Aquarium...A..quar....ium

Oh, wait, I think that's Aquarius, but you get the idea.

First of all, I have to say that I'm kind of in love with the picture of the primroses at the top. I just found it on my computer - note to self, get a little more organized on the computer - and had to put it on. I can't wait until the primroses get in the stores. It should be in the next few weeks. Woho!

Second of all, I'm sort of sad to say that this will be my last post about our trip to the South. I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it but I'm not tired of reliving it. And I don't know exactly what the next post will be about now.

On our final day in Atlanta, we all piled in the minivan and headed into downtown to go to the aquarium. It was a chilly day that day so I was kind of glad that everything was inside.

The Atlanta Aquarium is only five years old so it's a much more state of the art sort of place. When it opened, the Today Show went there and showed how cool it was. That was when I knew I wanted to go. Why, you ask? Two words. Whale Sharks.

I know, I know, I have a unhealthy and somewhat crazy fear of sharks. I know I do. I sometimes joke that in my previous life I must have died by falling from a great height and being eaten by a shark. But, whale sharks are different. I don't know why, they just are.

Whale Sharks are the biggest kind of shark. They can get to be about thirty-five feet long. But, they eat krill, just like whales, hence the name.

The Atlanta Aquarium has four whale sharks. The only whale sharks in captivity in the U.S. Their biggest is only 23 feet long so far, but that's still just crazy. It was AWESOME! Here are some pictures.

Ok, not a whale shark, but still a cool picture.

This year they also got some manta rays, which are the biggest ray, which can grow to 25 feet across. Another cool oceanic animal!

All told, we probably spent well over half of our time there just watching the big tank. It was so cool. We even saw them feeding the whale sharks and manta rays. It's sort of hard to see
but they would go out on a boat and dump krill into the mouths of the waiting whale sharks. That might be kind of scary. I mean, a 23 foot animal could easily accidentally knock your boat over.

The rest of the aquarium was PACKED and we all know how much I LOVE crowds, so it was a little bit harder for me to enjoy myself. I did get a couple of good pictures though.
This little school of fish sort of adopted Alyssa. And I mean that literally. They sat and watched her for a LONG time. Then went away. She moved. And when they came back, they found her again and sat and watched for another LONG time. It was kind of weird.

I love the aquarium function on my camera.

Thanks you guys for going to the aquarium with us! I would love to go again when it wasn't so busy!

We loved see you guys! Thank you for letting us stay for so long. And thank you, Em, for giving us your bed!

With the close of the day, we bid a fond, and somewhat teary eyed, farewell to our Southern adventure.

And so ends another travel journal. Where will we go next? Actually, I have absolutely no idea. But I'll let you know.