Actually, we didn't go to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, but we did hit Chattanooga yesterday. My husband had work down there, so we tagged along (the beauty of homeschooling or not if you are seeking a night away from the family).

While my husband was sitting in on boring depositions, we wandered through the Hunter Museum of American Art picking out our favorite pieces of art (this was one of my favorites and I'm not sure what it says about the seven year old, but he liked the naked nymph statue outside the building best of all). By the end, my two girls were yawning and fidgety, so I was glad we went there first thing while we were all fresh. We then strolled down the hill to the aquarium, went to the bathroom, wandered through the freshwater side of things. Went to the bathroom. Ate lunch. Went to the bathroom. Wandered through the saltwater aquarium, which also has a butterfly area, and went to the bathroom.

Then we headed to the children's Creative Discovery Museum, which was awesome. Water, music, art, dinosaurs, theater, magnets and pneumatic tubes kept us busy for the hour and a half until closing time. We didn't even make it up to the second floor.

My husband picked us up and we drove over to the North Shore for ice cream at Clumpies, which (after Hot Licks in Fairbanks, AK) has some of the best ice cream I've had. After dessert, we had dinner at Sticky Fingers and came home tired and ready for bed.