Listing Through Life

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 …

The Walnut Street Bridge, built in 1890, was the first non-military bridge across the Tennessee River. It remained in service until 1978, sat unused for 10 or so  years and was then converted into one of the world’s longest (2,376 feet) pedestrian bridges.

The first photo was taken from the north bank looking toward downtown Chattanooga.

This is the south end of the bridge, looking north.

And this was taken mid-bridge, looking north  at the Delta Queen riverboat and Coolidge Park.

The next two photos are looking south, the top one from the north bank. The bottom one from the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge. The building with the pointed black roof, visible in both photos, is the Chattanooga Aquarium.

For the five nights I was in Chattanooga for a convention, I stayed at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, built from the old city railroad station.

Or at least that’s what you’re led to believe. In fact, none of the rooms are in the old station. There are rows of old passenger cars lined up on the tracks in what used to be the train shed, and many of these have been turned into hotel rooms.

And a lonely caboose along the parking lot of Hotel 3, way in the back.

And there are three separate buildings that appear to have been designed by the architect who designed East German prisons — these buildings were ugly. Our rooms (mine and my coworkers’) were in Hotel 3, way, way in the back.

The rooms were, to put it bluntly, spartan. Some of my coworkers had issues with the cleanliness of their rooms. I had none with my room (if you discount the mold all around the bathroom), but it did have one quirk. The water temperature in my shower went from just a bit too cold to scalding hot every 20 seconds or so. Oddly enough, the courtyard outside my window contained what looked like a very nice swimming pool.

For no reason I could ascertain, this hook sat in the middle of the parking lot at the hotel.

The coolest part of the building was the sign on the roof.

It lit up — or parts of it did, anyway — at night.

The lobby was impressive, although it was rather empty of furniture and people.

I’d been hiking around Chattanooga for a couple hours. It was sunny and about 65 out and I was getting thirsty. I looked for somewhere to get something to drink and found Good Dog, a hot dog place on Frazier Avenue north of the river.

As soon as I walked in, a guy seated with his family at the table closest to the door asked me about the chair. I explained and, when he showed interest, I asked if I could get a photo. Not only did they agree, but they called over another guy and his son to be in the picture. And so here is the Davidson family.

And then they told Susan, the owner. She was very nice and thanked me for stopping by, so I got her picture too. I ordered a Chicago-style dog, and when she found out I was from Chicago, she got a little worried. But it was excellent — the pickles were in slices instead of wedges, but otherwise it was authentic.

Every 25 yards or so up and down Frazier Avenue, near Good Dog, there were dance steps embedded in the sidewalk.