Bakery Tour - Chattanooga Cupcakes - my 2nd favorite!

This was my 2nd favorite cupcake place we visited in Chattanooga.  It's almost unheard of, but we actually went back for more cupcakes from this place.  The location helps....it's a quick walk from our boat, across the pedestrian bridge and into downtown.  If I haven't mentioned the pedestrian bridge yet, it's one of my very favorite features of Chattanooga.  I've always loved bridges anyways, but this is the longest pedestrian bridge in the country.  Here's a shot of it from the downtown side of the river.  You can see the Delta Queen docked underneath it, which is where we like to stay. 

Another shot of what the bridge looks like.  I took this picture for my mom, who actually introduced me to Chattanooga.  The crowd of people coming towards us is headed to the park to set up to watch the fireworks (which we got to watch from the deck of the boat, lucky us!).

Okay, one more for Mom.  This shot was taken on the pedestrian bridge, looking down into Coolidge Park, where everyone set up to watch the fireworks.  And you can see my boat, the Delta Queen, off to the left.  People started setting up tents and roping of their sections at like 10am. 

On to Chattanooga Cupcakes.  So we left our boat, walked across the pedestrian bridge and into downtown.  This is the side of the building, and I got so excited when I saw their adorable logo, that I never took a pic of the front.  Go figure.

And here's a close up of that adorable logo.  I just love how the cupcakes replace the two o's.  So cute!

And when we walked in, I was in heaven.  Honestly, it was a little bright for my tastes, but this was one happy, friendly cupcake place! 

The seating area was really cute as well.  Everywhere you looked there were cupcakes...pictures, knick knacks on the ledges....everywhere!

The quality of their cupcakes blew me away.  And get this...the strawberry cupcake actually had strawberries in it!!!  The peach cobbler cupcake (Arnie's favorite)...it had peaches in it!  I know that should be normal, but its quite often not the case in alot of places we've visited.  My only complaint would be that there is ALOT of icing on those cupcakes, but I had no problem scooping off a bit from the top and enjoying the rest.

A must-do stop if you happen to be in Chattanooga....

All Aboard!

Just in case you were wondering if we did anything other than visit bakeries on our vacation, here's the proof that yes, we did.  On Saturday, we took the Tennessee Railroad from Chattanooga to Chickamauga, GA.  It was about a 2-1/2 hour train ride each way, with an hour and a half layover to check out the small town of Chickamauga. 

We had really high hopes for the train ride.  It sounded like soooo much fun.  Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as well as we expected.  First, we stopped for an hour for them to fix one of the women's bathrooms.  It seemed a bit unnecessary, as there were other restrooms available and they could've worked on it while we were stopped in GA.  Add to that too many unhappy children and unpleasant scenery, and it just wasn't what we had anticipated.  However, when we're on vacation, we try to keep a good attitude, so we definitely didn't let it ruin our day.

Once we stopped in Chickamauga, we decided to find some lunch.  We ate at a barbecue place (my hubby LOVES barbecue..we ate alot of it on vacation, which is a fair trade off for all the bakery stops!).  The food was really fantastic.  I loved my smoked chicken, and we also had fried green tomatoes that were the best I've ever had.  And it was a really cute place too.

And then, on to the bakeries!  :)  The first place I was really excited about...it was called Cakes & Coffee.  I only took one picture of the cute outside, as when we walked in, we realized it was more of a gift shop than anything else.  They did have one full cake, a few cupcakes, and a pot of homemade coffee, but that was it.  Not much of a cake shop.

Luckily, across the street was a place called the Chocolate Cafe.  How could anybody resist going in there?  Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the outside, but the inside was exactly what I have always pictured my own shop would look like.  It had beautiful brick walls and hardwood floors.  In the backroom, there was a large fireplace and an outdoor patio. 

Cute, right?  Almost exactly what I would look for in a shop.  While I really like the "cute" cupcake shops, I'm always drawn to the more natural elements, like brick and wood. 

From here, we made the two hour train ride back to Chattanooga, giving a huge sigh of relief as we exited the train!  :)

Chattanooga, Tennessee

As previously stated, I LOVE Chattanooga.  I love everything about it...the mountains, Sugar's Barbecue Restaurant, the pedestrian bridge (my fave), the cool shops, the gorgeous downtown, the fantastic aquarium.  I am just a huge fan!  :)  So we stop there for an overnighter whenever we can, usually on our way back from Florida. 

This time, we were both a little under the weather with colds from the grandkids, so we didn't do as much walking as we normally do.  But we stayed at our favorite place...the Delta Queen!

The ship is docked now, as required by Tennessee law in order to be used as a hotel.  But it's just beautiful!  It's docked right downtown Chattanooga, very close to the pedestrian bridge, so you can easily get over to the downtown area.  Once we get there, we normally park the car and walk everywhere we want to go.

The view from our room was incredible.  To the left is a wonderful view of my pedestrian bridge.  The rooms are small, and there's no TV, no phone, which we actually love.

The interior is filled with antiques and history.  You could spend an entire day just wondering around, reading plaques and scrapbooks about the ship and who has stayed on it.  It has a grand staircase that sooo makes me want to put on an evening gown and heels so I can float down those beautiful stairs.  (And there are NOT many things that make me want to wear heels....ever!!!)

And I have to add, that they have by far THE most comfortable beds I've ever slept on in a hotel.  Seriously!

