Easter in Chattanooga

If you're linking from a goal update, this is our second trip this year. Our first is here.

This weekend, we went down to Chattanooga, where my aunt, uncle, a cousin and my brother live. It was one of the more relaxing family vacations I've had in a while (I've had some fairly relaxing vacations so far, but this one was a relaxing family vacation; big difference).

My uncle is a great storyteller. My mother, not so much, and my dad was all but silent on his past. Since my uncle has a great knowledge of our family history, he's always able to tell me something new that I don't know about my grandparents and/or great-grandparents. It's wonderful, because my grandparents were real movers and shakers, and I like to know the legacy I have. A couple small things: my grandmother lived next door to Thomas Alva Edison when she was a little girl. Not so much her doing, or anything that would affect her or my life, but it sure is cool. What was her doing, though was her friendship with Groucho Marx. They were staying at the Waldorf Astoria and she was in an elevator when Groucho walked in. She, being the irrepressible socialite she was, started a conversation, and they hit it off immediately. Evidently my grandparents went out to Palm Springs to visit the Marx household later on. These were two of the more memorable stories, but others were shining examples of a legacy of great deeds that I have in my life. It's a darn sight better than what I thought was there.

Chattanooga is a lovely city. We were actually staying up on Signal Mountain, which is this quiet little mountain community, as beautiful as it is relaxing. Chattanooga itself is a model for downtown renovation in the south, as it came from being a stagnating semi-redneck town to becoming a thriving artistic and cultural center in just a little over a decade. Both Heidi and I were discussing our possibility of moving down there, in an it-will-never-happen-but-it-would-be-kinda-cool manner.

It was Easter weekend, and most of my relatives are very involved in their church, so we spent a decent amount of time at church. It was more ritualistic than I'm used to, but there's room for all different styles, and I found it to be very grounding.

The road trip down and back was even kind of cool. As we went farther south, it looked like we were going forward in time. Spring got later and later the farther south we got. We started with the budding trees here, to the fully blooming trees down in Chattanooga. It made for a lovely trip.

We're glad to be home, as even a fun 10-11 hour drive is a 10-11 hour drive, but it was a great diversion for a weekend.