So we tried to upload the videos but we couldn't get it to work. Might try again tomorrow!
Feel free to click on the pictures to get the full screen experience!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Atlanta Day 2
Well let's not all act like we are surprised this post didn't make it's way onto the interwebs in time. Better late than never right? I'm pretty sure that applies to this blog as much as anything! :)
Our plans for day 2 consisted of the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. The aquarium didn't open until 10AM so we took our leisurely time again that morning taking our breakfast back to the room and enjoying a relaxing morning with some TV and good eats. When the time came, we strapped on our walking shoes and headed out! The aquarium was about 5 blocks away from the hotel so we made it with just a few minutes to spare before they opened their doors.
Here is a picture of the waiting area. In the picture the fish look small and completely flat (2D) but they are NOT! I don't remember what species these were, but they reminded me of small albacore or something. It was an interesting display because all the fish had to swim right past the window, with seemingly little room to swim away from the window. Also, they were all swimming in the same direction. Perhaps the tank is a big circle with no room for fish to turn around. I saw on TV recently that tuna don't have the ability to force water through their gills to breathe so they must always be in motion. A pretty good idea to put these active fish in this tank! The best part was that every now and then the fish in one of the tanks would kick it into overdrive and they would all swim at about 5x the speed of the fish in the other tank. Those things could really get a move on!
Fortunately for us, this simple yet interesting display was only a TINY fraction of some very impressive things to come!
This aquarium is laid out in 6 different areas, all around a large common area. We got plenty of pictures and we will share our favorites here.
Seahorses
Little eel thing that lives in one hole its whole life
Jelly fish
Before I talk about our absolute favorite part of the building, we must explain the penguin exhibit! So they had a decent sized area for the penguins (maybe 20' x 60'), which included a tunnel that children and willing adults could crawl through. The tunnel lead to a couple bubbles that people can stand up in and be face to face with the penguins!
I would be remiss if I didn't share of the beluga whale exhibit! Naturally I sang the "baby beluga" song immediately! Haha!
They had 2 female and 2 male belugas that all loved to swim in circles and run their backs on the large curved glass closest to us. On a side note: there would be an employee that would hop on a microphone and explain things about the exhibits from time to time. The lady talking while we were there was particularly delicate when explaining how to tell the difference between the male and female whales... good work ma'am!
Ok, now for our favorite part!
Here is some interesting information about the aquarium (partly courtesy of Wikipedia)
The Georgia Aquarium was built in large part on a $250 MILLION donation from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus!
It consists of about 8.5 million gallons of fresh and marine water exhibits of more than 120,000 animals and 500 different species.
This aquarium is the only outside of Asia to house whale sharks, and this one has 4. In fact, this aquarium is built around their tank.
The whale sharks are housed in a 6.3 Million gallon tank! It is about 300' x 120' x 35'. Of course, what good would a tank that size be without a viewing window??? No worries, this aquarium has the second largest viewing window in the world!
It is made of acrylic, which is 17 times stronger than glass, and is 2 feet thick! The tank has skylights above it which, on a sunny day, allow spectacular light into the tank! A few highlights from this tank were the whale sharks, the 12' and 14' wide manta rays, hammerhead sharks, and 400lb groupers!
Here is a video and some of our best pictures of the huge viewing room
Once we had our fill of walking around the aquarium, we walked across the yard to the World of Coca-Cola. I won't spent too much time talking about or showing pictures of this place because I think we were both a little disappointed in it. I guess I was expecting more of a bottling plant operation, or more about how it is made. Instead we got essentially an hour-long commercial, with few details offered about the good stuff.
Definitely the highlight for us was the last room which is where visitors get to sample 60 different Coke products from all around the world! They were divided up into 5 different regions (Asia, Latin America, Africa, North America, & Europe) Some were yummy, many were awful. I guess there's a reason that Coke can be found in some 150+ countries... it's the good stuff!
By the time we had finished there, we had probably walked about a thousand miles in the last two days. Our feet were beat! So despite our half-hearted plans to do something else fun with our afternoon, our feet simply weren't up to the task. We had a recommendation from a friend of ours to try an authentic Napoli-style pizzeria. We thought that would be a good use of our time so out the door we went to a fun little place called Antico.
It doesn't look like much from the outside. Come to think of it, it doesn't look like much from the entrance either! You walk into a small room that has one large table and the counter with a cash register. We ordered a pizza and didn't really know what to do with ourselves! Turns out, you have to walk past the main table in the front and into the kitchen area! Well, the kitchen area actually had 6 more large tables, which partly face the 3 beautiful wood fired ovens and the prep area. On the sides of the room were the cold storage and massive stacks of large cans of San Marzano tomatoes. For those unfamiliar, San Marzano tomatoes are native to the area of Naples Italy. They are a fairly sweet plum tomato and make some of the most delicious sauce! The basic pizza is the margherita which is tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil. And when I say basil, I mean one of the cooks plucks some leaves off a fresh plant in their kitchen and puts it straight on the pizza. How's THAT for fresh ingredients!?
