10/8 Chattanooga

So it has been a few days since I posted.  We do not have good Wi-Fi here.
We left Goose Pond Marina and headed up the Tennessee to Little Cedar Creek anchorage for the night.  It was a snug, protected anchorage just off the Tennessee.  Hot dogs and beans for dinner tasted so good.  The sunset was spectacular.

John has a satellite tracker on his phone.  After dark, I saw one go right overhead.

The next day, we went through the Tennessee Gorge to Chattanooga.  The mountains create fantastic scenery.

Many of the sites of the Battle of Chattanooga were able to be seen here.  We passed Brown's Ferry and could see the buildings on the ridge of Lookout Mountain.

Arriving at the Chattanooga City docks, Jim from the Erwin Marine was there to catch our lines.  He offered a tour of downtown on his golf cart and I took him up on it to get the lay of the land.  The city docks are right at the foot of the Tennessee Aquarium and park in downtown.  This is close to everything.  After lunch, I made a trip to the visitors' center.   I came back with maps, coupons for meals, and a plan for seeing the Chattanooga sites.  I also took my first walk across the pedestrian bridge that goes to North Chattanooga.

  Here is the view of the docks from the pedestrian bridge.

The next morning we took Uber to the base of Lookout Mountain.  We took the Incline Railway to the top.  It is run by cables and goes at 600 ft. per minute.

At the top of the mountain, it was noticeably cooler.  They said it was generally 6-10 degrees cooler on top.  It was hazy, but on clear days, they say you can see 6 states from there.

We are less than 100 miles from North Carolina.  There was an excellent movie with a 3-D panorama where they showed where the battle movements were.  Looking out from the National Park at Point Park was more meaningful after that. 

Chattanooga was a railway hub.  After Chattanooga fell to the Union, the assault on Atlanta set up.  This statue commemorates the soldiers of the Union and the Confederacy.

After the Incline ride back down the mountain, we headed back downtown. 

I toured the Tennessee Aquarium for the afternoon.  The aquarium has two buildings.  In each you start at the top and work your way down.  The first is a fresh water aquarium highlighting fish from rivers all over the world but also aquatic life on the Tennessee.  The river otter exhibit was fun.  They are pretty cute.  We haven't seen any as we go along and have been keeping our eyes peeled.  I liked the large seahorse exhibit, too.  The fresh water building takes you down to the delta.  I saw turtles, alligators, and macaws.

 Then you go to the salt water building, that goes from the delta to the oceans. The penguins were being fed just as I got to that exhibit.  Oh, they are so cute.  A huge jelly fish exhibit was there too.  It included glass art that was inspired by the jelly fish.  I did get in the shark cage.

The art museum is further down the waterfront.  The walk there included walking over a glass bridge.  It was a little unsettling.  The museum was free from 4-8 pm so we took advantage of that offer.  The museum had rooms dedicated to different art in the United States.  It included pieces from Grandma Moses and Childe Hassam.  This piece of Dale Chilhuly glass was a favorite of mine.

Saturday we took the free electric bus to the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

It is named for the famed Glenn Miller song from the 1940's.  The Chattanooga Terminal was bought by Hilton and turned into a hotel in the 1970's.  The entrance to the hotel is the main terminal building where they kept the grandeur.

Stepping out from the lobby in the back are the train tracks with the trains on them.  The cars have been outfitted as guest rooms.  It would be fun to stay in one.

After lunch, I took another free electric bus across the river to North Chattanooga. 

This area is an eclectic mix of art and antique stores, as well as a Publix, CVS, etc.  I met the nicest people on the bus from Nashville.  The husband was on business in Chattanooga and they were spending a few extra days sightseeing.  They were very interested in our Great Loop adventure.  I walked with them to the 100 year old carousel in the waterfront park.  It was a beautifully restored.  I took a video of their ride with their camera for them.

The neatest thing about the loop is meeting such nice people.  Speaking of nice people, that morning Pookie from Pookie II left a homemade jar of sweet pickles on our boat as they headed out early in the morning, Yum.  The Harbor Host for Chattanooga came by too.  The package he left included a Moon Pie.  We thought about coming to Chattanooga because we heard him give a blog talk radio on it.  We are so glad we took his advice to come here.

It is Saturday morning and there are sculling races going on in the river front.  As one of the Alabama boats rowed by John called out, "Roll Tide".  The whole boat yelled back, "Roll Tide".

Yesterday, we went to a glass blowing store.  The neatest thing was that they let you blow your own glass ornament.  So I did.  It has to cool overnight so I will go back today to pick it up.