We recently spent a day at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. It’s an adventure we’ve experienced many times. Every visit is wonderful, but this visit there was one exhibit that captured the children’s attention. They stared at it intently while other Aquarium guests glanced and wandered elsewhere. Even after we dragged them away from the glass to see the other areas of the Aquarium, the children continued to talk about the exhibit that they found mesmerizing and perplexing.

Normally, the adults stand behind children and watch exhibits while they also watch children. After an unreasonably long time staring at the children, staring at the exhibit, we squeezed toward the glass to better understand the attraction to this particular exhibit.

The children’s eyes and minds were focused on the floor of the giant Aquarium.

“There’s a phone IN the fish tank.” The children came up with an endless array of scenarios that could have led to a phone’s demise in the fishy waters. They proposed phone recovery options that ranged from ridiculous to impossible. “But what if they trained the otters to fetch?” It’s been more than a week since our visit to the Aquarium and the children are STILL making up stories and asking questions about a cell phone that was dropped in the tank. If the phone wasn’t toxic to wildlife, I would suggest that the Aquarium’s version of “Where’s Waldo” be “Where’s the broken phone?” Just ask the otters move the phone to different exhibit windows every week. The children believe the otters will do it.