http://www.RealAdventures.com/vacations/185054_articles-tennessee-east.htm Check out some of the recently updated travel & vacation listings on RealAdventures. Be inspired, go explore! en-us Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:42:26 GMT Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:42:26 GMT http://www.RealAdventures.com http://www.RealAdventures.com/vacations/185054_articles-tennessee-east.htm 100 100 http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1025056_Chattanooga-is-Top-Family-Destination http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1025056_Chattanooga-is-Top-Family-Destination Articles Tennessee Wed, 14 Jan 2004 00:01:00 Chattanooga is a top family destination with lots of activities for children including rides on historical trains the Tennessee Aquarium, Tenessee Valley Railroad, Creative Discovery Museum, International Tow Truck Museum, Lookout Mountain and Rock -
Chattanooga is a top family destination with lots of activities for children including rides on historical trains the Tennessee Aquarium, Tenessee Valley Railroad, Creative Discovery Museum, International Tow Truck Museum, Lookout Mountain and Rock


Chattanooga is Top Family Destination

Trains and attractions aimed at kids

By Phyllis Steinberg



My first visit to Chattanooga, Tennessee, was with a group of friends. It was a fun getaway to just hang out with my long time buddies, but it would have been even more fun if I took my threeyear old grandson.
He loves trains. He, like dozens of his friends, is crazy about Thomas The Train. Not only does he have the dozens of trains that belong to the Thomas The Train family, but he has all the train videos and books that tell tall tales about Thomas and his adventures.
Well, Chattanooga goes one step further in this train mania. It has the Chattanooga Choo Choo, a magnificently restored train station, now a Holiday Inn property, but different from any Holiday Inn anywhere.
It is located at Chattanooga&8217s Terminal Station built in 1909 and served as the heart of bustling railway activity until trains were replaced by faster modes of transportation. The last train stopped on August 11, 1970. Doors and windows were boarded up, but the station was saved by the wrecking ball by a group of locals who recognized that the railroad still had a bright future.
More than $4 million was spent to renovate the property and the hotel was welcomed into the Holiday Inn family. The Chattanooga Choo Choo is now a magnificently restored structure for everyone who visits Chattanooga to enjoy. There are many shops featuring train memorabilia, actual train cars where guests can dine and there are sleeper cars that are beautifully restored where guests can spend the night. Four dozen restored passenger cars decorated in the Victorian style can accommodate up to four guests in a car.
The 24acre complex also has a 3,000 square foot, automated 174 foot long Model Railroad Museum with 320 structures and 3,000 feet of track, a 1930&8217s style caf specializing in gourmet espressos and desserts and a station house restaurant with performing waitresses and waiters.
The term &8220hands on&8221 takes on an adventurous new meaning after riding the Tennessee Valley Railroad , where the largest operating historic railroad in the South takes passengers aboard a faithfully restored, authentic steam or diesel passenger train at ChoChoo city. The train runs summer weekends between Chattanooga Choo Choo and Grand Junction Station. The ride takes about three and a half hours.
As if the restored train station wasn&8217t enough, my grandson would have loved jumping on the free electric shuttle bus in Chattanooga, which has a station next to the Chattanooga Choo Choo and convenient stations all around downtown Chattanooga to visit area attractions.
My grandson would have been amazed when the electric shuttle stopped at the Tennessee Aquarium. It opened in 1992 and is the first and largest freshwater aquarium in the world. The height of a 12story building, the 130,000 square foot building holds 400,000 gallons of water and more than 9,000 animals that swim, fly and crawl from alligator snapping turtles, 80 pound catfish and red piranhas to sharks and green moray eels. The Aquarium also has an IMAX 3d Theater and Environmental Learning Lab.
The Creative Discovery Museum, a multistory museum designed for children to have fun and learn is another fun stop on the electric shuttle.
Many kids are fascinated with trucks and my grandson is no exception. Well, many people may not know this but the Ernest W. Holmes Company manufactured the first &8220wrecker&8221 in Chattanooga in 1916. And truck enthusiasts, car buffs and kids of all ages would enjoy a visit to the world&8217s only tow truck museum in downtown Chattanooga, another stop on the electric shuttle. The official name of the museum is the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame Museum. The museum houses antique towing equipment, photos, memorabilia and a host of products and services honoring the history of an industry paralleling that of the automobile. It&8217s not a large museum, but worth a visit.
The downtown area also has an outlet mall featuring stores such as Ralph Lauren, Coach and Bass for adults who like to shop.
Also in the downtown area are many kidfriendly restaurants. One of my favorites was Sticky Fingers, a chicken and rib eatery with lots of delicious sauces and wonderful desserts.
Further afield is Lookout Mountain, where you can see seven states from legendary Lovers Leap. It has two interesting destinations for adults and children. There is Rock City with its beautiful gardens and unique rock formations and Ruby Falls, an underground waterfall. A guided tour will take you in the caves at Ruby Falls and highlight unique formations. The Incline Railway, the world&8217s steepest passenger railway, over 2,000 feet above sea level, is a unique way to see Lookout Mountain and its breathtaking, panoramic view. The Incline&8217s free observation deck is the highest overlook on Lookout Mountain.
The newest hotel in the city is The Chattanoogan, the best place for Sunday brunch, with all the trimmings, including a makeyourown ice cream bar and dozens of entrees and delicious desserts. The Chattanoogan also has a spa which features the &8220Riverport&8221 Stone Massage,&8221 which combines the use of hot stones from river and lava beds to relieve aching muscles and total relaxation. Local stones from the Tennessee River are used during the treatment. I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the Chattanoogan spa, which also has steam and sauna rooms, an indoor pool and exercise facilities.
The Chattanoogan is located in the middle of downtown Chattanooga and is walking distance to the Outlet Mall and electric trolley stop. It is an upscale urban resort with 202 rooms, and is a welcome addition to the city with its 25,000 square feet of hightech meeting space.
Chattanooga also has several art museums and upscale restaurants in the Bluff View Art District. I especially enjoyed a visit to the Renaissance Commons in the Bluff View Art District where I learned how to bake bread from scratch from Chef Rob Alexander, the district&8217s head baker and pastry chef. The beautiful Renaissance Commons is the site for weddings and other special occasions for locals, but it also prepares some of the creative cuisine for Bluff View Arts District restaurants.
U.S. Airways provides service to Chattanooga.
For more information about Chattanooga, call 8003223344 or www.chattanoogafun.com

