Chattanooga part two

Our prime reason for coming to Chattanooga was to visit our daughter, Gretchen and her husband Bo. Gretchen has been spending the last few weeks in a Chattanooga hospital on bed rest due to some complications in her pregnancy. She has been doing a great job of reducing her risks to herself and the baby during this trying period. While we were there, she has been doing fine and yesterday, during our last planned day in town, she got the word that she could go back home due to her stable condition. This was great news, if a little scary. There is nothing like being down the hall from the best prenatal care in the area. But the fact that the doctors feel it is safe for her to go home is also gratifying. We are very happy that things are going so well.

Between visits, we also visited the Chattanooga Aquarium and the TVA water storage facility that is part of the electric power system for the entire Tennessee Valley area. The Aquarium was very nicely done and had great exhibits for the River Journey and the Ocean Journey. Both buildings had a very clear exhibit plan that allowed you to not only observe the many animals and plants on display but learn something about the eco systems as you had fun. It is definitely worth the visit.

The TVA water storage facility is on a huge property which also provides many hiking and exploring trails and several accesses to the Tennessee River and the lower storage lake for fishing and other water recreation sports. Essentially, water is pumped form the lower lake to the upper storage facility on a daily basis and then allowed to flow thru huge turbines on the way back down to the lower lake, this producing large amounts of electricity. One word of caution, if you decide to visit this facility, make sure you have sufficient fuel in the vehicle as the distances inside the facility are deceptively long.