Hurricane Irma

Last month Hurricane Irma made its way here, downgrading to a tropical storm as it reached our home. This weekend Hurricane Nate is taking a different trajectory but is currently in the process of making its way here as a tropical depression. It has been raining non-stop since late last night, so it feels to right sip some hot tea and write a blog post about our impromptu cousins weekend last month that was brought on by Hurricane Irma...

Almost exactly a year after Hurricane Hermine hit Tallahassee and prompted an unplanned cousins weekend for our kids, my sister Angela and her family once again found themselves in the path of the potentially deadly Hurricane Irma.

While Hermine hit Tallahassee as a Category 1 storm, Irma was projected to hit north Florida as a Cat 3. The magnitude of this hurricane and projected path through the entire state caused the largest ever evacuation of the state the week before Irma made landfall.

Angela, a part-time nurse, was not on her hospital's disaster team this year, so she packed her kids up and they made their way to Tennessee, leaving her husband Robert behind (he also works at a hospital and was unable to leave).

It was a strange weekend, waiting for the hurricane to make its way through the state of Florida. Angela was anxious all weekend and constantly on the watch for new updates about the storm.

Like everyone in her situation, she was generally distracted by what might happen to her city, home and husband she had left behind. Throughout the weekend, the radar ominously showed a storm that was bigger than the entire state of Florida.

Thankfully the kids didn't really know what was going on, they were just excited about their unexpected cousin weekends. And we did our best to take everyone's mind off the impending storm! Our brother, Mark, even came over from Nashville to hang out with all of us.

As we know now, the storm lessened and much of Florida was spared the devastation that had threatened. Unfortunately, the following week, Hurricane Maria pummeled an already impacted Caribbean. Many of the islands, including the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, are still suffering a month later.

The storm ended up hitting Tallahassee as a Cat 1 (instead of the predicted Cat 3). Many trees were blown down and power outages were rampant throughout the state. As it turned north toward Tennessee, it was downgraded to a tropical storm.

When it reached east Tennessee, our town actual ended up experiencing wind damage and power outages due to the storm – we even had our boys sleep in our room in case a tree fell on the roof during the night.

Ironically my sister had tried to escape the storm but it still found her in Tennessee!

While Angela and her kids were here, our kids played as much as they could. We took them on a hike to Rainbow Lake, visited the Creative Discovery Museum, got hot chocolate at the Hot Chocolatier in downtown Chattanooga, roasted s'mores, and watched old movies with popcorn as we sat by a roaring fire in our wood stove.

Not a bad way to spend an unexpected long weekend together.

Thankfully my sister's home was spared – a tree did fall in their yard and knocked a section of gutter off their roof, but that was pretty minor compared to damage that others experienced.

We look forward to more cousin's weekends but hopefully no more that are because of the weather!

Father-Son Day: Motocross in North Georgia

After inviting another father-son on several outings earlier this year (Mountain Biking to Edwards Point and the TKO Enduro Race), Jack and Daniel were invited to attend a Motocross event in North Georgia. Which they gladly attended.

I am so glad to see my guys do things they love with other guys that share their interests. Luckily for us, these friends also have another son that is close to Isaac's age!

I know nothing about Motocross, but my guys had fun!

Jack was very impressed by the little guys that were riding this track.

Reflection Riding Center

On Monday we had the opportunity to visit the Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center at the base of Lookout Mountain, and it did not disappoint. The Nature Center was hosting a Homeschool Day so we met up with some of our homeschool friends (normally Jack and I do a Nature Day on Thursdays, but the beauty of homeschool is that you can change plans whenever you want).

We started out learning about reptiles. The docent was finishing his talk about frogs and turtles when we arrived, but the snake discussion was pretty cool. He showed us an Eastern Pine Snake – a nonvenomous species that is endemic to the southeastern United States.

We learned that there are over 40 types of snakes in our area of Tennessee, four of which are venomous (only two are really common here). And we learned the difference between the two types of venom and that if you had to get bitten by a venomous snake, the copperhead bite is better than a rattlesnake bite.

After our snake lesson, the kids participated in a series of Native American games. They learned how to work as a team and work individually on their aim with games like toss the pine cone. When we tired of those games, the kids played on the playground and had snacks/lunch.

Then we headed over to the aviary where we were able to see a barn owl, a horned owl, and a red-tailed hawk. All of the animals at this sanctuary are rescues that will not recover enough to be released back into the wild. The barn owl we saw was missing part of one wing.

We learned some interesting facts about owls. One of the first things we learned was that all mammals (humans, cats, bears, even whales) have seven vertebrae in their necks that allow them to turn their head about 180*, while owls have 14 vertebrae in their necks that allow them to turn their necks about 270* (virtually all the way around).

And instead of ears, owls have a disc around their entire face that helps them to hear – kind of like how you can hear better if you cup your had around your ear.

Also, owls make virtually no sound when they flap their wings. Both owls that we saw demonstrated this by flapping in the air noiselessly. The hawk, on the other hand, was a noisy flapper. The silent flight of the owl allows it to grab its prey before the prey has any idea what is happening. The owl's feathers are spread apart, like if you waved your spread out fingers by your ear. The hawk's feathers are closer together, like if you kept your fingers together and waved it next your ear creating more wind noise.

After the bird talk, we walked around the menagerie where we saw more birds of prey including a bald eagle, a turkey vulture and a couple of sand cranes. There was also a bobcat and an area for red wolves.

The kids loved trying to jump as high and as far as a bobcat and were enthralled with the massive, life-sized eagle's nest.



At this point our friends headed home and the boys and I kept exploring. We took the boardwalk down to Lookout Creek, and explored the treehouse that is on sight – Jack really wants to have his birthday here.

The Nature Center is 341 acres and we only covered a portion of it on our visit. I am tempted to get a membership for the year ($70 for a family or $100 if you want to add the canoe package). It is a beautiful place to explore with lots of learning opportunities. If you live in Chattanooga and haven't been, you should check it out!

On our drive home, Jack worked on his nature journal. We used our Nature Anatomy field guide to look up all of the animals that we had the opportunity to see during our visit.

Check back on Fridays to see our weekly outings (this one happened on Monday, but I'm including it in the Friend Friday categor).
If you're following along, here are our previous Friend Friday adventures this school year: August: Coolidge Park
September: Creative Discovery Museum ⎮ Greenway Farms Picnic ⎮ Chattanooga Zoo ⎮ Big Soddy Gulf Picnic