13 Things to Do in Chattanooga

Chattanooga is only about a couple hours drive from Atlanta. We have been there once for a day out with Thomas The Tank Engine train ride. But we are planning to go back there again. Here are some of the fun, family-friendly things to do in Chattanooga.

1) The Tennessee Aquarium: This is one our must-do list our next trip to Chattanooga. The aquarium is situated right on the waterfront in Chattanooga downtown with small water creek between the two buildings. The ticket price is $19.95 for adult and $12.95 for child (age 3-12). There are also several combo tickets for IMAX, River George Explorer and Creative Discovery Museum.

2) Inclined Railway: Hop on the trolley-style railcars that take you up the side of Lookout Mountain in one of the steepest passenger railway. It was a really fun experience when we went there last year. Once you get to the top, you can enjoy the view from the Lookout Mountain and check out the little gift shop there. You can purchase ticket online for $14 per adult and $7 per child (3-12). They also have Lookout Mountain Triple Play ticket (including Incline, Rock City & Ruby Falls) for $42 per adult and $23 per child.

3) Creative Discovery Museum: Check out the hands-on children's museum. Especially now till September 28, you will get to have the adventures with Clifford The Big Red Dog. The ticket price is $8.95 for anyone older than 2 years old. However, we consider getting a member with the children museum since one of the highest level of membership is the nationwide level that allows you to enjoy free admission to various children museum nationwide through the Association of Children's Museum reciprocal program.

4) Rock City: Go up the Lookout Mountain and check out Rock City featuring massive ancient rock formations, gardens and see 7 States (on a clear day)

5) Ruby Falls: Hike to Ruby Falls, the 145 foot underground waterfall beneath the Lookout Mountain's surface.

6) Bluff View Art District: Take a nice stroll in this historic neighborhood filled with restaurants, coffee houses, art gallery or take a break at one of the gardens, plazas or courtyards.

7) Walnut Street Bridge: Cross the Tennessee river on one of the longest pedestrian bridge from Chattanooga's downtown to the North Shore. Enjoy the leisure walk over the river.

8) Coolidge Park: Take a break and bring the kids to the Coolidge park to enjoy the restored 100 year old carousel and an interactive play fountain. Admission fee is $1.00 for adults and $0.50 for children 12 and under.

9) Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum: All aboard!!! Go ride with the TVRail that offers a wide variety of rides to suit your needs. Check out the schedule and price online. Also check out for special ride like Day Out with Thomas or North Pole Limited during special events.

10) Chattanooga Choo Choo: Stay in the one of the coolest hotel. The Chattanooga Choo Choo by Holiday Inn offers the train fanatic a chance to sleep aboard an authentic train car. Oh.. Mr. Z had a blast last year when we stayed there. He couldn't stop asking when the train will move. The hotel area also features several trains that they can enjoy and nice garden in the middle of the area. Lovely.. lovely place!

11) Chattanooga Nature Center: For the nature lover, this is a great place to visit. Explore the Blue Heron boardwalk, Wildlife Wanderland and Discovery Forest Treehouse. The admission fee is relatively low $7 for adults and $3 for children (4-11)

12) Southern Belle Riverboat: Take a river cruise along the scenic Tennessee River on the Chattanooga Riverboat. With current promotion of Kid is free for every paying adult, it's a great deal. There are several types of cruise to choose from ranging from sightseeing, lunch or dinner cruise. There will be one that suits your need.

13) Chickamauga Dam Reservation: Picnic by the Dam and enjoy the view. For the outdoor enthusiasts, enjoy fishing, boating and swimming at this no-fee reservation.

WW - Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew or The Temple of the Emerald Budha is Thai most sacred buddhist temple. It's located within the grounds of the Grand Palace and one of the most visited tourist attraction in Thailand. We went there on our recent trip to Thailand. It was HOT!!!

