Chattanooga Is Home

When I was in college, my parents were stationed in Charleston, South Carolina. I visited there on school breaks, but never really felt the city was mine to call home. (But anywhere my parents live, their house is definitely a home for me.)

One Christmas my sisters and I received a book of tickets to local tourist attractions. The Charleston board of tourism sold these books of discounted tickets to residents and called them “Be a Tourist in Your Hometown.” For the rest of Christmas break my sisters and I toured historic homes and other tourist spots in Charleston. And we have some wonderful memories of just being together.

I keep thinking about that Christmas break every time I drive by something that is rather touristy here in Chattanooga- from the Choo Choo to the Aquarium to the Chattanooga Ducks. I really want to experience them, but often feel like I have to have an out of town visitor accompanying me in order to make it appropriate.

Well, I decided I don’t have to wait for visitors, I can just take the time to be a tourist in my hometown. I don’t necessarily get a discount for being a resident, but I do get to spend some time with my son and understand my hometown a little better.

And if I write about my experience here, it might help someone who is coming to visit know what to expect as well.

I want to start with the CARTA Electric Shuttle. To me, the shuttles are one thing (out of many) that makes downtown truly special. First, they are free transportation around downtown. Second, they are electric, which is great for the environment. In fact, Chattanooga runs the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world. If you want to know more about them, you can go to the Electric Vehicle Information Center, located at Shuttle Park South (the Chattanooga Choo-Choo).

While I know that it is not strictly tourists who use the free shuttle (I used it often when I worked downtown), but I think that some tourists may not know what it is all about.
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If you did, I found it!

Yesterday afternoon, around 4 pm, I was walking back to my office from the Canvas Canoe (it is on Market and 1st street).

As I walked through the Tennessee Aquarium patio area, I walked under the bridge that is behind the little rows of fountains. On one of the four benches under the bridge there was a bag, sitting alone as if it was waiting for something or someone.

I looked around and saw several groups of people, so I asked them if the bag belonged to them. No one claimed the bag and one group said they had been watching it because it had been there a long time. (more…)