Georgia Aquarium

Our family took a mini vacation this past weekend to Atlanta! I had been wanting to take Drew to an Atlanta Braves game for awhile now. At first our plan was to take the kids to Stone Mountain Park and then to the Atlanta Braves. Then, another teacher at my school told us about the Aquarium back at the end of June when we were planning for this trip. She said that if we were going, we shouldn't miss the aquarium. I had planned to go the last weekend in July before school started back so that we could take a three-day weekend and we could go to Stone Mountain, the Aquarium, and an Atlanta Braves game. However, Craig did not want to sit out in the heat at the Atlanta Braves game in July so he talked me into putting it off until this past weekend! I still thought this would work out okay.

I had it all planned out - the most important part (to me) of Stone Mountain Park is the laser show/fireworks at the end so I planned for us to drive down Friday after we got home from work - arrive in time for the laser show/fireworks at Stone Mountain - from there go to the hotel - wake up Saturday morning to get to the aquarium when it opened - rest in the hotel before heading the the Braves game Saturday night - returning home Sunday. I ordered our tickets for the Aquarium and the Braves game at the end of June and our trip was set! Drew and Mikayla were so excited (not to mention how excited I was!) - it was so hard to wait the three months for the date to arrive!

Then last Thursday, I was checking the Stone Mountain website again (I checked before booking our other tickets to make sure that the park was opened Friday, September 29th and it was) to see what time the laser show would be that night to make sure we arrived on time. To my dismay, the laser show/fireworks only shows on Saturdays in September so we wouldn't be able to see that after all. Once I read that, we decided to stay here Friday night and take the kids to the high school football game! It ended up not being much of a game with our team not doing so well so we left during 3rd quarter to get home and get rest before our drive on Saturday.

As soon as we arrived in Atlanta on Saturday we headed straight to the Georgia Aquarium. For those who haven't been, it's a very nice aquarium. There are a lot of different animals there and lots for the whole family to do!

These are the fish (I forget their name) from the movie Finding Nemo that group together to form signs and such.

Drew and Mikayla have spotted something in one of the huge tropical tanks (Several of the tanks in the Aquarium were floor to ceiling tanks)!

Look at all those jellyfish! I sure am glad I'm on this side of the glass (right Jennie?)! This was another floor-to-ceiling tank full of jellyfish of all sizes.

One of the four HUGE whale sharks housed at the Georgia Aquarium! This one is swimming directly over our heads as we go through the tunnel.

This diver was cleaning out the bottom of this tank. We decided this would not be a job we would want (you can't tell in this picture but these fish have sharp teeth). But somebody's got to do it, right?

Our pretty girl rests in her stroller - but only for a moment! She stayed out of it more than she was in it. So much so that Craig kept questioning why we even brought the thing!

Drew watches an otter eat. He was laying on a pile of ice and Craig asked if the otters liked playing in ice. We were told that the workers at the Aquarium want the otters to work for their food so they put the food in different things. Today, their shrimp was put in ice pieces. We noticed a worker carrying two huge tubs of shrimp - these animals eat better than I do!

Mikayla and Drew pose with the Aquarium Mascot.

Drew and Mikayla (daddy too) climbed through a tunnel to be inside the penguin exhibit. Mommy had to get a picture of this - just look past the glare! If you look closely, you can see the penguin behind them on the rock (it almost looks like it's on top of Drew's head). This was one of their favorite parts of the Aquarium. You don't see penguins every day in South Carolina!

There were also two beautiful Beluga Whales at the Aquarium! I have a few good pictures of them, but for some reason Blogger won't let me upload them (maybe I've reached my max again). I'll try to upload a picture of them later - when I add pictures from the Braves game!!