Georgia Aquarium

When we decided to take our trip, I knew we would have one day in Atlanta to see something great, so I Googled something along the lines of "best attractions in Atlanta" and immediately hit upon the Georgia Aquarium. Built in 2005 by Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus (price tag = $250M), the aquarium is the largest in the world and the only place in the country where you can see whale sharks and manta rays. (If you've never seen the scale and beauty of a manta ray, they alone are worth the trip)

When you hear "world's largest" before anything, you tend to really gear yourself up for a long day. B put on his knee brace, I took preemptive Advil for my back, we ate before we arrived, etc. But we actually had it all wrong. Zoos require a lot of walking, but aquariums really don't. It was the calmest, most peaceful, coolest attraction we've ever visited.

To add to the experience, we were there before tourist season, and also mid-week, which meant that we could luxuriate at the exhibits, sometimes sitting there with our coffees for 20 minutes at a time, just observing and taking pictures. It was almost like an art museum. I can't say enough good things about it, put it on your Must Do list if you're anywhere near Atlanta.

 The jellyfish (AKA: Sea Nettles) were a personal favorite of mine. I was in total awe of their colors and movement.

 Sea Dragon

(We took tons of pictures, but shooting through glass meant that several of them are a little blurry, but this little guy came out great)

 Penguin crawl space

At the penguin exhibit you have the option to crawl on your hands and knees through a tunnel to get to this little viewing area. There are also little pop up tubes where you can stick your head into a viewing area right in the middle of the penguins.

Hey little buddy. No idea what he is, but he swam slowly enough to get a clear picture.

 In the viewing bubble at the river fish exhibit.

This was one of the window seats at the main tank. Again, it was heaven. We sat in the window with our coffees and watched and watched. After a while one of the volunteers came around and answered all of our questions. This obviously couldn't happen on a Saturday in June, so keep that in mind when planning a visit.

 Tunnel through the main tank. 

Can you believe this!?! HOW is this real?

This is the skinny end of the main tank and the silhouettes of the people will give you an idea of how large it is. We sat in the viewing area and watched them feed the fish and the whale sharks (the large creature on the right half of the picture)

Sitting on the floor at the main tank.