We went to Atlanta for the 4th of July weekend to meet with Ninang Judy. Mama wrote about it here, on the Mother Ship. We have previously driven to Atlanta at least 3 times already thus it seemed we ran out of places to explore there.
On the way home, however, somewhere in Chattanooga, Mama saw a huge sign directing us to Ruby Falls. Why not, said Papa. And so we did.
Entrance to Ruby Falls. The castle-like structure is actually made from the rocks that were dug up from the mountain when they were constructing the public passageway to the falls.
Ruby Falls was named after the wife of the Leo Lambert, the guy who discovered the hidden falls inside Lookout Mountain. The complete history of Ruby Falls can be found here.
Lookout Mountain is actually composed of three major attractions: Ruby Falls, Incline Railway, and Rock City. Unfortunately, we could only visit Ruby Falls this time because it was already 3pm and we still had 5 hours of driving to go to get home.
To get to the Falls, we had to walk 1 mile underground and inside the twisting caverns of Lookout Mountain. The rock formations are awesome, and even dating to as far back as several million years.
The guide said a mountain as tall as the Empire State Building was sitting atop us. That's not very comforting to know, is it?
Where? Perhaps if I squint a little?
As the sign says, this rock formation is millions of years old. Wow! It's leaning alright.
I don't actually remember what this is called, probably "creepy rocks", hehe.
Rest muna.
When we got to the farthest end of the cave, it suddenly got pitch dark although we could hear water gushing somewhere. And then, like a fancy Las Vegas show, dancing lights started to come on and, behold, right in front of us was: the Falls!
Ehem, ok so our picture didn't do it justice.
Here's one we swiped from the website. Beautiful! You really have to be there to appreciate this wonder!
And so, our Ruby Falls detour ends.
Going home, Papa remarked to Mama that he wished our Philippine attractions were as cared for and showcased by our country in the way the Americans do. Mama agreed.
Hopefully, the breath-taking attractions Papa and Mama hoped for me to see in the Philippines would still be there waiting patiently and beautifully for me someday.