A couple of weeks ago when I was in Chattanooga our group visited Ruby Falls. Ruby Falls is a 145 foot waterfall inside Lookout Mountain. It is the tallest and deepest underground waterfall open to the public. You can read more about it on the Ruby Falls Website here. If you missed my post about Chattanooga and the few days I was there check it out here. Chattanooga Visit
Something very unique and innovative that Ruby Falls has added to their wonderful experience is the opportunity to stay in one of their new Treehouses. This is not a totally new concept in our area. It is one of the first times I was able to actually view them and go inside. They’re adorable!!!
Each of the treehouses are modernly furnished. The ones at Ruby Falls were decorated like you wouldn’t believe. Each one had some type of record player, yes I said record player with records and one of them even had a very old phonograph player with very old records.
Look at this hammock on the deck. It looked so peaceful it just made me want to take a nap under the trees.
I can just imagine sitting on this little porch and having coffee while I look out over the city of Chattanooga.
Some of the houses had a bedroom downstairs and the living area with a couch and desk upstairs. And some were just the opposite with the bedroom upstairs.
The treehouses are filled with windows offering you a view in every direction. The trees around are beautiful but can you imagine snow or rain gently falling while you are nestled in the treehouse, reading a good book. I can.
The stairs leading to the second level of the treehouse are a little steep but definitely doable.
Each treehouse had an outdoor sitting area, a fire pit and at least one hammock. The leaves on the trees were gently blowing and it was just like paradise.
This one had an outside tub with a privacy curtain and also an outdoor shower.
So peaceful!!
Once you get to the parking area for the treehouses you can look down on the tower at Ruby Falls and Chattanooga. Isn’t this a beautiful view?
This is the pathway leading to the cabins. It is lit so if you are out at night you would have no problem finding the path.
You can actually drive to an upper parking area and load your things in one of these little wagons to take to the treehouse.
The treehouse experience is not a cheap one. It is different. It is definitely an experience that you will never forget. A boutique treehouse retreat is what will be waiting for you. Check out the Ruby Falls website and then click Treehouses for lots of photos and availability.
Happy Happy Friday!! I am so glad to see the weekend. I have a few favorites to share with you.
First of all I have to tell you about last weekend. This was definitely a favorite. I made a wedding cake for a sweet couple I work with. The wedding was on Saturday. I didn’t get home from the Chattanooga trip until late Wednesday evening. I knew I wanted to make a couple of the layers on Thursday so that is what I did. As soon as we had dinner finished on Thursday I started working on the largest layer of cake. I already had all of the cake pans out and ready. I got the cake ready to put in the oven. The couple had requested the bottom layer to be a yellow and chocolate marble swirl.
Sorry I didn’t get a picture after I swirled it.
It took about an hour and a half for this layer to bake. As soon as it was done I put the middle layer in. They had requested that the middle layer be chocolate inside. It didn’t take quite as long to bake this layer. After that I cleaned the kitchen and went to bed. On Friday I left work a little early and went home to start making the massive amount of frosting that I had to make. While I was working on that I made the top layer of the cake which was vanilla. This small layer would be the layer they would keep in their freezer and eat a year later on their one year anniversary. I also did a crumb coat for the two larger layers. I let them sit in the fridge overnight. It is so much easier to spread the frosting on a cold cake.
This base layer was huge and heavy. I was whispering a prayer as I flipped it onto the cake board.
The next morning, Saturday, the day of the wedding. I got up at 4:00 AM and started to put the frosting on the layers. I was so nervous but it went great!!! The wedding was at 1:00 and I had promised to be there by noon to set up the cake. The bride provided the flowers that she wanted to use. They matched her bouquet and the bouquets her bridesmaids’ carried.
I was using my tried and true cake stand that I have had for years. I loaded the layers into separate boxes so they could travel the distance to the wedding venue. once I was there her dad and another man offered to help me carry the boxes. I told them I appreciated the offer but I hadn’t even let my husband touch it. HA!!
They used their Boyds Bears cake topper.
I think you can probably see the relief on my face that it all turned out ok. I am always a nervous wreck. Especially when I make a wedding cake.
The newlyweds. They were both happy with the cake that’s all that matters to me.
I would like to say it was a beautiful day for a wedding but it wasn’t. It was outdoors. And just as the ceremony started it started raining. Before the ceremony ended it was a steady downpour. Luckily the food and tables and chairs were under tents. But hey if it rains on your wedding day it’s supposed be good luck. It rained on mine and me and my husband have been married for 33 years.
The rain didn’t stop the fun. Everyone pulled their shoes off and danced in the wet grass. We ate and ate and had a great time. I was so happy to be a part of their special day.
Hanging with some friends at the wedding. Waiting on the ceremony to start, and the rain.
A few other favorites I wanted to share with you.
My little mother in law. She will be 90 years young in November. She has been through so much in the last few years. She’s tough and feisty and can get with you if she doesn’t like something. But she almost always has a sweet smile. She was enjoying a bowl of ice cream when I went to see her a few days ago.
