Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, Georgia

As I mentioned in my previous post, we're traveling back and forth in time for the next couple of days. I've told you about Charleston, South Carolina. Now I'm going to tell you about our trip into Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday. We had just one thing we wanted to see: the Georgia Aquarium. There was much information about the aquarium in our tour books and travel literature, and I'll tell you more about it as I go. For now I wanted to tell you that we're still plagued with low-flying bridges. On our way into town we passed under this bridge.

Fortunately, we were RV-less, but note to self: Don't pull the fifth wheel this way.

We found it with no problem, and parking nearby cost us a flat rate of $5. There was snow and ice on the ground, and so we jay-walked across the street to avoid it.

The Georgia Aquarium is the world's largest aquarium. It houses more than 120,000 animals, representing 500 species in 8.5 million gallons of water. There are 60 different habitats within 12,000 square feet of viewing windows.

The aquarium resulted from the vision of one enterprising businesman, Bernard Marcus, who dreamed of presenting Atlanta with an aquarium that would encourage both education and economic growth. He was inspired by the many aquariums he visited, 56 in all and in 13 countries, and so he donated millions toward what was to become the Georgia Aquarium. Additional funding came from corporate donations, and the land was donated by the Coca Cola Company. The aquarium shares land with the World of Coca-Cola structure next door. You can see it in the image below.

And check out those giant ornaments if you don't believe me. See it there? The Coca-Cola ornament on top.

If you're curious about the World of Coca-Cola, you should know that you can try more than 100 flavors there. Also, you can check out vintage Coca-Cola ads and take pictures with the iconic polar bears.

We passed that by in favor of the aquarium. Inside, it looks like this:

Of course, it was dark and there was lots of movement, and so I'm afraid my pictures aren't very good. Also, don't expect me to name many of these. I'm just going to give you a taste of the colorful fishes of all sizes and shapes. Aquariums are some of our favorite places to visit, and our many visits to aquariums all over the country inspired us to become scuba divers.

Among my favorite attractions are the Beluga Whales. If you've never seen one, you should find the nearest one to you and get thee to the aquarium to see them. They are mesmerizing in their grace. I first saw a Beluga Whale at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I was there for a professional conference and so Mike wasn't with me.

They are snow white and a little larger than a dolphin. On another trip, we saw them together at the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver, B.C.

And pictures don't really tell the story. Seeing them swim is the best part, and Mike got a pretty good video of them. If you can't see the video, click right here.

There is also a tunnel visitors can walk through and this is where we saw the real object of our desire: the Whale Shark.

Sharing the exhibit were enormous rays. The one in the image below has a "wing" span of about 13 feet.

There were lots of big fish in this tank. For comparison, those little yellow guys in the image below are about the size of the palm of my hand, so consider that when thinking about the size of that grouper. (At least, I think it's a grouper.)

Also, this guy. The docent told us these guys are ordinarily nocturnal, and so it was surprising to see it out and visible during the day.

There were other sharks in the tank.

These two rays seemed to be buddies.

And, finally, we saw it. The Whale Shark. So cool. The whale shark is the world's largest fish, and the Georgia Aquarium is the only aquarium in the Western Hemisphere to have them on display. There were four in this exhibit.

Despite their designation as "sharks," they are not man-eaters. Rather, they are filter feeders and feed on plankton including copepods, krill, fish eggs, crab larvae, and small nektonic life, such as small squid or fish. They also feed on clouds of eggs during mass spawning of fish and corals. Although they have many rows of vestigial teeth, the teeth play no role in feeding. Feeding occurs either by ram filtration, in which the fish opens its mouth and swims forward, pushing water and food into the mouth, or by active suction feeding, in which the animal opens and closes its mouth, sucking in volumes of water that are then expelled through the gills. In both cases, the filter pads serve to separate food from water.

We've dearly wanted to see them while diving, but there is always a lot of luck involved in such adventures, and so it was thrilling to see them here. I took a video so you could see them swimming. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

From there we ate a very expensive lunch in the cafeteria. While we were eating, I noticed this quotation on the wall, and I agree completely. If you're having trouble reading it, it says: "If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."

After lunch, we visited these cute penguins. The tags on their flippers designate them as male and female. One imagines, there is other information contained there as well.

Some appeared to be brooding hens.

They were all adorable.

Also, we saw some albino American Alligators.

There's his smiling face.

In the image below is a black spot piranha. My advice: don't go swimming when either are present.

There was a tank full of these lion fish. They are so beautiful, and yet, they've become an invasive species with bounties on their heads and restaurant chefs madly thinking up recipes for them.

They had a good jellyfish exhibit; however, I'm not being immodest in saying that our Oregon Aquarium has a better one. It's just a fact. Every aquarium has the thing it does best. In Oregon, our jellyfish exhibit can't be beaten.

The whale sharks were our favorites here at the Georgia Aquarium, but they also had a huge and impressive Pacific Reef exhibit.

That was the end of our visit there. Outside, I noticed these pansies covered in snow.

From there, we drove back to the RV park. Along the way, I was able to get this glimpsing shot of Stone Mountain. We'll visit Stone Mountain tomorrow, and I'll tell you more about it then.

The is my second post of the morning, and so it's time to make some breakfast and get on with our day. Today we'll be visiting another quilt shop and eating some burgers. More about that later.