Photos by Phyllis Steinberg

Details & Reservations: Chattanooga is Top Family Destination
RealAdventures | Tennessee Articles

]]> http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1024429_My-Home-Away-from-Home http://www.RealAdventures.com/listings/1024429_My-Home-Away-from-Home Articles Tennessee Thu, 08 Jan 2004 00:01:00 Littleknown travel secrets for the Great Southern lakes region of Tennessee. -
Littleknown travel secrets for the Great Southern lakes region of Tennessee.


by Linda DonsonShearer

Growing up in the innocent years of the 1950s and &821660s and being one member of a family of educators and professional people, summertime was always great fun for us. We believed in gathering knowledge &8211 we believed in traveling. So, we traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada to see and learn about the world &8211 but we always included at least two weeks staying on a lake in the Adirondack Mountains. This repeated habit formed the basis for my recreational needs &8211 the need for water &8211 for relaxation and entertainment. Now, I can&8217t imagine vacationing, much less living, without being near water. This value is a constant in my life.

Three summers ago, my husband and I bought a speedboat to use on a vacation we were taking to the Adirondacks (good excuse). When we returned home to Ohio, we tried to use our boat on the lakes around Cincinnati and Indianapolis. It didn&8217t work for us. It seemed more trouble than it was worth and the lakes of the Midwest are disappointedly small and overcrowded. Selling the boat was out of the question, so the search was on to find an alternative lake for our boating pleasure.

Everyone talks about the &8220J&8221 effect that is happening lately. This term refers to those snowbirds from the North who think they want to retire to Florida only to eventually backtrack to the Carolinas or Tennessee. My husband and I participated in the &8220B&8221 effect. We skipped going to Florida altogether and made a beeline for Tennessee. For starters, we bought a lakefront lot on one of the Southern Great Lakes, as they are sometimes called.

The bestkept secret in Tennessee is Watts Bar Lake, the king of the Southern Great Lakes (and here I am, blabbing the news to everyone). I just can&8217t contain my excitement over finding such a wonderful place. Tennessee is there waiting for you, too, if you can bring yourself to get past your old false misconceptions. True, life seems somehow simpler, and some people and places are quaint because they can&8217t or don&8217t want to keep up with NYC. How refreshing! I&8217m personally fed up with crowds and traffic jams and rudeness and fearing for my safety.

On Watts Bar Lake, it&8217s never crowded because the lake is just too big. The majority of lakefront is owned and managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, so it still looks like wilderness. When you do pass someone in a boat, they actually wave at you. Isn&8217t that a hoot? Lakefront property values are still fairly reasonable, although that is changing quickly. Apparently, someone else besides me also blabbed.

Bottomline, if you are a water lover and a crowd hater and enjoy rare birds like bald eagles and ospreys and nature and good fishing and water sports and friendly people, you need to check this area out. It&8217s not far from the Smokies, Knoxville and Chattanooga. There&8217s plenty to do, or you can just do nothing. I like that part the best!

My husband and I built a cedar home of our own design on the lake. We call it &8220Cheronac&8221 in honor of his Cherokee heritage and my love of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks. For now, we are there every weekend, driving to and from Cincinnati. Someday, we hope to call it our only home.
Details & Reservations: My Home Away from Home
RealAdventures | Tennessee Articles

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