Atlanta: Spring Break Part One

Note: This is my third post today. I am playing catch up.

We decided to break up the thirteen hour drive to Orlando in half and stayed in Atlanta Gerogia the first night. We arrived in the evening and we were tired from driving (well, Todd was tired from driving and I was emotionally exhausted from a great book I was reading :) so we didn't do anything that night except eat dinner. Fisher was sleep deprived since he refuses to sleep in the car and was very hyper. Within the first few minutes he had run a marathon back and forth across the room, jumped on the bed, thrown pillows off the bed and threw Todd's watch into the toilet. He's never done that before but I guess it was all the pent up energy and lack of sleep. The first night was rough since Fisher was a little sick and was up all night coughing. We eventually had to bring in him to bed with us (something I can count on one hand the times we have done) and he slept on my stomach. There was also a huge thunder storm, so in between coughing and booming thunder, sleep was not all that great that night.

The view from our hotel. We had a great room that was really close to the aquarium and all the good stuff.

The weather was horrible while we were there. Rain and temperatures in the 40s-50s. Thankfully we had each brought one sweatshirt with us...no coats. Here is a picture of the Coca Cola Building.

Our first peak at the Georgia Aquarium. It is the largest in the world.

We spent the morning at the aquarium before driving the second half of the journey to Orlando that afternoon.

Fisher definitely enjoyed the fish more than he has enjoyed things like this in the past.

Giving rock climbing a try. Too bad I didn't get the sign in the picture right next to them that said "No climbing on rocks".

Fisher stuck between the glass and rail. It took a couple of minutes to get that big head of his out of there. Notice the panicked expression on his face.

One of my favorite parts of the aquarium was the beluga whales. They were beautiful! At this point Fisher is starting to get really tired. It was almost nap time, not to mention that he hadn't slept well the night before nor did he nap the day before. This was the beginning of a week long of sleep deprivation.

There is a huge tunnel with huge hammer head sharks, sting rays, tons of fish and the whale sharks. It was extremely crowded and Fisher threw a temper tantrum in there. Todd was able to hang out a little longer while I took Fisher out.

I haven't put up many pictures of the fish we saw since most of the pictures didn't turn out but Todd took this one of one the whale shark swimming over the tunnel. Even thought it isn't crisp clear, you can get the idea. So cool.

After the tunnel you come out into this huge room that is sort of like a movie theatre, except with a bigger screen...and no movie. I could have stayed in this room for hours watching the fish. These are the same fish as in the tunnel only now it is a huge wall of glass to get a better view.

This is what the aquarium's website has to say about this area:

"This exhibit was specially designed to house whale sharks, the largest fish species in the world. Schools of predatory trevally jacks, squadrons of small and large stingrays, enormous goliath grouper and hammerhead sharks all ply the waters of this captive ocean habitat containing more than six million gallons of saltwater. With 4,574 square feet of viewing windows, a 100-foot-long underwater tunnel, 185 tons of acrylic windows and the second largest viewing window in the world at 23 feet tall by 61 feet wide and 2 feet thick, visitors will have multiple opportunities to view all of these magnificent animals. No other aquarium in the world has ever attempted to manage the variety and size of fish in this major exhibit."

A dark, but clear picture of one of the whale sharks. It was pretty neat but we didn't get to enjoy it long because at this point in time Fisher has officially reached melt down and was screaming at the top of his lungs. In a crowded room...not so much fun. See you later fish. It's been swell.

My favorite part of aquariums is the jelly fish so we did manage to find them on our way out despite Fisher's protests.

The Coke Museum is directly across from the aquarium. We were going to go but Fisher was tired, it was getting late and we still had a seven hour drive ahead of us. We were hopeful Fisher would sleep in the car and all would be well...wishful thinking :)

Across the street was the Centennial Olympic Park.

A picture of the park. If we were ever to go back to Atlanta there is definitely more that we would like to see. The next installment will be our first day in Florida at Universal Studios.