Valentine's Day at the Aquarium

For Valentine's Day this year, we decided to do something a little different, especially because Maddie had the day off of school.  We decided to head to the Georgia Aquarium!

This morning we gave each other a few things for Valentine's Day - I got this bouquet from a florist (versus a grocery store).  It was a nice arrangement!

And here you can see the full array of items we got each other for Valentine's Day.  It was almost like Christmas!  I love the tablecloth with hearts on it, by the way.  

Mom got me one of those cat clocks that you can see in "Back to the Future," the kind that has eyes that go back and forth.  

Meanwhile, Maddie got a few Spider-man items, like this t-shirt, some Spider-man themed coffee, and that Funko Pop Spider-man holding a camera, a gift from Mary Jane.

Maddie got Mom some flowers too, plus a card!  I got Mom hedgehog-themed items:  a card, a hedgehog LEGO set, a microwavable plus hedgehog, and a hedgehog Valentine's puzzle.

Oh, and speaking of which, we finished our Valentine's Day puzzle that we started about a week ago.  We've now finished this one about three times, but we like it.  I got Mom a few other things:  Crunchie bars and a Laurel and Hardy collection on DVD.

We did have to register a time to arrive at the aquarium, so we were off later this morning to head down to Atlanta.  It wasn't too crowded on the way down, but oy!  The $25 fee for parking at the Georgia Aquarium is pretty hefty.  We have a season pass this year, which implies multiple visits, and I think they'll get their money back just getting us to park there.  On top of that, the food is pretty pricy too - it was $54 for a cheeseburger, chicken tenders, fries for three of us and three drinks.  And unlike the other recent aquarium visits, this place was absolutely packed.  It was bonkers.  It was so crowded there, and yet despite that, we still had ourselves a great time.  It wasn't as pleasant and relaxing as other aquarium visits because of the crowds, but it was still an enjoyable day.  We managed to find openings at the right time to move forward and see everything we wanted to see, and we did get our reservations for the two shows there, "Destination:  Dolphin" and the sea lion presentation.  And one thing that really helped take our feet off the gas pedal was knowing we had season tickets and that we could come back to see whatever we didn't see this time.

So, all that said, let's see some pictures!

Here's our first visit, the gators and one in particular, an albino gator.  These are specially bred, and cannot live in the wild.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I mean, this thing has no camouflage, obviously, but more importantly, it cannot bask in the sun as other gators do.  So it's an odd thing to breed a gator specifically for captivity like this.  Its appearance is striking though, and oddly appropriate for Valentine's Day with white and pink coloring.  Maddie wore her Alligator Loki shirt today, but I'm not sure if any of the gators noticed.

From here we went on to the electric eel tank, where Maddie and I were playing a practical joke on each other.  I started it, having her put her hand on a place where I told her a sign instructed people to place their hands in order to feel "a small electric jolt."  After a moment or two, I gave her a jump scare, and of course she jumped, and of course, from that point on, each time we passed that tank, Maddie had to return the favor!

So this is a shot of Mom on the other side of a tank.  Maddie and I were inside these little pop-up windows inside a larger tank, looking out at Mom who was with all the parents.  I was with the kids - and Maddie - climbing around having fun in there.  

Ah, and here's the jellyfish tank, always a nice calming tank, almost like a screensaver designed to get you to relax!

This eel seems to want us to move on, nothing to see here.  What?  I didn't do anything!  Nothing wrong here, everything's completely normal.  Nice to see you, okay bye!

Mom and Maddie at the big reef tank.  This place was swarming with fish - and people.  But we found a nice spot to sit and watch the colorful fish for a while.

Look at this little guy.  Such an odd posture to spend most of your life in.  He's like a puppet coming out from the ground, waiting for a few other puppets to also rise so they can start singing together.  I think this needs to happen.  Maybe later on we can get that to happen.

Then it was time for the big show!  I'm talking about the main tank, the one that this aquarium is known for.  To begin with, you go through the glass tunnel and look all around you at fish and sharks and turtles, riding on a small conveyer belt to the next area.  Always awesome looking upwards.

And then it was time to go to the big tank area, and that's basically a movie theater with a huge window so you can watch countless schools of fish and other sea creatures gracefully gliding by.  It's one of the most relaxing things, at least for me.  The place was again pretty packed, but we found a seat and just sat there watching for a while.  At one point we were able to scoot right up to the glass as a spot presented itself.  It was a nice few minutes watching the whale sharks and other fish drift about, along with this massive - and I mean massive - manta ray.

