Chattanooga

We spent the morning in Chattanooga on Wednesday. Andrew & Michael had a 3 hour art class at an art museum, leaving Chris, James and myself with some time on our hands. It was a very brisk morning, and we had no where to go........

Our first stop was a coffee shops called Rembrandt's. Being in the art district, I think that was a great name for a very quaint coffee shop. The shop was in an old building, loaded with great architectural details. I LOVE seeing master craftsman's woodworking accents and mouldings. And the coffee was quite good, too. 20 minutes gone, 2.6 hours to go...........

Let's walk to the aquarium, if it is open, we will go in! Drat! It is 9:15 and the aquarium doesn't open until 10:00. We are all wishing at this point that we had worn winter clothes. Let's go to our favorite book store. If you ever tour Chattanooga, you must go to THE book store. It is wonderful for any book lover. She has the largest collection of old books, and out of print books I have ever seen. She suggests we tour the FREE art gallery and outdoor art gallery.

Off we go, back up to the art district, only 6 blocks up the hill. The art gallery was indeed the best eye candy EVER!!! But, gosh, don't even think about touching anything or you could wind up the owner of $5000 piece of junk art. Or worse. The gallery did have some obviously beautiful, unique and delectable pieces. I would love to take a tour sans kids, for my nerve's sake. I LOVED it and received much visual pleasure.

Next we toured the outdoor gallery, full wonderful sculptures, gardens and a sweet rock-lined waterfall. It was quite fun - we loved trying to guess what the sculpture was.......... all this and a bluff view over the river. Ahhh!!!

Ok, let's go get the brothers....... What? Only 11:00?? I more hour to go. We decided to walk the zig-zag hill. You HAVE to walk it at least once, right? It was quite fun and brought us back down near the aquarium. It is such a fun city to walk around in, especially since you really have no fear of crime. We went in a really fun Fair Trade shop and saw many delightful, handmade items from people around the world. The hand knit finger puppets from Peru were exceptionally fun!!! Very intricate and whimsical. I could have bought 30 of them easily, but thankfully only 1 made it into the pocket of James.

I am not sure what part I enjoyed most; the galleries, the coffee, the fun walks (even across a glass floored bridge), the shopping, the awesome architecture, the zig-zag walk, or just being with Chris & James................ For me, it was the perfect morning.