Tennessee Aquarium

While in Chattanooga we took a trip to the Tennessee Aquarium.  For anyone who hasn't been it is a pretty large aquarium consisting of two separate buildings. One building houses all of the freshwater fish and a smaller building (but still large) houses the saltwater fish. They refer to these as the ocean experience (saltwater) and the River experience (freshwater). We decided to spend the morning at the larger building for the River experience, took a lunch break to eat downtown at a restaurant about five minutes from the aquarium walking distance and then spend the afternoon in the ocean experience. In addition to fish and other sea life they have otters and penguins. We were lucky enough to get there in time to see both the otter feeding and planned our lunch so that we got to hear the keeper chat with the penguins. We were slightly confused on where to start since we didn't have a map for the aquarium but this may have been an oversight on our part.  The kids loved watching the otters and there were also some amazing fish.The price is a little high but considering how much there is to see and do it is well worth it. There is also a stream outside of the aquarium between the two buildings to give kids a chance to wade in the water. There is also  a great mix of hands on experiences and  information and tons of chances to view all the awesome exhibits.