A sea turtle decided to swim down and stop right there in front of Maddie, which was pretty cool.  She got out her camera to take a few pictures of that!

I forgot to mention that about half of these pictures are from Maddie's phone camera and there are half from my phone camera too.  Next time we'll bring an actual camera, I think.  But I'm glad we didn't this time, as there were just so many people.  Again, it was still a great visit.  I love this shot that Maddie took below, where the ginormous whale shark is seen driving by in the back, illuminated from above.

This just gives you an idea of the size of the tank.  And you can see the crowds as well.  Multiply that by a lot, and you'll get the idea of how many people were in that room alone.

But still, we had lots of places where we could sit and just enjoy what we came here to see, all the wonders of God's creation.  So much wonder too!

Ah, the ol' "touch a sturgeon" thing.  This tank is deeper than the one in Chattanooga, and therefore you'd have to reach half your arm in the cold water there to actually make contact.  I told Maddie that she might as well just jump in, but she strangely wasn't up for that.

This is a tradition for me.  I see a bust like this, and we have to give it arms!  Maddie joined in the fun too.  We had a little time just before the dolphin show, so we got some food from the cafeteria there, which was a very lengthy experience.  The food was delivered quickly, but the line was immense.  Mom got us a table, and we were able to sit down, but some families were sitting on the floor - that's how many people were there today.  The food was so-so, particularly considering how much it costs, so we'll probably have a different game plan next time.  But we did get something to eat, and were ready for the final parts of the day after that.

Next it was time for the dolphin show, "Destination Dolphin."  We opted to not sit in the splash zone this time.  Mom was with us, and honestly, we got so amazingly wet last time that it was really not an option.  I mean, we were soaked the last time we were in this room!

As for the show, it was different of course, more of a documentary than a weird musical adventure.  But it was fun!  It started out really slow for the first 10-15 minutes, but soon enough there were five dolphins out there doing all sorts of spectacular leaps, and of course we got to see the front rows just get hammered with tsunamis of water!

After this, we went over to the new shark tank, a new exhibit that none of us have seen before.  It is basically a large aquarium tank with view points all around, so you can see all these people on the other side as you look in - a surreal sort of thing with some photographs, because it looks like a shark is just swimming by this family that's standing there watching him go by. 

As for the exhibit itself, the collection of sharks was really cool.  The hammerheads were impressive, and there were some really large sharks in that tank!  We spent a few minutes in there, gawking at all the sharks.  Might be a good place to come back to during Shark Week!

Right next door is the Sea Lion show, which seems rather cruel if you think about it.  Cruel for the sea lions, right?  Anyway, we got in line there, and Maddie played a video game while we waited a few moments, one where she steered a sea lion along through a tight passage, avoiding orcas and landmines.  Okay, I don't think there were any land mines.  

We got in early and therefore got some decent seats for the show, avoiding the splash zone, although that one is not as soaked as the dolphin show.  Not intentionally so, anyway.  I love this little stage area they have.

The show itself was fun, with two sea lions entertaining all of us, and of course we're learning a lot about sea lions along the way too.  We enjoyed it - this was the first time we'd seen this show.

And so, we went through the super crowded gift shop, looked around for a bit, and fond ourselves outside.  It's cool out there, but sunny and not rainy like yesterday (or tomorrow).  In fact, Maddie posed for a few shots outside in the park.

We had a great day together!  We got home after dealing with a little bit of traffic, although not as much as some days.  But we were a little tired, and sort of took a quick nap at the house.  The phone rang, and we spoke with Uncle George a little bit, and then got on with the next part of our evening together.

I had surprised Mom with her favorite strawberry shortcake, and I gave it to her on the couch while setting up a towel, a bowl and some scented soap.  For Valentine's Day, I washed her feet right there at the couch as she got to eat some of her favorite dessert.  And as I did, I read Proverbs 31:10-31, which describes Mom so very well.

Tonight's Valentine's Day movie?  "Ella Enchanted"!  This was a surprise pick, one I just brought up and everyone was all on board with.  We hadn't seen it in quite some time, so this was a nice place to revisit, and a fun movie!

We read tonight, and we prayed, to close things out.  We ate way too many sweets - those conversation hearts are so addictive!  In fact, here's a little song about them as we close out a really nice Valentine's Day.