Paddling Through Chick Lock for Mother's Day 2018

Someone stopped me in the hallway at church today to tell me that they really enjoyed my Facebook post about our Mother's Day adventure last week, and encouraged me to never stop adventuring with my kids.

If I'm being honest, I share online because it is an easy way for me to "scrapbook" and I like that my memories will pop up with these little snippets of our lives years from now. But a part of me also hopes that we are inspiring other people to find and pursue their own passions as well.

And if you ever want to chat about our adventures, don't be shy. My kids will tell you all about it from their perspective and Daniel and I are always willing to share the good and the bad with anyone that wants to listen.

For Mother's Day the weather had turned warm and I was hoping to get our on the water in our kayaks for the first time this season.

Daniel suggested we put in on Chickamauga Lake and paddle through the lock to the Tennessee River. Our initial plan was pretty ambitious... we thought we could make it all the way to Coolidge Park downtown.

I was a little leery of locking through with the boys. The fact that the lock is right next to a large dam concerned me. Daniel (who works for Dam Safety on the Chickamauga Lock) told me it would be fine. So I went along with the plan (though we did check mileage and agreed to take out at a 4 mile point instead of 7.5 miles at Coolidge Park).

After church and a quick lunch at Einstein Bagels, we changed clothes and headed over to drop a vehicle at our take out and then back to Chickamauga Lake. We thought could put in at a private marina just north of the lock in Hixson, but learned that was not going to be possible. So we headed back across the dam to the public access on the lake (this added about half a mile to our paddle).

Jack was a trooper and had no problem making his way across to the lock. Daniel called the lock operator (who he knows from work) to let them know we were coming through and we were told to paddle up to the front of the lock to tie off to the floating mooring bit. And then we waited.

Isaac had a brief moment of panic when Daniel had to stand up in our kayak to tie us up, but he settled down to enjoy the ride.

It was a 50 foot drop as the water let us slowly down to the river level. It made me a little sea sick as the lock gate got higher and higher above our heads, but it was a neat experience.

Once we made it through the lock, we padded to the base of the next bridge (a railroad trestle bridge) where we sat in the bridge's shadow and had a snack.

After our snack we continued on to our take out point. About a mile from stopping Jack decided he wanted to be towed behind us so that he could drag his feet in the water and not have to paddle any more. About this same time, Isaac fell asleep in Daniel's lap. Thankfully Daniel had the foresight to bring a pad for Isaac and we were able to lay him face down for the remainder of our time on the water.

It was a great way to spend Mother's Day together as a family. And a much better experience than the last time we tried to take the boys paddling on a Mother's Day! With each year and each adventure, everything gets a little bit easier!

Thursday Things {What I Have Missed About City Life}

Seeing that life in the Moore household is currently in limbo, I am trying to focus on the positive. So no worrying (or at least trying not to worry) about things like where Daniel will end up working long term, where we should buy a house, how long it will take our current house to sell, or where we will be living week to week.

This past week we rented a small cottage in Hixson, Tennessee. We are testing the waters to see what areas around Chattanooga make the most sense for us to consider moving to sometime in the future. Hixson is about 50 minutes to the plant Daniel is working at and 15 minutes from Downtown Chatt. 

I'm pretty sure that Jack and I got the better end of this deal. We shall see what the coming weeks have in store for us!

Things I Have Missed about City Life
1) High-speed internet. This is an important part of my work and social connectivity. Daniel tested the internet speed (Chattanooga has fiber optics) and it was about 5x faster than what we get at home in Alabama. It was ah-ma-zing. I had forgotten how nice it is to have fast internet. No having to wait eons to download images from my clients, or upload finished work to printers. 

2) Convenience to a ton of restaurants (without having to drive 50+ minutes). We love our local Mexican restaurant, but in our little town in Alabama we really only have 3 places we enjoy eating at. I love that in the city, you can drive down the street, notice a hole-in-the-wall place, look it up on Urbanspoon and decide to try it out. We ate at New York Pizza Department and were impressed by the a) enormous pizza; b) the taste of the pizza; and c) the music they had streaming the entire time. It was a throwback to all of the music we love from our high school and college days. If you are in Hixson, we would definitely recommend you check out NYPD.

3) Abundance of outdoor activities within a short radius of our house. We have found it odd that living in the country has afforded so little in terms of outdoor activities. Yes, you can go boating, but there are very few trails (dirt or paved) and you really have to drive somewhere to access the type of trails we love. In the city, we loved that there were greenways and dirt trails within minutes of our house. Jack and I took at walk at Chickamauga Lake one morning and one evening the whole family (including Sophie) went to Greenway Farms where we took the trail up above the quarry and had a view of Signal Mountain. One night, on his way home from work, Daniel stopped for a trail run at the Laurel Snow Pocket Wilderness. Have I mentioned that we LOVE East Tennessee?

4) Tons of activities for children. From our current home, I have to drive 50+ minutes to meet friends for play dates or do fun things with Jack. Our local library doesn't even have a story hour! We do have a couple of good parks around here and a wonderfil splash pad, but that is all. In Chattanooga, we spent an entire afternoon with friends, including a visit to the library to see a Magic Show. Another day, Jack and I wandered downtown to play in the fountains by the Aquarium. I really wanted to take him to The Passage, but it was closed due to flooding. No worries -- we were in a city, there is always something to do!

5) YMCA with childcare. I have MISSED going to the Y since we left Charlotte. Spin classes, kickboxing, step aerobics, yoga, swimming. You name it, I have missed it. Over the years, I have been able to find smaller studios to workout in (which I have been incredibly blessed by), but having childcare on site is a big deal to me. I haven't purchased my membership yet, but we made the rounds and visited the Y's in Hixson and downtown so that I could take a look at the childcare centers and speak with the caretakers. I can't wait to get signed up. I need to be working out more frequently and I know that Jack will love having some regular play time with other kids.

Runners up -- these really fit under convenience of restaurants, but the cottage where we stayed was within a 10 minute drive to Chick-fil-a and Starbucks.

I don't need either of these things in my life, but it was a nice treat to have them nearby.