The Chattanooga Market

Since Friday afternoon, we've been at my parent's home in Tennessee. We spent the past few days house hunting, ending up with some disappointments and a couple of hopefuls. We'll see what happens.

House hunting, something I'd normally think of as fun, has been rather tiring and a bit frustrating this go around. Probably because it's being over shadowed with dread. Not dread of living here, but we're both dreading the process of the actual move. And along with that, we're both wanting to get the ball rolling, but just not seeing anything that hits the mark for what we need/want.

We did a lot of traveling on Saturday looking around, and so Sunday morning we decided we should all take a break and do something fun before continuing on the search.

Mom had the perfect suggestion.

In Chattanooga, beneath the protective rise of Lookout Mountain...





...down near the UTC football stadium,...

...in a nice open air pavillion there...

...on ever Sunday during the summer months, the city of Chattanooga hosts The Chattanooga Market. It's a gathering of vendors and shoppers, artists and musicians, and all sorts of things, within the shade of the pavilion where there is lots to see, smell, sample, and purchase.

It opens at 11:00am and we were there for the beginning, before it got too crowded. Mom said some days it's so crowded you can't hardly move. There is live music, with a different musician featured each week. Seating around the stage where you can enjoy the entertainment and some yummy food from the many food vendors.
And after lunch, you can stroll through all the booths and make purchases of all sorts of things, such as fresh produce grown by area farms...

....yummy breads and pastries baked by local bakers....

...stock your pantry with some delightful canned jellies, relishes, and goods....

....purchase a lovely flower arrangement or stock up on fresh herbs...

....and pick up some unique arts and crafts as well.

We toured it all, sampled several yummy things, and purchased a few items of fresh goodness. Then on our way out, we stopped at the cake stand my parents have been telling us about. This lady bakes and decorates specialty cakes. And on Sunday's she bring an impressive collection of flavors down to the market and sells them by the slice. One look, even without a taste, made me want to write down her name for any future cake ordering needs I might run across. What a great marketing strategy she has come up with!

Talk about a hard decision to make!!!! She had just about any type of cake you could think of, from traditionals like German Chocolate, Lemon, Coconut, and Caramel, to some more unique flavors, such as Pumpkin, Tropical, and Dad's favorite, Mounds, which turns out to be an extremely rich chocolate cake with coconut and Mounds candy bar pieces and topped off with chocolate icing. And she's not skimpy on her icing either, or her servings. It's a giant piece of cake! We got a couple pieces to enjoy after our lunch.

After our cake purchase, we drove out to a favorite local deli that mom and dad have eaten at for years. It's like their special place, or at least that's how I've always thought of it. And after lunch, we did some more house hunting.

We found two really neat places we liked this past week, only to have them bought just as we had discovered them. But as Mom said, and as I keep reminding myself, God must have something even better for us.

We might have found the something better Sunday afternoon. If it's meant to be I know we'll get it, but it won't hurt to ask for as many prayers and crossed fingers as we can get going on this. So if you don't mind? Thanks!

Here's a link to The Chattanooga Market for more information. Chattanooga's just a great place to visit, so if your trying to figure where you want to go for next summer's vacation, and your tired of the same old beach trip, think about coming down here and exploring.