Sleeping with the Sharks

At the end of March, I got to chaperone an overnight field trip to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN.

We left Powder Springs after school. We took a charter bus because of the length of the drive. I was one of the lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) adults who got to ride the bus. Honestly, I was happy to not have to drive the full 4 plus hours to get there. I had my I-Pod and Kindle with me.

We arrived at our destination sometime after 8pm. If we had been at home, I would have been putting my daughter to bed around this time, but instead our evening was just getting started.

Our evening started with a presentation with the rays.


After our presentation, we got to have a hands-on encounter with the same creatures.


After our encounter, we had snack time. We ate pizza and Rice Krispy Treats to provide us with the strength to complete our next activity; Squid Dissection.


Once the dissection was completed, we went on a scavenger hunt around the aquarium. This was our chance to see the rest of the exhibits.



After the scavenger hunt, it was finally time for bed!! It was almost midnight.We weren't permitted to take pictures or use electronics at bed time. Supposedly the sharks are super sensitive to electronic pulses (or something like that) and they didn't want us to disturb their rest time. But I did get a picture of the area where we slept while we were looking around.

We actually slept in the tunnels. We spread out our sleeping bags across the width of the tunnel. The lighting in the tank was a bit brighter than I would have liked.


Here are some of the creatures that swam above us while we slept.


The next morning we were awakened around 7am. We packed up our stuff and ate breakfast. Then we had one final activity that involved touching a small tiger shark.


We hit the gift shop before getting back on the bus. We returned back at school at about 3pm. We had fun, but were glad to be home. I loved being able to share this experience with my daughter. My son went on the same trip a few years earlier, but I didn't go.

Hannah can't wait to go back to the aquarium! The trip was a lot of fun, but we didn't have a whole lot of time to explore the place because of the time schedule we were on. Hopefully there will be another trip to Gatlinburg in our future.