Long weekends are meant for roadtrips. In the nature of this new trend, “the staycation,” Jay and I packed up the car and headed down to the Tennessee Aquarium, with 50,000 of our closest friends.

We thought this would be a great day trip, perfect for kids Thane’s age and Daddy’s age. Getting out of the house proved difficult. I remember looking at the clock and it was 8 am, thinking, not bad, going well, and then getting on the road after 10 (it is a 2 hour drive with a 1 hour time change).

When we arrived, Daddy and Mara got in line to buy tickets while Thane and I checked out the water exhibit they had. It was this HUGE water playground, with fountains, rocks, and blocks. Thane got soaked (I did not bring his bathing suit) but since I brought several changes of clothes, I figured who cares? It was boiling hot so the cool water was very refreshing.

When Jay met up with us tickets in hand, he found one very wet child. I told Jay that if we were to turn around and drive home now, Thane would think it was a well done trip. We dried him off, got him dressed and went into the exhibit. We were really impressed with the aquarium and Chattanooga as a whole. Thane loved the seahorses and otters. He got to touch a sturgeon…and as you can tell from the picture is not sure if he liked it!

Off to the IMAX next and Thane saw his first “movie” and it was 3D at that! He was great about keeping on his glasses. Mara sat in my lap, sans glasses, the entire time but I think liked looking at the (fuzzy) pictures for the Under the Sea movie.

After the IMAX we headed to dinner at Sticky Fingers (thanks for the recommendation Ian) and then back to play in the water again before heading home. This time, daddy got to jump in and play with him.

We have pics galore. Have we mentioned how much we love the new camera?

And, when we were recounting the trip on the ride home and asked him what his favorite part of the day was we were reminded of the Visa commercial…

Aquarium + IMAX tickets: $60; Dinner: $40; Water Play: $0. Guess which one Thane was raving about? That’s right…priceless.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Mara 6-12 mos, Posts with Photos, Thane 2 years. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.