Friday Evening: Ruby Falls

so after walking around rock city we headed down to Ruby Falls, the elevator took us down 620 feet and then we walked down to 1,120 feet below 

this was the only structure you could touch

 and a structure below that look like a donkey's butt :)

the guy who opened up ruby falls in the 1920's crawled through the cave in paths like the one below

that were 18 inches high and 5 feet wide  for 17 hours (round trip) when he reached the water fall he named it ruby falls after his wife Ruby...awwww.

 there were little streams and pools of water 

Dashtyn of course thought everything was pookey 

and he did hit his head once :( so did the guy in front of me...Ean did a good job ducking the whole time

these looked like beehives

 and then we made it

Ruby Falls 

it was beautiful

 afterwards, it was an hour and 15min long, somehow the boys weren't' tired

I on the other hand was having awful hip pain, so they played at the park and we walked up a tower for one last view.

( that is the Tennessee river ...we rode a boat down it the next day!)

we ate at a brewery downtown, and they didnt take reservations and the wait was 45min so I went and waited and Ean and the boys walked 2 blocks to noodles and company to get our race packets for the race we were running in the morning. this ended up working out great they got there right as our drinks and appetizer were coming out!

dinner was a little rough and ean and I had to take turns leaving the restaurant with dash as he wouldn't' stop yelling FRENCH FRIES!! just because he knew it was naughty

 

 they both fell asleep on the 5min drive home.

and we all went to bed at 9 :)

Friday Afternoon: Rock City

lots and lots of pictures!

so after the incline railway we drove a little ways down the mountain to rock city.

it was absolutely beautiful i think it was around a mile walk but we spent over and hour and a half walking around the paths were formed around. the rock formations that are around 200 million years old!

I would love to go back when all the flowers are in full bloom and when they do the lighted tours at night..that would truly be an enchanted tour!

  there were several narrow paths

 Dash was a handful wanting to climb on everything :)

 now we are above the narrow path!! good thing we aren't claustrophobic! 

 here are my Goblins at Goblins underpass

 Chasen had so much fun being our leader!

 and had big decisions to make...rope bridge or stone bridge

 he chose the rope bridge and had fun being naughty and scaring his mom while jumping up and down!!

beautiful views

 then we got to walk over the 100 foot waterfall at lovers leap when 2 native american tribes were here and a man and women fell in love and he was forced to jump off the cliff for being with a women of the other tribe and while the tribes were fighting she jumped off the cliff to her death to be with him. ah love!

 it was beautiful

once you get to the very top you can see 7 states, Tn, Ky, N.C., S.C., Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama and the smoky mountains

we actually drove through Georgia while driving up the mountain

the smoky mtns.

 Chasen is a good photographer, we can finally get pics together!

we had a Popsicle break before heading back down

 

 another narrow path we will have to walk through

 the leader went first!

dashtyn thought it was pooooky

and then I got stuck......... just kidding

Iam bigger this time around but not really this big yet I was trying really hard to stick it out there!

 

 we saw some white deer

 and a different view of the 90ft waterfall

 

 

 and here is a 1,000 ton balanced rock....crazy!

 

 

 this little cave was decorated with gnomes and other fairy tales like the gingerbread house and little riding hood. the ceiling had this coral looking rocks and the walls were out of all kinds of rocks. Chasen wasted to take home a diamond

 and this stair step water fall made me think of the goonies and the walls were covered in gold rocks

after this we headed down the mountain to ruby falls cave and when i say down the mountain I mean way down under.....