Last night I slept like crap. I kept having dreams about The Mummy by Anne Rice, not scary, but kind of sad. Plus, Livy kicks. But, I am so tired, and I have drunk enough red wine, that I know I will sleep better tonight. Right now, we are snuggled up in bed, me typing and Livy watching mindless TV and eating cashew butter. We'll probably be asleep ridiculously early for us, and get up early and head out to Nashville.
What we did today: We got up, ate a bite from our cooler, got ready, and headed out to Chattanooga. We rode the carousel at Coolidge Park down by the Tennessee River. Here are a couple of pictures of Livy on the carousel.
Then we walked around by the river and found a pier to walk out on and watch the riverboats going by. Livy climbed on the statues at one of our favorite fountains. In the summer, water shoots out of the sidewalk in all kinds of patterns, and children play there in their swimsuits. The water was off of course, but the statues are still cool. Here's Livy on an elephant. You can see the pedestrian bridge behind her.
We went to lunch at Thai Smile in downtown Chattanooga. When Livy was a baby and I lived in Sewanee, when we drove in to go to the health food store, we would always eat lunch at this restaurant. They love babies, and they love children. They are so happy every time we go there and Livy actually eats Thai food. They seem to get so much pleasure out of watching her eat Tom Ka Gai soup, chicken satay, wonton soup, and Nam Tok. The cook even came out of the kitchen because the waitress had told him that Livy loved the wonton soup, and he wanted to talk to her himself. We had a yummy lunch, sharing all that good food between us. I've noticed that Thai restaurants seem to be so child friendly, in general, and not in that American way that makes me crazy. They don't have extensive children's menus or coloring books or loud atmosphere to cover the screaming. They just treat children like people, feed them real food, talk to them, and seem to enjoy having them in the restaurant. Once when Livy was 8 months old or so, a Thai waitress in Jacksonville insisted on carrying her into the kitchen to show her husband how cute she was. I just love that attitude towards kids.
After lunch, we met up with Sam Kennedy and his son Jamie for the first time in person. It rocked. I love meeting someone new that I actually intend to see again and get to know better. I've been on a streak with this. I had lunch with Jason and Megan Stotts earlier this week, and they were fantastic too. Hooray for my three new Objectivists who don't have corn cobs up their butts (a real plus for people you want to be friends with)! Anyway, we met Sam and Jamie at the Creative Discovery Museum downtown. Of course, since Jamie is two, he loved the stairs and the wheelchair ramp and dumping bowls of water onto the floor best. Livy loved the water exhibit too; they have pieces to create damns of different shapes, water canons, and cranks that lift water and pour it down chutes. Here are a couple of pictures of her doing water stuff:
The museum also has a cool musical instrument section, a theatre with real lights and sound effects (where I got to play the role of a mooing cow who gets beamed up by a space ship), a gigantic climbing structure, a rooftop with simple machines (using pulleys to lift your chair up high, a seesaw thing to pump air and shoot a ball, etc), and a tower looking out over Chattanooga.
We came back to the hotel early, about when it got dark, and we've been relaxing every since. I am finally letting down after this semester.
More tomorrow from Nashville.
