24 Hours in Chattanooga

Episode Transcript:

Tucked between the mountains of Southeast Tennessee along the beautiful Tennessee River sits Chattanooga.  We got to visit for just a short 24 hours. So I'll make my intro quick and we will meet you at the table.

I'm Lainie and I'm Laura Beth. And we are Steel Magnolias, the strength of steel, With the grace of a magnolia.  We are here to have uplifting conversations about life in the south.  And we've got plenty of room at our table. So pull up a chair.  

Pardon me boys is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?  I love it!  So we have heard some very good jazz over the last few days.  If you have  followed us the last 24 or 36 hours, we were in Chattanooga.  Jazz music followed us.  That whole time period, I guess was big for that city. So it was playing in a lot of places.  I feel like we have been in a 1940s time warp. Yeah. 1930s 1940s time warp.  Yeah. So Well, I started to say fine by me just because we like some of those fashions. But I don't want to be in a wartime, so I better be careful what I say.

We've actually talked about that on our trip because there's a lot of romanticizing around trains that we were around and just the fashion and music of that time period. But yes, there was also a lot of chaos and unknown happening in the world. So familiar. We have been yes, we've been in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just very short distance from us here in Franklin sits right in the southeast corner of the state of Tennessee. Right on the Georgia Line, like you actually kind of the way that we go from the Nashville area you dip into Georgia and back into Tennessee. So silly.  I remember as a young child coming to visit you in Atlanta, which we passed through Chattanooga. I just thought that was so cool. Right Georgia. Oh, now we're in Tennessee.  It was also funny was occasionally the gas was cheaper. If you made that one stop. Yes, that was I don't know why that would be. And now that we're on this topic of meeting you, I remember are coming to see you in Atlanta. I do remember one major and I think I know where you're going incident before cell phones where the time zone that you're on but pretty bad because we didn't know about the timezone change that it was happening right there. Yeah, right there. Don't ever meet anyone in Chattanooga in that for that. Make sure you've got your time zones straight. All coming in from different places. Because yes, we had a time of like, “ meet you at 2pm”.  Central or Eastern we was not defined. So yes, there was a discrepancy. And that's hard to do pre cell phone years to find the other person. So anyway, we decided to go to Chattanooga because it was close. We didn't have a ton of time, and we were crunched on where to get to that was drivable. So that's why we picked Chattanooga, but it's a fantastic little city. And we just wanted to share a little bit about our adventures there. So we had beautiful weather.  Thank you, Lord! That helps a lot if you're out sightseeing, or even just walking around with a cup of coffee. It sure is nice when it's mild but lovely and sunny weather.  You just want to walk more. You want to go oh, let's just go up this one other block up here.  If it's cold or rainy, you just think let's just get back.

Yeah. So we drove into town went straight into the downtown Chattanooga area. It was a weekday and we had a late lunch at a place called Stir, which is right next to/and almost connected to the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel and Grand Station.   Where the Chattanooga Choo Choo Train at once upon a time came and left from that was the train depot there, right. So it's gorgeous. The train stations gorgeous. We did walk through that after lunch, but first I want to tell you about lunch. So precious little waitress. That's the friendliness that you hope that you're going to encounter on the road with a great accent.

