An Afternoon at the Tennessee Aquarium

An alternate title for this post could be: A Bunch of Photos of the Back of the Kid’s Heads While They Stare at Fish.

It was sunny and actually a little cooler outside (62 degrees in the morning! It felt like fall!), so we packed up the car and headed to Chattanooga to go to the Tennessee Aquarium for a few hours. The kids said they had been before, but we hadn’t been in whoknowshowlong. When we got there, it suddenly brought back so many memories from our childhood. The smells, the lights, the exhibits. It was like we were just there yesterday. Isn’t that wild how that happens?

More than anything, though, we loved seeing their faces when they would see a big fish or an alligator or an otter. They would all exclaim, “WHOA!” to everything they saw and it made us smile every time. We’ve always heard that everything is more magical when you experience it through a child’s eyes and we’re finding that to be extremely true.

Most of the photos are of the oldest since the younger two were in the stroller most of the time. He got to pet fish and say hi to otters, but was most excited to see the sharks. After every exhibit he would ask, “Are we going to the sharks yet?!”

They were allowed to pet a lot of the fish (with two fingers only) …

And got to see crazy cool animals like alligators:

The Tennessee Aquarium is so beautiful. It feels like an escape from the outside world. And the displays/exhibits are gorgeous. They’re tricky because a lot of the fish/animals blend right in with their environment and you sometimes have to look hard to notice them. Do you see the turtles in the photo below? They just looked like rocks to us until the oldest kiddo pointed them out. Isn’t it funny how they see things we don’t?

If you’re planning a trip to Chattanooga, we highly recommend The Tennessee Aquarium. It’s right by the river, in the middle of downtown, surrounded by a bunch of yummy restaurants and other things to do. This post isn’t sponsored by the aquarium, we just had a blast and wanted to share!

Hope you had a great day too, friends.