Who's Your Favorite Fish?

My favorite fish is easy to spot. It swims in the biggest tank and I am jealous of the divers swimming elegantly through the water with them. So much so, in fact, that I've decided this is something I must do. I must swim in the big tank in the Georgia Aquarium.

I love the ocean. I wasn't scared by JAWS. I was intrigued. I wanted to know more and more. I would get into a shark cage (but probably not get out of it). But I can't dive. It's apparently pretty intensive to learn to dive, and for something I might not ever do again I'm not sure it's practical. But I can also go there and snorkel, and the whale sharks swim at the top anyway. I'm IN.

I'd like to shimmy down to the bottom though. I'd like the freedom of all that water to swim and swim. I wonder how quiet it is. I bet that other than the sound of your tank, that's about the most peaceful place on the planet. Especially since it's very likely nothing in there will eat you.

My kids love doing all the interactive stuff, touching the squishy starfish (Julia named hers Patrick). But I wait anxiously for the big tank every visit we make. I just sit and watch them glide by effortlessly, at perfect peace in their giant watery world.

The big tank is everything. I want to burst through the doors and flop into the water. Of course that's super dangerous and might hurt the fish because they are fragile. So I'll wait, we asked this time how you get to swim with them and it's not too bad, so I hope I get to do it within the next year.

The perfect end to a long day looking the amazing creatures at the aquarium is some classic Georgia style comfort food.

I may have regressed on my diet a bit today, but no regrets. This was a great day with all of my favorite people, in one of my favorite places.


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Who's Your Favorite Fish?

My favorite fish is easy to spot. It swims in the biggest tank and I am jealous of the divers swimming elegantly through the water with them. So much so, in fact, that I've decided this is something I must do. I must swim in the big tank in the Georgia Aquarium.

I love the ocean. I wasn't scared by JAWS. I was intrigued. I wanted to know more and more. I would get into a shark cage (but probably not get out of it). But I can't dive. It's apparently pretty intensive to learn to dive, and for something I might not ever do again I'm not sure it's practical. But I can also go there and snorkel, and the whale sharks swim at the top anyway. I'm IN.

I'd like to shimmy down to the bottom though. I'd like the freedom of all that water to swim and swim. I wonder how quiet it is. I bet that other than the sound of your tank, that's about the most peaceful place on the planet. Especially since it's very likely nothing in there will eat you.

My kids love doing all the interactive stuff, touching the squishy starfish (Julia named hers Patrick). But I wait anxiously for the big tank every visit we make. I just sit and watch them glide by effortlessly, at perfect peace in their giant watery world.

The big tank is everything. I want to burst through the doors and flop into the water. Of course that's super dangerous and might hurt the fish because they are fragile. So I'll wait, we asked this time how you get to swim with them and it's not too bad, so I hope I get to do it within the next year.

The perfect end to a long day looking the amazing creatures at the aquarium is some classic Georgia style comfort food.

I may have regressed on my diet a bit today, but no regrets. This was a great day with all of my favorite people, in one of my favorite places.


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We Love Terrible Things

If you don't know by now, we love terrible things. Good grief we sat through ALL of Peter Pan LIVE! if that doesn't prove it. (Seriously quit making these live terrible musicals, please). So, when we went to the Georgia Aquarium we were excited to see that they were having the Mermaids of Weekiwachi as part of their holiday events.

Have you ever seen the Mermaids? It's like watching someone with a tail swim, and then also smoke from a hookah. She's actually breathing with that tube I know, but the image got stuck in my mind. I can see why this was huge in the 50s. Oh wait, no I can't. But Julia LOVED it and so now I can cross this off my EVERYTHING list.

They also had Victorian carolers and dancers, and while I think it's nice to let folks from the cafeteria and gift shop participate in your holiday event, seriously - maybe you should invest in people who could carry a tune next year? It was both lovely and hilariously terrible. But still, kids were having fun and these carolers brought in the big man himself ! Since we were positioned perfectly - we got to go see Santa first and tell him what we wanted for Christmas and get our photo taken! Julia told Santa all the things she wants, which include all the things we told her she can't have right now, a bike, a scooter, etc. She said "Don't worry I'll ask Santa." She's gaming the system folks.

When we looked up on our way into the Ocean Voyager tank - we realized there were divers over our head, and one of them was the mom of one of the families next to us. They were waving like crazy and she was waving at them too. I want to do this, I mean I REALLY want to do this. Can you imagine how breathtaking it would be to get into that big tank with the whale sharks? We're going to find out what it costs and all the details. I'm going to do this.

Despite my critique of bad singers and silly mermaids, it was a lovely time. We saw the Dolphin show (ok also that would go on my list of terrible things except for the dolphins - they are amazing). I love seeing all the fishies and just soaking up how amazing they are. It's unreal that such big creatures exist - yet they do and aren't the biggest. I can't wrap my mind around that.