Sure enough, and these are people that I mean, they don't have any reason they're not trying to like do a little song or dance or pony show, right? They're just being themselves.  So she was a hard worker, just precious and loves her job. Hard worker. You can tell. So we were led through all the yummy things that they have at Stir, and we landed upon oysters to begin with because I've never had oysters and clearly, that was one of their specialties.  Yeah, she said, if you like oysters, you definitely need to get some here because that's something we do well.  Now, I wasn't ready or willing to go with raw oysters, which I'm sure some of you that are oyster fans that are listening are going well then you didn't really try oysters. Okay, forgive me. But I did take a step in the direction of at least attempting the oyster family. So we did chargrilled it was just delicious. seasoned perfectly. You had had chargrilled before so thank you for recommending that.  And they brought them with, you know, a little wine with shallots in it like a little wine vinegar kind of shell red wine. Yeah, sort of. Yeah, vinegar, horseradish or cocktail sauce. I actually never even ended up touching the horseradish sauce, or the horseradish. I felt like they were tasty enough. They didn't really need anything, but I did kind of like that shallot add. Yeah, I thought that was yummy. I felt like that would be like salting the dish before trying it.  I know that's very insulting to a lot of chefs. Like could you at least give it a shot before you salt it again, actually. So they were very, very good. We split an order of those and then we split an order of very yummy grilled chicken Caprese salad.  So flavorful.  Everything is fresh and mozzarella cheese balls. Tomatoes, again, outside on a patio. A piece of dirt could have tasted wonderful at that point. We were hungry and in need of nourishment. But yeah, like. the way they do their oysters. If they're cooked, you have to get either a half dozen a dozen. That kind of thing, right? But for the raw if you just wanted to try them from different places or anything like that. They have them you know, just however many you want, 1, 2, 3 etc. Now they definitely specialize in a lot of cocktails there, hence the name, Stir. I could tell there was a fun nightlife there. They add carbonation to a lot of their cocktail. So we didn't try one, so I don’t have a yea or nay on any of them. But interesting.  Something that they do in house. So I would 100% recommend if you're in the downtown area for lunch or dinner. check that place out! Again, It's called Stir.

 I will say on a pretty day like we were there. It makes you want to be outside. We didn't do any outdoor adventure activities while we were there.  But I want to mention as a blanket statement, Chattanooga is very outdoorsy city. Lots of biking around town, great water activities, paddleboarding, canoes, boating, if you even have access to such fishing for sure. If you remember, even on our southern Adventures episode, last season, this is where I went hang gliding on Lookout Mountain. So if that's of interest to you doing something very adventurous and outside. I'll link in the show notes to the southern Adventures episode because I went into more detail on that. And one of their famous sites is Rock City and Ruby Falls. So, we didn't do that on this trip. You can look both of those things up. But Ruby Falls is beautiful waterfall that's in a cave with really cool lighting and both kids and adults enjoy it. It's just really pretty. One of the unique things about Rock City is there's a lookout where you can see seven states. I have been to that before I didn't on this trip. That is crazy, that would be a great way to see the South. Just go to that one point. You can say you've seen a lot of southern states.  That's hilarious. Well, obviously you could spend as much as you wanted to be outside. So very family friendly. In fact, I feel like we left Chattanooga going what a family friendly city.  So much that kids would love including their aquarium. That's another place that we didn't visit on this trip, but that we've both been before to the Chattanooga aquarium. It gets a lot of thumbs up.

So, after we had lunch, we walked right next door to the lobby of the former railroad terminal of the Chattanooga Choo Choo. It contains the largest freestanding brick dome in the world. The interior height of the dome is 85 feet. So it's kind of breathtaking. Yeah, when you first walk in, and again, you just kind of feel transported in time they had jazz music playing. They have a courtyard in the back and the Glenn Miller gardens, named Of course, after the Glenn Miller orchestra.  He and his orchestra won the first gold record that was awarded by the music industry for a song about Chattanooga, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, it became the number one song across the United States on December 7, 1941 and remained at number one for nine weeks on the Billboard best sellers charts. The record sold more than 1 million copies. So at that time, that's a lot of copies. Yeah. So it's now a hotel. Yes, yes. place you can actually stay there, which that location would be so much fun. Lots and lots of things to do. Within walking distance. Lots of things very concentrated together from, you know, lunch things into nightlife in the evening. Comedy bar dance places, line dancing, you know, just all sorts of different things to do. Now, I will say this, when we started planning our trip, I was going where's that restaurant that is inside the train car downtown? Because I had in my head that there was someplace you could eat downtown in a train car. So we finally asked once we were there. And apparently it closed in 2015. And so we weren't crazy. That did exist. But it was too hot. It was too difficult in such a small space to have the kitchen going all the time, and they couldn't see it a lot of people, so it just wasn't functional. So that is it. If you've heard of that, that isn't open any longer, but lots of other places to see

