Three Sisters Bluegrass Festival

While Chattanooga is not Nashville, we have been impressed by the city's free family-friendly music offerings.

During the summer,  Nightfall is a free concert series held every Friday night in Miller Plaza, rain or shine; Riverfront Nights is another free concert series offered on Saturday nights at Ross's Landing; and every fourth of July, the Chattanooga symphony orchestra has Pops on the River at Coolidge Park to celebrate our country's independence. And on top of that, Signal Mountain has the Mountain Opry where local bluegrass bands play for free on the weekends.

In addition to those great family (and dog) friendly options, every October for the last ten years, the Three Sisters Bluegrass Festival has taken place at Ross's Landing. We haven't been able to go every year, but this was our fourth year to attend and we had a great time.

This year we went on a Saturday afternoon (so we didn't see some of our favorite's like Chatham County Line), but we had fun none-the-less.

There is a huge field at Ross's Landing where everyone sets up their camp chairs and the kids can run and play. Jack learned how to hula hoop and Isaac was determined to sneak off to the "cake by the slice" tent.

We met up with friends and had a lovely afternoon. Who knows, maybe next year we might be able to last into the evening. The laid back, family-friendly, music scene is just another reason we love where we live.

Jack shows off his dance moves at the Three Sisters Bluegrass Festival. #threesistersbluegrassfestival #3sisters #chattanooga #jackjack #mohaus2016

A video posted by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Oct 1, 2016 at 11:59am PDT

Date Night

Daniel and I really lucked out this week and managed not just one, but two date nights. Saturday Daniel's sister, Emily, came to spend part of the weekend with us. Saturday night she hung out with Jack – they went to the Pumpkin Patch and out for Chinese food, while Daniel and I had a night on the town.

First up, we decided to try the Flying Squirrel (since we couldn't go in with a toddler a couple of weeks ago). We love the architecture of the Flying Squirrel, and were excited to check it out. Unfortunately for us, the main focus of this establishment was drinks and adventurous food in the form of tapas. We don't really drink and Daniel is not an adventurous eater. But this was a bit much, even for me. The menu had items like Sweetbread Po'Boys and Sambal Oelek. Daniel tried duck tacos – which were delicious, while I had scallops on a bed of quinoa and smoked mushrooms. The mushrooms were soaked in sambal oelek that sent me into a coughing fit.

While we enjoyed visiting and dreaming about elements of the architecture that we would like to incorporate into a house if we ever built one, we weren't dying to spend more money on interesting tapas. instead I told Daniel I could really use a burger from Five Guys. So, that's what we did.

When we walked out of the Flying Squirrel, we got to see a Tesla and talk to the owner. It was a very cool car. The owner said that one lady kept walking around it looking for the engine (the trunk and hood were both open). She didn't believe that there wasn't one! The car can go from 0-60mph in under 3 seconds, and 0-100mph in 10 seconds. It can also drive 300 miles on one charge. It was a very sweet vehicle.

 
After our expensive appetizer followed by a burger, we went to the movies at the Majestic 12. We saw Lucy which had some interesting ideas. I didn't love how the movie kept flipping back and forth to clips from nature and science, but it did have an intriguing premise.

When the movie was over, we decided to walk down to the riverfront to catch the end of the Riverfront Nights concert. The Chicago-based band Cornmeal was playing – their music is "jamgrass" also known as progressive "newgrass." After watching part of their set, we walked back to our car and happened to run into some friends from when we lived in Hollywood, which was a nice surprise.

It was lovely to go out together. Life has been hectic and we are grateful for the times we can sneak off on our own.