I had to show you my yarn I bought when I was in Sweden. I am not sure what I will make with it yet maybe a scarf or two. I always write the name of the place where I buy it so that I can remember later.
I also got this planter when I was on my European trip. I got this lovely in Copenhagen. It was one of our first stops on the trip. I had to take her out of her box because it took up a lot of room. I was afraid I wouldn’t get her home in one piece but I packed her really well in my suitcase and she made it. I currently have one of my orchids in it.
Dunkin’ has finally opened in our small town. We have been waiting all summer. It actually opened when I was in Chattanooga but I heard it was so crowded you couldn’t get in. Just the newness of it all. One of my coworkers stopped in the other day and got us some much needed afternoon coffee.
I’m very basic and my drink of choice is an iced Caramel Macchiato.
If you have bridgework, implants or braces and you have used dental floss with those little blue hook looking thingies. Stop the clock!!! These things are wonderful. It’s sort of an all in one threader and floss. You may already know about these and I am just late to the game. But I love them!!! I got these at Walmart.
I have come to terms with the fact that when it comes to my upper body I am muscularly challenged. On our last trip I carried my backpack as a carry on for the plane. But it was so heavy I think my arms actually grew a few inches from carrying it. My nephew Tyler took pity on me a couple of times and carried it through the different airports for me. I decided I needed something with wheels. I have a trip to California in a couple of weeks and I will be traveling alone so no hubby or Tyler to help me. I decided to buy this bag on wheels. It is small enough to fit under your airplane seat. I got it today and I love it. I ordered it from Amazon. And look it has kitties on it!!!!!
I have only finished one book in the last week or so and man it was a long one. The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner. I love her books and have read many of them. This one had a way of detailing every single person in the book. Maybe a little more than you wanted to know about them. But it was good just a little long in places. The overall story was a good one.
So how has your week been? I hope you did some fun things.
I feel like my posting has been so sporadic and a bit all over the place. I guess it has been that way because that is how I have been. Ha!! This past week was another crazy one. But then they all are it seems like. I spent the first part of last week in Chattanooga and got back home on Wednesday night. And then did a wedding cake over the weekend with a young couple I work with. Here is a recap of Chattanooga and I will share the cake with you on Friday. Well not the actual cake but you know what I mean.
The sunrise view from my window
After our meeting on Monday we met in front of the hotel and car pooled down to the Chattanooga Whiskey Distillery. We had a tour of the distillery and met with the owner and learned about some of their marketing strategies. Ummm we also had a couple of tiny samples. http://www.chattanoogawhiskey.com
This may look yucky but it produces some amazing whiskey.
Later that night we walked to dinner, it was just a short distance from the hotel, I think I mentioned in a previous post we stayed at Hotel Indigo. It was very nice and located within walking distance of lots of things. Back to the restaurant. We ate at Easy Bistro. The food here is served family style but it was very different. I tried the Octopus, I was not impressed. We also had a whole roasted fish. I think one per four people. It was tasty. The dessert was yummy. http://www.easybistro.com Check out the menu and the restaurant.
Octopus
The next morning we took a CARTA bus to The Tennessee Valley Railroad. We had breakfast there in their newly opened tea room. It is adorable and the food is amazing.
As we were riding the train our conductor gave us a brief history of the railroad and Chattanooga.
Next we rode the Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain. The incline railway follows a one mile track straight up Lookout Mountain. Once you are at the top the views are amazing. There are microbreweries, fresh fudge, an indoor climbing wall and lots of other fun things to do. Once you are at the top of the mountain you are on the Rock City side of the mountain.
If you haven’t been to Rock City you have to go and check it out. Rock City gardens has over 400 different plant species, a panoramic view where you can actually see seven states, several regional gift shops and a wonderful restaurant called Big Rock Grill. While you’re there be sure to stop in and see Fairly Land Caverns and Mother Goose Village.http://www.seerockcity.com
Swinging Bridge at Rock City
We also toured Ruby Falls. I have been to Ruby Falls many times and I love it so much. Here you actually descend 260 feet underground by elevator. Once underground the cave system is covered with some of the most beautiful active formations I have ever seen. Ruby Falls is the tallest underground waterfall open to the public. Although there are different colored lights on the waterfall the name Ruby Falls comes from the man who discovered the cave and the falls, Leo Lambert. His wife was named Ruby. He discovered the cave in 1928. There is such wonderful history to this cave. And the waterfall is just breathtaking. http://www.rubyfalls.com
After visiting Ruby Falls and the tree houses at Ruby, I’ll tell you more about those in another post. We went back to the hotel for a quick refresh. We then took the CARTA bus downtown close to the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge. The bridge was built in 1890 and is 2,376 feet long. There is no traffic on this bridge other than bicycles, Segways or scooters. And many many people walk across the bridge. The scenery is beautiful.
Once we crossed the bridge we had dinner at Frazier Five and Dime. It was so yummy and luckily we walked all the way back to the hotel I needed it after all the calories we had. I had the Cajun shrimp with a cheddar biscuit and the trout fritters. http://www.frazier5and10.com
View from The Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge
Vendors were selling balloons on the bridge
Walnut Street Bridge at night.
