Chattanooga Day Trip: Ruby Falls

Today we took a day trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Ash and I have alway wanted to check it out being that it’s been talked about as an up and coming city.  So with Bean visiting we thought Chattanooga would be a good candidate for a day trip.  We headed out around 9:30 am.  Of course before we left, Bean had to pose a picture with the local mid town princess.

bean_poke.jpg

The drive from Atlanta was short, only about 1 hr 45 min.  Our first stop was Ruby Falls, a subterrainean mile-long caveren that lead to a 145 underground waterfall.

bean_ruby_falls.jpg

Ruby Falls is named after the wife of the explorer who found this underground cavern.  The caveren sits bellow the Look Out Mountain which overlooks the city of Cattanooga.  Above the cavern is the castle which was built out of the rock displaced by the dig to the cavern.

in_ruby_caves.jpg

The walk through the underground cavern (above) was a very cool experience.  Almost a mile long, the tunnel is about two person shoulder width wide.  The climate is always a cool 60 degrees and we had to take a elevator deep into the heart of the mountain to access the cavern.

group_photo_in_ruby_caves.jpg

We walked with a guide and saw numerous crevaces and undergroound pools of water giving us the feeling like we were ouselves exploring this underground world.  At te end of the mile trek, we entered a large domed open area all natrually ocurring.  The guide purposely dimmed the lights and all we could see what was the dim glow of green flood lights and the  louding crashing of water.  The feeling was similar to Lord of the Rings when the fellowship walked into the city of the dwarves.  In fact, Bean and I made a few jokes about it as we walked through the cavern.

ruby_falls_dark.jpg

Then with a creshendow of music, the lights illuminated showing a vast catheral like area with a huge water fall.  The site was very awesome to see and the crowd gasped and clapped!  I tried my best to capture the waterfall but the two below the about the best I could do.

ruby_falls.jpg

The water hollowed out the dome area that Ruby Falls is located; this area is sometimes referred to as “Solomon’s Temple”. By way of erosion the waterfall carved out this area. The progress of this natural process can be observed by studying the smooth sides of the limestone walls.

ruby_falls_waterfall.jpg

Before we left Ruby falls, I took a nice pic of a Christmas tree ornament in the lobby of the castle.  I am quite pleased with how it came out! 🙂

me_ornament_photo.jpg

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Ash and I are having a really relaxing time finally being able to rest after a very fast and furious year.  Pok’e’s  nap photo captures out Christmas sentiment best!

poke_chritmas_tree.jpg

Blog Construction Update – Gettin’ there!

It’s been awhile since I had the chance to update the blog and make some changes. Here’s what’s next on my to do’s. Gotta get these done before work gets even busier or I get shipped to india…

  • Setup YouTube Account and send a YouTube video to the Blog.
  • Find a good flash photo album to place in the Scrapbook section.
  • Create 4 Photos for Me, Ash, Pok’e, Cap and post on their pages.

And here’s a random pic for the hell of it! Pok’e aka “Pocket” eating her beef stick with stars in her eyes.

poke_with_beefstick.jpg

Merry Christmas!

Ashley and I would like to wish everyone a happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Pagan Festival of Lights (as someone called it) or any other holiday you celebrate. We sent cards out to everyone we could get addresses to so hope you all got our cards. In case you did not, here it is again! 🙂

Cheers!

Ray, Ash, Pok’e and Cappy

postcard_front_web1.jpg

postcard_back_web.jpg