Listing Through Life

Tucked away in a narrow room on the second floor of an obscure corner of the old station building was one of the best model railroad displays I’ve ever seen. It cost me $5 to get in, but it was well worth it.

It took up two rooms. There were probably six or eight trains going all the time. There were buttons along the wall that started up other features — a turntable, a Chattanooga trolley, the Lookout Mountain Incline Railroad. The degree of detail was spectacular.

The first room, with Chattanooga and the Tennessee River in the foreground.

Close-ups of Chattanooga

Lookout Mountain

The back room

And they had this selfie photo-op.

I didn’t have anywhere to be until 6:00 pm, and I didn’t want to spend my afternoon in my less-than-comfortable room at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. I hadn’t planned on touring the aquarium, but it was right there …

Amanda was one of the aquarium guides. She was standing next to a pair of Hyacinth Macaws, talking with them and about them to several kids. When the kids cleared out, I asked Amanda if I could get a photo of the chair with the parrots. She held it up and talked to them, but they were a bit unsure of it and eased away slowly.

I spent several minutes in the butterfly room trying to get one to land on the chair. I finally found this guy plastered against a window and eased him onto the seat while a security guard watched and smiled.

When I first put the chair down in front of the penguin pool, one swam down immediately to take a look.

There were other people in the aquarium, but not many. I rarely had to wait for anybody to get out of the way to take a photo. There were several rooms filled with jellyfish tanks.

Near the exit, there was a display of Tennessee folk art. I couldn’t help noticing the little red chair …