Slap a label like ‘Family Friendly’ on a destination and it can be the kiss of death. Visions of endless salad bars, large water parks, and Rec-V habitats haunt hapless singles and couples, driving them to larger cities for diversions.
The trick is to be family friendly and still manage to offer the sort of ambiance that doesn’t require a diaper bag as the price of admission.
Welcome to Chattanooga, where you can:
Browse the trendy Bluff View Art District. Stretching over a block-and-a-half, and perched high atop stone cliffs overlooking the serpentine Tennessee River, the neighborhood is filled with restaurants, plazas, courtyards and gardens.
Discover the Hunter Museum of American Art. Built on a limestone bluff overlooking the Tennessee, the museum is comprised of a revival mansion, a 1970s-era low-slung structure, and a contemporary construction. The combination is striking – and so is the collection. The Hunter says it houses “the finest collection of American art in the Southeast.”
Explore the Tennessee Aquarium, flat-out one of the finest in the nation. No mere freshwater wildlife repository, this is a legitimate habitat for more than 10,000 animals. Watch gape-jawed as sharks and colorful saltwater fish plumb the depths in front of your face.
Ride the Incline Railway to the top of Lookout Mountain. If you’re lucky, and the weather is right, break trough a cloud bank and watch the sun set over the Smokies.
Visit the hallowed ground near town, the Chickamauga Battlefield. Here, in 1863, all hell broke loose. The battle was pivotal to the Civil War.
Bed down for the night in a Victorian railway car at the Chattanooga Choo Choo and relive the gilded age when rails, not runways, launched us on our journeys.
Eat at Lillie Mae’s Place, an unpretentious place where the food is fabulously down home, the service legitimately friendly, and the prices straight out of the 1980s. Be ashamed of yourself if you don’t end the meal with Blackberry cobbler.
Yeah, bring along the kids if you want, but you don’t have to. That’s the beauty of Chattanooga.
Story by Jerry Chandler
