Checkin’ Out Chattanooga

After the teachers’ conference was over, we hopped in the car and drove down to Chattanooga for a few days.

the view from our room in Franklin

The rest areas in Tennessee are super fancy! I just had to stop at one to get some flyers for the Chattanooga area…

  Only in Tennessee do they have rocking chairs in front of a decorated fireplace and a Civil War diorama in a rest area

A huge storm blew through the area shortly after we arrived. We ran out to the car and drove to the steakhouse next to the hotel for dinner. The little girl at the table next to us was so scared, they had to close all the blinds. I can’t believe the power didn’t go out! A tornado touched down over night only a few towns away!

The first hotel we checked into was pretty icky and we changed hotels as soon as we got up. It seemed especially bad after the beautiful hotel we stayed at in Franklin.

Because the weather wasn’t going to be great, we drove into town to do a bit of exploring. There were lots of cool little things to see and do while we were waiting for the weather to turn bad…

The Walnut Street Bridge was erected in 1891 and is the longest pedestrian bridge in the world!

  

The curvy sidewalk seen from the bridge…

  We crossed the Walnut Street Bridge over to the North Shore district…

We took this one for Will

First we rode the carousel…

   Then we played on the fountain…

 After we poked around a bit more, we walked back across the river to the glass bridge at the art museum…

 

 It was hard to believe this wasn’t actually made of wood but concrete!

    Then we walked back towards the car down the winding sidewalk…

By the old furnace site…

 

Up the waterfall staircase… (which would be totally fun to play in during the summer!)

Past the rock climbing wall…

  We took these for Andy

With a stop at the boat…

 

And all the way back to the car without getting rained on once despite the forecast!