See Rock City

Today we went to Rock City, a garden attraction on top of Lookout Mountain If you've travelled down South, you may have seen random barns along the highways with the roofs painted red and "See Rock City" painted on top - a hold-over from the Depression era (quite fitting given the current economic climate).

Rock City is one of the main tourist attractions in Chattanooga and Kirk and I had been waiting for someone to visit us so we would have an excuse to go. It's basically just a huge garden with some really cool rock formations. Unfortunately nothing was really blooming when we went but we could see the potential and will probably go back in a few weeks to see it when the leaves are changing and next spring when the flowers are blooming.

The views from the top of the mountain are pretty impressive - you can supposedly see 7 states (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia) from the edge of the mountain. It was a little hazy the day we went so you couldn't see that far but the views across Chattanooga were beautiful.

The best part was that Rock City allows dogs in the park! We are always sad to leave Rosco at home when we head out for an adventure and were thrilled that we were able to bring him along with us. He loved exploring the cracks and crevices around the park and, of course, peeing on all of the plants. He was a little too fearless for our liking; he had no problem walking right up to the edge of a cliff! Kirk had fun sticking Rosco's head through the various peek-a-boo attractions around the park.

The creepiest thing about Rock City was all of the gnomes that they had placed throughout the park. One section was nothing but blacklights illuminating creepy gnomes. Would have been cool if you were tripping on LSD or something but we just got a little freaked out.

Kim's Visit!

My sister Kim came in town to meet Sam today! She actually flew into Atlanta on Friday and spent Friday night and Saturday with my other sister, Christy. They drove up to Chattanooga today and we all had lunch before Christy headed back home. Then Kirk and I took Kim over the Chattanooga Market - a weekly farmer's market/craft fair downtown. Kim carried Sam around in the Baby Bjorn and got all the attention from the vendors. People love babies!

CultureFest

Today we went to CultureFest - a festival in our local park to celebrate the diversity of Chattanooga. I know, it seems like a oxymoron - diversity in the South? - but there really were quite a few cultural organizations there. They had a stage for the various groups to perform cultural dances and displays and booths set up to sell trinkets and hand out information. We took Sam over and watched some dances by the Chinese group and the Indian organization. It was a beautiful day and a great excuse to get outside!

All bundled up...

Just a cute picture of Sam getting ready for bed - all swaddled up! She sleeps twice as long if we bundle her up in this swaddle blanket. She escapes if we try to use any other blanket - she's a real Houdini!

Sleeping and bathing...

Here are a couple of cute pictures of Sam after her bath and sleeping on the couch. She loves her baths with dad. He puts her tub in the shower (we don't have a bathtub) with the showerhead pointed at her belly. The water splashes up on her face and she just sits there mesmerized! If she's fussy, a bath is one of the few things that can calm her down. Lucky for us, she's not fussy very often! When she sleeps, she loves to spread herself out. This is just one example of the funny positions we'll find her in during a nap...

Pot Point Trail

We took Sam out today for her first hike. We went out to the Tennessee River Gorge (about 20 minutes from our house) and went on the Pot Point Loop Trail. It's about 4 miles long with a significant climb on the way out and tracks the Tennessee River on the way back in. It was our first time on this trail and we really liked it. Sam loves being in the Baby Bjorn and slept the entire hike. Rosco loves hikes - he runs out in front of us and sniffs around then runs back to make sure that we're coming his way. He wags his tail the whole time and is so excited! He especially loved swimming at the end of the trial. We got him in the river and he chased some sticks for us. Nothing better in Rosco's mind then getting out in the woods, sniffing some animal trails, and finishing up with a swim!

Only downside of the hike was the bugs, on the way back we were only about 20 feet from the river most of the time so there was quite a bit of standing water. Standing water in Tennessee in September is bad news! Fret not though, Sam came away unscathed. Kirk did a great job of keeping the mosquitos off of her (or killing them while they were in the process of trying to bite her!) The rest of us were not so lucky though. Kirk and I had chigger bites all around both ankles and Kirk also had chigger bites where the Baby Bjorn pressed against his chest. Poor Rosco got it the worst though, the chiggers attacked pretty much his whole body. He recovered faster than Kirk and I though; he itched for 2-3 days while we itched for 2-3 weeks! It had been years since I had been attacked by chiggers and I hope it is another 20 years before it happens again!

Smiles!

Sam has reached her first milestone! She's started smiling while awake (she's been smiling in her sleep for a week or so). She doesn't seem to smile at us or in reaction to anything that we do yet so it's probably just gas. But it's cute nonetheless! We haven't been able to get a good picture yet but here's the best we can do.

In case you're wondering why she's wearing such a huge outfit. We bought a 12 month onesie and are taking her picture in it every month to watch her growth.