Once we dragged ourselves out of that amazingly comfortable bed....hard to do when you're sick and it's so warm and cozy....we went to find at least one or two bakeries before heading home.  I can't enter a town, ever, without finding a bakery!  :)  We stopped by The Cake Gallery and picked up a cupcake to split there.  Pretty good cupcake, but they keep them cold, which is my least favorite way to eat a cupcake.  I guess I could've waited for it to warm up, but I was hungry!  Great flavor though, and a wonderful fudgy filling.

We thought we might like to find more of a breakfast type of bakery, so my hubby found this place, the Vine Street Market:

This is one of the most charming bakeries I've been to in quite awhile.  They didn't offer alot for breakfast, but we did get two fantastic muffins, steaming hot right out of the oven.  They were amazing!!!  Their lunch items sounded so good, we really wished we were going to be in town another day just to try it.  But the interior was so comforting and earthy...very close to what I want when we finally open our shop!



Notice the fire place off to the left of the counter?  I just love that!  We sat and had our muffin and coffee and would've been quite content to spend most of our day there!.  But alas, it was time to head home!  We need to get back to work...to save up money for our next vacation!!!  :)

St. Augustine, Florida

We spent New Year's in St. Augustine, FL.  It is such a gorgeous town!  They still had lights up from Christmas, so it was just gorgeous in the evenings!

Normally, once we head to St. Augustine, it's kind of "our" vacation time.  But we did decide that since the grandkids are getting older, we'd bring them down just for the day, so they could enjoy a change of scenery as well.  While Arnie took the two older ones to a living history museum (more fun than it sounds!), Grace and I toured town in our rented stroller, charming everyone that went by.  (Okay, more Grace than me!)

We also made a stop to the new cake shop in town.  The name of the shop is "Sugared Bliss", which I love!  The owner was very nice, and her prices are way too reasonable!  $2.00 for a huge cookie.  I hope she raises her prices soon.  She makes THE best snickerdoodle Arnie or I have ever had.

I really love her decor, as well.  We visit alot of bakeries, cupcake shops, cake shops, etc in our travels, and I just don't care for the overly "cute" type of place.  Personally, I love the earth tones and simple elegance...a man would be comfortable sitting down to get a cup of coffee here without feeling like all of his testosterone is seeping out! 

We also passed by "Luli's" cupcake shop.  I did go in and get a cup of coffee but didn't get a cupcake.  I got one last time I was there and remember it as being pretty good.  But I'm trying to watch my calories a little, so I'm holding out for excellent!

Arnie and I are still trying to recover from our trip.  One thing you forget about when you don't have small children around anymore...germs!  Arnie and I are never sick...its an extremely rare thing.  We both came home sick as dogs.  All three grandkids had runny noses and coughs, and I think they aimed them in our direction every time.  :)

Tomorrow we'll do Chattanooga, TN...my very favorite place!  I seriously plan on living there someday!  :)

On to Jacksonville, FL

From Savannah, we headed down to Jacksonville, FL, to visit the grandkids, as that is the main reason for our trip!  We brought them down Christmas gifts...it was nice to be able to actually see them open them instead of mailing them down like we normally do!  The next day we picked them up and took them to one of our favorite places....the ZOO!!!!  I love the zoo!  :)

I promise I won't post a million pics of my ugly mug, but hey, I need one of me with the grandkids, right?  From left to right is Mercedes, Grace, Grandma, and Andy. 

This is my favorite picture of Grandpa and Grace:

A very rare photo of all of them looking at me and smiling at the same time!  It felt like a small miracle!

And my favorite thing about the zoo, other than the grandkids, is always the Larakeets!  They are the sweetest little birds, and I could just look at them all day with their gorgeous plummage!

Tomorrow I'll post St. Augustine, Florida.  What a gorgeous city!  And we stopped at two bakeries, so I have cute pictures of those to share as well!

Happy New Year!!!!

Okay, a few days late but better late than never.  I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's!  We certainly did.  We spent ours in St. Augustine, FL, enjoying the 74 degree day, so we have nothing to complain about.

And, we're just back from a week long vacation.  So you know what that means, right?  Yup, the dreaded vacation photos!  I'll only post a few a day, so hopefully you won't be run down with boredom!  :)

The first place we stopped on our way down was Savannah, GA.  We spent two nights there....NOT enough time to enjoy Savannah!  We did the Historic AVA walk, which is voted one of the top ten in the country, and we can totally see why.  Here's a few shots from our walk...

Savannah's historic area is made up of all of these "squares", which are really, really cool.  They have a ton of parks in the center of the squares, each with different sculptures, fountains, etc.  And people really utilize them.  It was so nice to see so many people out, enjoying the parks, spending time with family.  It was a little cold (in the 40's) but at least the sun was shining!

After our AVA walk, we did a walking Food Tour.  We did one of those in Lexington, KY on our last vacation and are now convinced that every time we go to a new town, we're going to see if there's one available.  On this one, we got to eat in Paula Dean's restuarant (we got to choose one item from the buffet to try...I had the mac n' cheese, which was amazing...my hubby had the pulled pork, also amazing..and I am NOT a buffet eater!).  I was entirely too busy stuffing my face to take pics of any of the restaurants we stopped to though, so I am a little bummed about that.

But we did come across this neat cake shop on one of the side streets.  She's only open by appointment only, so we didn't get to try anything, but it's a neat looking shop!

Well, off to catch up on phone calls, emails, bills, etc.  Tomorrow I'll post a few pictures from Florida and a few of the grandkids, of course!  :)