Chattanooga
When my wife woke up Saturday morning, she decided we should take advantage of this extra weekend together (I was supposed to be back in Kuwait last week) and go on a spontaneous vacation up to Chattanooga. Neither of us had ever been before, but we had heard good things, and the city is just two hours up the road from us in Atlanta. I went online, found a room available in the Courtyard Marriott downtown, and we hopped in the car. The ride up I-75 is pleasant if dull, like most interstate highways in the Southeast, and we would have made it in under two hours if we had not been waylaid by an outlet mall along the way. Once we got there, however, it did not take long to see why people have been saying such good things about the city.
A few caveats: our hotel was right by the Tennessee River, and we did not stray much past the two or three blocks closest to each bank This is where most of the museums, shops, and restaurants are. We did not go into the business district or any other neighborhoods, so I can't speak to the metro area as a whole.
But the riverside downtown area is just lovely. The centerpiece is the Tennessee Aquarium, the largest freshwater aquarium in the world after our own Georgia Aquarium. There is also a children's museum, a river walking path, and more than a dozen restaurants within a two-block radius.
Once we dropped everything off at the hotel, we began our quest for the first of two initiation rites I undergo each time I visit a new city: finding local pizza. For whatever reason, I love eating at little, locally-owned pizza parlors, and have made that a must on each vacation. We did it when we went to Boston, when we went to Key Largo, when we went to Chicago (the pizza mecca in my opinion). In Chattanooga, my hunger was satisfied by a visit to Lupi's, just a few blocks down Broad Street from our hotel and the museum district. An order of bruschetta and two slices of cheese later, I was a very satisfied tourist.
After lunch we wandered over to another picturesque area of downtown, centering on the Hunter Museum of American Art, the modern addition of which was built atop the edge of a bluff overlooking the river. In addition to the museum, the Bluff View Art District includes several restaurants and shops, an art gallery, and an inn. From there, a short pedestrian walkway takes you to my favorite part of Chattanooga, the Walnut Street Bridge.
This bridge, first built in 1890, connects the downtown area to the North Shore. Unlike the Market Street Bridge, it is closed to automobile traffic. It is a purely pedestrian bridge. It is wide, well-maintained, with lots of benches to sit on and enjoy the river scene. As we crossed this bridge the first time, it led us to Coolidge Park, where a Saturday night swing-dancing festival was underway. After poking our heads into a few of the shops on Frazier Avenue, we found a shady spot in the park and enjoyed the music for an hour before heading back to the hotel.
In the morning we discovered that not much is open in Chattanooga on a Sunday, and almost nothing is open early. Even after 10am, we wandered past closed coffee shops, walked across the river, passed closed restaurants, but fortunately persisted until we stumbled upon the Stone Cup Coffee House on Frazier Ave. One iced chai and an egg bagel later, I was ready to start the day. We had a riverboat tour scheduled for the afternoon, so we decided to spend the morning hiking the Guild-Hardy Trail on nearby Lookout Mountain. It was a very pleasant trail, and I loved how quickly we could transition from downtown Chattanooga to a mountain forest trail.
After we got back to the hotel and showered, it was time to board the Southern Belle riverboat for a 90-minute sightseeing cruise. This was the only real disappointment of the trip. The portions of the river that the boat cruises are just not very interesting, and the combination of loud music piped through the speakers and a lot of bored children (and bored adults) made for a rather desultory affair. A lovely river breeze, but we could have enjoyed that sitting on the bridge.
That night, still full from a late lunch at an excellent Thai restaurant (the only place we could find open at 4pm on Sunday), we relaxed in an IMAX film about dolphins and whales and then fulfilled the second of my vacation initiation rites: local ice cream. On Frazier Avenue on the North Shore we found Clumpies, and I happily ordered my standard Cookies & Cream milkshake. We took our treats down into Coolidge Park, much quieter than the evening before, enjoyed dessert, and watched children at play. We took a ride on the Coolidge Park Carousel before crossing the bridge to our hotel.
In the morning, we decided we wanted to spend most of the day at home in Atlanta, so we make an early crossing of the bridge, had breakfast once again at the charming Stone Cup, and hit the road. We made great time, and were back home in Atlanta before noon. It was an excellent way to spend a weekend.
