i wanted to get out of town last month and thankfully when i suggested it to alex she quickly hopped on board with the idea. her 30th birthday fell on a sunday, and once we found out jesse would be in chattanooga and free that weekend everything fell into place.

we hit the road on friday morning, getting into town in mid-afternoon. after alex wrapped up a work call we went to urban stack to grab burgers before going bowling at southside social. chrystal has been telling me about urban stack for years, and after trying their guacamole burger i can confirm that they live up to the hype.

southside social is a restaurant / bar / bowling alley that also has ping pong and billiards tables and a great patio. we rented a lane for 2 hours and had a blast arguing over which one of us is the worst at bowling and generally catching up.

we spent most of saturday morning lazing about and chatting before setting out for coolidge park. alex picked up food from cashew*, jesse and i grabbed sandwiches from my beloved river street deli, and we found a spot in the shade and set up a nice little picnic for ourselves.

after stuffing ourselves silly we wandered around the park, checking out the bedazzled rhinocerous and taking in the views before grabbing ice cream at clumpie’s [another of my nostalgic favorites].

we were all in the mood for a drive after that, so we took a quick spin through baylor’s campus so i could show off my roots before heading up signal mountain to signal point. in all my time spent in chattanooga i had somehow never been to signal point, and it was the perfect amount of time in nature for all of us.

we stayed in that evening and watched a documentary, and then on sunday we had brunch at sluggo’s* to celebrate alex’s birthday. sluggo’s is an all vegetarian / vegan café, and their food is delicious — alex and jesse both had the breakfast burrito and i had the breakfast tacos, and all of us were extremely happy with our choices.

after food it was time for alex and i to hit the road back to memphis. it was a quick visit but such a good one — the three of us hadn’t been together since jesse moved from memphis in 2018, and i am so grateful we were able to manage this reunion.

and if all goes well, i will be back in chattanooga in october to belatedly celebrate my 20-year high school reunion. i can never get enough of that city.

xx

*chattanooga is a great city for vegetarian and vegan food; check out the chattavegan website for more info!