Walking Chattanooga

With Fall Break winding down, we thought we'd take an overnight trip to Chattanooga. We love to walk through Downtown Chattanooga. It's eclectic, to say the least. We've done just about everything there is to do there -

Tennessee Aquarium


Hunter Museum of Art


and of course, Ruby Falls and Rock City.

This time we decided to do the culinary trip. Boy, did we EAT!

For lunch on Friday, we hit Zarzour's. It's a little hole in the wall restaurant with GREAT burgers. It's not in the best part of town, but that adds to the quirkiness of the restaurant. Everyone knows everyone else - we saw several regulars come in and the servers knew exactly what they wanted before they even sat down. Impressive!!!

After lunch, we rode the Incline Railway.
It's provides a breath-taking view of Chattanooga. While on top of the mountain, we wondered around admiring the homes and their views of the valley below. Since Hubby is a history buff, we meandered over to the Point Park Battlefield. It was sobering to think of how many men, young and old, lost their lives there. The Point Park visitor's center house an impressive mural done by James Walker, who was an eyewitness to the 'Battle Above the Clouds.' It is worth the trip up the mountain just to see this mural.

We stayed at The Read House. It was originally an inn aimed at attracting railway passengers who were traveling between Atlanta and Chattanooga. Some famous people have stayed at The Read House - Al Capone, Gary Cooper, Winston Churchill and Jefferson Davis, just to name a few. It is also reported to be haunted. Both times we've stayed there, we've had a room on the 4th floor. It didn't occur to me to request room 311 this time. Although, it probably would've freaked the kids out. Hmmm...maybe next time.

Dinner Friday night was at Big River Grille. They brew their own beers and Hubby loves to get their sampler, which is never disappointing and the food's not bad either. We eat at Big River just about everytime we go because the food is so good - if you go, try the meatloaf. It's fantastic.

By now, we are sufficiently STUFFED and decide to walk through the Art District and across the river bridge to the Northshore district and Coolidge Park. It was a lovely evening for a walk, as an added bonus we saw the ISS fly over. Very cool! Coolidge Park has an enormous, indoor carousel. Unfortunately, it was closed but we did get to admire the craftsmanship. Gorgeous!

We traipse back to the Read House and collapse. We all slept like the dead and didn't wake until 9 this morning. Very restful!!! For our final meal in Chattanooga, we hit Aretha Frankenstein's. It's in the Northshore district and is a hole in the wall, however, food is fantastic. On the our son's pancake scale, Aretha's ranked a 4 out of 5. As for the rest of us, we had some form of eggs - omelets and bacon/egg/cheese biscuit. By the way, Aretha's biscuits are to die for. Yum!!!

We're home now...recovering from our whirlwind trip. It was well worth the trip - even if it was just to eat out!

Ciao!!!