Road Trip: Day 4 (Tennessee Aquarium & Atlanta)

Today we headed to the Tennessee Aquarium. We started with Ocean Journey and our search for the cuttlefish. After spending a few minutes with the penguins, we finally found what Mara and Jack have been looking for – cuttlefish.

I even got to see one change colors (to red) because another one spooked it.

Sadly, the cuttlefish culture at the Tennessee Aquarium crashed, and the five we saw were pretty much it and they were near the end of their one-year life. We were told that they did get some from a recent hatching at the Oklahoma City Zoo (planning to go back there this fall to see them there). However, they were also products of the Tennessee Aquarium brood, so they don't know if they can re-establish them. We were told that the Georgia Aquarium is supposed to have a smaller version of cuttlefish, so we'll definitely look for them there.


We also got to see jellyfish and an octopus, and Mara touched a guitar fish.

When we were done at Ocean Journey, we went to River Journey, which houses all of the freshwater fish and animals.

First stop there was Ranger Rick's Backyard Safari where they showed off several different birds, including one of the smallest and one of the largest owls. They also had a variety of animals out in the area that people could touch.

After visiting the butterfly exhibit at the top, we found the sturgeon touch tank. Mara thought it was so neat that she ended up buying a stuffed sturgeon at the gift shop. Jack either really liked them too or was just thirsty because he bent down and put his mouth in the water. Either way, we knew it was past time to move on to the next exhibit.

They had a really neat River Giants exhibit that houses giant freshwater rays.

After the aquarium, we stopped to eat at the City Cafe in downtown Chattanooga, and then headed toward Atlanta where we drove by the state capitol before heading to our hotel.

See more pictures here.