Pardon Me Boys, Is That The Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Can anybody think of Chattanooga without thinking of the song Chattanooga Choo Choo? Note: It was the first ever song to receive a gold record, presented by RCA Victor in 1942 for sales of 1.2 million.

I've found a really nice little county park right outside of Chattanooga. It is on a peninsula that juts out into Chickamauga Lake which is just really a wide spot in the Tennessee River. A lot of the campsites are right on the water – or they would be if the water wasn't so low. Every winter, they let the water recede and then when spring comes, they open the dam and let the water from all the snow and rain up north come flooding down, which brings the water level back up.

My view out my door

Did I mention the nuclear power plant across the lake?

There are a lot of touristy things to do in Chattanooga (Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls) but I am here to go to the Chattanooga Aquarium. It is supposed to be one of the nation's top aquariums and it is located right on the shores of the Tennessee River. There are two buildings in the aquarium, one is titled River Journey while the other is Ocean Journey. When I bought my ticket ($29.95 per person – whoa, that is a pricey ticket), the ticket seller told me that I should start in the River Journey building. I was a little disappointed – I mean – oceans just seem so much more exciting than rivers. Oceans are dynamic, oceans thunder and roar. Rivers, on the other hand, just quietly go about their business, bringing their water down to feed the mighty ocean. Actually, if I had to pick, I probably favor rivers more than oceans – they are more peaceful, going places in an orderly manner.

Now that I've visited the Aquarium, I am glad I started with the River Journey. The River Journey building is as tall as a twelve story building. You take an escalator to the fourth floor and then follow a series of ramps down to the ground level. They have huge aquariums that are actually four stories tall. On each level, there are side rooms where you can veer off and explore different types of river life.

The escalator - almost like Disneyland with little TV screens to watch as you ascended

Part of one of the really tall tanks

Look!!!  A Waterfall !!!!  They had an aviary up on the top floor with lots of free flying birds

I guess baby gators can be cute

Several of the bigger alligators had their toenails colored.  Here you can see the Pink Gator

Found a fish I thought was pretty - it was all silvery and very elegant

And then it smiled at me

Perhaps this is a better candidate for Mr. Handsome Fish

I was impressed with the turtles and tortoises that were on display. All types, all sizes. I watched several boy turtles trying to impress their lady friends. They swim up to the girls and get nose to nose with them. They then put their front claws up on each side of her head and start fluttering them. It was rather romantic.

Check out the neck on this one

The Ocean Journey is only ten stories tall, but has the largest tank in the aquarium. It can be viewed from three levels plus you can walk underneath the tank itself and watch the fish swimming above you. On the top floor, they have a lemur exhibit, a tank where you can touch sharks and sting rays and a butterfly garden. When I visited the butterfly garden, they were just releasing a bunch of newly emerged butterflies. I was disappointed that the penguin display was closed for it's weekly cleaning. No penguins were to be found, but you could watch the guy hosing down their quarters. How exciting was that? The coolest thing in the Ocean Journeys building though was the Jellyfish exhibits. They were so ethereal. The aquarium has collaborated with the Hunter Museum of American Art and includes rotating exhibits of art glass alongside the jellyfish.

If you get the blog in an email and are having problems seeing the video, click on the title of the blog in the email and it will take you to the website where you can watch the video. It's pretty cool.

The Aquarium was well worth the admission price. I probably spent about four hours there looking at all the fish. The finale was walking outside to the plaza and seeing a pair of tracks going off into the distance with the lyrics for Chattanooga Choo Choo running in between the tracks. Well done, Chattanooga.