a nice day in the sun

Jaclyn and I had a nice "mental health" day yesterday. I didn't have to go to school and she didn't have to go to work. So, we headed to downtown Chattanooga and just walked around and hung out--something we (amazingly) haven't done in the 5 years we've been at Southern. So here are some pictures.

We got downtown a little after 10:00a and went shopping in the few outlet stores that are in Warehouse Row. We actually both bought clothes there at the Tommy Hilfiger and Bass outlets. They're nice buildings, but there are only about 10 stores total. It was kind of depressing in there.

We then walked from the Choo Choo area all the way to the aquarium and to the new Riverwalk area. We played in the fountain/waterfall/steps thing between the two parts of the aquarium and walked around for a while.

We visited lots of little shops and stores, including the gift shop in the aquarium. It was fun playing with the stingray puppets in there :).

At some point, we both got hungry and we walked back up Broad St. to Ankars. Mary Jane had told us over and over that we needed to go to Ankars for falafels. Well, we finally did. We both got a falafel and we split onion rings. It felt so good to sit inside in the shade and air conditioning. [The worst part of being outside was that whatever killer allergens are lurking outside make you feel bad enough that you don't want to be outside anymore. I had a terrible headache by the time we left for home.]

After eating a meal, I decided that we should take a risk of feeling worse and try some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. [We both ended up feeling worse, btw] I don't think I've seen ice cream melt so fast. I had to inhale it so it wouldn't all go away. It was a good thing I got back in the water after eating it, because I would have been sticky!

We talked to Mary Jane & Randy on the phone for a while. They were on their way back from visiting Ryan in Florida. We heard about all of their great deals shopping and what they had done during the weekend. Then we laid on the concrete next to the aquarium again and waited until it was time to walk over to the theater to see a movie. We decided to watch Ice Age II. It was pretty funny. We were the only people in the theater! Not much business at 3:00p on Mondays, I guess.

Anyway, we rode the free electric shuttle back to the car and headed home. That was our whole day. Too bad all of the days can't be so fun . . .