TN weekend

I am aware that this is unsafe... but Baxter is a natural...

I headed down to TN for the weekend to visit Kraig and Baxter. I got there on Thursday night and settled into Kraig's cozy, little place. I was so happy to see Big B (that's Baxter's nickname), and he was happy to see me. I am taking him to the vet in the morning to get neutered... poor baby, he doesnt even know what is coming!
Anyways, the neutering went well. Baxter did not have any problems and once we finally were able to pick him up- he didn't seem to be in any pain. His discharge instructions were to have decreased activity for 3 days, but by the time we got him home he was running all around playing with his toys. He is unstoppable.
The weather in TN is pretty bad, by their standards. About 3 inches of snow fell along with some ice.. and everything shut down Friday evening and most of Saturday... which did not work out too well because so did the vet clinic! I was supposed to be able to get Baxter Friday evening, but the clinic closed early and they didn't even call me. Then- no one was there to answer the phone Saturday morning when they were supposed to be open. The only way I even got him back was to put a note on the office door to have them call me so we could come and get him. Once I finally got him (at 4pm on Saturday), I was so relieved to have my kitty back! I was so worried.
Things are definitely different in Tennessee. Things are much slower. It is very obvious to me coming from the DC/Metro area where it is probably one of the fastest-paced/busiest places in the country. Even though the whole thing with the vet was annoying and inconsiderate... I do like it in Tennessee. I like being the only one in a rush!! ha. I had to keep reminding myself that things are different over here. Did I mention that pretty much everyone wears either bright orange or some form of camouflage? It's so weird!
On Saturday night, Kraig and I hung out with his work buddies. we ate at a restaurant on Watts Bar Lake (the lake where Kraig's power plant is located). The restaurant was a bit, well dumpy- but the food was good and the beer was cheap! The restaurant was out on a patio overlooking some cheap houseboats! The patio was nice and warm, so it was nice... and well, Kraig said he looked into renting a houseboat but said they were really bad. It would have been so cool though if he had been able to get a nice one. I like Kraig's friends. They are fun guys. I met Bobby, Kasey, and Tim. They are pipeliners, which is a division of the the pipefitters union. They want Kraig to come and be a pipeliner because they want to keep hanging out with him!
After that, we went back to Bobby's place in the RV park and had some "beverage" together. That's all I'm saying. It was really fun! Kraig hangs out with and eats dinner with these guys a lot, and I am happy that he found friends.
By Sunday afternoon- we finally got around to heading for Chattanooga to go to the aquarium. The Tennessee Aquarium was voted by TripAdvisor as one of the best aquariums in the country. We really liked it, and we really liked the city of Chattanooga- definitely a place we would like to go back and check out when we have more time. Anyways, the aqaurium had a lot of neat things. It actually resemebled the Baltimore Aquarium a lot- inside and out (but we also liked the Baltimore Aquarium so that's okay).
The aquarium was divided into two buildings- each took the visitor on a different journey. One building started in the Appalachian mountains and followed water's journey to the Gulf of Mexico, so it mostly focused on freshwater animals. It also highlighted animals that live in other freshwater bodies of water and rivers around the world. It was pretty cool. I did not know that there were small rainforests called "cove forests" in the mountains. There were a lot of neat things in this building, including a seahorse exhibit. I did not know there were so many different kinds or that some species could be found in the Chesapeake Bay!! Snorkeling anyone?

I also got to touch a sturgeon (an ancient fish that can live to be 150 years old).

There was an otter exhibit in this building too. There were two of them in a tank with a

waterfall and a bunch of rocks and logs to play on. They were having such a good time swimming, diving, doing back-flips, and going through the waterfall. They were actually so fast that we could not get a good picture of them. I really think it would be fun to be an otter!
The other bulding focused more on saltwater species and went through many different saltwater habitats.

There was a butterfly garden too. The volunteer taught us how to pick them up. Kraig was trying to put a bunch on me and take a picture, but once he would go and take the picture- most of them would fly away. It was still fun though. The reef tanks were beautiful- lots of schools of fish and some sharks too. There were even some sea turtles. I was proud of myself when I identified the species as a Green Sea Turtle all on my own. I must have learned something volunteering last year in Florida!! There was an exhibit on jellyfish... but we just shook our fist at them.. and said, you will not fool us you evil jellyfish (as we have had "encounters" with them in the past)! We got to see a nautilus which was cool, because we dont think we have ever seen one of them in an aquarium before. Also, in this building we got to feed some shrimp to a bunch of different kinds of stingrays including one with blue spots. The stingrays never wanted to eat Kraig's shrimp but he finally coaxed one into it.

Another cool thing at the aquarium was that there were a couple of modified fish tanks so you could actually go inside of them and be surrounded by the fish and look out at the people. It was pretty cool, like being underwater. There were also some tanks that had areas where you could lay down and look up at the fish swimming over you. I thought that these were really cool features that the aquarium offered. I would totally like to volunteer here if I end up on assignment in TN! They are involved in a lot of conservation efforts too. That evening we ate dinner at Applebees on the way home which is somewhere we always used to go when we weren't so far apart. So- that was nice.
Monday was my last day there. We bought new phones- we have moved into the 21st century! We now have internet and a keyboard for texting on our phones. Mostly we got them because Kraig had no service with our old phone provider out in the sticks. We also got to eat at Sonic! Once Kraig went to work, I made the long- 9 hour drive back to Maryland with Baxter in tow. It is not a fun drive when it is dark out, so unfortunately, I do not plan on doing it again until my assignment is over at the end of March.
All in all it was a really fun weekend. Baxter was really happy when he got back to the MD apartment so that he had more room to run around and tear things up. I was just happy to go to bed!