Greetings from Vacation Land

well, I have arrived, and time is passing quickly. We survived the 10 hour car ride with my in laws...me, Hannah and the dog crammed in the backseat. It went quickly actually...I balanced the checkbook and read,of course! The first day, Hannah and I went to visit my Mom. On Thursday we went out on the boat on the River: The kids rode the tube, and we caught some rays, ate some lunch and got rained out. We had fun while it lasted. This is the river where we will turn Moe and Clumsy loose on Tuesday. We saw a mother Mallard with 10 baby ducks at the boat dock. (see picture). We fed them chips and I told them to look for their uncles Moe and Clumsy on Tuesday. I think the ducks will love it here, with no fear of gators, but I sure will miss those guys.

That evening, we grilled burgers and Hannah played ball with her cousin. She caught her first fly ball. I didn't' get to see it, but I heard she thought she missed it and looked in her glove to find it there. She says she wants to play softball now, which will thrill Carl.

H loved seeing Sage. She has changed so much since Christmas and talks up a storm. She has a cute little raspy voice that reminds me of Demi Moore's voice. H thinks she's hilarious. Her and Garrett climbed trees, and played ball, and weeded flowerbeds 'til dark, then H and I went for a calorie burning walk and caught lightning bugs.

Today, my sister-in-law and I took H and Garrett to ride the incline up the Mountain. It's not the most exciting thing you can do in Chattanooga, but it's something I remember from my childhood. Our youth group and my Girl Scout troop used to take yearly field trips to the incline. Below are some pictures, then I'll give you some history...

Hannah and Garrett before the incline ride up the side of Lookout Mountain.

This is the view from the Incline car, going up the side of Lookout Mountain. It works on a pulley system; when one car goes up, the other comes down. It is a one mile straight up trip that takes about 10 minutes. You can follow the track down the mountain in the picture to see where it starts. I might add that you go up backwards...looking down to where you come from. (if that makes sense).

Once you get to the top of the platform, you get off and climb steps to the observations deck. There are these cool vintage binocular type things that you put a quarter in and look out over Chattanooga. On a clear day, you can see 6 states. Today wasn't one of those days, but you could at least see three. Hannah still thought it was cool, and I was SO surprised that the binoculars were still 25 cents to look...even after inflation and 30 years, it's still a quarter.

This is the view from the observation deck. Isn't it pretty?

While I was on the observation deck, one incline car was coming up. I snapped this picture. On the way down, you go frontwards. The pulley system can hold 120 tons they said. Thanks goodness I lost that 15 pounds! :-)

This picture was taken inside the Incline Rail-Car.The roof was windows, and if you look carefully (beyond the glare) you can see the ground in the roof, which is explained when I tell you the incline goes up at a 73% grade. That kinda' creeps me out when I think that we were practically on end!

We got ice cream and a pressed penny at the bottom of the Incline, and ended the day at a scrapbook store appropriately named "Scrapbook Heaven" (sorry "New" Jen), and a trip to Sonic. Wonder what we'll do tomorrow? :-)

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Incline History

Following the Civil War, development on Lookout Mountain was minimal. The four-hour trip up Whiteside Pike, a toll road, discouraged many people, and the two-dollar toll discouraged the rest. However, many people were interested in visiting the peak, in part due to the romanticized "Battle Above the Clouds" that occurred on the mountain during The Civil War.
During the railroad boom of the 1880's, speculators decided to develop a hotel on the mountaintop serviced by a narrow gauge railroad that would run up the mountain. A second, broad-gauge line and an earlier incline were also competing for passengers.
On November 16, 1895 the railroad known today simply as "The Incline" opened, rising up the steepest part of Lookout Mountain. Built by John Crass and the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway Company this technical marvel boasted an incline of 72.7% at one point, making it the steepest passenger Incline in the world. Literally millions of residents and tourists have taken this ride up to the top of Lookout Mountain. By 1900 the success of this railway closed down all of its competitors.
Originally the cars were made of wood and powered by huge coal-burning steam engines. Electric power was used after 1911, and it now uses two 100 horsepower motors. Today The Incline Railway still attracts people from around the world.