Griffy lake is a small reservoir in Bloomington IN, constructed by damming the Griffy creek. This was constructed as a water source for Bloomington city. However it has been bit ignorant at present because seems like it needs some serious cleanup. Anyway it is a nice place to visit. There is a canoe rental service available near the lake. We can see many people enjoying boat rides and fishing. The lake is surrounded by hiking trails too.

This is very closed to Indiana University, Bloomington.

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Hickory ridge fire tower is located in Hoosier national forest, Indiana (close to Bloomington, IN). The tower, built in 1936,  has been manned and used as a lookout tower to protect the forest from wildfire. It is the last lookout tower remaining in the Hoosier national forest.

Though the tower is not used for fire tracking purpose now, it is used by visitors to experience a wonderful panoramic view of the Hoosier forest. We visited there in early Fall 2010 and here are some pictures....

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Lake Patoka, which is located in southern Indiana, is the second largest reservoir in Indiana state. This is a man made reservoir, mainly built for flood controlling purpose. It has been created by damming the Patoka river. 

We visited there last summer (2010) and enjoyed the evening. The lake shores were beautiful and there was a swimming area with a safe margin. Many people and kids were playing in the water. It was worth watching the sunset from the shore. It offers camping / biking and hiking areas too (Map of Patoka lake).  

The lake is about 70 miles south from Bloomington, IN. So it took about 1 1/2 hours for us for the trip.  I am posting some sceneries we captured.

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Lake Monroe is the Indiana's largest lake, located near Indiana University, Bloomington. It is a man made reservoir, built mainly for flood controlling purpose.

There are many picnic areas, shelters and a boat rental service too. It's a nice place to relax and enjoy. Also, this place is attractive to nature lovers. Following picture was taken in last summer (2010). There were many ducks and ducklings swimming here and there. 

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Saliya and I were tired of being idle through out the summer as many of our family friend were away for their internships. So we decided to go and visit some place if we can make it within a day. Finally we chose Indianapolis Zoo, which is about 50 miles away from Bloomington, IN. 

We rent a car from Ace for one day. Ace is a good place for car rentals. The people seemed to be friendly and we didn't experience any inconvenience either. Also, they allow to keep your car parked there, till you come back. They even pick you up if you want to.  

It took about 1 hour for us to reach the Zoo. Here is the route we took from Bloomington to Indianapolis zoo.


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There was a Dolphin show at 10.00 a.m. We really enjoyed it. Anyway what I have to say about the rest is "Not worth watching for the people who have been to tropical countries". The zoo was not much big and there were small number of tropical animals. We had lunch from a cafeteria inside the zoo and left the place sooner than we thought.

Then we thought to watch an iMax show in Indy AMC theater. The movie is Inception. Well, that was cool, so our trip was not just a waste. We had dinner on the way home from a Subway.

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Adler Planetarium is located near the lake Michigan and it is closed to the Field Museum too. So we walked there after visiting Field museum. Hmm...I should say this is another good source of study for kids but there is nothing interesting for adults. The planetarium was built nicely but shows include only normal stuff which we have already experienced.

When we step outside after the show it was extremely windy out there. The planetarium was built near Michigan shore and we could see the nice view of city line from there.

We had dinner on our way home. It was late night when we reach home.
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Field Museum of Natural History is located near lake Michigan. The museum has a huge collection of specimens. The exhibits include a Tyrannosaurus skeleton named Sue, Egyptian mummies, a nice gem collection and dinosaur skeletons.  

From the Gem collection.....Most of them were from Sri Lanka.


This museum is a good source of studies for students. Anyway it was not much interesting as I thought. We had our lunch from a Macdonalds inside the museum. Then rushed to the Adler Planetarium which is located nearby.

Willis tower is considered as the tallest building in the western hemisphere. There is sky decks set up for visitors for observation. Tickets can be purchased at Chicago Skydeck tickets.

We were heading towards the Willis Tower early in the morning because we wanted to go there before the mist fall like the day before. But ohh we were so unlucky so that the entire space was covered by the mist when we reach there. Anyhow we took the tour because we had no other option.

We could hardly see the ground from the sky deck for sometime and it totally got disappeared within few minutes.

It might have been a really nice experience if it was not misty. So watch out for mist if you are planning a visit to willis tower.

Then we left for our next target, Fields museum - Chicago.

