Georgia Aquarium

The boys had last Thursday and Friday off from school, so on Friday we headed to Atlanta to the Georgia Aquarium.  Going on a school day is key--the crowds are much smaller than summers/weekends/spring break time.

(Let me apologize in advance for some of the photo quality--I had the flash off because of all the glass, so some pictures are a little blurry)

The first gallery we entered has a tunnel where all the fish swim over your head.  Jeremiah was a little intimidated at first--he hasn't grown up going to aquariums on a monthly basis like his brothers did in California.  He clung to Daddy for the first 10 minutes or so.

To be fair, there are some really huge fish, and they go right over your head.  This is one of the whale sharks, as seen from below:

This is a smaller side window looking into that same huge tank.  If you look carefully, you can see a giant grouper right behind Joseph:

That same huge tank has a super-huge viewing window at the end.  It's like a giant theater screen.  That's Joseph at the bottom with his arms outstretched.  I'm not sure if he's trying to measure the whale shark or what.  Joshua and Jeremiah spent a lot of time up next to the glass soaking it all in.  (The kid by Joseph's right hand isn't one of ours.)

 There were manta rays that we don't remember seeing there before.  They spent a lot of their time doing flips:

We finally left the big tank and moved on to the other galleries.  We were suprised to see the octopus right out in the open instead of hiding somewhere:

If you look closely, you can see Jeremiah peeking through the viewing bubble behind the penguins:

Jeremiah was not at all intimidated by the alligators (which he insisted were "croc-iles"):

We now pause in our aquatic life viewing to witness a first.  The aquarium includes a climbing/play structure which the bigger boys removed their shoes to play in.  When they were finished, Joshua put his shoes back on and TIED THEM ALL BY HIMSELF.  We had been close before, but this was his first time to have complete, independent success.  I was talking to Jeremiah about something or other and I looked down and there Joshua was, with his shoes all tied.  Of course, I had to photograph it:

Jeremiah thought about trying the whale slide, but changed his mind at the top.  His brothers enjoyed it, though:

There were several different touch tanks.  Joseph touched everything available except some shrimp.  They were too creepy for him.  Joshua touched most things he could reach.  Jeremiah touched only the sea star that was on the side of the tank:

This tropical tank is one of my favorites.  The picture doesn't do justice to all the colorful fish in it.  The tank arches up overhead, so Joseph and Joshua are also watching some of the fish in it.

It's pretty tiring to drive to Atlanta and back in one day, but it was completely worth it!