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Courtesy of the University of North Florida

and  Jack Woodward

Here we are up to Tuesday. The night before was a stormy night. Trees in the park two feet in diameter were blown over. Leaves and branches were all over the place. We sure were glad we were in a cabin and not a tent. These first few photos are from Monday night, sitting around the fire. The colored flames are from a chemical stick we bought up at Okeefenokee and had brought along with us. It added a nice touch to the fire.

The bed of coals that fell through the andiron.

The morning was pretty overcast, not too much rain. This is coming off the mountain to go to the grocery store. I might add that Trenton has just about everything one needs. There is a MacDonald's, a Hardees, a Pizza Inn, a Krystals, a couple other restaurants, 3 or 4 gas stations and a supermarket. And it was only 8 miles from the park. Eight miles over a mountain. Dot had never experienced driving on hills like these. So it was quite an experience for her. There were a number of times I felt like telling her to slow down, but I didn't. Like they say, paybacks are hell so when I drove she got a taste of what it was like to be a passenger instead of the driver. BIG difference. 

Overcast to say the least.

On the way down the mountain there are three switchbacks. These are places where the road does a complete 180 degree turn. The next sign says 15mph. Believe it or not the speed limit on the hill was 55 mph. I tried to do 55 on the way up one time and needless to say, I had Dot on the edge of her seat. We figured the guy who set the speed limit must have stopped at the bar first. 

We were surprised by the number of semi's that tackled this hill.

This is heading toward Chattanooga on Lookout Mountain Scenic Highway which goes along the cliff edge. Make a wrong turn here and it's a couple hundred feet before you hit the top of the trees at the bottom of the cliff.

The clouds were patchy the whole way to town.

You can see the leaves that got blown down during the night.

Believe it or not, this was taken at 12:30 in the afternoon.

And here is our destination. My friend Pete had told me about the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and he highly recommended visiting it. His recommendation is right on. Anyone visiting this area would do well to come here. That's Dot inside one of the observation bubbles. Again, my thanks to my brother for the flash unit. It did wonders.

Almost like standing in the tanks with the fish.

This is looking at Chattanooga and the Tennessee River.

This is one of the buildings of the Tennessee Aquarium. One of the buildings holds the Ocean Journey tour and the other building holds the River Journey tour. Admission covers both buildings and was about $18 apiece. Well worth it believe me. The tours start at the tops of the buildings and the walkway slopes down with only a few stairs to deal with.

At the top of the Ocean Journey building there is a stingray tank where you are allowed to touch the stingrays as they glide past. These birds were also a part of the exhibit.

Head to tail, these birds are easily 3 feet high.

Orchids.

A neat looking ray.

I think we've seen one of these in the news recently.

They had at least 4 different kinds of stingrays on display.

Look, it's Dory from "Finding Nemo".

Also at the top of the Ocean Journey building is a butterfly exhibit. They are flying around everywhere in the room.

This is a blue morpho. It's hard to get them sitting still with their wings opened up.

Here's Dot trying to coax a blue morpho onto her hand.

See . . .  she is sweet. Even butterflies think so.

On the next level down is where the top of the aquarium tank starts. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of fish in the tank.

Some of the fish were really attracted to the flash going off.

Like this guy.

If you look closely, there are about 9 seahorses here.

This is a form of sea dragon. Pretty neat.

One of the tanks had this cylinder built into the tank so one could crawl into it from the bottom. 

Before Dot could get in, this little girl had seen me in it and 'dove' in. Obviously, she is enjoying herself. 

Dot . . always the clown.

Could be Nemo. And a cleaner shrimp.

This is at the top of the River Journey building. There are three river otters in this tank and they were having a blast swimming around.

Heading back into the water.

This was part of another display.

Some neon type fish.

This is the previous waterfall looking at a side view. Pretty cool.

The displays were very well arranged. Very natural looking.

Some trout.

There is a viewing area to see the river otters underwater. 

Looking up into a waterfall from a fish's point of view.

A baby gator.

A tree frog.

Turtles.

A freshwater ray.

A very large giant green moray eel. This guy was practically as big around as my midsection. I didn't think they got that big.

Some piranhas.

Some turtles.

So it was a good thing we had other things to do on rainy days. But we did miss a lot of the trails in the park. Hopefully there will be a next time.

Enjoy !

P.S. 

If you want me to ADD your name/email address to my emaillist when I add new photos to this website, email me at the address below and I will gladly add your name and address. If your name is already on the list, no problem.

Email to Jack Woodward      mailto:  jackwoodward66@hotmail.com

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