Chattanooga, TN

We arrived in Chattanooga, TN taking a long circuitous route from Portland to Seattle, Seattle to Chicago, Chicago to Atlanta by plane and then from Atlanta to Chattanooga by road. My friend had come to Atlanta airport to receive us. The journey was uneventful and boring except for a glitch on Atlanta airport when one of my checked-in bag didn't show up. But it turned up a few minutes later (being small it got lost in a pile of luggage). All my cameras, PDA and GPS were in this bag. So it would have made me real upset without my cameras and GPS.

We reached my friend's home in a suburb of Chattanooga on Dec 3 at 2pm. We were awake for a long time and couldn't really sleep well on the red-eye flights so we rested for the rest of the day having long chats, watching photos on a projector and playing with my friend's two cats. Isha really enjoyed playing with the cats after a little anxiety in the beginning.


Isha playing with Pooja the Cat

At night we went to the Rock City to see the Christmas lighting.


Christmas Lighting at Rock City


Rock City - Fairyland Caverns

The weather was reminding us constantly of Portland. Grey and dull skys and pretty much constant rain was the order of the day. The story continued on Dec 4 when we set out to see Chattanooga sites. First we had a nice lunch in a Thai restaurent and then headed to the incline rail on the Lookout mountain. It was very foggy and couldn't see much farther than a few hundred feet.


Lookout Mountain incline rail


Fading into the fog - Lookout Mountain incline rail

So after taking a few snaps we headed to the Ruby Falls. This is an underground falls. The caves reminded me of Oregon Caves, Mammoth Caves and also Carlsbad Caverns. The calcite formations were not as attractive as Carlsbad caverns or Oregon Caves. The size of the cave too was much smaller than the other caves we've been to. But overall it was a nice experience. I took a few night photos from the tower near Ruby Falls.


View from Ruby Falls entrance


Frozen Niagara - Ruby Falls


Ruby Falls - Curtains


Ruby Falls


Chattanooga at night - from Ruby Falls tower

By the time we were out of the caves it was dinner time.  We had our dinner in TGI Friday in Chattanooga near the Tennessee Aquarium. I had the Ultimate Lynchburg Lemonade and Sizzling Chicken & Shrimp. The food was excellent.

After dinner we headed to the nearby IMAX theatre to watch 'The Polar Express'. This is a nice Christmas movie with good 3D effects. The digital animation was eye catching.

Tomorrow we are renting a car and heading to Orlando, Fla. We'll be driving most of the day tomorrow and reach there by night.