August 27, 2012

Vacation is Over But NOT Forgotten!

You may or may not have noticed my absence from blog-land last week.  I was on vacation in the beautiful city of Gatlinburg, TN.  Instead of boring you with picture after picture of my vacation – I’m going to share a few of my favorites each day. 

On our first day, we decided to hit up Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies.  It was our first visit to this area and had heard this aquarium is a must see.  Take it from me – it was phenomenal.  The kids were in awe and had so much fun with all of the hands-on exhibits available.  It is a little pricey  at $24.99/adult – $11.99/children 6-11, however we spent a few hours exploring and felt it was worth the money. 

My son is currently obsessed with Sharks, and they just happened to have an amazing shark exhibit running.  Colton was excited and scared at the same time.  They have a “tunnel room” where the sharks are swimming above you, to your left and to your right.  He would get so excited and name off the sharks he would see – but getting him to pose for pictures was next to impossible because he was nervous at the same time.  The boy cracks me up.

Ripleys 1

Ripleys 3

Although Ashley isn’t as interested in sharks as her brother, she found the exhibits just as entertaining as he did, and especially enjoyed petting the sting rays.  She thought it was really cool.

Ripleys 2

Overall, I believe the kids enjoyed the aquarium and would say it was a highlight of their trip.  I was pleasantly surprised that their gift shop was not overly priced – and I was able to pick up a few souvenirs for each of the kids for under $10.  The aquarium also offers a snack bar, which was slightly overpriced, but for the area wasn’t too outrageous.  The kids enjoyed pretzels and pops about half way through. 

If I return to Gatlinburg, I will be returning to Ripley’s Aquarium in the Smokies

5 comments:

Nicole said...

Wow, so many people tend to go there. Maybe I should sometime! Looks like y'all had fun!

Cindy said...

Welcome back to reality!? We love aquariums, but have never been to that one!!

Faith said...

Welcome back!

I love aquariums! I would love to do that!
Glad that the kiddos had a great time!

I'm the same way as Colton is about sharks. I find them fascinating but so afraid at the same time!

Julie said...

Great photos! Looks like you had a lot of fun. :)

Angie said...

Glad you got to visit the Aquarium. We went several years ago when Anika was younger and she loved it. We haven't took Ax yet though. I think he's still too young to really enjoy it. Everything in Gatlinburg is over priced isn't it? We spent a fortune and really didn't do much of anything.