Experiences in the Noog

That guy I've been married to for 3 years and I had a lovely mini-vacation this weekend. In fact, we went to celebrate the general success of our marriage, which has gone rather well (we think). In the spirit of our conflicting love of roughing it and comfort, we decided to camp out our first night in Chattanooga and lie in the lap of luxury the second night.

We dropped our adorable daughter off with her grandparents, loaded up our car, and bought Java Monsters. These beverages are road trip staples for us. The soundtrack for our trip was Radiohead's OK Computer on repeat. We were unable to turn it off as we were in a state of mutual musical appreciation.

After being shamelessly tourist-y at the scenic overlook...

This is the stream that ran in front of our tent!

We drove the rest of the way and found our campsite.                       

                                                                             












Unfortunately, this is the trash that littered the rocks leading down to it.

But it was no big deal, because we were able to get a good night's sleep. Oh wait, no we weren't. There were ATVs and trucks roaming around until the wee hours of the morning. And it was cold. And my sleeping bag wasn't zipped. But that's my fault.

So, we didn't have an amazing experience at the Raccoon Mountain campground, but we did enjoy ourselves. We got to go hiking, loved the stream being so close, and enjoyed the cleanliness of the rest of the campground. The staff was pretty pleasant.

Perspective.

We checked out Craven's House, which turned out to be a highlight of our trip! The grounds are rich with history and the beauty was truly incredible. Being high above the city, with giant monuments and old houses covered in ivy is almost surreal.

History nerds.

Just...wow.

Now, maybe you think we planned this trip willy-nilly. That we didn't plan, check on prices, and budget accordingly. I believe that any person with the internet has no excuse for staying in sub-par establishments. It's so easy to check sites like TripAdvisor.com and make sure others have had good experiences there. 

That's exactly how we found Sky Harbor Bavarian Inn, and we couldn't have found a better place to stay. This Inn is nestled on Lookout Mountain and is famous for its incredible panoramic views of the river and city of Chattanooga.
Like this.

And it only gets better at night!





The city lights sparkle on the river, and you can see it all from the icing-on-the-cake jacuzzi in the sitting room.

Check out the cool fairy-tale-esque hillside below our balcony!

 Our balcony--complete with rocking chairs and blankets--was HUGE!

We felt like valued guests at Sky Harbor Bavarian Inn. Patsy was a pleasure to do business with, and we were totally impressed by the bottle of champagne left for us by the jacuzzi! What a perfect, classy touch for this off-the-beaten path destination. We decided we would love to come back and stay here again--the only thing we would change? We'd never leave the room. 

Until next time!

Debra