Believe It or Not: Design in the Smokies!

At the same time that you’re having fun on vacation, your family can enjoy educational opportunities that are memorable and life-changing. To help with ideas, Answers features over fifty fun and faith-affirming vacations—for both summer and winter—at www.CreationVacations.com.

New destinations are being added regularly, such as Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA.

Though the name Ripley’s is associated with the wacky, this aquarium is as authentic as they come. Featuring 10,000 creatures of over 350 different species native to tropical rainforests, oceans, and coral reefs, this aquarium demonstrates the amazing diversity that emerged within the various created kinds after the Flood.

At the Gallery of the Seas, visitors witness the beautiful colors and strange shapes of spectacular sea creatures, such as octopuses, seahorses, and jellyfish.

The most popular exhibit is the Shark Lagoon, a 340-foot (104-m) see-through tunnel that’s underwater and surrounded by sharks, stingrays, and more. There’s also Stingray Bay, where five different varieties of stingrays eat out of the hands of divers. While many evolutionary scientists look at the cartilage skeletons of sharks and stingrays and claim that they share a common ancestor, the truth is that God originally made them as distinctly different “kinds” of creatures on the fifth day of Creation Week.

Ripley’s Aquarium is a fantastic opportunity to enjoy the beautiful, and sometimes bizarre, aquatic animals of God’s creation.