The Last Ride

A month or two ago, Jude decided she wanted to go away for a weekend, one last time before the baby comes. Because she loves . . . I means absolutely loves . . . The Aquarium, she chose Chattanooga as our getaway destination. Also, she wanted to go somewhere that was an easy drive - a good move, I thought, since we're roughly five weeks from our due date of April 2, 2008.

Now, I must admit, I was really getting cold feet last week. My fear was that we would be at The Aquarium, looking at fish (I mean, a lot of fish), and Jude's water would break. Next thing you know, we'd be in a strange hospital in Hamilton County, TN, with a strange doctor delivering our baby. Not my idea of how this thing is supposed to go down. Jude assured me everything would be fine and, as usual, she was right. In fact, we rolled the dice and left our two duffel bags (Jude's and the baby's for our trip to the hospital) at home.

I got away from work early on Friday afternoon, so we were able to beat traffic out of town and arrived in Chattanooga about 7 p.m. or so. We checked into our hotel downtown, walking distance from The Aquarium, and had a wonderful dinner at the Bluewater Grille. The restaurant was packed, so we sat at the bar and toasted each other (Jude was drinking water, of course) at 7 p.m., reminiscing about the snowy night exactly five years ago when we were married at Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville. We agreed time has flown by, but that's another story for another day.

Saturday, we visited The Aquarium, looked at a lot of fish (again, I mean, a lot of fish) and watched "Juno" in our hotel room - an absolutely fantastic movie. Jude and I both gave it an 8.5 - 9 out of 10. It's nominated for best picture this year and is a must see. Saturday evening, we had a nice dinner at Hennen's, then returned to our hotel room and watched the Vols beat Memphis (#1 vs. #2) in an awesome game.

Sunday morning, I slept in and Jude visited The Aquarium again (where, I'm sure, she saw a lot of fish, probably many of the same fish we saw Saturday). Afterwards, she finished watching "Atonement," also nominated for best picture (only a 5, dull and kind of slow). We had a nice drive back to Nashville and tonight we're going to watch the Oscars.

A wonderful weekend.