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We had reserved rooms in Staybridge Suits for one night. It was a really nice environment. Room was well cleaned and everything was well organized. It is really worthy for the price ($70 for one night). There was the small pantry, living area and a clean bath in the suit.

We had wireless access there. It is a really nice place to consider for a vacation stay. We had a good sleep hoping to visit Willis tower sky deck next morning.
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Shedd Aquarium was said to be the world's largest indoor aquarium for sometime. It took the entire afternoon to see the aquarium and there were some interesting, rare and beautiful species.

This frog is poisonous so that touching it's skin can cause death to a human.   

Sea horse and Sea dragon

Deadly Jelly fish

However this aquarium was not so great as we expected. First thing is we missed the dolphin show because there were no tickets when we arrive. Also, there were no water tunnels we can go through and the environment was not much attractive. Although there are so many rare species, there was no beauty which an aquarium should have. So if you are willing to see a really good aquarium, this may not be the place.

It was about 6.00 P.M. when we get out of the aquarium. We bought dinner from an Indian restaurant and drove to the hotel (Staybridge suits) we had reserved for the night. 
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It was our 2nd trip in US. Actually we had to plan it in a rush as it was a bit busy time. Anyhow we could reserve a weekend for the trip. We bought this Chicago city pass for $70 which includes tickets for five places in the city.

We left home at about 8.00 A.M. on a Saturday in April, 2010. We had our breakfast on the way. It was about 1.00 P.M when we arrive in Chicago. Following map shows the route from bloomington, IN to Chicago, IL.
 

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The city was so misty in that weekend. Sometimes we couldn't even see the buildings properly.

After having homemade lunch, our target was to see Shedd Aquarium which was said to be the largest indoor aquarium for sometime.
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Mammoth cave is said to be the world's longest underground caving system. The cave consists of several different layers/levels and there is an underground river flowing through the bottom layer. There are many interesting tours available for visitors which guide to different parts of the cave.We chose the New Entrance Tour which also includes Frozen Niagara Tour.

The entry of the New entrance tour is a man made entrance.

We descended several layers down. There were long, large natural passage ways, flat ceilings and rooms with flat floors.

The best part was Frozen Niagara. It exactly looks like a frozen waterfall because of formed travertine.

This tour reminded me the story of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain . This is a place we should revisit someday, for another tour.
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We decided to visit Mammoth Cave in Kentuky on our way home. The map below shows the way we drove from Pigeon Forge to Mammoth cave.


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After the wonderful sky lift ride we thought to see the Replys Believe It or Not Museum which is located nearby. There were so many interesting things to see including world's largest tire, some weird species, shrunken heads and much more.

I have read about this tradition of tribes in Tarzan story books. Some tribes keep their village headman's or other important villagers' head shrunken after his death. However this is the first time I saw a real shrunken head.

This was labeled as a Tibetan Prayer Book. Actually the language it is written in, is Sinhala (in Kandy era). This Buddhist prayer book however has been transferred from Sri Lanka to Tibet as the two countries had religious connections at that time.

Finally we turned back to our lodge in Pigeon forge ane we missed Dollywood as it was closed till April.
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This is one thing I like the most in Gatlinburg. The sky lift is sort of a cable car which takes you to the top of the crokket mountain. It was bit scary when the seat swings but it was gone within a minute. I think this is the best scenic tour in Gatlinburg. You can experience really nice scenaries of smoky mountains in your return trip.

River below


They have set up a camera to take pictures of the passengers when they reach the hill top. They print it and sell the pic at a price of $12. Passengers can buy it if they wish. I think it is too much for a photo. It is great if we can have the digital copy at a lower price.

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The Juney Whank fall is located in Great Smoky Mountains. There is a horse/foot trail heading to the fall which is about quarter a mile long. Juney Whank fall is a beautiful small sized waterfall. There is a footbridge provided for visitors and it gives an up-close view of the fall.

Horse trail

Footbridge

It is a nice relaxing environment. It is a nice feeling when water droplets embrace us and so nice to hear the continuous sound of rushing water. We didn't want to get up from the bench at all. That footbridge is a great idea. Many hanks to the person who brought it up.

