Chattanooga is an easy escape. Two hours of familiar roadways and memoired trees, a healthy nostalgia of new and old, and good friends make this one fancy whirlwind of a weekend. Each new visit yields too much, too many, but leaves a good residue of contentment that settles in as I pull into our Nashville driveway.

Last weekend Aaron came with the boy and me. He’s such a hard-working (and tough) arborist that we don’t always get him on the weekends. So his company and help with the boy was lovely. We scurried through town and spent clips of time with friends. Sometimes Chatt is all about newly renovated triangle buildings on a sketch-sketch side of town; sometimes it’s about sidewalk-anchored sculptures and whether we can find one we like or just snub them all; but mainly and nearly entirely it’s about people. People I don’t want to lose touch with. People who have strengths that I don’t. And I never get to see them all.

A few from last weekend:

• Brian (brianbeise.svbtle.com)and Jena and Lillian
• Nick Honerkamp (http://www.utc.edu/faculty/nick-honerkamp)
• Stubbs the kit
• Timur Akhriev (timurakhriev.com)
• Natalia Romanova and Trent Whicker
• Jonathan Mansfield (http://dplusj.com) and Kara Floyd
• Gramm (Jane Pettit Andersen), the grandest Gramm in all the land
• Kim Saunders (http://www.healthykimberlee.blogspot.com) and Jefferson Kinney

And check out Raines Wilder’s photo of us (a boy’s eye view) at The Flying Squirrel (go there! http://flyingsquirrelbar.com). My favorite.

This is Lillian Florence

Honerkamp – Road Runner

Stubbs

Russians don’t smile

Russians only smile at night?

My arm, guarding us both

J + K

A boy’s eye view

Ascending Path

Good generations

K + J