not take my camera. These were taken with Theron's new phone. Grandma did not go to the top. She sat on a bench at the bottom of the steps and kept company and made conversation with a mom and baby who were . . . get this. . . from Lilburn, Ga. I don't know them, but they had a good chat with Grandma. Grandma even got to hold the baby for a minute. What a blessing!
