Visit to the Aquarium

Kim and I finally made a visit to the world's largest aquarium in Atlanta. Woo-hoo! We had tried to make reservations on Friday for Saturday, but they said they were all booked up. However, we decided to try our luck anyway since we had Annual Passes. We were in luck, too. Walk-up ticket sales for the general public were sold out, but since we had Annual Passes we just walked up and got tickets. Not a problem. It was so incredibly crowded. I am not kidding. It was insanity.

I was immediately impressed by the size of the place. I haven't been to a huge number of aquariums, but it certainly seemed like it was the world's largest. Our first stop was to go get our pictures taken for our official Annual Passes. There was huge line and a sign that said the average wait time was ONE HOUR. They did say that we had the option of getting our pictures taken on our next visit. But we figured that it was going to be like this every single visit. Besides, my next visit is probably going to be with Luke and I certainly don't want him to have to stand around for an hour waiting for me to get my picture taken. This thing has been open for two months now and the newness has definitely not worn off.

After we finally got that taken care of, we went to the food court to eat. It was a nice eatery with tons of options. They had burgers, hot dogs, fries, salads, wraps, yogurt. They had a lot of fresh fruit there as well. So there was junk food and healthier stuff. The food was expensive, naturally. We had a 20% discount because of our Annual Passes so that helped. Then we were off to view all of the exhibits. I just have to say that pushing two babies around in strollers was a really good cardio workout. There were so many different types of fish. All of the tanks were amazing and I'm impressed with how much work it must have taken to put the entire thing together. There were Beluga whales, sharks, sea lions, sea otters, penguins, and so much more. The kids were in awe. There was even a place that had tanks where you could touch the fish. The kids touched horseshoe crabs and starfish. Actually, Adrian touched the fish. Christian touched the crabs, but then he got spooked and refused to touch the starfish. He just started crying when I put him near the tank. Poor thing. Above are a few pictures of the kids in front of a giant fish tank. . . one of many. All in all, it was a good day. We had to leave at 6 because they closed. Seriously, that's early. We spent 2 hours actually looking at the exhibits and there were still a couple of exhibits that we didn't get to thoroughly enjoy. We also didn't have time to look through the two gift shops that the aquarium had. The exit was behind one of the shops, so we did get a chance to glance at stuff as we headed out. But that shop was so crowded that we were not going to stop and actually look. Our feet were killing us by the time that we left. We were so exhausted.

Yesterday, Kim and I also got to apply for a passport and mail off our Airtran coupons for the free flights. So now we just have to wait for the passport and wait for Airtran to apply the coupons to our account and we can begin to actually make reservations for our trip. I can't wait. I am beyond excited. Woo-hoo!