Right across the street. We walked in a few different shops. There was a place you could do a tasting for Chattanooga Whiskey, Hot Choclatier- it's not just hot chocolate. It was a beautiful day. I definitely didn't want hot chocolate. Yeah. But all kinds of truffles and candies and yummies. Everything chocolate, homemade marshmallows, lots of cute gifts-if you're not going to be leaving in a car. We're officially into whether that stuff can melt in the car. I don't know that we'll stay here because this is kind of the season of the year in the South where it's gonna dip cold again. What did they call this?  The Spring of deception or something like that?  So there was also a lovely tea shop called, Wildflower. Yes, every time the door opened and we walked by the fragrance that came out of that place was so wonderful. 

Then, this was very random that I found the next place I want to tell you all about but so fun and so right for the right situation. So the reason I found this was I was mapping on my phone just in my maps app, our route to get around different places. And just as it appears when you're looking up real close in a location, it shows you all the things around town. And I was like to Chattanooga Selfie museum. So of course my interest was piqued and sure enough, there is such thing as a selfie Museum and I thought this was like the one and only in Tennessee.  Did you think it was a museum of already famous selfies? Like Ellen DeGeneres at the Oscars?  That would be really funny. I did think it was photographs, Yes. of selfies. Okay, I didn't even get far enough in thought to think of who/ famous people would be really fun. But yeah, so the Chattanooga selfie museum just opened last fall. Let’s preface with- We're not selfie people. We are very rarely take selfies. No, we are not The selfie generation.  I'm certainly not.  Yeah, I'm in that odd timeframe of being right in between Generation X and Z. Is that right? Are you Generation X? So, I’m a Z, oh, I guess I'm between a Z and a millennial.  I don’t know all my generations.  Well, I’m 40. But I was born in 1981. Maybe that helps. So, I have that upbringing of non cell phone, non Facebook and social media. But it came about when I was around just outside of college, so I have still have some youth or young adult years that included a lot of technology. But my upbringing wasn't so I do not side on this one to just jump on the selfie train. But yet we still had fun at the Selfie Museum. So thank you so much, Selfie museum Chattanooga for having us.  They had it all set up, as they do for anybody that comes in just alone with a friend with a group for a birthday party, however many people you want to bring you just pay by the hour. And they have all these different scenes set up.  Little stations if you will with themes.   So a soda shop or a jungle, a cool velvet sofa with like a real vintage telephone that you can pretend to be on which of course I'm thinking the crowd coming through here today, Do they know how to even pose with this? I was thinking I want to be a fly on the wall with a group of young girls coming through here like tween age 12,13, 14 year old girls coming in to see how they react. Do they even know what a British telephone booth even is? Yeah, because there was one of those.  So you know, I mean, it was very much geared for younger people but like we're saying we're not in that generation and we still had fun and there was people older than us there too.  There was a  couple, husband and wife that we're having fun. They were older than us.   I'm gonna put you on the spot. What was your favorite scene? Are there about 15 or 16 scenes? Yes, I would say there are 15 or 16.  There's smallish. But there is enough room for you. And it's surprising to me is of the pictures we got, I really liked the jungle. You did. I really liked the spray paint. The spray paint I put up on Instagram? Yeah.  And those weren't my two favorite as we're walking through. That's so fun. But sometimes, you don't know how it's gonna photograph. That's true. That makes sense. That's true. The colors are fun.  So you just kind of feel like you want a wardrobe change. Yeah, and I haven't seen all of our photos.  I bet you there's girls with different outfits. If they know what they're getting into. I bet they change. I'm just guessing, I don't know, I can totally see. Right, you're gonna want to look different. But they have if you're familiar with different technology of you know, photography, and selfies, there's such a thing as a ring light, which is just as it sounds a ring like a circular light that helps project light on your face for taking photographs. And so they have those setup all over the museum to make sure you're getting the right lighting. So I had fun. I just I felt like it was just a good, outside of the box, sort of thing to do.  And I could visualize some groups having so much fun like a 12 year old birthday party. Yeah, yeah, just think that would be such fun. Yeah, for some girls, and then you're actually walking away with a lot of fun photos as your party favor. Exactly. Yeah. Right. And so we did hear that they do have some special events from time to time. So we're going to link in our show notes to their website, but I think they have some 21 and over 21 events where alcohol is served.  Sipping selfie kind of moments but yeah, so that was really fun and very, very different and apparently these exist in some other cities. I've never heard of this. Oh, there's one in Nashville. I was like oh, news to me. The only time we get out is to go do podcast content for y'all. Thank you for getting us out of the house. My first selfie Museum. Oh my goodness. 

