Castle Mischief: Chaaattaaaaanooooooooooooooga

Last weekend we met up with the three families that we spend the most time with these days for a day of Chattanooga-ing at the Tennessee Aquarium and the Hunter Museum of American Art. The first Sunday of the month is free at the art museum and we have a family membership at the aquarium. Some of the littles had either never been to the aquarium or hadn't been since they could remember and it's always cool to watch teeny brains take in all the new.

Yeah, I was in an art museum and switched to black and white. Sue me.

1. Take crooked picture 2. Don't fix it 3. YOLO

I started off taking pictures of the information on each piece of art that I was taking pictures of then quickly became distracted from doing that. I had hoped that the museum's website might have a listing of all the pieces in their collection but the search feature eludes me and it appears that a good portion of what's in the museum isn't listed.

View from the rear of the museum of the Walnut Street Bridge

One section of the collection focused on glass. The picture below is one of a few "scrap" pieces that you are invited to touch so I was able to get really close.

The signs on these two glass benches say "do not sit on the benches". Which begs the question "if you can't sit on them are they still benches?" and "if you deny the functionality of an object does that modify the identity of the object?"

I was quite fond of this one, all bones and shells

The model below is a scale representation of the much larger bronze statues at the nearby Chattanooga Zoo. I took pictures of these and blogged about it in this post.

Valentine arts and crafts

Faxon-Thomas Mansion that adjoins the main entrance

The 2005 addition, the mansion and the Holmberg Pedestrian Bridge

Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge - longest in the world!

The art doesn't stop once you leave the museum. The Bluff View section of downtown is covered with statues and abstract pieces.

I love this guy

There are four ladies near the car traffic bridge that crosses the river, each representing the seasons.

I'm not going to put up a ton of aquarium pictures in this post because... fish pictures. I'll link to other photos that I've taken in the aquarium at the end of the post.

...but here's this turtle living in a foggy habitat that reminds me of all the cheesy movies I've ever seen of how prehistoric Earth was supposed to have looked.

I'm turtlesaurus-rex, RAWR!

At the gift shop were these two...

...and here's that sign.

After walking through both of the aquarium buildings and spending more time looking at fish than we have in years we all crossed the river on the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge and moved the party over to Good Dog for some hot dogs, sausages and forty pounds of fries covered in homemade ketchup.

PICTURES OF FOOD.

My Jamaican Jerk sausage

Some other kind of hot dog involving egg

Good Dog also does this over-the-top smashing of different foodstuff they call simply "frites" that are fries in a cone holder with sausage and fixings with a soft-boiled egg on top. One of us ordered one and I completely failed to take a picture. It was an unholy mess and probably tasted like sin and sexy fried potatoes.

This vending machine thing below- you get sidewalk chalk for $.50. Whhhyyyyyy do you want sidewalk chalk? Keep reading.