A quick few minutes in a very hot oven later, we had one of the most delicious pizzas of our lives! It was so much fun to eat great food and be able to watch the kitchen at the same time!! We filled up the car with gas in preparation for our trip home the next day, and back to the hotel we went!
Our plans for our last half-day in Atlanta included a thorough walk-through of IKEA!
I think it is a given that going to IKEA constitutes a good time. Partially for that reason, we didn't go through once...we didn't go through twice. THRICE we went through IKEA! I know I know, it sounds insane, but we were really motivated and had a reason for doing so. Online the night before, we found out that this store only had 1 computer chair in stock that we were wanting. So we stood at the door when it opened, and bee-lined it directly to the warehouse to see if the chair was still there. Victory for us! We got the only one in the warehouse!
With that purchase taken care of, and the chair locked away in the car, we returned for our slower, thorough walk through of the store. They have soooo much stuff there! Great ideas for kitchen setups, trendy living room furniture, and affordable cooking supplies. A few cutting boards, 3 little candles, and a $20 bathrobe later we hit the cafeteria for some Swedish meatballs to fill our stomachs before we hit the road. They were delicious as always and with a full car and appetites satisfied, we hit the road back to Nashville.
It was an excellent trip to Atlanta overall. We rode some great roller coasters, saw some amazing fish, and ate some yummy food for those 3 short days. It's always nice to get away from it all for a few days, something we haven't done very much since we've been here. We have now ventured away from Nashville in several directions, and we hope to do a bit more of this while we are still living down in the South.
That's all for now!
Until next time,
Love Tim & Heather
Our plans for day 2 consisted of the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. The aquarium didn't open until 10AM so we took our leisurely time again that morning taking our breakfast back to the room and enjoying a relaxing morning with some TV and good eats. When the time came, we strapped on our walking shoes and headed out! The aquarium was about 5 blocks away from the hotel so we made it with just a few minutes to spare before they opened their doors.
Here is a picture of the waiting area. In the picture the fish look small and completely flat (2D) but they are NOT! I don't remember what species these were, but they reminded me of small albacore or something. It was an interesting display because all the fish had to swim right past the window, with seemingly little room to swim away from the window. Also, they were all swimming in the same direction. Perhaps the tank is a big circle with no room for fish to turn around. I saw on TV recently that tuna don't have the ability to force water through their gills to breathe so they must always be in motion. A pretty good idea to put these active fish in this tank! The best part was that every now and then the fish in one of the tanks would kick it into overdrive and they would all swim at about 5x the speed of the fish in the other tank. Those things could really get a move on!
Fortunately for us, this simple yet interesting display was only a TINY fraction of some very impressive things to come!
This aquarium is laid out in 6 different areas, all around a large common area. We got plenty of pictures and we will share our favorites here.
Seahorses
Little eel thing that lives in one hole its whole life
Jelly fish
Before I talk about our absolute favorite part of the building, we must explain the penguin exhibit! So they had a decent sized area for the penguins (maybe 20' x 60'), which included a tunnel that children and willing adults could crawl through. The tunnel lead to a couple bubbles that people can stand up in and be face to face with the penguins!
I would be remiss if I didn't share of the beluga whale exhibit! Naturally I sang the "baby beluga" song immediately! Haha!
They had 2 female and 2 male belugas that all loved to swim in circles and run their backs on the large curved glass closest to us. On a side note: there would be an employee that would hop on a microphone and explain things about the exhibits from time to time. The lady talking while we were there was particularly delicate when explaining how to tell the difference between the male and female whales... good work ma'am!
Ok, now for our favorite part!
Here is some interesting information about the aquarium (partly courtesy of Wikipedia)
The Georgia Aquarium was built in large part on a $250 MILLION donation from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus!
It consists of about 8.5 million gallons of fresh and marine water exhibits of more than 120,000 animals and 500 different species.
This aquarium is the only outside of Asia to house whale sharks, and this one has 4. In fact, this aquarium is built around their tank.
The whale sharks are housed in a 6.3 Million gallon tank! It is about 300' x 120' x 35'. Of course, what good would a tank that size be without a viewing window??? No worries, this aquarium has the second largest viewing window in the world!