We also revisited the exhibit that is like BODIES but it's for fish and sea life - see all the gross insides and guts of fish and various things. It was interesting. There is a flayed Emperor Penguin that was bleh - I should've taken a pic but I don't want to remember it that closely.

There was an interactive game there so Miles was the king of that. He was making sea monsters arise while Julia made the mermaids sing. It was an interesting collaboration.

When we left and walked outside to Pemberton place the whole plaza was alive with Christmas. I love living in Atlanta, the city is so beautiful and at Christmas it's just lovely. We walked over to the World of Coke decorations to have a look. They always do such a lovely job at the holidays.

The city is just magical this time of year. I'm so glad we came downtown at least once for the Christmas season. It was beautiful.
My husband took this next pic - I'm stealing it.

Now, I'm officially ready for Christmas.
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We Love Terrible Things

If you don't know by now, we love terrible things. Good grief we sat through ALL of Peter Pan LIVE! if that doesn't prove it. (Seriously quit making these live terrible musicals, please). So, when we went to the Georgia Aquarium we were excited to see that they were having the Mermaids of Weekiwachi as part of their holiday events.

Have you ever seen the Mermaids? It's like watching someone with a tail swim, and then also smoke from a hookah. She's actually breathing with that tube I know, but the image got stuck in my mind. I can see why this was huge in the 50s. Oh wait, no I can't. But Julia LOVED it and so now I can cross this off my EVERYTHING list.

They also had Victorian carolers and dancers, and while I think it's nice to let folks from the cafeteria and gift shop participate in your holiday event, seriously - maybe you should invest in people who could carry a tune next year? It was both lovely and hilariously terrible. But still, kids were having fun and these carolers brought in the big man himself ! Since we were positioned perfectly - we got to go see Santa first and tell him what we wanted for Christmas and get our photo taken! Julia told Santa all the things she wants, which include all the things we told her she can't have right now, a bike, a scooter, etc. She said "Don't worry I'll ask Santa." She's gaming the system folks.

When we looked up on our way into the Ocean Voyager tank - we realized there were divers over our head, and one of them was the mom of one of the families next to us. They were waving like crazy and she was waving at them too. I want to do this, I mean I REALLY want to do this. Can you imagine how breathtaking it would be to get into that big tank with the whale sharks? We're going to find out what it costs and all the details. I'm going to do this.

Despite my critique of bad singers and silly mermaids, it was a lovely time. We saw the Dolphin show (ok also that would go on my list of terrible things except for the dolphins - they are amazing). I love seeing all the fishies and just soaking up how amazing they are. It's unreal that such big creatures exist - yet they do and aren't the biggest. I can't wrap my mind around that.

We also revisited the exhibit that is like BODIES but it's for fish and sea life - see all the gross insides and guts of fish and various things. It was interesting. There is a flayed Emperor Penguin that was bleh - I should've taken a pic but I don't want to remember it that closely.

There was an interactive game there so Miles was the king of that. He was making sea monsters arise while Julia made the mermaids sing. It was an interesting collaboration.

When we left and walked outside to Pemberton place the whole plaza was alive with Christmas. I love living in Atlanta, the city is so beautiful and at Christmas it's just lovely. We walked over to the World of Coke decorations to have a look. They always do such a lovely job at the holidays.

The city is just magical this time of year. I'm so glad we came downtown at least once for the Christmas season. It was beautiful.
My husband took this next pic - I'm stealing it.

Now, I'm officially ready for Christmas.
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I Am A Bad Pleco Mom

This is Snake Plisskin. Yes he has the most awesome name ever.

However, a while back his tummy started getting big. At first, we thought that perhaps Snake was a Snakette and she was going to lay eggs. But then, finally I got online and tried to figure out what was going on because Snake was getting bigger and just didn't seem right.

Turns out, it seems Snake might have a very serious condition called BLOAT where it appears he is constipated, horribly so. That huge bloat is, quit possibly, poo.

Ugh. Bad parent.

So, I read up online and found out that feeding peas, adding maracyn 2 to the water and epsom salts are about all you could do to save the fish and it's likely that they'll die.

Which is a bummer.

But - stay tuned, because we are trying to save Snake because he's part of the family.

The water is cloudy with mashed peas and epsom salts now. We're hoping for the best.
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I Am A Bad Pleco Mom

This is Snake Plisskin. Yes he has the most awesome name ever.

However, a while back his tummy started getting big. At first, we thought that perhaps Snake was a Snakette and she was going to lay eggs. But then, finally I got online and tried to figure out what was going on because Snake was getting bigger and just didn't seem right.

Turns out, it seems Snake might have a very serious condition called BLOAT where it appears he is constipated, horribly so. That huge bloat is, quit possibly, poo.

Ugh. Bad parent.

So, I read up online and found out that feeding peas, adding maracyn 2 to the water and epsom salts are about all you could do to save the fish and it's likely that they'll die.

Which is a bummer.

But - stay tuned, because we are trying to save Snake because he's part of the family.

The water is cloudy with mashed peas and epsom salts now. We're hoping for the best.
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