I wrote a bit about the Chattanooga Aquarium last time, but I want to add more about the wonderful stuff that we saw there. First, the buildings are beautiful. You can see pictures of them on their website as I forgot to take any photos of the outside. There are lots of skylights that remind me of the Sidney Opera House for some reason. And when I think of the Sidney Opera House, I think of Finding Nemo which totally brings me back to the Aquarium. Great how that works, huh?
The interior is bright and airy. It has escalators and elevators and the only place inaccessible with a stroller is the Butterfly Garden. The butterflies are amazing, especially the Blue Morphos. They were too fast to get a good picture, but I managed to capture some meager ones.
The Morphos are the largest butterflies, but some of the smaller ones were SOOOOO colorful!
One older boy–probably about 11–got one to sit on his finger. He actually walked around with it on his finger and the butterfly never budged. It was a magical place.
To see the otters, you will have to either visit the aquarium or see them on the website. I almost made it to them before they all climbed out of camera range, but I would have had to run over a little one to get the shot. By the time I got to them, they had all gone to the top of the “cliff” and seemed to grin at me in defiance. Just kidding. They were really cute.
BUT, the alligators were more cooperative. One even posed with a turtle. A long-necked turtle. I’m still wondering how the turtle kept his head while sitting next to an alligator.
And to top off the trip, there were penguins, even penguins for small boys to wrestle.