Now, you mentioned if you had kids with you a couple of things to do and if you were outdoorsy things to do.  I also believe for a history buff, Chattanooga has things to offer. Yes. For one, there was a large Civil War battle, the battle of Chattanooga, and there is some sort of a digital diorama battle show that a history buff might enjoy to learn more about that battle. And we also heard a cool story. On something that we did later, we'll tell you about where there was The Great Locomotive Chase. Oh, yeah. In the civil civil war that went from Kennesaw, GA to Chattanoog, TN.. Yeah. And for a Civil War history buff, they're probably like, of course, you know, that story, right, which I didn't know.  But one thing I thought was really interesting was the Union soldiers that stopped that heist, if you will, in Chattanooga, were the first recipients ever of the Medal of Honor. That's amazing. And so there is the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga. So we didn't include this in our 24 hour trip. But I do think history buffs would enjoy looking a little more deeply into the battle of Chattanooga, and that Medal of Honor center as well. So good. I'm glad you mentioned that. I feel like what we're doing is we're giving you some very, very quick highlights and bullets, but you could definitely spend a good weekend or three day weekend in Chattanooga and have a full calendar or agenda of things to do. 

When I think of Chattanooga, maybe it's because of the Chattanooga Choo Choo, I think of trains.  And that time period. There is a hotel we didn't go to, but a friend of mine told me she stayed in called the Read House. It looked like, when I looked at the pictures very Art Deco, very 20s 30s. Yeah, it looks beautiful. So I initially thought, Okay, I want to build our agenda, actually around a train ride. I want to get on a train. It doesn't have to be all day. I just want to go on a little train ride. And so that's what we did. We got in touch with the Tennessee Valley Railroad. And they are a nonprofit museum and organization that operates historic and scenic excursions all throughout Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. And they've been doing this for over 60 years. So we got to take a ride on what they call their Missionary Ridge local ride, which is a just under an hour experience. It's a very short ride.  It is, but it was not a big time commitment either. Right. So if you had a kid with you, or somebody that tires easy, they can handle that.  Oh, this was perfect. This was a perfect grandparent excursion. In fact, we saw a lot of that. We were oohing and aching over one set of grandparents that said, “are you excited about your surprise “ to the little boy they had? Yeah, so we got to cross several different, four bridges. We went through a pre Civil War missionary Ridge tunnel, which they reminded us that dynamite didn't exist pre Civil War. So this tunnel was created without dynamite let that sink in for a minute.  So crazy, because it was long. We had a 25 minute layover after our little 15 minute ride out where they showed us the turntable, which I have wondered how this works before.   When I think of turntable I think of records, as do you.  But this is just the way that they spin the locomotive around to get it set for the train to go back the other direction and it was fascinating. It really was. So we had a great experience again great weather they have longer excursions. Yes and  I'll link to their website in the show notes so that you can see their calendar and see how the tickets work for each of those rides. I will say they have a very what looks like a very playful kid focused ride which is the day out with Thomas the Train so it says ride, play and stay all day. It is throughout April and May and it's an all day event nine to six.  Not all day on the train, but all day event. They're creating an experience. I'll link to all that in the show notes but looks really sweet. 