It is made of acrylic, which is 17 times stronger than glass, and is 2 feet thick! The tank has skylights above it which, on a sunny day, allow spectacular light into the tank! A few highlights from this tank were the whale sharks, the 12' and 14' wide manta rays, hammerhead sharks, and 400lb groupers!
Here is a video and some of our best pictures of the huge viewing room
Once we had our fill of walking around the aquarium, we walked across the yard to the World of Coca-Cola. I won't spent too much time talking about or showing pictures of this place because I think we were both a little disappointed in it. I guess I was expecting more of a bottling plant operation, or more about how it is made. Instead we got essentially an hour-long commercial, with few details offered about the good stuff.
Definitely the highlight for us was the last room which is where visitors get to sample 60 different Coke products from all around the world! They were divided up into 5 different regions (Asia, Latin America, Africa, North America, & Europe) Some were yummy, many were awful. I guess there's a reason that Coke can be found in some 150+ countries... it's the good stuff!
By the time we had finished there, we had probably walked about a thousand miles in the last two days. Our feet were beat! So despite our half-hearted plans to do something else fun with our afternoon, our feet simply weren't up to the task. We had a recommendation from a friend of ours to try an authentic Napoli-style pizzeria. We thought that would be a good use of our time so out the door we went to a fun little place called Antico.
It doesn't look like much from the outside. Come to think of it, it doesn't look like much from the entrance either! You walk into a small room that has one large table and the counter with a cash register. We ordered a pizza and didn't really know what to do with ourselves! Turns out, you have to walk past the main table in the front and into the kitchen area! Well, the kitchen area actually had 6 more large tables, which partly face the 3 beautiful wood fired ovens and the prep area. On the sides of the room were the cold storage and massive stacks of large cans of San Marzano tomatoes. For those unfamiliar, San Marzano tomatoes are native to the area of Naples Italy. They are a fairly sweet plum tomato and make some of the most delicious sauce! The basic pizza is the margherita which is tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil. And when I say basil, I mean one of the cooks plucks some leaves off a fresh plant in their kitchen and puts it straight on the pizza. How's THAT for fresh ingredients!?
A quick few minutes in a very hot oven later, we had one of the most delicious pizzas of our lives! It was so much fun to eat great food and be able to watch the kitchen at the same time!! We filled up the car with gas in preparation for our trip home the next day, and back to the hotel we went!
Our plans for our last half-day in Atlanta included a thorough walk-through of IKEA!
I think it is a given that going to IKEA constitutes a good time. Partially for that reason, we didn't go through once...we didn't go through twice. THRICE we went through IKEA! I know I know, it sounds insane, but we were really motivated and had a reason for doing so. Online the night before, we found out that this store only had 1 computer chair in stock that we were wanting. So we stood at the door when it opened, and bee-lined it directly to the warehouse to see if the chair was still there. Victory for us! We got the only one in the warehouse!
With that purchase taken care of, and the chair locked away in the car, we returned for our slower, thorough walk through of the store. They have soooo much stuff there! Great ideas for kitchen setups, trendy living room furniture, and affordable cooking supplies. A few cutting boards, 3 little candles, and a $20 bathrobe later we hit the cafeteria for some Swedish meatballs to fill our stomachs before we hit the road. They were delicious as always and with a full car and appetites satisfied, we hit the road back to Nashville.
It was an excellent trip to Atlanta overall. We rode some great roller coasters, saw some amazing fish, and ate some yummy food for those 3 short days. It's always nice to get away from it all for a few days, something we haven't done very much since we've been here. We have now ventured away from Nashville in several directions, and we hope to do a bit more of this while we are still living down in the South.
That's all for now!
Until next time,
Love Tim & Heather
Monday, August 15, 2011
Atlanta Day 1
So yesterday was a very full, very fun day that we must tell you all about! We started the day at 4:30AM at our home in Nashville. By 5:00 we were on the road and headed for Atlanta! The drive was pretty and uneventful. We made it to our primary destination, Six Flags Over Georgia, by 10:15. On the walk from the parking lot to the front gate, your field of vision is completely filled with their largest coaster, Goliath. It's the tallest coaster in the park, over 200ft., as well as the fastest, over 70mph. It was pretty amazing to approach the park while looking at the twists, flips, bends, and sharp curves of this coaster, while hearing the roar of the car and the screams of the riders! Heather had admitted that she was a little bit nervous about a few of the coasters, but once she saw this monster coaster, she decided that she wanted to do that one first!
One of the best things about going to Six Flags on a Sunday morning is that the lines were nonexistent! We practically walked straight up to the coaster and got right on. Somehow, I convinced Heather to sit near the back of the coaster with me. For any of you who are not familiar with the differences between sitting in the front vs the back...
