This past Wednesday found us in chilly sunny Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a little semi-local tourism – our Cruise Club was going to Pigeon Forge for an outing on Thursday and we decided to go a day early and see some of the sights without the Summer gridlock.

We had heard that the Ripley’s Aquarium was well worth visiting so we opted to get inside out of the cold and enjoy the warm climate and get up close with some fish.

Mary and I both love aquariums and we had heard that this one was as good as (some said better than) the Tennessee State Aquariums in Chattanooga so we were anxious to make out own comparisons.

View from the tunnel

The general layout here is a meandering path through a series of interesting small displays then a trip through a winding tunnel beneath the surface of the main tank, you really get a spectacular view here although it doesn’t photograph well because of distortion from the rounded tunnel.

Because it was a weekday in mid January, the crowd was very small and we could take our time enjoying each exhibit and the dive shows.

Mary fell in love with “Alice” the 400+ pound sea turtle – of course ANY turtle becomes her friend immediately.  Alice was rescued from a swimming pool somewhere in Florida.  We didn’t get a picture of Alice as she is camera-shy and likes to hide in dark places.

Overall, we would rank this aquarium as excellent but not as extensive as the ones in Chattanooga.

Video of one dive show. (You might want to turn down your volume.)

View from the tunnel