Chattanooga
July 15, 2016
Tennessee, United States
We began the trek to Chattanooga from Bowling Green, Kentucky early Friday morning, right on schedule, which never happens for us! Chattanooga is right at three hours away for us, so it wasn't a bad drive.
Since we arrived around lunch time, the first thing we did was go to lunch at Big River Grille & Brewing Works. We were grateful to be sat right away, since we were starving. The menu had a good selection of a lot of different foods but I settled for a yummy spinach and chicken pizza. It was definitely a lot larger than I had expected. I could barely eat half of it so my $10 pizza was well worth it to me as it lasted for two meals. Maybe even better than the food was the fact that Big River Grille & Brewing Works was right by the Aquarium so we didn't have very far to go for our next stop.
The aquarium is separated into two main buildings: Ocean Journey and River Journey. We chose to go through the Ocean Journey first just because we were closer to it once exiting the ticket office. Upon entering Ocean Journey we made our way up to the top floor so we could work our way down. The top floor featured various birds followed by a shark and ray petting area. It was rather crowded when we were there but they had a nice variety of creatures to pet if you like touching slimy things. :P
The next area you come to is the butterfly habitat, aka my favorite part of the whole aquarium. There were so many butterflies in the habitat, there was almost never a time there wasn't a butterfly in eyesight. Lindsey was some sort of butterfly whisperer so she succeeded in convincing a butterfly to leave his leaf to sit on her finger. Luckily for me, the butterfly was willing to be moved over to my hand too. Lindsey even made a little kid's day by transferring the butterfly over to him after we'd had it a while. (PSA: even though it is most definitely worth sweating it out, the butterfly habitat is basically a green house, so it gets rather warm after a while, especially during summer, in the heat of the day.)
The penguins were very active, cute, and playful! Again, since this was a popular exhibit, at the beginning of a floor, it got crowded quickly, so try to sneak in before the crowds arrive!
The rest of the exhibits were pretty spread out, so we even got our exercise for the day. ;) There were a variety of different fish and sharks. Apparently altogether the Aquarium is home to more than 800 species!
In one exhibit we even found Nemo! Lucky for us, Dori wasn't far away, which I'm sure was no accident. ;)
I was amazed by how many different jelly fish they had. I had seen quite a few different types before, but the diversity in the aquarium was astounding. There was one small area that was basically a whole room with floor to ceiling tanks filled with jellyfish. But watch out, because I saw more than one person almost run into the glass, not realizing it was so close! (haha!)
Out of the two buildings the Ocean Journey was definitely my favorite. After going through Ocean Journey, the River Journey was underwhelming. The dull colors of River life just don't compare to the vibrant life found in the ocean. However, I still highly recommend going through both building. Although, River Journey may be more interesting if you go there first, and save Ocean Journey for last.
The River Otters were my favorite part of River Journey. Since it's close to the starting point it was crowded, but fighting to the front to watch these little guys is a must.
After seeing enough creepy crawlers (and cool crawlers too) we were aquariumed out and ready to head back to our hotel for a bit. Sadly I had homework I had to get done before the end of the night (darn summer class!).
We stayed in the Historic Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel. Created in what used to be Terminal Station (built 1908), the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel opened its doors in 1978. The hotel houses restaurants, music venues, 3 pools, and the beautiful Glenn Miller gardens.
Although there are more contemporary rooms available, Lindsey and I were lucky enough to stay in one of forty-eight Victorian sleeper cars.
The room was neat and clean upon arrival. Although it was a bit warm when we arrived, the air conditioner definitely kicked in overnight! If you're used to fancy five star hotels, this probably isn't the place for you because the rustic appeal shone through everywhere. It's not shiny and new but the historic appeal was a selling point for us. Plus our concert (more on that later) was in the Revelry Room on the hotel grounds.
Historic Markers give little tidbits of information throughout the hotel
The beautiful Glenn Miller gardens are a popular hangout spot. We even saw four weddings go on in the garden over the weekend! Who can blame them, I'm sure they make for beautiful wedding photos!
If perusing gardens isn't your sort of thing, there are over-sized checkers, chess,and Jenga to enjoy on site. There are even pools, but we had too much fun soaking up the sun to get any pictures of them!
Luckily I finished my homework in enough time to go back into town for the night. Chattanooga has a FREE electric shuttle into town to various stops. We took the shuttle back into town for the dinner of champions, aka ice cream. (We rock at adulting. haha) Also, if you ever think you need the biggest size at Coldstone, you probably don't. If you're like me your heart will break because it is too much to eat and you end up having to toss the leftovers.
With our ice cream in hand we started the short trek to the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge (less than 1/2 mile from the aquarium.)
Erected in 1891, the Walnut Street Bridge is the world's longest pedestrian bridge. In case you were wondering, no we did not walk the entire 2376 feet length of the bridge; we were lazy and it was getting dark. But we still got to enjoy the beautiful view of downtown Chattanooga from the river. We even passed by a pair of acrobats doing a street performance on the bridge, needless to say it's an interesting bridge. haha
On the left you can see the top of the Tennessee Aquarium
That's it for our first day of adventure in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Stay tuned for our adventures with Parachute and the Wide Awake Tour, as well as Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain, Rock City, and the Incline Railway!
