Labor Day Weekend, Part 3: Lookout Mountain & The Incline

While we were in Chattanooga, we made a trip to The Incline, which rides up the side of Lookout Mountain.
It seemed interesting, and it's kinda cool to say you've been on it.
You can see it is a one-car trolley-style train, and it rides up a pretty steep incline to the top. The "breathtaking" 72.7% grade of the track near the top gives the Incline the unique distinction of being the steepest passenger railway in the world.
Well, I never lost my breath. At least not on the ride. We waited in line for an hour-and-a-half to get on the train. That could take your breath away!
The kids enjoyed finding their own seats.
Except Jules...she was kept close to momma.
Jon sat with Junior and tried to enjoy the view.
This view through the front window of the train car shows that encroaching trees were filling most of our view, except down the track, where one could see the extremely steep slope.
The view of Syndi gazing out her window was highlighted by her reflection.
Junior loved hanging out at the poles.
At the top, we learned the wait was even longer to get back on the train. We said no way and opted to stay on the train to return to the bottom. So we never got off at the top.
Junior hid most of the way down. He was scared of the steep slope.
After returning to the bottom, we got in our minivan and drove to the top of Lookout Mountain. It took us so much less time! We should've just done that from the beginning.
It seemed one could see forever from the top of Lookout Mountain. Apparently from Rock City, which we drove into as we headed for the top of the mountain, you can see 7 states from one vantage point (on a clear day, which we didn't have). Pretty cool!
Well, it was a fun afternoon. We could have gone without standing in line for what little we got. We'd recommend just driving to the top, unless you want to buy the T-shirts and be able to honestly say you rode the Incline Railway.

Before the Incline, we had a blast at Chuck E. Chesse. The kids loved that! After the Incline, we headed home. It was a fun weekend, and we enjoyed ourselves.

Labor Day Weekend, Part 2: Creative Discovery Museum 2007

We made our third annual visit to the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee right after our field trip to the Ch. 9 Science Theater (see previous post). [Thank you, Rome library...our kids go free every year courtesy of the library's summer reading program!]
The first "zone" is a fun-filled water area, where kids can shoot sprays of water at targets, etc. Obviously Stephen enjoyed that. Junior enjoyed building with blocks. He has a great way of seeing things in 3D and building them.
Syndi enjoyed playing with this device, which balances a ball on a current of air. Of course, for her purposes, the ball was her head!
Stevie...
...Junior...
...Syndi...
...Sylvia...
...and Jon all enjoyed playing with this lightning generator.
Stephen loved playing with the clay.
Junior was an engineer of a different sort-the train engineer.
Syndi and Jon had fun with this set of pipes. Magnets held them to the wall, and you could make a path for a golf ball to travel down. We made a "Y" and figured out how to put the ball in just right to make it go down the tube we chose (at the Y). It was fun.
Stevie chose to use the ball (and not his head) for this device.
Junior peeking from a maze area. Think he was having fun?
This "Rube Goldberg" device is fun each year. It uses a skate to push a basketball up a channel to a kiddie swimming pool. The oars then push it up to the hole at the top. It then rolls across a path, falls through a basketball hoop, drops through the chute, and lands in the laundry basket, all for 2 points!
On the roof are some neat mechanical advantage devices that allow you to use your weight (some of us more than others) to move a ball up a corkscrew... ...lift your own weight to the top...

...and ring a bell when you reach the summit.
We closed our visit back at the water area, which we left early for a special "art studio class" for the boys.
Syndi and Junior dressed up like sailors before we hit the road. All aboard! This ship is leaving port!
Back at the hotel, everybody crashed. The next morning, Syndi was up to work in her leap pad.
But the boys were sound asleep! They needed the extra winks for our trip up Lookout Mountain! Stay tuned....

Labor Day Weekend, Part 1: Science Theater

For Labor Day Weekend, or at least on the Friday and Saturday, we headed for Chattanooga, Tennessee. Friday morning we met with our GRACE homeschool group at the News Channel 9 Science Theater.
We spent some time in the theater, where 40 kids and probably 25 parents learned about electricity. Above you see a chain of conductors (also know as our children) interlocking arms so the current can pass through them. And, yes, our enthusiastic lecture leader was more than happy to shock the kids!
She cranked away on the device above to let the kids see if the electricity would pass through them when various materials were inserted in the chain (glass, plastic, wood, leather, and finally metal).
She later put moms in a cage and directed a mega-volt contraption at the cage. Above you can actually see the electricity arcing towards the cage. Don't worry - they all survived as the charge passed through the cage into the grounded floor. Whew!
She then directed the charge at some balloons. These balloons were filled with helium, hydrogen, and finally oxygen. For the oxygen-filled balloon, she was insisting that everyone cover his ears. Well, I couldn't because...
...I was too busy trying to time my snap perfectly to catch this cool explosion on camera! I got it, as you can see above. I also had a ringing in my ears for several minutes. I guarantee I lost some years on my ears with that bang.
Julia took it all in stride, not whining a wink, let alone crying. Our other three participated in everything. Even though Stephen was technically not involved, he was there every step of the way, craning to see what Syndi and Junior were doing, and trying things out himself.
Junior enjoyed this contraption. He loves to go his own way.
Here we are at a table, trying to see what types of materials conduct electricity (a penny, a washer, fabric, foil, plastic, wood, etc.).
One of the employees helped our tykes with their potato- and apple-powered clocks. Pretty fascinating.
Syndi worked hard to assemble this little music player at a different station. She did well. She also learned a lot about electricity. After the science theater, we at lunch in the mall, then headed to The Creative Discovery museum. We'll post pictures from that next time.