We went to Pastor Guse’s church, Beautiful Savior, in Atlanta, Georgia. A little background: Pastor Guse’s son, Pastor Guse, was our pastor in Las Vegas for twelve years at our church called Beautiful Savior. We felt right at home….or right at trailer.
Seriously, the church did make us feel extremely welcome, and we enjoyed our time there.
We’re not big city people, but isn’t this a lovely shot of Atlanta?
Beautiful Savior sent us to the Georgia Aquarium for the day—what a treat! Maybe they were just trying to get rid of us, but either way, it was terrific!
I know some of you are saying, “Why can’t you do that stuff all over the country?” This was a $280 day, people. With nine people, admission fees usually make such things impossible, with rare exception. For example, in California in 2011, a couple of Disney employees got us into Disneyland for a day. This aquarium is obviously another notable exception!
We enacted the buddy system…
and headed for the main gate.
I can’t think of any better way to start an aquarium visit than hearing your teen daughter in the security line announcing, “I have a knife in my pocket.” Yet, it’s her father who is getting frisked in that picture, while the five-year-old looks on terrified, but unable to leave his side, because they’re buddies for the day. Yup, good times! And we weren’t even inside yet!
Everyone stopped and took pictures here, so we did, too. Not knowing what was inside, there’s always the thought that this is as good as it’s going to get, so everybody say cheeeeeeesey fish sticks!
Do you ever feel you’re swimming against the flow? Yeah, us too. It’s the narrow way, baby! Keep on swimmin’!
First up, the spectacular dolphin show/Disney-esque musical.
Wheeeeee! What fun!
This next part is not so fun, however. The spring break crowds were crazy.
Good thing we had the buddy system.
Let’s go see some fish!
Want a kiss?
This is a hundred times better than staring at the aquariums in Wal-Mart, which is where the three youngest thought we were going when their mama said, “We’re going to the aquarium to look at fish, you know, like at Wal-Mart.”
I don’t know where they got that Wal-Mart idea. Crazy, mixed-up kids.
There’s something over our heads. It starts with an “S”.” I can’t remember if it’s sturgeon or sharks…as if those are even remotely related!
I’m confused by this picture. I don’t remember the headless two-tailed crocodile.
I do, however, remember this guy. “Hello. My name is Awesome. You may call me Awesome.”
Although he looks like a statue, this albino croc is very real.
Fish gossip:
“So Dorie told me that whisper whisper whisper.”
No way!
Way!
I knew it!
The gossiping fish are blackspot piranha…in case you were wondering. With those big ol’ fat lips, they don’t like they could do any damage, but there are some sharp little teeth on those buggers. Plus they attack as a unit, and you know what the Bible says about strands of string bundled together instead of separate. You don’t? They’re not easily broken, that’s what, which is why we Travel Bags stick together!
Sharks.
Someone should feed this guy.
This is a giant touching pond where you can touch the rays and sharks.
This as close to petting the sharks as Ellie wanted to get. After all, we just watched Soul Surfer.
Hey, Kids, remember those deadly rays we told you about?
Let’s pet some!
“Uh, sure Daddy. You go right ahead. I’ll just watch.”
“Hey! Hey you guys, come over here. Wanna hear my song?”
“It’s fun to stay at the Y…”
Look out, Village People! The loggerhead tortoise is the next big thing.
This is a lion fish—pretty and deadly, just like…um…like…uh…like other things that are pretty and deadly.
The spines on its dorsal fin (on the back) and anal fin (under its belly) are venomous. It’s always the pretty ones that getcha. I think that’s a paraphrase of something from Proverbs.
I feel a sudden compulsion to go back down…
slowly.
Sea worms. That may or not be their official name.
They just float there, whatever these are. I know this isn’t the most informative post, but it is pretty grooooovy. And aren’t the seahorses charming!
Lagoon jellies stay in the sunlight as much as possible because they have algae living in them which need the photosynthetic effects of the sun.
Pacific Sea Nettle.
Moon jellies. All jellies are much better in here than underfoot at the beach, like here and here.
The shadow puppet wall made this the coolest aquarium ever! So much better than Wal-Mart!
If you get tired of looking at fish in the Pacific Barrier Reef display, you can watch unrelated, but highly amusing children, like this one.
This is the bluespine unicorn fish and it is the ultimate proof that unicorns do exist, so there…tell your little girls! You don’t need to mention the blue spines on the tail that it uses for defense—nightmares.
We don’t remember what these are, but you can call them awesome.
Insert potentially lame and highly overdone Finding Nemo jokes here.
This handsome fella is a Japanese Spider Crab. Even though he looks like he wants to stick that claw in the back of your neck and take over your body, he’s really just saying hi. Or maybe it’s the other way around..
Did you notice the mushroom things—I think it’s a giant plumose anemone, but I’m not positive. Hey, you try being buddies with a two-year-old at an aquarium and see how much you remember!
Underwater life doesn’t get any more fantastic than these weedy sea dragons!
The males carry the fertilized eggs on their tails until hatching time—random useless fact to store in your brain and pull out at the next company party during a lull in the conversation.
