Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Vacation Recap: Ripley's Aquarium in the Smokies

I was hesitant to go to Ripley's Aquarium in the Smokies when we spent a day in Gatlinburg. My mind equates Ripley's with too touristy. Some of Richie's coworkers had recommended the aquarium, and I read plenty of reviews on TripAdvisor before agreeing to go.

OMG. So worth the visit!

Richie and I had never been to an aquarium together, and neither of us could remember the last time we ever visited one. We were both excited for the visit because of the new experience. My recommendation? Get there first thing in the morning. I am so happy we did that because when we left almost three hours later, the place was packed to the gills (no pun intended).

 
 
 
 
Aside from all of the incredible aquatic life, we watched a penguin feeding and got to pet stingrays and sand crabs. I'm pretty sure the penguin exhibit was my favorite.

The aquarium is right in the heart of Gatlinburg. When you look out from the outside part of the penguin exhibit, you see one of the mini malls at the beginning of the strip.

The sound of rushing river water is nice, too.
Sadly, most of our visit to Gatlinburg was rained out, so we called it a day in the early afternoon and went back to our hotel to relax. We left the following day and took our time going home. We killed two hours in one town in order to grab lunch at one of our favorite restaurants on the route back home.

Can you guess what my next blog post is going to be about?

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