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A trip to Tennessee means a trip to Smokies. Smoky mountains are located along the Tennessee-North Carolina border. We decided to drive up the Smoky mountains on 3rd day of Tennessee trip. Our target was to drive to the Juney Whank fall in smokies. Considering the distance we roughly estimated that it'll take about three hours for the round trip. First we dropped in the Smoky mountains visitor center and bought a map of smokies. Then we started the journey heading towards Juney Whank fall.

The route was scenic and we enjoyed the drive so much.

These scenaries would have been more beautiful if it was summer or fall (we went there in early spring). However, it took about 5 hours for the journey. How good our estimation was? :) Well, we did it wrong. We didn't consider it as a mountain at the first place :D 

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Our plan for the third day was to climb Smoky mountains and then to see around Gatlinburg city. So this time we tried to get up as early as possible and yes we could leave Blue bird ridge at about 10 a.m. The Smokies and Gatlinburg were about 15 minutes away from Pigeon forge. Here is the route.


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Then we started our journey to Great Smoky Mountains. Our Target was to see Juney Whank falls which is in Smokies. It took so much time to drive to the fall and to return. Actually our estimation has been doubled. We were dying to see a Mcdonalds coz we were that much hungry. Finally we learnt a good lesson in time estimation when climbing mountains :)

We went for a sky lift ride after the lunch and then to see Ripleys Believe It or Not museum in Gatlinburg. It was about 6 p.m. when we come out from the museum. Our next target was Dollywood adventure park. Unlucky mee !! it was closed :(  We missed one hell of a fun time and I don't know how much they missed in revenue by keeping it closed during the spring break.

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We had a nice helicopter ride on our 2nd day in Pigeon forge. It was a great experience because it was our first time. There were so many packages to choose from. We chose the tour called River island tour. It was a four minutes tour costing $20 per person. In my opinion the tour is worthy for the cost. In this tour we can experience a nice scenic view. Here are some photos taken from the sky.

The river island

The lake. We didn't fly over it. It was included in another package (Douglas lake tour).

They provide head phones to communicate with the pilot during the tour, at a cost of extra $2 (as I remember). I was not listening to him anyway. I was lost in my own thoughts and sceneries below. In three words, "It was magnificent". 

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Our intention was to see around pigeon forge in 2nd day of our vacation. We decided to get up early in the morning because time means fun. However it was 10 a.m. when the first person gets up and shouts others :) So we hurried to get ready and had lunch in few minutes because we had reserved tickets for the helicopter tour at 11.30 a.m. Luckily we were able to reach there on time. We had a nice four minutes helicopter ride and then got lost in Pigeon forge.

Wonder Works

This is an amazing piece of work. It is built to look like an upside down house. When you reach the entrance you can hear some sounds of cracks and can see a mist simulating a smoke. We feel like it is going to collapse in few minutes. The interior design also is amazing. It really looks like an upside down house.

This is a must see thing in Pigeon forge. Of course the entrance is free of charge.

We had our lunch from an IHOP nearby. Well, I name that day as a go-kart day.  The main thing we did was "Go Karting" :) We got a package for five go-kart rides for $25 per person. It was really fun and we became go-kart experts at the end of the day.

We had a great dinner at our Sri Lankan friend's place in Knocksville, TN. We played Poker and Taboo after the dinner. Thanks to them we had a great time.

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We reserved Blue Bird Ridge cabin to stay our vacation in Tennessee, for three nights. It is located in Pigeon forge, TN. First I should say Blue Bird Ridge is a great cabin to consider for a vacation. It is a three bed room cabin and we were six. So it was more than enough for our stay. We got a special deal to get one night free when we reserve two nights. The cost was $385 for the whole stay ($65 per head). The cabin includes a pool table, two TVs, a hot bath tub and two baths.

Anyway few things to mention......beware, there is no internet. If you are not sure that you will be able to stay out of your businesses during the vacation, then don't go for it. Also, it is better you bring your blankets and stuff. Fortunately we did. The blankets except bed sheets were not well cleaned (not cleaned at all I guess). However it is a great cabin for the amount you spend.
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We visited Cumberland falls, KY on our way to Tennessee. It is a nice place to visit. It is great if we could go there in fall or summer. We couldn't see the real beauty because the trees around were naked yet as the spring was just begun.

There were passenger areas built in different levels to see the fall in different view points. Though we liked to stay little longer, we had to leave that pleasant scene because all were hungry.

We searched for horse riding spots nearby but they were closed during the spring break.
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