The synchronized swim team.
Here is the beluga or “sea canary” of the seas, so nicknamed for its vocalness.
Here they are floating around the entire planet. I don’t remember that happening either, but it’s pretty neat.
There’s a vibrant, healthy starfish, not like Estrella Amiga.
“Estrella Amiga, is that you?”
“What you starin’ at?”
You, actually.
Eliana and her crazy mama went inside a tunnel that looked out from the interior of the penguin exhibit to see this:
We also saw these, but Ellie was far more fascinated by seeing her siblings.
Marissa, Emily, and Elijah’s turn!
The whole half of the world that was at the aquarium on the same day as we were flocked to the multiple showings of a movie called Deepo’s Undersea Adventures, so we went along.
We got to wear these cool specs.
It was very stimulating—you certainly couldn’t fall asleep during the movie!
Ellie the cool cat.
Except for the rad glasses, the movie was lame.
Moving onward.
That shark ate Emily.
The exhibit of the sea monsters from the inside out was fascinating!
Of course, we find the internal workings of Creation to be amazing; if it makes you toss your cookies, then you should avoid this section of the aquarium.
Actually, if this makes you toss your cookies, you should avoid this section of this post, too.
This is a mobula or devil ray.
“My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Squid, known to the culinary world as calamari.
“If you see sharks, you’re in a healthy ocean.”
~Sylvia Earle
“If you see sharks, you’re in a healthy ocean. Get out now!”
~The Travel Bags
That’s a thresher shark, by the way.
This next one is a whale shark.
The penny machines—cheapest souvenirs we can find and oh so fun!
Toward the end of the day, everybody else went home, so we headed back to our favorite exhibit.
All aboard the moving side-sit!
“Shouldn’t that be sidewalk?” you ask.
Well, maybe for some people.
It carried us through this observation tunnel where an abundance of amazing and enormous seas creatures swam all around us!
It’s absolutely spell-binding!
Ha ha, look at the two people behind us on the moving side-sit. They know how to ride in style like The Travel Bags!
Time to meet some critters and get funducated!
These are sandbar sharks. If I were a shark, I would be a Snicker bar shark.
This is a manta ray.
The giant variety averages 15 feet from wing tip to wing tip, but some have gotten as big as 30 feet. They get as big as 1600 pounds. And they say seafood keeps you light.
This is a big fish. You’re welcome for that scientific description. I don’t remember its name, so let’s call it Harvey. Harvey is bigger than that man’s head, but he’s just a little fella in this pool.
These are rays and Harveys and other fish swimming together. Stay with me here.
Boom! Remember how big we said the rays get. Check out this fella above the ray! That’s a whale shark. They are sharks that are as big as a whale. Seriously, we didn’t name them. That’s what they’re called.
Despite its ominous size, usually 30 feet in length, it feeds on plankton, krill, caviar (ha ha), and other little tiny sea life.
This is a ten-ish-foot bowmouth guitarfish, sort of a cross between a ray and a shark. It’s from the tropical Indo-Pacific area. It’s our new theme fish.
This is a Steve. Steves are primarily land creatures, but can be found along the shallows of tropical regions on rare occasion. Steves have unusual feeding rituals. They feed slowly on meat, vegetables, and whole grains when in the family circle, but tear ravenously into pizza and donuts when the female Steve pretends she isn’t looking. Steves have a span from “wing tip to wing tip” just long enough to wrap around a family. Steves are very protective, so don’t mess with the offspring.
And here is the most interesting creature of all. Do you see that stylish lady in the background? She spent nearly ten minutes trying to get a selfie with that ray behind her…but the ray kept blinking. Everywhere we go we see people primping and puckering up and shooting selfies. It’s entertaining. (Steve’s saying, “Why do you even notice these things?”)
End of the line. Oh, the side-sit moves slowly, in case you’re worried about Bean there.
The inseparable duo heading through the wall of mist. Oooo, wallll of missssst…
We’re easily amused.
Here we are, in the giant observation room.
Isn’t this incredible?!
Earlier today this room was packed to the gills, if you’ll pardon my awesome pun.
People and synchronized cameras everywhere!
Now it’s nearly empty, so we could make ourselves at home…except no PJs or popcorn.
Trivia time! What do sharks and baby Bagasaos have in common? Neither one sleeps!Instead they have active and restful periods.
Smile!
Tell me you see that smiley face and I’m not losing my mind. Okay, at least tell me you see that smiley face.
This is some serious awesomeness!
At the beginning of the side-sit, we picked up marine life identification cards.
Two-year-old Ellie took the identification task very seriously.
All good things must come to an end. If they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t be good anymore. I mean, the observation room was stupendous, but there was no food allowed, and there was no bathroom, so, uh, yeah, that good thing would have become a bad thing if it didn’t eventually come to an end.
Good bye, fishy friends.
It was late, we were exhausted, and, of course, we were hungry for fish. Just kidding, we drove home and ate pork from the crock pot. We had the fish for breakfast.
A very special thank you to Pastor Guse and Beautiful Savior for making this possible!
The Georgia Aquarium - The Travel Bags
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