Day One in Chattanooga

It was with great excitement that we left early in the morning in pursuit of our favorite pastimes.  I found a pickleball group that showed advanced play at 10:00 and had scouted out a bike trail for Left Brain to explore while I was on the court.  I put on my favorite Queen of the Pickleball Court t-shirt and off we went with high hopes.

The rec center was just a tiny building with a small office, two bathrooms and a gym with three courts.  I'm not much of one to be fussy about the aesthetics of the place as long as the play is good.

It didn't take long before I realized I was way out of my league here.  I consider myself a decent player, but these people were unbelievable!  I've never seen such a skilled group in all my visits to courts all over the country.  If it weren't for a couple of misses here and there I would have accused them of being robots and not flesh and blood humans.

This was the first time I've ever felt so frustrated and stupid.  It was a relief when Left Brain was back at noon from his bike ride and I couldn't wait to get out of there.  He was all set with his kindle to read until 1:30 when I was done and looked a bit surprised to see me back so early.  Everybody was very nice and took turns playing with me, but it was guaranteed they were going to lose with me as a partner.

On our way to the restaurant he filled me in on his biking experience, which was less than stellar.  What sounded like a nice dedicated bike trail turned out to be in and out of traffic, lots of debris and very hilly.  So neither of us had a great outing.

Our next stop was at Aretha Frankensteins for lunch.  I liked it just for the name alone and the Yelp reviews were very promising.  My new friend (that I will meet tomorrow) warned me not to go on the weekends as they get very busy.

They had a mix of rap and funk playing in the background.

Finally we had some success in our day!  This place was absolutely charming.  It's a hole in the wall kind of place, tiny and cramped but with so much uniqueness and quirkiness I couldn't help but fall in love.

I had the scrambled Polish potatoes and ended up taking half of it home as the portions were huge.  Left Brain had the Italian omelet that was stuff with ricotta cheese and sausage.  Why have I never thought to use ricotta cheese in an omelet?

The scrambled Polish potatoes

the Italian omelet

As soon as we got home I finished up my chores and set about licking my wounds with some chocolate while I prepared to write the blog.  This was when Left Brain came in to tell me our sewer hose has a leak.  Uh oh.  Thankfully it was just the gray water he'd released, so it wasn't too bad, and we have extra sections of hose.  He had it repaired in no time at all.

We won't let this get us down, tomorrow is another day and this is where I will meet our new friends Sherry and Dave.  Sherry commented on my blog and is also a quilter and servant to cats, so this should be fun.  After our lunch I'm going to visit the quilt shop that she does long arm quilting for and see what treasures I can find.

Long Live the Queen of Optimism