Weekend Getaway: Chattangooa

A weekend away with your spouse is wonderful. A spontaneous weekend away with your spouse is freaking awesome.

On my drive home from work on Friday afternoon I decided we should change up our usual weekend routine and go on a roadtrip. After being home for 30 minutes I had packed our bag and had confirmed our hotel in Chattanooga!

Chattanooga is roughly 2 hours from our home and seeing as we hadn't been back since our 1 year anniversary, I thought it would be a fun surprise! For the night we stayed at the The Chattanoogan. We were really please with our room, the friendliness of the staff and the amenities. Their pool was amazing and I wish we had a chance to take a swim! We checked in to our room and immediately freshened up to go downstairs to the hotel bar. With drinks in hand {Mojito and a local brew} we made our way to the large patio area that had soft music playing and a large fire pit. Peekture!
We sat for over an hour and talked...It was delightful! The hotel staff were very helpful and kind and our room was ever so comfortable. Can I get an Amen for blackout curtains and turning the air down as low as you want?!! Gosh I love hotels!

Saturday morning we woke up, checked out and headed to brunch at Rembrandt's. Here's a little video from instagram of our time. 

I absolutely love the exterior of their building and the patio. With the stucco on the exterior, the vines growing up the sides, the wrought iron seating, lush greenery and herringbone pattern patio! I love the Mediterranean feel of its design.

Located in the Bluff View Art District, this quaint cafe is surrounded by large trees and a beautiful view of the river. We hope to stay at the Bluff View Inn, a little B&B, next to Rembrandt's when we are in town again. 

My Spinach salad was amazing and Adam really enjoyed his croissant breakfast sandwich. Did I mention we ordered lattes and capuccino's twice? We were jacked up!

So here we are trying to capture a fun picture of us for memories... and totally failing!

That's a little better!

After brunch, qe spent the afternoon at the aquarium which is one of Adam's most favorite things to do. He was able to capture some really great photos of the fish and the butterflies in the butterfly exhibit. If ever you are in the area, you should really check it out, and on Saturdays they have vendors selling everything from jewelry and soap to food.

 We spent a little time around town after the aquarium and then headed back home. We kept saying to each other how much we enjoyed getting away even if it was just for the night.

I hope you had a great weekend! I'll talk to you soon 

xoxo bd

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Over the weekend Adam and I took a short trip to Chattanooga for our first vacation since the honeymoon.

We wanted to go some place close without a lot of drive time but also somewhere that has activities we'd be interested in.

We left Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel after getting a little turned around leading us to Georgia. 

Our room was so nice with a king size bed and flat screen, we are so thankful to his dad for giving us that as a gift.

We opted for a trip to the local mall although it was closing when we arrived so we decided to get our bearings straight with the downtown area. Lucky for us there was a biker convention. Oh joy.

Already I was impressed with Chattanooga; there were lots of people walking around, sitting at outdoor eateries and the streets were very clean.

Note: All the pictures posted today are from my blackberry. We searched high and low for my camera only to realize it was no where in sight so we bought a disposable camera. If I get a digital copy of the pictures I'll try to post them soon.

Saturday morning we had the luxury of sleeping in and watching Father of the Bride.

Our first Chattanooga adventure was The Tennessee Aquarium. Adam, as I've mentioned before, is enthralled by all sea life. If there's an aquarium nearby we're going in. There are two large buildings filled with every fish imaginable including a sea horse, butterfly and jelly fish exhibit. Midway through our tour the heavens opened up for a thunderstorm leaving everyone outside running for cover. 

At some point we walked around downtown to purchase non other than my absolute favorite, gelato! Coconut and chocolate cheesecake please!!

Following the aquarium we ventured out to a few other districts that friends told us to check out. 

First was Rembrandt's Coffee House in the Bluff View Art District. After multiple people suggesting this place I knew it would be great. I loved the exterior most. An upscale coffee shop with an array of coffees, lattes, deserts, and sandwiches; I was in heaven. 

Hubby found a new favorite, Orangina!

Look at all of the goodies! That's only 1 case out of 4 I think filled with cakes, cookies, chocolates and macaroons.

Frizzy hair after the rain and my iced cappuccino!

We drove around for at least an hour seeing all that the city has to offer finding our way to another district, North Shore, which reminded me of Nashville's Hillsboro Village. {Thank you to Ashleigh for recommending this area!}

Boutiques, a donut shop where we picked up a couple treats of course, Blue Skies and a brewery find for Adam. He was disappointed they had yet to open but we've already made plans to visit for a tasting.

I can't tell you how much we did on Saturday....we walked, shopped, visited, ate, walked some more and discovered a great city! We never did what most people typically do like Ruby Falls, Rock City or Lookout Mountain. 

For us we were more interested in finding out where the locals go than paying $15 each for views and water falls lit up. 

Sunday we slept in again and made a b-line for Aretha Frankenstein's. Yes, Frankenstein's.

In the same vicinity as North Shore, it's a restaurant with mostly breakfast items. 

There's limited seating, with most of it being outside or on the railing of the porch, the charm is definitely present. Their kitchen is miniature but they made the most amazing french toast I've ever ever ever eaten.

We  were so impressed! If you ever find your self itching for pancakes or omelets, please hop on over to Aretha's.

With nothing planned for the day we decided to find our own views by driving up all of the hills. On our trek we saw this sign.

Can you imagine? In the middle of the mountains I see a Starbucks sign.

We followed all of the arrows to find

Dissapointed by their service as the manage scoffed loudly at our drink choice I still enjoy the fact that Starbucks is directly across from Rock City.

Like I said we didn't actually go to Rock City but I thought I'd share a picture at least.

Sorry for the length of the post, quite long I know! 

But that was our anniversary weekend in a nutshell. I hope yours was just as eventful!

xoxo .bd

{Photo Credits: That Kind of Woman & Lovely Little Place}