Great Gift Shop-It's not very big, but it was good stuff.  Yes, trains, train souvenirs, kids. Goodies T shirts, conductor hats, etc.  So cute. And then we got to have lunch on the grounds. We had our chicken salad sandwich and sweet tea while we listened to a little bit more of their jazz play list. They have a museum/exhibit too. So included with your PASS is a museum where you can walk around and get a little bit more in depth information on what they are doing to educate people on trains and how they work. This museum is just since they have owned this property in 1961. So yeah, looking at things they've done since that. Yeah. And it was interesting to see, you know, pricing of riding in 1975, the china that was used on the dinner cars and lots of different little things like that.

So, then we hit the road, it was already time to go back home. But tell everybody what we did on our way home.  Okay, so Well, can I even mention a couple things we didn't stop for, but we have before. Yes. Okay. So if you're leaving Chattanooga headed to Nashville, or if that's part of your route, one of the things we always like to mention is in South Pittsburgh, there is a Lodge cast iron outlet. If you need cast iron, it's a great place to make a stop. You can get a little bit better deal, especially if you're willing for something to have a flaw. That's true, marked down even more. But even if you don't need cast iron, if you enjoy kitchen gadgets or need them for a gift, it's full of good stuff. Yes. This is your place it is. They have all the green egg stuff. Just a lot of kitchen and grill goodies. I got my dutch oven from there. Now I've used it ever since, like weekly.  Good. Good. Good. Stop. And then we didn't stop here this trip. But we have before, on the Tracy City/ Mont Eagle exit- there is  the Dutch made bakery. I can't even remember how old it is. But it's very old. They still use some of the original equipment. And just a fun stop. If you want to take some yummies with you going either direction. Okay, then I have asked Laura Beth, if we could stop in Sewanee .Synonymous with the University of the South.  Right. So we made that stop and enjoyed that exit.  Gorgeous campus. Absolutely stunning.  Not real big.  I guess it's all relative what campuses you've seen, but it is just beautiful. Again, it was a lovely day, so nice to walk around. And it was a Friday so the kids were having lots of fun on campus as well, blaring music throwing frisbees, it was party time. Yeah. We were remembering and laughing, saying you all have no idea how this season of life is so wonderful. Anyhow, there was some fun shops in Sewanee.  There's a little store called the  Lemon Fair. Lots of little home gifts and a few toy gifts, cute clothing and I think it's been there since 1970 or something. Some kind of Amish hippie store, Bakeries coffee shops. It's a cute stop if you need to get out and get some fresh air.  Our favorite though was the Inn. The Sewanee Inn.  Yes, I wanted to snuggle up and sit outside and overlook the mountain for an extended amount of time there. I think we need to have a Steel Magnolias gathering sometimes there.  If y'all are willing to meet us on Mont Eagle we have found a place it is just beautiful. I don't know how much the rooms are but it's so pretty fireplaces everywhere. It seemed like we saw at least three or four and they were all going that adds so much. You don't even need to be like looking for warm right just ambience that adds so much.  Golf course, right behind it. Yeah, rocking chairs. Just all thing Glorious.  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're up in elevation. So it's just beautiful views all around. I want to do an event there. Yeah, put that on our dream big list.  Are y’all going to come if we do an event there?  And just like that we were home.  It was quick, but it was fun.  Check out Chattanooga, there is something for everyone.  Girls night at the Selfie Museum!  Go unleash your inner child.  For those that follow us on Instagram you have already seen some of our highlights.  If you don’t follow us on Instagram, then go ahead and do that at Steel Magnolias Podcast.  Alright Lainie,  time to unpack our bags.  Well, we have been to the Episcopal university, I bet they say occasionally, Peace Be With You.  Oh, and also with y’all.