Water Water Everywhere

Well we all awoke early since the sun was streaming in all the windows we'd left open hoping to cool off.   And low and behold, it had cooled down to 76 degrees at 6:30 a.m.  We actually had all gotten under covers we were so "cool." :-)  We quickly dressed, had a quick bite to eat and closed up the RV so we could set off for the local repair place, Lee Smith.

Once we'd turned over the motorhome to their competent hands, we sat off on our first real day of adventure in Chattanooga - we went to the aquarium which consists of two huge buildings along with some neat sculpture and gardens.  A good many of the items were made to appear as if they'd been affected by an earthquake like the pushed up sidewalk with underground "broken" pipes bubbling up water.  It sits right on the Tennessee River and even has a River Gorge boat ride on that river as one of its offerings though we didn't have time to do it today.

We started out in the Ocean Journey building which true to its name had all things related to salt water including a "petting" tank with small sharks and sting rays swimming around in  it.

One shark kept sticking its head way up high out of the water as if begging for a hugs.  Once we'd all had our opportunities to "feel" them several times, we moved on to see that wide variety of displays including a huge variety of sea horses, a fantastic display of jelly fish (we had no idea there were so many different kinds), penguins (some were sitting on eggs), and a whole host of huge down to tiny fish in a whole host of aquariums.  We even watched divers feeding many of the fish.

By the time we'd completed our journey there, it was lunch time so we enjoyed a lunch at the small food court that was in another building on the "campus."

Then we spent the afternoon in the River Journey building which had a vast array of displays of all types of fish as well as bird, frogs, turtles, snakes, butterflies and birds that depend on rivers and deltas for homes and food.  We started four floors up and worked our way down through the middle canyon like setting with displays off of the main canyon filled with floor to ceiling tanks as well as many smaller ones.

 One interesting thing we learned is that owls have 14 bones in their necks (humans only have 7) which allows them to turn their heads almost totally around because their eyes cannot move side to side like ours do.

The boys had worked up quite an appetite by the time we were done so we stopped for an ice cream cone

before heading off to get our car and stop at the RV repair facility to get our motorhome only to find out that the electricity problem had not been solved.  So we quickly got inside and picked up fresh clothes, PJs and other needed items to get us through till the next afternoon and sought out a motel for the night.  Our time was very limited so we settled on a nearby Super 8, left our stuff, stopped at the nearby Cracker Barrel for some supper and then headed to the AT &T Stadium which was just a couple of blocks from the aquarium where we'd been all day.

The Southern League All Star Game provided a wonderful evening of entertainment beginning with the presentation of awards to former players who went on to make major contributions in the major leagues such as Al Trammel.  That was followed by the local barbershop chorus doing the Star Spangled Banner.  Then the players showed off their skills including hitting several home runs and fielding some fantastic catches.   One diving catch out in right field brought people to their feet it was so amazing.  At the beginning of each inning, we were entertained by a variety of people in blown up costumes that did lots of very funny skits including "swallowing" a bat boy and then spitting out his shoes and clothes and finally him in nothing but under shorts.   We had fantastic seats right behind the catcher in the 6th row which meant we saw lots of action up close.

Following the game we were treated to a fireworks show.

By the time we got back to our motel  close to midnight, we were all ready to call it a night.