Portland - Day 3

We woke up to nasty weather today - overcast and rainy. But we decided to venture out and spend the day in downtown Portland. We bundled up Sam and went downtown. Portland has an area called the "Old Port" district which is the old part of town, complete with cobblestone streets. The old buildings have been made into shops and restaurants and the result is a great area that is totally walkable and cool. We stopped by the visitor's center to pick up some pamphlets on things to do. Then we went to have a quick lunch at another brew pub (do you see a theme here?). While eating lunch, I got a phone call from the judge I had interviewed with offering me the job. I immediately accepted and Kirk and I decided to stay at the pub and have another beer in celebration! We ended up spending a couple of hours there and just heading back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. We figured that we didn't need to do a lot of the touristy activities in the bad weather since we would be moving there in 11 months!

We flew out of Portland early Saturday morning and had another great flight. Sam was really good on the plane again and we were happy to pick up our Rosco from my sister's house and head home!

Portland - Day 2

I got up early this morning and went to my interview. Kirk stayed back at the hotel with Sam and slept in. After my interview, I went back to the hotel and we drove around Kirk's old neighborhood. He remembered exactly where he used to live and it was fun to see his old stomping grounds. We took Sam out to see the ocean for her first time!

After driving around the neighborhoods near Old Orcharch Beach and taking Sam out to see Maine's sandy beach, we headed up towards the city to find Maine's famous Rocky Coast. We went out to the Portland Head Light - the most famous lighthouse in Portland. From the head light, you could see down into the city, some of the islands off the coast of Portland, and got great views of the rocky coast. It was pretty windy and chilly so we didn't stay long. Didn't want to expose Sam to too much weather!

We had lunch at a famous Portland restaurant, the Lobster Shack. Neither Kirk nor I were feeling particularly adventurous so, sad to say, we skipped the lobster and fried clams in favor of cheeseburgers and onion rings! The restaurant had killer views of the ocean and the rocky coast so we spent a little time just enjoying the views.

After a nap back at the hotel, we went to downtown Portland for dinner. We went to Sebago brew pub to taste a few of the local brews. Kirk loved their beers - IPAs in Portland are really hoppy which is exactly how he likes them. We finally tried the seafood - I had a lobster roll and Kirk had fish and chips. Overall, we had a great day in Portland!

Portland!

Having decided a few months ago that Chattanooga was not going to be our permanent hometown, Kirk and I have been researching and talking about potential places to move in Fall 2009 when my clerkship in Chattanooga ends. Because I enjoy clerking so much, I decided to selectively apply for another clerkship in a different location. I applied to judges in New England and a few mountain towns out West. On Monday September __th, I got a phone call from a judge in Portland, Maine inviting me to come up there for an interview on Thursday. Kirk and I debated about whether I should go and I was on the fence. Portland was definitely towards the top of our list of places to move but I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Sam so soon. After much debate and discussion, we decided to make a family vacation out of it!

We booked last-minute tickets to Portland on miles and flew out Wednesday night. We dropped Rosco off with my sister (thanks Christy!) and headed to the airport. Travelling with a baby means you have to bring so much more stuff! We were only going for 3 days but we each had a suitcase to check and each had 2 carry-ons. Luckily we were able to get a direct flight from Atlanta to Portland; the flight was just over 2 hours long. We definitely got some funny looks from people before we boarded the flight and a few people even made semi-nasty comments about taking such a young baby on the plane. We were laughing as people at the boarding area looked at us - you could see it in their mind that they were hoping not to be sat by us. I can't blame them as I used to do the exact same thing when I saw people bringing a baby on the plane! But we were super lucky as Sam was wonderful on the plane - just a few little peeps when she got uncomfortable but she slept 99% of the time.

We arrived in Portland around 11:30 p.m. and the temperature was only about 40 degrees. We were loving it! We went straight to our hotel. We decided to stay south of the city in Old Orchard Beach because Kirk used to live down there at an environmental center over 10 years ago. He wanted to see his old neighborhood so we booked a hotel down by the beach. I had my interview first thing in the morning so we went straight to bed.

Cute picture

Just a cute picture of Sam at home. She's pretty good these days at keeping her head from flopping backwards but still doesn't have much control in other directions. She spends more and more time awake and alert and we've started reading to her and trying to get her to interact with us. No smiles yet but we're anticipating that they will come soon!

Venturing Out

We got Sam all dressed up to go meet my co-workers for lunch. We just went to Qdoba for a burrito but it was our first adventure out of the house as a family. Doesn't she look cute in her outfit??? By the way, that is Kirk's morning glory vine that looks like it's going to eat her. It is taking over our back porch swing!