We left home early in the morning and arrived in Chattanooga shortly after noon. We headed straight downtown and bought tickets to the Tennessee Aquarium and the IMAX theater.
The aquarium had two parts. We spent the whole afternoon going through both parts. One building had sea life and the other building river animals.
Will as we enter the first part.
Reid had fun petting the stingrays. Every time we saw an exhibit that allowed petting, Reid had to get hands on! Will just looked. Not his thing!
One of our favorites was the penguin exhibit.
Then there was this HUGE crab.
Lots and lots of jellyfish in this part of the aquarium.
Poison Dart Frog
Reid clowns around while posing at this statue in downtown.
I really like the seahorse exhibit. They are fascinating to me. The male seahorse takes care of the eggs laid by the female. He keeps them in his pouch until they hatch.
This was one of the stingrays that Reid petted.
The Southern Belle right outside the aquarium on the Tennessee River.
More seahorses.
After we went to see the Hubble Telescope IMAX, we were hungry so we took the trolley to Sticky Fingers restaurant where we had some wonderful ribs. Then we were so tired we headed to the hotel at Lookout Mountain. We stayed at a very nice new Fairfield Inn right at the foot of the mountain.
Ruby Falls
After a good night's sleep we got up on Thursday morning and headed up Lookout Mountain to Ruby Falls. I have been here twice. Once on an FHA trip when I was a Sophomore in High School, and once when my children were small. We stopped here first and we really enjoyed exploring the cave. Since we were at the back of the group, Reid was chosen to be the one to yell when the guide was making sure all the group was together. Could this have anything to do with the fact that he can really yell loud?
Getting Ready To Go Down In The Cave
This was the only formation that we were allowed to touch. But, Reid had a big problem following the rule. I think he touched everything he could reach! Thank goodness we were at the back of the group!
We finally reached the underground falls. They turned the lights off right before we got there and then suddenly turned them on so we could see the falls. No one knows where the water comes from.
Walking in back of the falls.
