THE SCENIC CITY

It has been quite a while since Rebecca has been able to post, so I am going to help carry the load. Poor Rebecca has been gone almost every week (including some weekends) since May, traveling around the eastern United States with her job. Needless to say she is really burnt out, but has been a trooper and continued to have a good attitude. I personally don’t know how she does it, but I am so proud of her and so thankful for her hard work.

Since Rebecca has last blogged a lot had gone on. We have traveled more than our fair share, which is great since traveling is one of our favorite things to do. In this post I am going to share our first trip of many this summer, which was a weekend get away to Chattanooga, also known as “The Scenic City!”

Rebecca and I had a great time in Chattanooga. Who new downtown Chattanooga was so entertaining? We have always heard about Lookout Mountain and Ruby Falls (which were fun), but it wasn’t nearly as cool compared to downtown. When we first arrived Chattanooga Rebecca and I visited the Tennessee Aquarium (pictured below). Rebecca and I always try to visit either an aquarium or zoo in any city we visit. It may sound weird, but we really enjoy them. We have heard a lot of people compare the Tennessee Aquarium to the Georgia Aquarium (in Atlanta) and received mixed emotions. I really enjoyed both, but personally liked the Tennessee Aquarium more.

After our trip to the Aquarium, Rebecca and I spent the remainder of our Saturday exploring downtown Chattanooga. The downtown area is very commercialized, but not overly-commercialized. The area has a lot of great restaurants, parks, an IMAX Theatre, a minor league baseball stadium and a beautiful American Art Museum (pictured below). We were blown away. The area was so family friendly.

Our favorite part of downtown included the bridges. The first bridge connected the Art

Museum to the Aquarium. This bridge was particularly cool because it was glass, really high and crossed over a busy street. Being someone who isn’t particularly fond of heights, this bridge definitely attempted to strip me of my “man card,” but don’t worry it didn’t succeed. The second bridge was an old steel bridge that expanded over the river. This bridge was really the center of entertainment downtown. That afternoon hundreds of people walked over the bridge with their families, some stopped to sit on a bench and enjoy the view, others ran, rode bikes, played music and walked their dogs. It was such a great family atmosphere. (In this picture we are standing on the glass bridge. You can see the steel bridge in the back ground).

So, Rebecca and I decided to join in and walk across the bridge to find out what was on the other side. To our pleasure we found the other more historic half of downtown Chattanooga. There were lots of small shops that contained boutique stores, restaurants and an old-fashioned ice cream parlor that Rebecca and I couldn’t turn down. I can’t remember the name of the parlor, but it was honestly the best butter pecan ice cream I have ever had!

After our tour around downtown we headed back to our hotel and woke up the next morning to explore Lookout Mountain and Ruby Falls (pictured to the right). Both were of course beautiful and we had a great time.

Now, Rebecca and I are trying to plan a 5-day anniversary vacation in October. We are trying to decide where to go, so my question to all of you is “What is your favorite place to vacation?” We would really appreciate any suggestions, so please post!

- Josh