Day trip to Chattanooga

After a couple of shell shocked weeks I reached out to one of my favorite girlfriends to see what she was up to this past weekend. She suggested we take a day trip to Chattanooga. I don’t often take day trips anywhere, but after this one, I will be making them a regular occurrence. I figured it would be lots of fun as my sweet friend Shai is the perfect travel partner, she is a super world traveler, fun, sweet, and open to anything that comes her way. In other words a great influence for me. I am fun, but I am measured fun lol. To kick off our trip, Shai pulls up in an adorable convertible VW bug. We threw on pairs of sunnies and down the road we went! Atlanta is a little under 2 hours from Chattanooga and one thing I love about traveling north from the city you run into gorgeous mountains and surprise surprise, Georgia Winery!

There was a billboard on the highway inviting us to a wine tasting and have a tasty taste we did! The wines were really easy to enjoy if you like dryer wines (not sweet) or sweeter wines or somewhere in the middle they have plenty to choose from and the staff was very nice! My faves were Rhett (white and semi-sweet) and Scarlett (red and sweet) they even have a wine club so you can get wine quarterly! I joined just to have another reason to come back and take a few fun pix in front of their building!

After we wrapped up our wine tasting and spending too much money on wine we headed into Chattanooga. The downtown area is adorable and we made our way over the bridge to Milk and Honey a cute Gelato/coffee shop. I was hungry so I had their porky rice bowl and a smoothie. Both were healthy and really good. I made the mistake of going back to the counter and came back with a peach and brown butter cupcake. Delicious all around! Since we got to the city pretty late we decided to head to Ruby Falls which takes tours down into the caverns to see the waterfall until 8 pm. The ride up to the mountain to Ruby falls is gorgeous and has a lookout point that you can access without going to the falls. There is a $20 fee to take the tour at Ruby Falls. It is about a mile total in walking thru rocks and formations that are quite lovely. The fall is beautiful and we made our own fun in the caves to the falls. Visit if you can. If not enjoy the view from the mountains. Its so beautiful.

I have to admit my favorite thing to do is have drinks and a wonderful dinner. My fave stop of the entire trip was at Easy Bistro and Bar and beautiful restaurant directly across from the Tennessee Aquarium. The Aquarium is an incredible attraction in itself. I was always a fan of their sea horse exhibit (Of course males should carry babies, let’s roll that out across all species!) The decor was chic and welcoming,  comfy tufted booths and great relaxing lighting, fun servers and a wine list that went on for pages. I had the biscuits and butter & rosé brut for an appetizer, steak and frites along with a wonderful glass of red. It was the most delicous steak I ever had. Perfectly tender and I would recommend that anyone visiting here have the same. It was the perfect ending for our night. We walked back to our car, let the top down and I enjoyed the ride right back to Atlanta. After this trip, I have been plotting and planning my next day trips, Up next Helen, Dahlonega, Athens, and my all-time fave Blue Ridge. Where is the next road trip for you? Tell me about it in the comments!

xo Danie