The Pocket

A friend of ours invited us to go on a little trip.  We met her at her church at Mount Vernon Methodist in Rockyface, GA.  We ate lunch and then drove about 20 mins from there to the Chattahoochee National Forest.  Look at the bottom of the post for a link to a map.

This place was a little piece of heaven.  So peaceful and clean.  It was quite with the water that was cold and clear as crystal flowing in multiple stream beds.

This is the source of a great deal of the spring water.  It flows straight out of this spring box and the kids loved playing all around this spring house.

There is some pretty cool history attached to this place and you can read about it while you are there.  There are hiking trails and falls to visit and even a beautiful overlook.  You could spend all day at this sanctuary.

Oh and not to mention that the kids found snails, caught little fish and even crawdads as well.

If you go, let us know!

Belleair Beach, Florida

This is probably the best beach experience we have had as a family.

The beaches were clean and only littered with seashells. 

Our two littlest bits didn't remember what the ocean was like and I'm kind of glad.

Their last experiences a few summers ago left them sitting on the sand wishing they could play in the water.  This experience was the opposite.  They wouldn't leave the water.

From the waves to the buoy it was about 5 feet deep max.  I don't think it ever got over my head.  The water was flat and smooth most of the time with occasional waves from boats that had passed by or the tide rolling in.

There was not a single piece of beach that wasn't touched by shells.

There were so many.

In our entire lives we'd never seen shells so beautiful all in one place.

When we were little we would have been so excited to find shells like these but because there were so many, we only picked the best ones.  Kind of reminds of God's blessings.

I love how there are many different colors throughout the day.  The blues go from light and muted to bright blue and white!

There was a small pool at this condo but we told the kids we came for the ocean.  We can swim in a pool back home. It was just the right size for a quick dip before heading to the room though.

It's pictures like the one below that make it worth the drive.

It's kind of neat to introduce your kids to all of God's handiwork and for them to feel how great it is.

We finished off the last night with a crab hunt.  We just needed flashlights and we walked the beach until dark.  Then the hunting began.  They weren't very successful, we only found one and then it started to rain and chased us back to the room.

If nothing else, we enjoyed the view and the experience, every second.

The Chattanooga Watersteps

This is the Watersteps at Ross's landing in Chattanooga.  The kids love this little gem that is right next to the salt water aquarium in Downtown.

The water is only about 18 inches at its deepest so it is a good place to take little kids that can't swim yet.

They splash around and have a blast for as long as we let them.

Evan took a break and posed for a quick picture.

This is an easy place to take your kids if you are just looking for a place to get wet.  Downtown Chattanooga has several places that the kids can safely play in the water while you relax in the shade. My kids love to go to Rita's across the street for Italian Ice.  That's the part they never let me forget. Just across the Tennessee River from this is Coolidge Park that has an awesome fountain the kids can play in and carousel that only costs $1 to ride.  Be careful not to accidentally buy 18 tickets like Aimee did.  That's alot of times around. I will be posting some pictures of that soon.

Farmers Lake at Red Clay Resort

Farmers Lake has been around for nearly a century.  It is a naturally spring fed swimming hole that has a gravel bottom in about a 12 foot pool of water.  Along the rim of the pond it is concrete. There is a baby pool in the shade over looking the pond.

This is probably my boys favorite place to visit in the summer.  We take the blankets and towels and coolers and snacks stay all day.  We can even cook out under the pavilion if we want to.

There is a concession stand for snacks as well or you can rent floats for the day.

Open from 10-6 p.m.

Lifeguards on duty

S5.00 per person during the week.

$7.00 per person during the weekend.

You CAN bring coolers, they have grills and a pavillion.

You can also rent the space after hours.

Check out that high dive!

Aimee would want me to tell you about the hand washing station and clean restrooms.

This place is kept so clean!

This momma takes her books and chilaxes while the lifeguards are in charge!

It's about a 15 -20 minute drive from East Brainerd, TN or Ringgold were we live.

Red Clay Resort in Cohutta is what you are looking for.

Swimming Holes on Lookout Mountain

Cooper jumped in for his first swim of 2014 at Nana and Papaw's house in Mentone, AL on Saturday.  This is their backyard.  He loves being here and swimming all day in the Little River.

Evan and I went fishing Sunday morning before it was hot enough to swim.  This tiny river is full of Large-mouth Bass and Brim.  all you need is a rod and rooster tail and you can catch all the fish you want.  There's nothing like the excitement of catching a fish all by yourself when you're eight years old.  He was so proud of his little bass.  I caught a few too.  Soon after this we had to leave and head off to our next adventure.

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The next stop was at Desoto Falls, also in Mentone, AL just a few miles from Nana and Papaw's house.  Cooper asked if the water below the 90 foot waterfall was deep enough to jump in.  I assured him it was plenty deep enough but hitting the water would really hurt... so he didn't jump.

Instead they went swimming in the pools above the falls.  They also went swimming above the A. A. Miller dam that you see in the background.  They love the water! 

Momma got some Hemingway in while the bits swam at the dam.

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The bits and I got a cat nap in on the way to Little River Falls.

We look lost don't we.  The trail down to the Little River Falls isn't marked  very well.  Fortunately a group of people that went the wrong way showed up and told us which way not to go and we had not trouble finding the way after that.

We made our last stop on Lookout Mountain at The Little River Falls at the start to the Little River Canyon.  We had been to the Falls before and looked at them from the boardwalk above the waterfall but we wanted to swim in the pool below the fall.  This was an awesome place to go.  There is a rock that you can climb up and jump off into the 10 to 12 foot water and you can swim up to the falls and climb the rocks and walk behind it.  The walk down to the pool does require some climbing (alot of climbing) and a fairly long walk across over a dry riverbeds rocks so you should wear appropriate shoes.  Our middle son Evan said that it was like practicing to be a  mountain climber.  We had no idea what we were in for.  Aimee wore sandals that I would call flip flops and she would NOT recommend her shoe choice.  We decided that we will research our future destinations a little more before we embark on them.





What's a Bit?

By default our boys are bits, says auto-correct.  So, for sentimental reasons now we call our boys 'bits".  They're bits of myself and bits of my wife but together to make up their own individual unique bitness.

So, lets get down to bitness.

This blog is solely to document a hinge moment in our lives that becomes a series of adventures for our family.  As time has ticked forward we have realized that life is about the experience.  It's not about the daily grind day in and day out.  We want to teach our 3 bits that there's just so much more to experience and see in this big ol' world.

We hope that our travels and experiences will inspire you to get out in this world and BREATHE!