Sitting in the front gives you the best visual stimulation, but the speed on the steep stops suffers, since most of the mass of the car is behind you (You get a ways down the slope before the car picks up speed)
Sitting in the back gives you the least visual stimulation since you are somewhat just looking at the passengers in front of you. But, and this is a huge but(t), since the majority of the mass of the car is in front of you, you are picking up speed before you get to the edge of the drop off. So when you sit in the back, you are essentially whipped off the edge of of the drop offs, and at 200ft and 70mph, it's a pretty intense ride!! Heather's regret increased with every click and clank of the chain as it pulled us to the highest point in the park. As it turns out, Heather's preferred method of coping with being on roller coasters is to close her eyes and hold her breath. While closing one's eyes might not be too big of a deal, holding one's breath can become an issue! So I did my best to speak in a very calm voice, "ok, breathe now breathe now". Suffice is to say that by end of the very long, 3.5 minute ride, we were both smiling ear-to-ear and were so excited for things to come!!
Unfortunately this excitement didn't last much longer...
Our next ride was a water ride (the kind with the big circular raft where everyone faces the center of the circle, and goes through a variety of rapids). Again, no line! We got right on a boat with a family of about 6 or so. We made it all the way to the last corner of the ride while staying reasonably dry. But then we found ourselves backing into two very large rapids. I did my best to cover my cell phone in my pocket, but we still got a bit damp. Would have been alright if that was the end, but we immediately found ourselves under a waterfall... that was dumping, DUMPING water on us. There was no escape! It came from above, and within a matter of seconds, we were completely soaked. Oh, and we were NOT wearing swimsuits. Cellphone, wallet, keys, everything was completely soaked. Heather and I both had about 6 sq. inches of dry fabric on our shorts. Oh, and she was wearing denim shorts! After ringing out our shirts and doing everything I could to get the moisture away from my phone, we were so full of frustration that we didn't know what to do next! I could no longer put my wallet or my phone in my pockets, and Heather was dealing with soaked denim for the rest of the day. This definitely put a kink in our plans for the day, but we didn't let it completely stop us!
Heather held my stuff while I rode one coaster she wasn't interested in, and we also dried off a bit while eating lunch. On our way to our next coaster, we found the perfect solution... the swinging chair ride! You know the one where all the chairs are hanging by chains connected to a tall, spinning, central tower? Yeah, it's essentially a spin dry for humans. Perfect! After a couple cycles on that thing, we were ready to take on a few more coasters, including the thriller Batman. It was super fast and included the tightest flips, barrel rolls, and turns of any coaster either of us have ever been on! What a rush!
One of the last things we did in the park was ride a wooden coaster. My experience on coasters of the wooden variety led to the conclusion that while they aren't as smooth as a steel coaster, they should be tolerable. This coaster was clearly the exception to that rule... OUCH!!! When this coaster debuted in the 1970s, it was the tallest and fastest wood coaster in the world. While it wasn't super tall, but was very very fast! But the speed, in and of itself, wasn't an issue. It was the fact that the speed led to the most bone jarring, spine-compressing, head-bashing ride we've ever been on. How anyone could go on this ride and be happy at the end is way beyond either of us. Heather had an instant headache and I had a very sore back.
We decided to relax and end our stint at Six Flags with a peaceful train ride around the park. This was a delightful little break from the stomach-churning coasters we'd been on all day. At the end of the train ride, we were almost completely dry, and our stomachs had settled a bit.
At this point in the day, we had been up for only 12 hours, but had gotten only 4 hours of sleep the night before, had driven 250 miles in the morning, and had our senses brutally flogged by coaster after coaster. Needless to say, we were exhausted!!! So with a large ice-cold lemonade, and a bag of cotton candy in hand, we headed for the car.
A quick drive into downtown led us to our beautiful hotel room at the Hyatt Place. It's a real treat to stay in such a nicely appointed room for a few days! We went to dinner at a local brewpub where Heather had a catfish salad, and I had shrimp and grits. So yummy! We did a little walking around the downtown area after dinner but it was early to bed for both of us after such a long and thoroughly eventful day.
This morning we ate breakfast in our room, and are now waiting for the Georgia Aquarium to open. We can see the aquarium out our hotel window so it will be a nice little walk down the road to start our day today. Our itinerary only includes the aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola which is just next door. Don't worry, many many pictures will be taken today and we will blog again tonight or tomorrow so we can share the best pictures with you all.
That's all for now from Atlanta, GA!
Till next time,
-Tim & Heather
One of the best things about going to Six Flags on a Sunday morning is that the lines were nonexistent! We practically walked straight up to the coaster and got right on. Somehow, I convinced Heather to sit near the back of the coaster with me. For any of you who are not familiar with the differences between sitting in the front vs the back...