Beautiful Chattanooga
We got back to the hotel around 10:30 PM. It was a long but fun day. According to my watch about 16,000 steps.
The next morning our meeting started early and we were out by noon. It took me about an hour and a half to get back into town. I stopped in at work for just a little while and then went home to hubs and the fur babies. Wow!!! I love traveling but I am always glad to get back to my own bed.
I hope you enjoyed this short trip to Chattanooga and if you ever get to this part of Tennessee be sure to visit some of these wonderful places. You will not be disappointed. For more information about Chattanooga visit: http://www.visitchattanooga.com
Hello friends, Happy Monday, Labor Day, and September. Sorry for the long silence on the blog. I have been traveling with my husband and nephew. We visited Northern Europe and just got back this past week. We visited five countries, well six if you count the Netherlands but we were only there during our brief stop in Amsterdam. Each country is so unique I will share them with you in separate posts. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. This is how it went down.
A little more than two weeks ago we left for a long trip to Northern Europe. Our first stop was Copenhagen Denmark. We have been planning this trip since before Covid was a thing. As you know any big trip like this requires so much planning and preparing. For some reason I think as women we get the brunt of this. Before leaving I planned for who would be at the house taking care of the babies and when everyone would be there. I made sure my mother in law was taken care of and would be checked on while we were gone. And that any supplies she needed would be gotten for her. I bought all of the necessary items we needed to take with us, although my husband did buy a few electronic gadgets we needed. Secretly he loves that.
I packed and packed and cleaned because I can’t leave my house dirty when people are going to be there. I caught up on everything at work and felt like I could be gone for a couple of weeks. And we were ready. Oh and my husband packed his suitcase.
We flew out of Knoxville to Atlanta and then to Amsterdam where we would take a shorter flight into Copenhagen. The flights over were very uneventful and all of our luggage made it through. Little did we know we wouldn’t be as lucky on the return flight.
I loved that the Amsterdam airport had this fresh flower market. The tulips were just beautiful.
Also lots of fresh meats and cheeses at the airport. That is not something we see a lot of in the U.S.
Look how tiny our room was. This was in Copenhagen at The Scandic Spectrum Hotel. Other than a small bathroom this was the size of the room. We were there for three days and fortunately didn’t spend a lot of time in the room.
I am always blown away by the amount of food that is on the breakfast bar at European hotels. There is so much that it is hard to choose from. Of course most Europeans make breakfast their biggest meal of the day. There is a lot of fresh meat and vegetables and this particular hotel had chocolate. You know I was all for that.
Our first day out we explored Copenhagen. I have to say I love this city. The people are so nice and friendly. They like to have fun and they enjoy being outdoors.
Kayaking in the canal. So much fun and activity going on. Bicycling is a very popular mode of transportation and who can blame them with gas being about $10.00 American. WOW!!! I also loved all the fresh flowers everywhere. And I loved that so many people wore dresses, short dresses, long dresses, flowy dresses. I loved them all.
See all the bicycles? There are dedicated bicycle lanes everywhere. And you better stay out of them because the cyclists will run you over. They have the same right of way as vehicles.
We saw the Little Mermaid Statue. Our tour guide explained that she has suffered a lot of wear and tear through the years. She has been the target of defacement throughout the years. How sad. But she has been restored each time. The Little Mermaid has been a major tourist attraction since its unveiling in 1913.
This building was near our hotel. Very unique.
We visited Glyptokeshaven. This park has some of the most unusual statues and the most beautiful flowers. It was a perfect day for it with temps in the mid 60’s F.
The next day we visited Christianborg Palace. The Palace has an 800 year-long history as Denmark’s seat of power in Central Copenhagen. This site houses the Danish Parliament, Prime Minister’s office and Denmark’s Supreme Court. The palace is also home to visiting Danish Monarchs.
We also visited Frederiksborg Castle. It was beautiful!!! There was even a moat all around the castle. It was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV of Denmark- Norway in the early 17th century.
I will have more about the other countries we visited in later posts. We started making our way back home last Monday. We flew out of Helsinki Finland which was our last stop on the trip. We left out at 3:15AM, It was a nightmare. Every flight was delayed and ultimately resulted in us missing our last flight which was out of Atlanta. Home is only three hours from Atlanta so we figured if worse came to worse we could just rent a car and drive back. But we were able to get on a later flight out of Atlanta. However it was delayed by about four hours. We finally got home after midnight on Tuesday morning. My luggage came through but Mark and Tyler’s luggage was left behind in Paris. Tyler got his the next day and Mark finally got his on Thursday.
I took off Tuesday and went back to work on Wednesday. Mark still has quite a bit of vacation time left. The rest of the week was spent catching up at work, buying groceries and doing the mountains of laundry we brought home. We had never had so much trouble traveling. Traveling is definitely not for the faint of heart especially international travel. But all in all it was a fantastic trip with so many memories and stories that will last a lifetime.
I am looking forward to catching up on many of my favorite blogs and my own. How have you been? What is going on in your part of the world?
Southern Patches 