An impromptu day cation

It was Saturday morning and Elizabeth had been up before 6am and wouldn't stay down for a nap. So, after walking her around our neighborhood about 9am I rushed into the house with the best idea..."Nate, let's load everyone up and go to Swanee to the cross for a hike." Now, let me tell you that my sweet husband is studying every minute he can for three qualifying exams in his doctorate program that are this Monday-Wednesday. He wasn't to keen on my idea but when I prefaced it all with "you can stay in the van and study all day," he gave in.

So as quick as I could I packed up two backpacks with water bottles, journals, cameras for the boys (that is a sure way to keep a child busy) snacks and a box for finding treasures. We loaded in the van and took off...I wanted to share our day adventure in case anyone lives in Middle TN. We found the neatest places that are truly hidden treasures for an impromptu day cation!

First we drove to Winchester, which is a little off the interstate on your way to Chattanooga. Once we found the small town I took the boys to the square where "Hammers" is located. This is a huge store (covers an entire side of the square) that sells everything from ladies linen pant suits to material to nails and kids specialty toys all for discounted prices. We had so much fun looking at all the toys upstairs that were hidden from most customers eyes. 100's of puzzles and unique games. The boys each picked out a toy to be opened on Ian's birthday next week.





Then we drove to a small town diner for a hamburger, fries and coke on the square. You gotta love those diners on a square. That is what I grew up knowing as small town food since we didn't have McDonald's or even a Dairy Queen for crying out loud in our town!

We got back on the road to head to Swanee for the big adventure only to stop before we even left the town of Winchester for another adventure. There was this garden on the side of the road with hundreds of rock lined paths covering a couple of acres. The kids and I got out and just ran for almost an hour. Up and down the trails, hiding behind beautiful rose gardens and huge rocks. That was the best!






Then we piled back in the van again heading to our destination of Swanee. But...we pass through a teeny tiny town called Cowan where there was a couple of old steam trains sitting on the side of a track by a train station. The boys spotted them and asked if we could take a look so I turned the van around and went to check it out. Again we spent about an hour climbing on the trains, pretending to be engineers and Polar Express riders. The man volunteering at the station gave us a private tour of over 100 year old station with miniature train sets all over the place. He talked to Eli and now interested Nate about the old trains and how they worked with coal. We even got to see two real trains pass by while we were on top of the grounded trains!





Back in the van...now we are truly almost to Swanee. We pass through the wonderfully quaint town (if you have never been there it is super tiny and pretty much just houses the college of Swanee) with cathedral like buildings on the campus of Swanee. It is up on top of a mountain so the view is breathtaking! Students were moving in with new parents tagging alongside on the sidewalks...it was enough to make me cry thinking about my little ones in the van and where I will be one day when they too are old enough to set off on their own.

We drove down the 'secret' road to the cross and finally made it to our destination. The cross is a monument built to honor all those men and women of Swanee who had died in past wars. It overlooks the neighboring cities for a view that is so peaceful and well worth the drive! Even the boys took time to stop and photograph the lookout. We then took off on a short hike (I was by myself in the forest on top of a mountain with two boys and a baby in a pack...we weren't going too far). Eli looked at me and said "this is the best day mom!" That alone melted my heart b/c he often times seems so hard to please! It was truly the most fun day I have had with the kids all summer.





On the way home we stopped in Manchester to get ice cream at the Russel Stovers candy store (a well kept secret but the best place to get good quality ice cream cheap!) Tired and dirty we drove back home...and the best part? Elizabeth finally napped!