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Blueberries in Bloom

Ah.. July is almost over and it's almost the end of the Blueberries season. I have been checking out various pick-your-own farm from pickyourown.org. This is a great website with list of farms that have pick-your-own fruits and vegetable. The site is updated regularly. So check them out for your own picking pleasure.

Mr. Z is a blueberries lover. He can eat the whole quart in one sitting if I don't stop him. Funny thing is he loves to eat the frozen blueberries more than the fresh one. So picking our own blueberries and then freeze it will be a perfect thing to do.

So we had decided to go berries picking this past Friday. We had to take the car to the shop in the area near the Berry Patch farm. We left early and dropped the car off at the dealership, a quick breakfast in Chick-Fil-A and we were ready to rock and roll. The farm wasn't too far from the dealership. We got there right around 8:30am. It was the overcast day so it was perfect. Not too hot for the indoor family like us.

The owner gave us the quick instruction and warned us about some of the poison ivy in the field. Hmmm.. poinson ivy? No one told me that there will be poison ivy. We just need to be more careful when we picked.

The ground was still wet from the morning dew. So it wasn't very enticing for Mr. Z and Miss J.. They didn't want to get their feet wet. Kids! There were plenty of blueberries for us to start picking and eating. Since they don't spray their trees with pesticide, they said it's safe to eat off the tree.. Yum yum... I have learned a few things about blueberries. For one, it's not as easy as strawberries picking that we did a couple months ago. This is hard work people!! No wonder it costs so much for such a small container in the grocery store. The tree has sharp branch and you can't really use any machine to pick it. You have to pick it one by one by hand... Imagine that!

We spent a couple hours there picking. Well, mostly Mr. Rojo did the picking. We ended up with over 2 lbs for the whole pick and the best part was it only costed us less than $5. Afterward, we let the kids play at the swingset they have setup near the entrance of the farm. It was a really nice day. When we left, there were a lot more people rolling in. So if you plan blueberries picking, I suggest plan to go there early. Otherwise, there might not be any berries left for you to pick.

13 Ways to Be Green and Save your Green ($$)

There are a lot of people including myself that thought or still think that going green equal spending a lot of money. But recently, I found out from my own experience that going green is actually helping to save your green bill in your own pocket. Here are 13 ways to go green and save your money.

1. Go for more fuel efficient car - Well, without having to explain it I think this one is a no brainer. Not only we help reduce the pollution but we will also help our own wallet. We sold our mini-van about 6 months ago and opted for a smaller and a bit better gas mileage. Oh.. how we glad we did that even before the gas price rises up to over $4/gallon.

2. Increase A/C temperature by 2 degrees - We use fan at night and set our thermostat to 78 degrees. In the beginning, I am afraid it might be too hot. But so far no one complains. Our electric bill remains the same even though the unit price has increased.

3. Wrap up our water heater - With the investment of about $15 for the water heater blanket, I will be able to save on our energy bill for that amount within a few months. Lower energy means less pollution and also saving on our high energy bill.

4. Change to CFL light bulbs - We started off with the most used room like our kitchen table, bathroom and laundry room. The saving has also shown. We still have a few more rooms to change as soon as I can get it together to do so.

5. Brown bagging with style - Packing your own lunch by far the most recommended way to save money. But if you want to pack your lunch with style why not bring your own utensils as well. Not only you will feel better eating from the real spoon and fork but you will help reduce the plastic consumption as well.

6. No more bottles of water - We bought Brita water filter pitcher. Just fill up with our water and put it in the fridge. Voila.. We have our own water without wasting on the plastic bottle. If we want to go out, we fill it up to our reusable bottle.

7. Forget the gym.. just run - After a few months of paying the gym membership that we haven't used, it's time to pull the plug. Mr. Rojo started running instead. With an investment of a great running shoe that costs about the same of one month of the gym membership but it sure will last longer than one month. We have saved on the gym membership and gas on driving there. I guess now I need to get my runnin shoes out and join Mr. Rojo.

