Chattanooga - Lookout Mountain

The drive from Nashville to Chattanooga was a beautiful one and the day was pleasant.

We hit the city first, wanting to get some lunch. Given the day is December 24, most of the restaurants downtown were closed. We went to Genghis Grill, one of the Mongolian barbecue places, where you can pick out the ingredients you want and they grill them on a huge slab for you and you can watch them do it. Genghis Grill is different from the other such grills we have been to, in that they had like 9 different varieties of spices and more sauces. The serving size is pretty big and Shankar and I were full even with sharing a bowl.

Then we headed to the Lookout Mountain, the popular tourist place in town. It is actually located in Georgia. The Lookout Mountain has three attractions - Rock City, Ruby Falls and the Incline Railway. From the Lookout Mountain, you can also "see" seven states. We were really excited about this when we went there, but discovered that you cannot actually 'see' all the seven states. See picture below - how far can you see, even with really good binoculars / spotting scopes?

We did not have enough time to go to all the attractions, but went to Rock City and the Ruby Falls. The Incline Railway, is a train that takes you up the Lookout Mountain, and is the world's steepest railway. May be we will go to Chattanooga again to go on the Incline Railway :)

Nashville Parthenon

On the third day of our Road trip to the South, We started nice and early, with Pastries for breakfast from La Provence, a bakery near Vanderbilt, and their coffee was really good. We headed to the Parthenon, located in the Centennial Park. It is a full scale replica of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

We were unable to go inside and see the 42 feet statue of Athena, as the Parthenon is closed from Dec 22-25. Though we were a little disappointed, we were glad we at least got to see the building and hang around there.
Apart from taking a load of pictures, we played with Amy for a while and she was the happiest dog that morning! For more on what Amy did on our vacation, visit our pet blog - One Dog and Two Birds.

Our next stop is - Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Dinner @ Nashville

One word to describe Nashville, as we got there around 8 pm is - Festive! We had reservations at Sunset Grill, near Vanderbilt University. Dinner was wonderful and they had an excellent wine list. I had a glass of Kris Pinot Grigio (2006) from Italy - a full bodied wine with a clean finish and Shankar had a glass of the Yazoo Dos Perros, a local brew. We Started off with Polenta fries, and our main dish was a special of the day - Baked acorn squash, stuffed with apple, sweet potatoes and walnuts, with spinach on the side and a pesto based sauce. We also shared a Creme Brulee, which was a little disappointing, as the caramelized sugar was kind of burnt. Overall, we had a satisfying, romantic dinner.

Though we couldn't make it to any bars for some country music, we drove around downtown for a while, before calling it a day.