Sitting in the front gives you the best visual stimulation, but the speed on the steep stops suffers, since most of the mass of the car is behind you (You get a ways down the slope before the car picks up speed)
Sitting in the back gives you the least visual stimulation since you are somewhat just looking at the passengers in front of you. But, and this is a huge but(t), since the majority of the mass of the car is in front of you, you are picking up speed before you get to the edge of the drop off. So when you sit in the back, you are essentially whipped off the edge of of the drop offs, and at 200ft and 70mph, it's a pretty intense ride!! Heather's regret increased with every click and clank of the chain as it pulled us to the highest point in the park. As it turns out, Heather's preferred method of coping with being on roller coasters is to close her eyes and hold her breath. While closing one's eyes might not be too big of a deal, holding one's breath can become an issue! So I did my best to speak in a very calm voice, "ok, breathe now breathe now". Suffice is to say that by end of the very long, 3.5 minute ride, we were both smiling ear-to-ear and were so excited for things to come!!
Unfortunately this excitement didn't last much longer...
Our next ride was a water ride (the kind with the big circular raft where everyone faces the center of the circle, and goes through a variety of rapids). Again, no line! We got right on a boat with a family of about 6 or so. We made it all the way to the last corner of the ride while staying reasonably dry. But then we found ourselves backing into two very large rapids. I did my best to cover my cell phone in my pocket, but we still got a bit damp. Would have been alright if that was the end, but we immediately found ourselves under a waterfall... that was dumping, DUMPING water on us. There was no escape! It came from above, and within a matter of seconds, we were completely soaked. Oh, and we were NOT wearing swimsuits. Cellphone, wallet, keys, everything was completely soaked. Heather and I both had about 6 sq. inches of dry fabric on our shorts. Oh, and she was wearing denim shorts! After ringing out our shirts and doing everything I could to get the moisture away from my phone, we were so full of frustration that we didn't know what to do next! I could no longer put my wallet or my phone in my pockets, and Heather was dealing with soaked denim for the rest of the day. This definitely put a kink in our plans for the day, but we didn't let it completely stop us!
Heather held my stuff while I rode one coaster she wasn't interested in, and we also dried off a bit while eating lunch. On our way to our next coaster, we found the perfect solution... the swinging chair ride! You know the one where all the chairs are hanging by chains connected to a tall, spinning, central tower? Yeah, it's essentially a spin dry for humans. Perfect! After a couple cycles on that thing, we were ready to take on a few more coasters, including the thriller Batman. It was super fast and included the tightest flips, barrel rolls, and turns of any coaster either of us have ever been on! What a rush!
One of the last things we did in the park was ride a wooden coaster. My experience on coasters of the wooden variety led to the conclusion that while they aren't as smooth as a steel coaster, they should be tolerable. This coaster was clearly the exception to that rule... OUCH!!! When this coaster debuted in the 1970s, it was the tallest and fastest wood coaster in the world. While it wasn't super tall, but was very very fast! But the speed, in and of itself, wasn't an issue. It was the fact that the speed led to the most bone jarring, spine-compressing, head-bashing ride we've ever been on. How anyone could go on this ride and be happy at the end is way beyond either of us. Heather had an instant headache and I had a very sore back.
We decided to relax and end our stint at Six Flags with a peaceful train ride around the park. This was a delightful little break from the stomach-churning coasters we'd been on all day. At the end of the train ride, we were almost completely dry, and our stomachs had settled a bit.
At this point in the day, we had been up for only 12 hours, but had gotten only 4 hours of sleep the night before, had driven 250 miles in the morning, and had our senses brutally flogged by coaster after coaster. Needless to say, we were exhausted!!! So with a large ice-cold lemonade, and a bag of cotton candy in hand, we headed for the car.
A quick drive into downtown led us to our beautiful hotel room at the Hyatt Place. It's a real treat to stay in such a nicely appointed room for a few days! We went to dinner at a local brewpub where Heather had a catfish salad, and I had shrimp and grits. So yummy! We did a little walking around the downtown area after dinner but it was early to bed for both of us after such a long and thoroughly eventful day.
This morning we ate breakfast in our room, and are now waiting for the Georgia Aquarium to open. We can see the aquarium out our hotel window so it will be a nice little walk down the road to start our day today. Our itinerary only includes the aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola which is just next door. Don't worry, many many pictures will be taken today and we will blog again tonight or tomorrow so we can share the best pictures with you all.
That's all for now from Atlanta, GA!
Till next time,
-Tim & Heather
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