Atlanta Aqarium

Well, we're coming to the last few months of our time in Georgia, and we figured that it was high time for a trip to Atlanta. Brent and I have never visited Atlanta together. I travelled here once for a conference, but in our married life we've only just passed through the city together. On President's Day, we decided to make the trek to Atlanta to visit the aquarium. I know, we just visited Sea World, the best aquarium ever, but the Atlanta aquarium bills itself as the largest in the nation. We decided to go have a peek and check out the city for the day. We arrived right at lunchtime and headed to The Varsity, just a few blocks from the aquarium, for lunch. We had been told that they were an old time diner style restaurant with good burgers and we weren't disappointed. My onion rings were YUMMY and I didn't even attempt to count the Weight Watchers points for them!

Tristan and Daddy, the two of the cutest short order cooks I've ever seen! Maura's very first chocolate milk. I've never bought it for her because she likes the white stuff so well. I'm hoping we can save it for a going out to eat treat. She LOVED it and the loved the general atmosphere of the place, despite having to be taken out for a spanking at the very beginning of our visit. After that, all was sunny and bright and she had a fabulous time. From the Varsity, we headed over to the aquarium

Maura loves aquariums, zoos and all other places that have live animals. She spends her time there demanding that the animals do her bidding to go into various holes that she spies. Sometimes they actually do and she gets very excited. The fish on the bottom of this tank were called Garden Eels. I've never seen anything like them. They burrow in the sand and stick themselves out to catch food. Whenever any large fish approached, though, they shrank back into their burrows. One minute the floor would look like it was covered with "grass" and the next minute it would be gone!

The Sea Nettles were so cool and beautiful. Maura pushed her way to the front of the crowd for a good view. She's still little enough that people don't mind, but we're going to have to work on the pushiness! Sweet boy, reaching out to touch his world. He loved these sea nettles and watched them for a really long time.

My favorite thing about this aquarium were the gigantic galleries they had. They had several galleries with gigantic tanks where you could sit and watch the fish. This one was probably thirty feet long and twenty feet high and arched up over your head. It was a tropical reef and the colors of the fish were just breathtaking. The photo of the fish can't do justice to how colorful they were. I'm really going to have to add scuba diving the barrier reef to my bucket list.

Daddy and Maura at the touch pool. She especially loved the pool with the sharks and stingrays. Little man, not loving the stroller. I thought switching strollers would help him, but he just has a general dislike of strollers.

Beluga whales! I don't think I've ever seen one. At least now I know what I'm singing about when I sing "Baby Beluga!" The octopus was so cool. Of course, my view was slightly obscured by the uber tall, uber good looking, uber gay couple in front of us!


Mommy and Maura taking in all the sights. Daddy rescued Tristan from that nasty old stroller. What a hero! Look at my baby's hair! It's actually getting long enough to curl above his ears. So cute!

Easily the ugliest fish I've ever seen. It looked like it had tumors all over it. Enjoying the shark tunnel. We sat in here forever!

Tristan loved the shark tank. There was so much to look at.
I've never seen this before--a mantra ray. It was gigantic as you can tell by the size of the people next to it. So cool! The sting ray smiled at us!

Tristan and Daddy with the fishy character of the Atlanta Aquarium. I can't remember what it's name was, but it was Neebbo or something else ridiculously close to Nemo. I loved the sea turtle. We have a sea turtle book that Maura loves, so I felt like I knew this girl. Her name was Myrtle.

After the Aquarium, I pleaded with Brent to walk over to Centennial Park, the site of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I'm a HUGE Olympics fan and I just wanted to stand where the world's greatest athletes had stood. I would LOVE to attend an Olympic games someday, but this might be the closest I ever get to it. It was awesome to stand under those Olympic rings. The Olympic fountain. I remember seeing photos of kids playing in it during the games.

Daddy and Maura. Can you tell that she's DONE for the day! Both kids went all day without naps, so they were ready to crash by four in the afternoon!
Tristan started doing this move over the weekend. He's been rocking on hands and knees for two months now, but this was a new posture for him. He looks like he's ready to join Brent for some push ups!
It won't be long before Little Man is crawling and my life gets WAY more interesting!!