Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I spent most of my weekend in bed, I injured my foot last week and walking was a bit of an issue. It’s now just sore and I at least can put my weight on it. I did get to spend a wonderful evening outside Saturday now with my boyfriend. He made an awesome campfire, grilled me hot dogs over the open fire, and we binge-watched more Big Bang Theory projected on the house. With all this staying at home, it brought me to things I have done in the past few months that I never got to share on social media or the blog.
The last thing I got to do before COVID-19 shut everything down was going to Ruby Falls for Valentine’s Day. Ruby Falls is an amazing 145-foot waterfall buried over 1000 feet underground! Ruby Falls was named after the wife of Leo Lambert, the man who discovered Ruby Falls. Their wonderful love story made for a perfect tour with a very romantic setting.
Ruby Falls offers Lantern Tours which are on a very limited basis, and even more so for Valentine’s Day, which gives you a chance to tour the cave without all the cheesy lights and large crowds. I have toured Ruby Falls a few times and this was the first time it was with only lanterns. It was simply amazing! Getting rid of all the commercial aspects of it really brought the cave to life.
When you reach the final point of the cave, and where the falls is actually located, the cave is at first only lit by a single lantern carried up a rope system. To see this with what they would have been using at the time of discovery really added some magic to the falls. After a few minutes of getting to enjoy with just the lantern, they did turn on the basic lights for us to see the cavern and fall a little better.
Towards the end of the tour, we shut all the lanterns off and sat in total darkness. There is no entrance into the cave other than the falls or the elevator so there is nothing down there, no bugs, bats, or other nocturnal animals so to get to experience something so dark and quiet was so peaceful! With the lanterns the lighting was low so I didn’t get a lot of pictures of the cave itself but I will say, if you are ever in Chattanooga, Tennessee, you need to go!
Since this was a Valentine’s Day tour, with the Lantern package you got a souvenir, a photo, and a single rose. The souvenir was a lovely heart-shaped stone with a leather pouch for storage. I love having little trinkets to remind of me the amazing times. With a special occasion, I of course did a love-themed mani.
For my Ruby Falls love mani, I started off with three coats of Fire Sparkle by Nubar. Next, I used the All About Love 2 palette from Lina Nail Art with black stamping polish from Kaleidoscope by El Corazon. Everything is sealed with two coats of Marvel Liquid Macro Top Coat by SuperChic Lacquer.
So what was the last thing you did before COVID-19 shut down? I am so thrilled we got to go on this tour, it was almost canceled because of heavy flooding from the insane rains. Thank you guys so much for stopping by today! I hope you are all staying safe and I will see you guys soon!
What an outstanding experience. It sounds so unusual. I love your trinket to remind you of it. And I’d kill for that beautiful manicure.
What a beautiful place! I wasn’t doing much before the shutdown, but what work plans I had basically fell apart. It’s nice you can just chill out at home with your boyfriend – time together is the most important thing, not where you are.
Wow this is awesome! The pictures you took were gorgeous and it sounds like a great way to spend Valentine’s Day.
How absolutely beautiful. I can’t wait until we can explore nature safely again. (Also your stamping is beautiful!)
Your nails look lovely and what a fun adventure!