After years of talking about someday going to see the Manta Ray at the Atlanta Aquarium we finally got the perfect reason to make the trip. Last month Brian's cousin got married near Atlanta, Georgia. The wedding was beautiful and it was great to spend so much time with his family. The wedding was at the Hazelhurst House in McDonough, Georgia. It was a beautiful setting and took place in the evening. The forecast had called for rain, but God held off even the clouds until just after the outdoor ceremony was complete. While we didn't get to spend much time at the wedding because Rachel got tired we still enjoyed sharing the beautiful event with family.
That morning prior to the wedding we enjoyed Zoo Atlanta. I accidentally grabbed the wrong directions before we left the hotel and took us the wrong way, but we figured it out and and successfully found our way to the zoo. My favorite part was the giant pandas and Rachel loved the orange elephants. Orange elephants? Yes, orange. Their dirt was orange colored and when they put the wet orange clay mud on their back they become orange. Two other highlights were brushing and petting the goats in the petting zoo and seeing a giant tortoises up and walking. I missed about 1/4 of the zoo because I needed to take some time to sit and rest. I am thankful this was the only day I had to take time out from fun to sit. The combination of pregnancy, hills, and warm somewhat humid weather sapped my energy.
The next day, Sunday, we headed to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It was raining, but we still enjoyed the indoor portions including the Dorthy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory and the Fuqua Orchid Center. The Conservatory has 5 display area including a main lobby, tropical rotunda, desert house, orangerie, and special exhibits. I think the tropical rotunda was our favorite display in the conservatory. It was nice and warm and had quail we could see walking around on the ground. Supposedly there are also finches and frogs in there, but we did not see any. Brian especially enjoyed the orchid center a took some fantastic pictures using his macro tubes. On our way out we stopped to check out a fountain with an amazing blue and white glass sculpture on top. It took us about an hour to see all that and after a late start that morning that was really all the time we had before Rachel's nap.
Finally, it was Monday and time for what I had been waiting for. The Atlanta Aquarium and the Manta Rays! Guess where our first and last stop was for the day was. If you said the Manta Rays you were correct. The 4 Manta Rays were in an exhibit called Ocean Voyager which also contained 4 Whale Sharks. Both were amazing to see and watching swimming around the giant tank. After forcing ourselves away from Ocean Voyager we headed to Cold Water quest. Rachel loved the the Japanese Spider crabs. They were really active and she was super excited to show Daddy when he walked over. The sea otter tank was fabulous. I love the sea otters at the Monterey Bay aquarium and the aquarium in general, but lets be honest the otter tank can get a little crazy. If it is feeding time forget about actually getting a good spot to see the otters and even if you should get one you are can expect to get pushed around as other people fight for a view of the adorable sea otters. The nice thing about the otter exhibit at the Atlanta Aquarium was it was uncrowded even though the otters were busy breaking open and eating sea urchins. We had an unobstructed view for the whole feeding time. There was also an octopus in the exhibit who was actually swimming. I don't recall ever seeing a swimming octopus before. I think Rachel's favorite exhibit was Frogs-A Chorus of Color. Rachel recently decided that she really likes frogs so it was nice to experience what appeared to be a temporary but really well done exhibit.
On Tuesday we took Rachel to Imagine It! the Children's Museum of Atlanta. It took us a little while to find it because from the direction we were driving we really couldn't see the sign on the building. We finally decided to park the car and walk to where it should be and found it. The morning was a little crazy with all the field trips, so it took Rachel a while to warm up and explore. That being said all the students on field trips were really polite and helpful making sure Rachel had things to play with or got a turn. She loved driving the life size tractor, playing with the moldable sand, dancing around in tap shoes and sparkly vest, working the simple machines to move ball pit type balls around, playing at the train table, and fishing in the giant water table. This was a really nice children's museum with a lot of exhibits and even had an area in the back corner with cafeteria tables where we could eat our lunch.
Wednesday we woke up bright and early and headed home. Five am came really quickly, but we all managed to get up and make it to the airport. Rachel really does not sleep in her car seat, so in spite of how tired we all were (even Rachel) we all stayed awake for the 4 hour flight, but as soon as we pulled our car out of the parking lot after landing Rachel fell asleep and slept for over 4 hours. Brian and I also enjoyed a nap when we got home. We had a great trip, but it was nice to come home and get back to normal life.