8. Use cold settting for washing machine - We hardly use hot setting for our regular loads of laundry anymore. I find that our clothes are just as clean with cold setting. Plus it will use less energy when we forego hot water.

9. Don't buy books. Use the library card - I admitted I have never been to public library before in Florida. Until recently I didn't know how to get a library card. But now we check out children books from the library all the time. Not only we save money from buying the book, we are reusing the books so less trees will be killed to make those books.

10. Going slower - Gasp.. This will be one of the thing that Mr. Rojo probably never thought I would have done. Driving at speed limit. I have the thing for getting to my destination with the less amount of time possible. But lately, the gas price that clocks in at more than $4/gallon really got me rethink my driving. So I tried to drive slower.. really slower.. at around 65 mph. And guess what it does help me to get more miles from my car.

11. Grow your own organic vegetable - With the increase in the awareness about organic food, you can easily find organic herb and vegetable from the home improvment store. So it's not that hard (for people with green thumbs at least) to have your own organic vegetable garden. I did try and I think if I would have bought those plants instead of seed I would be more successful.

12. Use reusable grocery bag - If you shop regularly at Whole Food, you might already know that not only you will help the environment by using your own reusable grocery bags but you will get some money for using it as well. Whole Food gives back 10 cents for each bag your bring when you shop there. Not bad.. If the bag cost $0.99 it will only take 10 trip for it to pay for itself. What are you waiting for.. Go get your own bag. :)

13. No more birthday invitation card - I recently have been using evite for the kids' birthday invitation. It has so many benefits that I don't think I will ever go back and use typical invitation cards anymore. For one, it's Free. And we don't be wasting the paper to send the card. Also we typically get better response whether they will be able to make it or not. And it has so many designs that I can pick from.. What not to love!

WW - Phromthep Cape, Phuket, Thailand

The view of Phromthep Cape in Phuket. It's the most photographed location in Phuket. We took this picture during our trip to Thailand over 4 years ago. I can't wait to go back there again.

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Building Houses with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity

This past Saturday Mr. Rojo and I were childless. We left the monkeys with the grandparents while we were out building the Habitat for Humanity house. This is our 2nd year volunteering with the Habitat through our company. It was such a great experience. Last year we helped built a home for a single mom with 2 children. This year we helped built one of the first townhouse in Atlanta. Typically, Habitat built mainly single family home in the Atlanta area. But as we all know the rising cost of land, it has become more expensive to find more afforadable land. So this year the Habitat starts a new project to build townhouse. I am so glad to be a part of this great project.

The day started early at 8am. The site was in the downtown area so for us we had to leave at around 6:30am. There was a paving project on I-75/I-85 that closed 4 left lane.. so we avoided the traffic by going on the local street thanks to our faithful Magellen. We got there right at 8am. Our company and a few other companies worked together on these townhomes. They also provided breakfast, snacks and lunch. After a quick breakfast, we met up with the home leaders who were there to facilitate and assign tasks to all the volunteers.

Before we started, they gave us the safety drill and the background on each of the homeowner. One of the main thing that a lot of people might have the misconception about the Habitat is that the house is free. But it's NOT. Homeowner, not only has to go through strict background check and financial check, they also have to put in sweat equity of 250 hours with the Habitat. The homeowner is paying for the mortgage themselves. The house is NOT free. However, the price is more affordable due to the help from volunteers to help lower the cost of labor which typically accounts for more than 60% of the home price.

This week was week 6 in the building phase. Each home typically takes about 7 weeks from start to finish. So most of our tasks this day were painting inside and outside, putting up the shingles on the roof and touch up on the porch. Mr. Rojo who afraids of height actually volunteered for the roofing task. And I was so proud of him since he did it! I was working on various painting tasks mostly outside touch up. It was hot. I was in pain after the long hot summer day outside. But there is this sense of accomplishment knowing that what I did today makes a difference in a family life. We will sign up again next year. We are addicted. It's very addictive doing the work with the Habitat. It was a great Saturday!

So how was your weekend?