Fountain

in the courtyard behind the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel.

The Rains Came

and flooded out several area streets. East Brainerd Road was still passable.
*My daughter took this photo while I was driving.

I...

I find all these banners interesting. Not sure of the story behind it. A bit of inspiration on an otherwise bleak building. Click on the image to enlarge to read all the messages more easily.

Sunset

over Nickajack Lake.

Christmas Carriage

The holiday season has officially begun. A carriage ride is a nice break from all the holiday shopping.

Happy Thanksgiving

I have seen some wild turkeys around lately, but never when I had a camera. So instead here is a peaceful stream to enjoy for Thanksgiving.

White Bridge

in Heritage Park.

Choo Choo Time

is Eastern Standard Time. A few miles away is Central Time. The state of Tennessee is split between the two time zones.

Playful

This colorful mosaic is on a column at the Battle Academy, which is a K-5 magnet school.

Chattanooga Happens Downtown

There are variations of these signs up all around the downtown area. Locals who love downtown were invited to be photographed for the project this summer. I am not sure why the faces are blanked out. Maybe the message they are conveying is:  "You'll lose yourself downtown".

A Little Green

While most of the trees are now bare, the grass has faded to brown, and the landscape is fairly bland, there are some patches of color if you look for them. I'm sure that in the next week I'll start to see more and more colors as people put out their Christmas lights.

A Dream

It is good to have a dream. This mural is located along Martin Luther King Boulevard downtown.

Before They Fell

The leaves around the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) were gorgeous. Then the wind and rain came yesterday and wiped the trees bare.

A Determined Tree

I came across this building being overtaken by a tree.

To Park or Not to Park

This is the Volunteer Garage on Georgia Street. You can volunteer to park here or go somewhere else. Actually, Tennessee is the "Volunteer State" and I'm sure the garage name refers to this, not to your parking preferences. I think it is an interesting old building.

Train Art

I've been on a train jag lately. Here is the view across the street from the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel. Interesting, but it looks like the building needs to be fixed up or torn down. I'm not sure what the story is behind it.

Choo Choo

The Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel is located in the old Terminal Station. You can book a room in an actual train car, if you want. I read up on the history and found that it was designed by Don Barber of New York. He had won a contest sponsored by the Beaux Arts Institute in Paris to design the best plan for a railway station for a large city. The terminal, completed in 1909, represents his winning entry, with some changes to the interior.

Incline Railway

This is one of the big tourist draws in town. It is the steepest passenger railway incline in the world.

Umbrella Rock

Years ago people would pose on this rock feature to get their photograph made. Here is an example of a group photo I found. Now there is not a marker and you can only come as close as this fence.

Boats Coming In For the Evening

on Lake Chickamauga.

Boats

One last shot from the Head of the Hooch.

Spectators

View of the crowd on Ross's Landing. The tents are mostly for the teams competing with a few vendors along the street.

Traffic Jam

It took some directing to get all the boats out of the water in an orderly fashion.

Head of the Hooch

The Head of the Hooch rowing race was held in town this weekend. There were nearly 2,000 boats entered with an estimated crowd of 15,000 rowers and their supporters. The weather was perfect for those competing and those of us who showed up to watch. I have several pictures to share over the next few days.

Prodigal Son

This statue is one of many in the River Gallery Sculpture Garden.

Blue Rhino

This is one of the newest pieces of public art around town.

Raising the Steeple

The First Baptist Church in Ringgold got a new steeple this week. The church was just one building that suffered damage in the April 27 tornado outbreak. Several other buildings and houses are in various stages of repair. It is good to see the resilience of those survivors who are rebuilding. We were still living in Alabama at the time, so lived through the same storm.

New Schools

This is East Hamilton Middle/High School which serves students in grades 6-12. It is one of the newest schools in Chattanooga, opening in 2009. The school has the capacity to hold 1,650 students. On the first day this fall there were 2,113 students enrolled.We added two more to that number when we moved here.

The school district just received $50 million to build more schools to help with overcrowding. It looks like the money will go to new elementary schools, which are also in need of more space.

November Theme Day: Fences

This stone wall has a lovely lattice pattern, making it somewhat a fence. I like the way the curved pattern is echoed in the railings on the house.

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