Atlanta Was Epic

We arrived in Atlanta, grungy and shell shocked from the swamps of Georgia's coastal islands. All of us were covered in hundreds of bug bites, mostly sand gnats with some mosquitoes thrown in there for variety. The kids were fed up with camping and the grown ups were somewhat fed up with the kids. We had been invited to stay with our friend Marisa in her Atlanta apartment. Little did we know that Marisa now lives in a gorgeous executive style apartment on the eleventh floor with huge windows that look towards downtown Atlanta. When we finally got past the confusion of the concierge downstairs we were greeted by an amazing late afternoon view, and a sweet welcome sign made by Marisa herself.

Marisa's Beautiful Apartment

She set us up with wonderful beds for everyone, our own bathroom and a fridge full of yummy produce, which anyone who has traveled through the south will know is a grand necessity after all the fried and bacon encrusted southern style cooking.

Our first night we stayed in and had a great homemade meal. The next day we were ready for adventure. Elijah started by taking the kids to the swimming pool which is on the roof twenty stories up. Then when they got back and we were all dressed and presentable Marisa steered us towards downtown Atlanta to visit the largest aquarium in the country. We were surprised to discover that the city was hoping that day and we would get to witness all sorts of other sites as well.

It began with the crowds heading towards a college football bowl game. Auburn was playing and thousands of people were out in the streets dressed in orange and blue. A southern football crowd is quite a site. It was like a special holiday (of course it was labor day weekend to top it off) all the people excited, every parking lot full to overflowing with tailgate parties, women wearing cute summer dresses in the team colors, sports bars with lines out the door. The parking lots were so full that Marisa led us towards the CNN parking lot where she works.

We walked through the CNN building to get to the aquarium. It was like a small city inside the building. The food court includes an array of restaurants and a huge open space with offices rising on all sides, like something out of Blade Runner but without the rain. She pointed to the office where she works on the way past, but the place was filled with football fans waiting for the game to begin within the comfort of the air conditioned building. It was total chaos. Someone should definitely film a thriller inside that building during an event. It's got all of the proper stressful emotions for that sort of a film.

When we left the CNN building we headed towards Centennial Park, the aquarium is just on the other side of the park so we thought it would be a quick way through. But today the park had a free concert and we had to stop and get searched in order to pass through. Later that night on the way out we heard Smash Mouth playing on the stage, a very small audience, guess they are now no longer the hit band they once were.

We wanted to get to the aquarium quickly because the whole place was going to shut down early that day to allow the Dragon Con people who were having an evening event at the aquarium to come in. As it was we already began to see lots of people in science fiction costumes throughout the area.

The aquarium was huge and crowded and filled with product placement signs all over the entire building. The kids absolutely loved the marine animals, and we grown ups were pretty into it too.

Marisa works really hard, even on weekends

We all especially liked the large tank with the wales and sharks in it, and the otters.

Eli: We went to a aquarium. My favorite thing was the otters. There were two types of otters, river otters, and sea otters. The sea otters refused to leave the water. The river otters on the other hand refused to get in the water, but it didn't make them any less cute.

The Otters Move So Fast It's Hard to Get a Picture of Them

I Had To Settle For Pictures of the Kids' Reactions To Them

The Asian Land Otters Were Even Harder to Take Pictures of Because They are Farther Away From the Glass

But You Can Tell How Cute They Are By the Expressions of These People

The one thing we found unimpressive was the dolphin show. A quasi Broadway/Disney/Magic show with the occasional jumping dolphin. As Izzy put it, "I didn't expect there to be singing, and I didn't expect it to be so dark, I expected there to be more dolphins, doing tricks and stuff." Definitely not worth the time, and a little embarrassing and at times uncomfortable and weird.

One of the Rare Moments In Which Dolphins Were Actually Doing Something In the Dolphin Show

Though there was one moment when the synchronized dolphin trainers were jumping into the water and swimming and I had the impression that the dolphins were choreographing the humans doing tricks, and it was a pleasant reversal. But then the guy started singing again and put on a multicolored electrified cape and the pleasant moment was over.

After the aquarium we had dinner at a burger place in the park and watched all sorts of people roaming through Centennial Park and playing in the fountain as the warm evening sun set.

We finished the day with amazing gourmet ice cream at a place called Morelli's. It was a good day in the city. Atlanta is definitely interesting, though it seems more just city and less specifically southern than a lot of the other places we have been in the south.