Number one, I'm not an early riser. I used to be. It was the norm for me to be in the office at 5:30 AM during my working days. And I enjoyed it. Now I look back and ask myself if it was worth it. These days I get up somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00. Maribel is always up before me, with fresh coffee already made. During the next few hours we'll have a simple breakfast, read the news, complete our exercise routines, shower and dress for whatever the afternoon holds.
We rarely plan what we're going to do with the rest of the day. One of us will suggest something and we do it. We like to visit the many antique stores in the area. I should make a distinction here. Some of them are antique stores, others are junk shops. All in our opinion are worth visiting. One of our favorites is Dirty Jane's Antiques in Chattanooga. The inventories in these places turn over quickly so it's a rare week that we don't visit two or more stores. Usually we'll find a treasure or two. Four minor pieces of furniture in our house came from such stores. Other days find us walking around downtown Chattanooga. The downtown area is not very big and in a way is disappointing to us. We'd like to see a long, tree lined main street with benches, lots of boutiques, restaurants and novelty shops. Chattanooga doesn't have that. Broad Street, which is the 'main drag' is actually dull, but what it does have is a compact, renovated downtown that is modern, attractive and worth spending an afternoon checking out.
Often we'll spend an afternoon in Chattanooga's Hamilton Place shopping complex. It consists of a modern mall surrounded by many of the big name retailers and restaurants. It is supposedly the largest shopping complex in the state of Tennessee. And it's a twenty minute drive from our house. The city of Fort Oglethorpe is only ten minutes away and also has big name retailers and restaurants.
Another favorite activity is walking and we have three good options for doing that. In Chattanooga the Tennessee River Walk is a hard-surface multi-use trail that borders the Tennessee River. It is I believe fourteen miles long, extending from downtown Chattanooga to the Chickamauga dam. It's a beautiful trail to walk and seldom crowded. Fort Oglethorpe has a much shorter but interesting trail to walk. It's only a five minute drive from our house and is our second favorite place to be at sunset. Our favorite is one of the many forest paths in the Chickamauga National Military Park. The header photo of this blog is from that park. This place deserves a post of its own so I wont go into detail on it now.
One other activity, and probably our favorite is to take a day-trip to one of the hundreds of small towns in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Each town usually has a main square surrounded by shops, offices and restaurants. Typically in the center of the square is an old building of note. The majority also have an old railroad depot museum. Whether they are worthy of the name 'museum' is a matter of personal opinion but most of them have something of interest. We enjoy checking out all the stores, and always look for a locally owned restaurant to have lunch. Some of our favorite memories are of these restaurants. By the way, a day trip for us is three hours one way. Anything over that is motel time.
We don't do everything together. Maribel has a network of friends she will occasionally go to lunch with, and there are days when I'm feeling lazy so she will take the car and go off by herself. I actually look forward to those times because I can do one of my favorite activities; work in the backyard, or just sit in front of a fire in the grill and think. I admit that as I've gotten older I've gotten more sedentary. For me it is a real pleasure to just sit in that yard, listen to the birds, smell nature's aromas and think about things in general or reminisce about days gone by. And if it's warm and the sun is setting and I've got a beer in my hand, so much the better.
The tree on the left is a cedar, that in the center is a seventy-five foot slash pine. You need to click on the photo to see things more clearly. On the right is a water oak with a four and one-half foot diameter. It is old and is constantly dropping branches and sometimes sizable limbs that I can hear crash to the ground from inside the house. In the fall it drops a billion tiny acorns, which the squirrels, chipmunks and blue jays love, but I could do without. I would gladly trade that tree for a northern white or red oak. In the distance are groves of pecan, walnut and chestnut trees. Just to the left of the oak are two chairs, a table and the grill. If Maribel and I are not out and about, the chair on the left is where you'll find me on a warm Georgia afternoon.
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