Tennessee Travelogue #2: Chattanooga Aquarium

This is the second entry of a series of posts written by guest blogger Jason Lea about his trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Busy day — kayaked on the Tennessee River, visited the Bluffview Art District and toured Ruby Falls by lantern. Ruby Falls, by the way, is a 200-foot waterfall ensconced more than half of a mile within a cave.

But it’s late and I’m already exhausted, so today’s post will only focus on one aspect of today’s travels, my trip to the Chattanooga Aquarium.

The city’s aquarium is so much more than sea life. It has botanical and butterfly gardens, art exhibits, freshwater and ocean habitats and a boat tour. The only aquarium that I’ve seen that can be compared to it is Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

As for freshwater, the aquarium had tanks for the different river habitats in Russia, South America, Africa, China, Japan and, of course, Tennessee. They had freshwater stingrays with polka dot and orange paisley patterns.

In the saltwater exhibits, they have a menagerie of fish, sharks, rays and reptiles. My personal favorite: an enormous green sea turtle named Oscar, because, when he was discovered, he was grouchy and covered in furry, green algae.

The aquarium also has a beautiful exhibit on jellyfish, which pairs the animals with blown-glass and ceramic pieces of art inspired by the jellies.

Before I let you go, here are a few photos from the aquarium:

And because I don’t have time to edit a coherent video, here’s something I threw together entitled Penguin Frolic Time.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

P.S. This is what I ate for dinner at the Back Inn Cafe. It’s filet mignon stuffed with crab meat. Life is gravy, man.