Chattanooga: The On-Going Adventure

You know I love me some Chattanooga.   So much that we keep a residence there, a condo that I bought for our son to live in while going to college.   We have been to Chattanooga many times before this and it is in my eyes one for the most scenic places in America.  Sitting along the Tennessee River it is nestled among the hills and crags of the Cumberland Plateau.   Lookout Mountain to the South, Seminary Ridge to the East, and Signal Mountain to the North create a majestic valley that is the city Chattanooga.

Like most great inland cities it is a River City.  The river being its first great mass transit system.    The Tennessee River gains its strength from the Cumberland Plateau to the west and the Appalachia Mountains to the east. In Chattanooga, the Tennessee turns west cutting a divide into the Plateau.  It will eventually turn north cutting Tennessee in two, giving the state its name and life blood.  

For good reason Chattanooga was voted by Outside Magazine readers their ultimate dream town; Oh Sweet Home Chattanooga.   There is so much to do in Chattanooga, hiking, biking and water sports.   Chickamauga Lake a damned portion of the Tennessee River 10 minutes to the north gives Chattanooga an extra dimension.   The inner city has undergone a transformation that includes some of the best restaurants in the state.

 

During Terri’s Christmas break we decided to spend a few days here.   It has been 17 years since we had been to the Tennessee Aquarium.  Now there is a completely new additional building that houses the sea water exhibits.   

We parked across the River in North Chattanooga and walked across the Market Street Bridge.    The aquarium anchors downtown and the waterfront, as expected the Aquarium was spectacular.  I was most impressed by the butterfly garden.  Imagine walking into a room filled with flowers, plants, and butterflies in the middle of winter.

We also took in an IMAX movie about the building of the Canadian Transcontinental railroad.  Taking this train trip has definitely gone on the bucket list.   This, for the most part, was the whole purpose of the movie, one gigantic travel advertisement.  Well, it worked on me.

The next day on our way out of town we decide to go to stop by Chattanooga Salvage and Architecture Exchange.   This was not your average antique store specializing in old house fittings, columns, doors, garden gates.  I suppose coming from torn down houses and buildings in the city.  You could feel the history of the city in this building and warehouse.   

Then the short 2 ½ hour drive back to Clarksville that still amazes even after all these years,  but the drive is starting to deteriorate.   Into the side of the plateau Houses are being built and a new mine and mining road to the top.   It drives home the importance of protection of these natural areas and the need to protect more of it.