Georgia Aquarium

My cousin Jennifer and her daughter Liv arrived on Friday afternoon to spend Easter weekend with us. We had a great time visiting and catching up...and the girls had lots of fun playing with their cousin. She really wore out the girls who felt compelled to follow Liv wherever she went...and Liv is a busy, busy girl! Madalyn even came into the house at one point to complain that Liv would not stay with them...that she kept wandering back to the house...then back out to the swings...repeat. I told Madalyn that this is what it's like to be the big sister...and she informed us that she didn't like having a big sister...and she didn't like being the big sister. Ah...dreams of being an only child!

On Saturday, the six of us went downtown to the Georgia Aquarium. I had Michael look online to see if there were any street closings (due to the tornado that went through last weekend) - and none of the roads we would need to take were blocked. Here is a picture though of the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel downtown - and you can see all the glass out - but on the other side - that we could see from the highway on the way in - the damage is even more apparent! Lots of roads are closed due to falling glass and the clean up process is quite extensive.

We had 9am reservations for the aquarium...and when we got there...it was empty!

We decided to go to the Whale shark exhibit first - and it was full of divers cleaning the tank. What a fun volunteer job! Saturday seemed to be the day for cleaning at the aquarium as divers were in almost all the tanks we visited. It was pretty neat going through the tunnel...but the glass really distorts the size of things in the tank. The whale sharks are about 20 feet long...and they just don't seem that big!

My favorite exhibit is the beluga whales. There was docent at this tank talking about how friendly beluga whales are - but that sperm whales can actually be quite hostile. He said that if you get a chance to swim with sperm whales, don't. Then someone asked him if the Georgia Aquarium had sperm whales. He replied that the aquarium does not because "you'd need a tank about 12,000 feet deep. Home Depot gives the aquarium a lot of money...but not that much!"
Here are some of my other favorite shots of the day: