Souvinier Shopping

We went to Chattanooga for a family field-trip one day during Spring Break. Our stops included the Creative Discovery Museum (which I highly recommend), a walk around downtown, the Civil War battlefield atop Lookout Mountain at Point Park, and dinner at J. Alexander's . . . and a quick trip to the mall as well!

We told the kids they could have a souvinier from one of the gift shops we visited during the day, but not something from all of them. They both, of course, couldn't stand it and chose something from our very first location -- the museum.

(The kids in the lookout tower at the Creative Discovery Museum)

Point Park has a wonderful visitor's center and a touristy Civil War memorbelia gift shop. There were so many cool 'boy toys' in there ... soldier gear, toy soldiers, flags. Hudson was enthralled! He kept looking around longingly at all the things he knew he shouldn't ask for. Frustrated, he finally blurted out (loudly), "Doesn't this store have anything for FREE?" Even the clerk cracked up!

(This is a replica Civil War cannon poised outside the gift shop; this pic was taken prior to the above-mentioned incident; Hudson is pouting only because climbing on the cannon wasn't his idea first. Gracious!)

After the battlefield stop, we toured around Lookout Mountain a little while -- the homes up there are amazing, and we saw the signs for Rock City so we decided to check that out. About half-way into winding toward this tourist mecca, we noticed that the signs for Rock City also included a Starbucks sign. No kidding! We thought this was hilarious, and there really is a Starbucks at Rock City -- built out of rock across from the entrance to the park.