Last trip of summer--Chattanooga: Ruby Falls

The weekend before school started we decided to take the kids to Chattanooga to end the summer (per my theory if we end it doing something fun, the kids think the whole summer was great) 

We have been to Chattanooga many times, but always seem to do the same things--aquarium, fountains, imax, etc.  This time we decided to try some new things.  

Our first stop was to go to Ruby Falls--an amazing underground waterfall that I have really wanted to see.

I should note that I am very claustrophobic and to get to the waterfall you start by taking an elevator (with a glass door so you can see all the solid rock you are going under) 260 feet underground.  Luckily you can stand up straight almost the entire way and I was holding Aaron and trying not to think about all of the mountain that was on top of me!

The tour included around 50 people so there were a lot of times that we couldn't see the guide, and passing other tours (going the opposite direction) was a bit of a challenge, but Aaron liked waving to all the people as we would pass them.

One of the few formations you were allowed to touch

The story of how Ruby falls was discovered is really amazing.  I can't imagine a 17 hour round trip cave exploration that most of the time he was on his stomach...makes me shudder just thinking about it!

There were some absolutely amazing formations in the cave

The highlight of the tour, of course, was the spectacular Ruby Falls.  They turned all the lights off before you arrived and then as you stood there all the lights went on and it was utterly amazing.  You could walk behind the falls and as you looked up the water looked like diamonds--it was really amazing.

Our guide took this picture for us--the low lighting made it hard to get a good shot without a tripod.

Matt did a good job with these pictures

One funny thing was something the guide told us before we saw the waterfall--she said the water in the cave contained a large amount of magnesium--and if you drank any of the water you would have a terrible case of diarrhea--you wouldn't even make it out of the cave before it started.  She said that every day there is someone that wants to test it...and it is always an adult male and there were no bathrooms in the cave and to PLEASE not try the water.  Sure enough there were several men that made comments about not believing her, but luckily no one decided to put it to the test. 

Afterwards we walked up to a patio on top of the building--Lookout mountain really is incredibly beautiful.