Hello! Tonight I am writing from Atlanta, Georgia. I’m happy to report that we did not get swept away in any one of the three tornadoes that touched down in the city today. We were safely inside the Georgia Aquarium, the reason why we added Atlanta to our route. More on that in a minute, but first a quick recap of the past couple of days…

Monday we were in Memphis and it poured the entire day (2+ inches of rain!!). We spent our time catching up on some odds and ends and saw a movie (Arrival) in the theater. Arrival gets two thumbs way up from me (Bill liked it, too).

Yesterday we drove from Memphis to Atlanta. To break up the drive, we made a quick stop at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. We were pleasantly surprised to find that there were still plenty of roses on bushes in the rose garden! Brilliant yellow ginkgo trees and vibrant red Japanese maples were scattered throughout the grounds. Even though many plants were winding down for their winter naps, the place had charm and beauty. The highlight of my day was seeing cotton in its natural form on the plants. I may or may not have “borrowed” a small clump ;-).

If you look closely, you can see lots of roses still on the bushes. Check out the fantastic yellow ginkgo in the background!

Today, another rainy day, we headed to the Georgia Aquarium. We marveled at how empty the parking garage was and how no one seemed to be buying tickets. It seemed like we were going to have the place to ourselves, just like the Memphis Zoo. Boy were we wrong! Not two minutes after we started to check out the “River Scout” exhibit, we heard the stampede. The excited screams of hundreds (thousands?) of elementary school kids echoed off the tanks with an ear-splitting shrillness. Then they came…in droves…and NOTHING got in their way. It must have been “aquarium field trip day” for the entire state of Georgia.

We did our best to look for the exhibits ahead of the “kid wave” and it became a sort of game. The aquarium is laid out like a shopping mall. There is a central gift shop/cafeteria area surrounded by six aquatic ecosystem areas to explore, each with a flashy lit-up sign. Replace the “Ocean Voyager,” “Cold Water Quest,” and “Tropical Diver” signs with “Kenneth Cole,” “Pottery Barn,” and “Coach” signs and you’d feel like you were in a high-end mall (with the price tag to match at $39.95 per person to get in plus a $10 parking fee).

A banded archer fish waiting for prey to spit at.

Both Bill and I are aquarium fans, which is why we decided to make the Georgia Aquarium a stop on our trip. It is often rated number one in the country, so we were pretty excited to see it. Maybe our expectations were set too high, but we were pretty disappointed overall with the experience. The place, while large, has very few actual tanks compared to every other aquarium we’ve been to. Instead, there were many blank walls/hallways with either nothing on them or projected images of fish swimming around. Other areas were almost exclusively digital screens with games or videos of sea life. On an empty day (whenever that is), a visitor could literally see everything at a leisurely pace in about 45 minutes.

These eeltail catfish swam in unison.

The aquarium prides itself in creating an “immersive” experience for its visitors, and this it does well. Their are plenty of gimmicks to get you closer to the animals, from prairie-dog style tunnels to tanks built into the ceiling so you can see fish from below. The crown jewel of the building is the Ocean Voyager exhibit. It is an immense tank full of ocean fish, sharks, rays, and sea turtles. Several whale sharks (the largest fish in the ocean) and manta rays hypnotically glide in and out of view. It truly is an amazing sight to behold. At the end of the day, when most of the class trips were over, we could hear ethereal music being piped in to accompany the ballet before us.

With a seven-foot fin span, manta rays are an incredible sight to behold.

The tanks were all pristine. Their water was crystal clear, and the glass almost completely transparent (except where children smeared, kissed, and licked…yup). Besides the ocean tank, highlights included the tunnel of ocean fish we walked beneath and the Asian small-clawed otters (sorry, no photos). The place just left us wishing there was a bit more to fill up the space, besides the multiple gift shops and eateries.

Anyone know what this guy is? I forgot to take a photo of his sign. Handsome devil, no?

The sea dragons are always a favorite of mine. The aquarium had a beautiful collection.

Itching to see more fish? Check out my gallery. Tomorrow we are heading to Savannah to check out what there is to see there. Our plans originally involved going to Smoky Mountain National Park. Unfortunately, I think the devastating wild fires have pretty much made that impossible. Things are currently still very bad. We are hoping for the best, but expecting that it will be a no-go.