Despite living in the Chattanooga area for almost 13 years, I had never been to Chickamauga, Georgia until last year when my husband got a job at a beautiful church down there. Since then, I have been to this charming and historic town several times. It is just a 30- to 45-minute drive (depending on where you live in Chattanooga) and it is definitely worth a visit.
Chickamauga is filled with history, unique shops, good food, and beautiful nature.
This past week, my children were attending Vacation Bible School at the church where my husband works, so he and I had the opportunity to have a little date every morning, exploring different parts of Chickamauga. Though I am sure there are tons of other amazing places to visit in the area, below are some of the places we explored that I would recommend visiting when you visit charming Chickamauga.
Crawfish Spring
On our first free morning, we spent much of our time at Crawfish Spring. This park is located across the street from the Gordon Lee Mansion and has historical ties to the Civil War. But that was the last thing on my mind while relaxing at this beautiful and surreal location. With the name Crawfish Spring, I had expected to see, well, crawfish. It turns out there are not actually crawfish there and it is named after Chief Crawfish of the Cherokee. However, my husband did catch a glimpse of a river otter in the spring! This is also a great area to have a picnic and to come with kids, as we had done before.
Greg’s Restaurant
After our time at Crawfish Spring, I was hungry, so we checked out a local diner, called Greg’s Restaurant off the US 27. It is everything a good small-town diner should be. It has an awesome and delicious breakfast selection, friendly service, and reasonable prices. We loved it so much that we went back later in the week. Apparently, they also have an amazing lunch, particularly on Sunday afternoons, with everything you could want regarding down-home cooking. That is definitely on my agenda one of these days.
The Shops of 1910
I love history and I love antiques. There is no shortage of antique and niche shops in Chickamauga. One of the shops where we spent a lot of time was The Shops of 1910. I think we were in there for almost two hours and still didn’t see everything! There were a variety of items from clothes, dishes, collectibles, toys, handmade items, jewelry, and everything in between. They also sell some amazing peanut brittle that I highly recommend!
The Grind Coffee Shop
Later in the week, we felt like checking out a coffee shop we had seen previously. The Grind Coffee Shop has a huge variety of coffee, smoothies and ice cream. My husband got an iced white chocolate mocha and I tried a coffee called “Fancy,” which was a cross between a white chocolate mocha mixed with caramel. It was delicious! We also split a cinnamon muffin which was great.
So much more to explore
As I mentioned above, there are still so many great places in Chickamauga to explore! I hope to one day soon check out the historic Gordon Lee Mansion (now that it is open for the season) and to try more food places including Droop Scoops Ice Cream and to eat at Phil’s Primetime Pizza again (which we had previously tried with friends).
