" When Pigs Fly"

Chattanooga Tourists

Bluff Dock

We have spent the last three days being tourists in Chattanooga and have really enjoyed ourselves.  Our docking spot on the floating dock felt secure and comfortable.  While there is no internet provided, nor cable TV, it is very handy to downtown, secured with locking gates and situated on Chattanooga’s lovely riverfront.  It was also a fun place from which to watch the surf boarders.  Apparently there was a place to rent the boards close by and we saw everything from struggling beginners to people who were very experienced.  We even saw a group of boarders doing yoga on the river.

As mentioned earlier a brewery festival was scheduled for Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the music and watching the crowds.  We unknowingly entered through a back gate and made a loop around the venders.  We decided we didn’t want to pay the $25.00 per person cover so went downtown to dinner and later came back for more music outside the fence. 

One of our first ventures in Chattanooga was to find a hardware store to pick up some washers for the pressure water hose.  We seem to be losing one at every stop and needed some spares.  This entailed a five mile round trip hike.  We got to see a lot of the downtown area in this quest and scoped out several restaurants we had heard about.  Washers secured, we were ready to see some sites!

Our first major stop was Historic Lookout Mountain. We took the Incline Railroad to the summit where we explored the museum and watched the story of the Civil War battle for Lookout Mountain, which has become known as the Battle Above the Clouds.  We also toured a small part of the battlefield that has been designated as a national park.  From this vantage point we could appreciate the vast area that had been involved in the fight to control Chattanooga, the river and the area around it.

That evening we took advantage of the movie theatre located close to the river front and saw “Hope Springs” with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.  We would highly recommend it, especially for all of us over 50 types.  Cute flick!

Chattanooga has a beautiful aquarium and we saved that tour till Monday thinking it would be less crowded.  They have two buildings; one dedicated to ocean creatures and the second to river life.  The best attraction though is free.  Outside they have simulated a river going over rocks and down a series of stairs to a pool. All of this takes you to the actual river and a huge fountain. This area is well used by children and adults alike to splash and cool off…including me!



All of the places we ate were good but probably the most noteworthy was the Big River Brewery.  As always, in a microbrewery it’s important to come away with a clear picture of the product, so I took the sampler.  Four ounces of 10 different beers.  They were all very good…as best as I can remember.

Tomorrow we begin the journey back to Huntsville.  This will be our first time to travel with the current and we’re looking forward to seeing what that will do for our gas mileage and speed.  We  hope to be back at Ditto Marina by Friday evening.  At that point we’ll rent a car and head home for a few days.   

See you on the water