Chattanooga Overnight Stay

We arrived in downtown Chattanooga around 3PM Wednesday afternoon, August 22 and we were in awe from the time we arrived until we left on Thursday.  It was a great ride, nice temperatures and breeze.  The cool front was moving through so the next few days will be beautiful blue skies and great traveling weather.

The mountains are still abundant and filled with greenery.  Whether you are traveling by interstate 24 or by water, a familiar site as you approach Chattanooga is the I-24 sign saying Chattanooga to the right and Atlanta/Knoxville to the left.  The difference when traveling on a boat, the river takes a sharp turn to the left while the interstate turns right to Chattanooga....

I-24 Sign showing Chattanooga is just around the bend

Within a few minutes, we start to see the sites of downtown -- the Aquarium, the Dinner Cruise Riverboat, huge bridges and other beautiful sites.  There will be more pictures in this story than words but I know many of you prefer picture books anyway!!!

Chattanooga is certainly set up to accommodate boats and many other water activities in the downtown area.  Wish Nashville would wake up and do something similar.  There are 3 nice areas to dock your boat that are behind locked gates that will hopefully keep you and your boat safe from vandals.  We chose to park at the "bluffs".  There is electric power for your boat, shade from the trees along the water and benches to sit and enjoy the scenery.  We got tied up, checked in, got the gate code so we could get back to our boat after a leisurely venture downtown.  It's always interesting when the lady that checked us in told us which gate to "NOT" go into after dark because there have been some folks mugged....and worse.....then she gives you the non-emergency phone number to the police.  Well she got my attention  - but it was 9PM and just gotten dark when we got back to the locked gates.  And since we were closer to the gate we were warned to NOT go thru, Gene decides that we will go down that dark pathway to the locked gate.   We both have the gate code and try it multiple times -- it didn't work.  I kept looking back to make sure no one had followed us down the dark path....no one had.  I finally said, let's go to the other gate -- I turned around and started leaving - Gene was right behind me.  We finally got to the other gate but we had to walk probably a mile, behind the Aquarium, down to the waterfront and back to the other gate that was lighted and locked.  There were some homeless folks there, but no one bothered us.  Luckily the gate code worked there -- we quickly closed the gate behind us and went to the boat.  Whew -- we were certainly glad to be back safely.

Below are several pictures we took as we arrived in Chattanooga, and as we started our walking tour of the downtown area -- scoping out a place to eat supper.  It was time to start sight-seeing and enjoying the night.

Aquarium, one of the first sights as approaching Chattanooga

Big Riverboat Dinner Cruise Paddle Boat

Hunter Museum of American Art overlooking the Tennessee River downtown

See UT Chattanooga Ladies Canoe Team Practicing before going under the Bridge

Cloud Nine Enjoying her New Home for Tonight Along the Pedestrian Bridge Downtown Chattanooga

Captain Gene trying out our New Vol Navy Flag.  Looking good.....

Standing on Pedestrian Bridge Taking a Photo of Cloud Nine

Late Afternoons in Downtown Chattanooga are busy with boaters, Paddleboards, Kayaks, Swimmers, etc.

Coast Guard Boat in Center watching UT Chattanooga Swim Team as they Swim in River

From Land to Sea to Air --- birds are also flying high in downtown Chattanooga

Always looking for a unique and beautiful sunset picture

Hair-A-Blowing but still a gorgeous start of a sunset with Our Boat Nestled Nicely Between us below......

Beautiful lights on the bridges downtown

Beautiful Chattanooga City Lights and Our Cloud Nine Showing off Her Lighted Beauty

We had a nice evening taking pictures, having dinner at Sticky Fingers and being tourists in Chattanooga.

We have been to Chattanooga many times in the past, but going by boat was a truly unique adventure.  We spent many weekends at softball tournaments watching our daughter and her team "put-a-hurt" on many other teams.  She also attended and graduated from UT Chattanooga - so we spent a lot of time in this city and have enjoyed it every time we went (except the few times where we lost softball games, and as parents, it took us a long time to get over that loss).

 It was time to wind down and call it a day because tomorrow was another day in our adventure -- 14 days into our trip and we have another 180 miles to go...…