This past summer, my wife and I visited the Chattanooga area and spent an afternoon at the Tennessee Aquarium.
On a mild summer day at the end of June, we took a short trip to downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee from our temporary home at the Chanticleer Inn Bed & Breakfast atop Georgia's Lookout Mountain. Our ten-minute drive from Chanticleer brought us to the aquarium, which is located just steps away from the Tennessee River.
The weather was perfect. Temperatures were in the low to mid-70s, with partly cloudy skies and no rain in sight. It was unfortunate that the exhibits weren't outside, but it was a pleasant day nonetheless, both inside and out.
Here is what we saw on our aquarium journey.
This is the first of two buildings that host tons of ocean, river, and wetland exhibits.
Around the east side of the building, you'll find this guy hanging out with his recent catch. He looked pretty dirt-covered and didn't move. I figured he was just posing for the camera, but after several minutes, there wasn't even a blink. There are some strange people in Tennessee.
A very brief walk to the north side of the grounds and then across a street...you'll find the Tennessee River.
Between the two buildings on the river side, there is a small flower garden.
And there was a busy little bee trying to kill the flowers.
Just leave 'em alone! They aren't hurting you, bee!
We made it all the way around the first building and arrived at the second.
Then we decided to actually go inside. First up on the exhibit list: seahorses and starfish.
He caught me taking his picture without consent.
This one wasn't even a seahorse. It was more like a sea dragon. Can seadragons breathe fire underwater?
This one wasn't scorching anything at the moment.
"Hi, guys! I'm a seahorse too!"
We didn't have the heart to tell him the truth. He was so happy being part of the seahorse exhibit. Who are we to question his reality?
This is the ever-so-comfortable sea-pillow. It's a rare and kind of useless species. Who needs a pillow when you're already floating in water?
Here we have the always tasty sea-marshmallow. They're best with graham crackers and chocolate.
"Touch the glass bro. I need to feel some human contact."
We were getting the side-eye from this fella.
"Time to go, Hal. These people don't care about you anyway."
On that note, we moved on to the next exhibit.
That's all for Part 1! Don't miss the next installment where we take on otters and reptiles...including some joke-telling turtles! It'll be fun for the whole family!
