Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Chatanooga

With the Commander and I having birthdays only 3 days apart, we always try to eat out on the closest weekend. The girls and I were up and moving around Saturday morning and when the Commander woke up he came to talk to me while I was shopping on the computer, and suggested we hop in the van and visit Chattanooga, Tennessee. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out that he was talking about doing it NOW, but once I caught on I was pretty excited!

So we packed a cooler of treats for the girls and left.

The Commander drove and spent a lot of time fielding calls from family and friends who wanted to tell him happy birthday, the girls watched a movie since apparently their only other setting for the day was 'fight,' and I giggled at my own craziness.

I giggled at things like turkey vultures, store names and prom dresses. There were four turkey vultures just sitting beside the road in a straight line and all I could think about was.
 
 
And then I got the giggles because I saw a "Sugar Shack." Now where I grew up the Sugar Shack was an old weigh station for grain trucks that the farmers used for morning coffee. This one was a fancy cupcake place. I imagined stopping and having The Commander take a picture of the girls eating fancy cupcakes while I looked homesick and disgruntled that it wasn't MY idea of a sugar shack.
 
 
And then there was the prom dresses. In every town that we passed through there was a group of kids dressed for prom getting their pictures taken in different places; in a gazebo, at the courthouse, on the train tracks, etc. And I have to say that a lot of the girls seemed to be missing half the top of their gowns. I can't believe how popular cut our gowns are. And then I got to thinking . . . will girls just be wearing pasties by the time my girls are in high school?
 
And that is just a picture of how my brain works.
 
Back to the trip! We stopped at a scenic overlook on the first mountain we drove around. The girls were NOT pleased that we got out to climb on top of a huge rock, but we got the picture anyway
 
And look Mimi! Jeff got a picture of me!
 
Okay, so it's just the back of my head, but its the best I've got. : )

By the time we got to Chattanooga, we drove around the waterfront area for a few minutes and then it was time to eat. We ate at a neat local brewery that boasted it used to house a speakeasy and maybe even a brothel at one time for guests at the Chatanooga Choo Choo Hotel.

And then we knocked off one of the girls "101 things to do before you turn 12" by going to a patisserie.







 
 
And I got a delicious Chocolate mousse with espresso crème on top!
 

And unfortunately that's about all I can type since I'm fighting off a terrible cold.