That’s it. We’re done with brunch.

Since we’re doing the whole long distance thing, Dave and I often meet somewhere in the middle. Chattanooga, Tennessee is one of our favorite stops (mostly because it’s the closest to halfway). We headed there this weekend to stay with our favorite Airbnb host, Loretta; however, she ended up having to leave town. We had great time, nonetheless.

Since we both had to work, we didn’t arrive until a little after 7 PM. We settled in and headed straight to dinner at Hi-Fi Clyde’s. Although it was really busy, we were able to get a table almost immediately.

After dinner we walked around the Southside. We checked out the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, one of Chattanooga’s most famous landmarks, and ended the night with some delicious Clumpies ice cream.

On Saturday, we ate breakfast at the house and then made our way to the Grand Junction Station and Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. For $18 we boarded the Missionary Ridge Train, pulled by a steam engine built in 1911. The ride allowed us to look into the past. The train took us through a tunnel to the East Chattanooga station where we were able to see a demonstration of an old turntable, which would turn the engine around, and a workshop where they do maintenance on the trains. We then headed back to Grand Junction.

For lunch, we stopped for tacos and margs at Taco Jalisco Ania. The food was great; however, they recently expanded their restaurant and had quite a few kinks to work out.

We headed back to the house after lunch. I took a nap (ahh…the benefits of vacation) while Dave worked on grading some papers. We had plans to head to the Chattanooga Lookouts vs. Montgomery Biscuits baseball game, but the sun came out and we decided to check out Coolidge Park instead. The weather was amazing so the park was filled with people playing various games, kids learning to ride bikes, and prom pictures. We walked down a few paths, discovering a few remnants from both the Trail of Tears and the Civil War. We even saw a bunch of people sliding down the side of a hill on CARDBOARD!!! No need for snow in south! Haha!

We made our way back to the park, stopping at Brewhaus for a couple beers (and the end of a very intense NCAA basketball game between Virginia and Auburn), grabbed some great, Neapolitan style, pizza from FIAMMA pizza company for dinner, and walked across the beautiful Walnut Street bridge before calling it a night.

Every vacation needs to end with a great brunch, right? We agree! Brunch combines all of the best things, indulgent breakfast food, morning booze, and happiness. Or so we’ve heard. We’re VERY bad at brunch. Every time we say we’re going to make reservations and… we… do not. Brunch in Chattanooga was no exception. We decide to go to The Daily Ration because it was slightly out of town (less people, right?) and the menu looked good. The place was packed. We waited 35 minutes before being seated (not an issue). We were told after ordering there would be at least a 30 minute wait before receiving food (very hungry, but still okay). After waiting 50 minutes, our food finally arrived (yay!!), but it was so COLD! Like, not even a little warm. I asked the waiter if he could warm it up and he came back saying they were making another. After replying that I didn’t really want to wait another 50 minutes for food, he said they were already making another– which he then proceeded to bring out three minutes later…COLD! WHAT?!? How did it come out of the pan cold?! They were nice enough to take it off the bill and we left the restaurant.

We made a stop back at the Airbnb to grab our stuff and drove to Glens Falls (*important tip* search Glens Falls trailhead on google maps) for a quick hike before heading back to our respective homes. Another great #meetmeinthemiddle weekend in the books.