Then we make a stop to this convenient double seater. I won't mention what was in the vending machine, but lets just say there was quite a variety with some names that really cracked me up!
Then we entered Atlanta, with the Olympic Torch there to greet us.
Bright and early we headed to the Georgia Aquarium. (Lucky it was early because this was the only hotel that we really regretted staying at. We used Priceline through most of the trip and got some really great deals, this was the only one that really disappointed. It was the Extended Stay America up in the north east corner above Atlanta. Apparently they haven't separated smoking and non-smoking yet! The smell was terrible, and my super pregnancy nose could really take it all in. They didn't have a room that was better, so we left real early. Unfortunately we were staying two nights. So we bought a bottle of Febreeze on the way back and used over half the bottle that night. It worked well for the night, but I don't know how people can enjoy smoking and smelling like that!)
Anyway, The Georgia Aquarium!
Lots of fun sea life, though it's hard to get a good picture. Especially since we were just using our phones. But we got some fun ones!
A giant whale shark
The penguins were funny. There was a little tunnel we could walk/crawl through to pop our heads up in a bubble in the middle of the exhibit. There was a penguin behind me, but I couldn't see it. Marc started laughing and I realized the penguin was following my pony tail. Everytime I turned my head to see it, it would stay right behind my head like it was trying to catch my pony tail, which kept it just out of my sights! We recorded it, but just the last time it did it. It was pretty funny!
Our heads in the bubble.
Can you find the diver? She was cleaning the reef exhibit, and the fish ignored her. But then she pulled out a bottle of food and they went crazy!
An albino alligator that crawled up at someone through the window. It was actually kind of creepy how fast he moved to attack them. Luckily there was glass of course!
A piranha
A fun dolphin show! It was hard to get good pictures with the dark setting and fast moving dolphins but here are a couple.
The trainer was being pulled by the dolphin.
If this works it's an animated GIF of some of the tricks.
We also got to pet this ray and the shark below. Who knew they would feel like velvet!
In the tunnel.
Then we went over to Stone Mountain to see what that was all about, and to meet up with one of my long lost childhood friends :)
Really it's just a large stone mountain in the middle of flat landscape. So they carved the below picture on the side. Because that's what you do when you have such a large canvas right? Of course we're in Georgia, so it's a confederate memorial carving. The three confederate "heroes" are their President Jefferson Davis, and the generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. The total area of the carving is three acres!
They say you know a real friend when you don't see them for years and then can pick up right where you left off. Amanda was my best friend until she moved to Minnesota in 4th grade. We tried to keep in contact, but only met up a few times in the years since then. She's now living in the Atlanta area, and was able to meet up with us as we went through. It was so fun to meet her two adorable children, and just chat with her for a couple hours. With so many years between you never know how a friendship will hold, but we had such a great time catching up! Maybe we'll meet up again in a little less time this time around :)
Here's a secret, I think I'm a cotton candy addict. Cotton candy makes me feel like I'm at the county fair or Peach Days, and I can rarely skip the opportunity to indulge when it's for sell at an outdoor booth...
We didn't have time to go in, but we stopped by to see the lovely Atlanta Georgia Temple.
And then we said bye to the city of Atlanta. Unfortunately one day too soon. My cousin is serving an LDS mission there and so his parents emailed him my number and said I was going through if he could get permission to have lunch with us. He was on exchanges that day, and called us the next day- when we were already in New Orleans. So we missed out on lunch, but still got to have a nice phone conversation with him. He sounds like he's doing great, and it was fun to chat with him. I guess the Lord thought he had more important things to do than have lunch with his cousin!
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