Dolphins are the Dicks of the Animal World

Our passes to the Georgia Aquarium were getting set to expire so we took one last jaunt down there. We like to rotate our family passes to different places. The Aquarium is my favorite place in the world so I'm going to miss it. But it's my goal that in two years when we get passes again (someone tell my husband I want passes again in two years) that I will dive in the big tank. That's a bucket list item that I want to do RIGHT NOW but I also want to do it when I'm not this size so - two years from now should be perfect.

It was a weird trip from the beginning as the aquarium was PACKED. It's not that we don't like crowds, but UGH crowds at the humid aquarium are sort of brutal. It's almost like they are going to have to require reservations because it seemed like there were way too many people in there.

It was peaceful to look UP in the tunnels though, even if there were monsters above you. I wonder how loud it is in there, and if we annoy them. I sometimes wonder if they swim by to have a look at us.

In 12 years of parenting, no one has ever gotten face paint in this family. I am going to admit right now that while no one ever asked, I also never encouraged it. I grew up in a household where writing on yourself with a pen or marker was strictly verboten - something that my mother equated with low class ignorance. "It looks trashy." I can say pretty certainly that this is a reason I never encouraged the face painting thing. But the girl asked, and frankly - WHY NOT. Her Daddy said yes and I couldn't think of a valid reason to object so she picked out a seahorse and away we went, crushing the social norms of my childhood.

Shortly after this we made one of the worst parenting decisions we've made in a long time, we decided to go to the dolphin show - and we decided to sit in THE SPLASH ZONE.

We thought, oh some splashing will be ok. How bad could it be? We've NEVER done it. My kids LOVE the Dolphin Show. Mostly they love the dolphins, the show itself is seriously one of the worst things ever. Picture a really bad Vegas show, now make it worse, now make it like Christopher Walken being Captain Hook and singing and dancing, now, add dolphins. It's like that.  So we thought for FUN, ONE LAST TIME we'd sit down close.

We had to change seats once because Miles reached behind us and plucked a pretzel off the plate of a man behind us. He was turned, didn't notice, and suddenly Miles was eating a big old pretzel that I am SURE this guy paid 6  bucks for. We moved ONE section over - to dead center.

It started out ok. A little dolphin mist and splash. That's when the full attack began...

If you've  never been the victim of five dolphins doing everything they can to soak you with water, and the same number of humans giving them rewards to do so, then you've never been in this particular hell. The amount of water coming off this tank and literally drenching us looked like this...

Jurassic World only had a dolphin. It wasn't a mososaur at all.

As my children shrieked and screamed, and tried to escape up the seats and sobbed and begged the strangers behind us to help us, I considered my poor parenting choices and had to laugh. In fact, I laughed so hard Julia started screaming STOP LAUGHING.

This picture does not adequately show how wet we were, and how unhappy everyone was. But we were trying to cheer Julia up. Every time the dolphins came out she'd start sobbing. She also wiped her sea horse paint all over my shirt, ruining it.

We were wet inside our shoes and top of our heads, and everywhere in between. We had planned to go have a nice dinner - kind of a fun end to a family day out. However, we now smelled like wet dolphin water and weren't fit to go anywhere (not even the Varsity) so we settled on Chinese.

We were eating in Duluth - so if you're local you know how completely accurate this is.

The day wasn't a success. It was perfect family day, ruined by the dicks of the animal world - DOLPHINS.

Oh well, maybe in two years when we go back the trauma will be worn off and they'll have a different show. Additionally - we will NOT sit in the splash zone.

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Dolphins are the Dicks of the Animal World

Our passes to the Georgia Aquarium were getting set to expire so we took one last jaunt down there. We like to rotate our family passes to different places. The Aquarium is my favorite place in the world so I'm going to miss it. But it's my goal that in two years when we get passes again (someone tell my husband I want passes again in two years) that I will dive in the big tank. That's a bucket list item that I want to do RIGHT NOW but I also want to do it when I'm not this size so - two years from now should be perfect.

It was a weird trip from the beginning as the aquarium was PACKED. It's not that we don't like crowds, but UGH crowds at the humid aquarium are sort of brutal. It's almost like they are going to have to require reservations because it seemed like there were way too many people in there.

It was peaceful to look UP in the tunnels though, even if there were monsters above you. I wonder how loud it is in there, and if we annoy them. I sometimes wonder if they swim by to have a look at us.

In 12 years of parenting, no one has ever gotten face paint in this family. I am going to admit right now that while no one ever asked, I also never encouraged it. I grew up in a household where writing on yourself with a pen or marker was strictly verboten - something that my mother equated with low class ignorance. "It looks trashy." I can say pretty certainly that this is a reason I never encouraged the face painting thing. But the girl asked, and frankly - WHY NOT. Her Daddy said yes and I couldn't think of a valid reason to object so she picked out a seahorse and away we went, crushing the social norms of my childhood.

Shortly after this we made one of the worst parenting decisions we've made in a long time, we decided to go to the dolphin show - and we decided to sit in THE SPLASH ZONE.

We thought, oh some splashing will be ok. How bad could it be? We've NEVER done it. My kids LOVE the Dolphin Show. Mostly they love the dolphins, the show itself is seriously one of the worst things ever. Picture a really bad Vegas show, now make it worse, now make it like Christopher Walken being Captain Hook and singing and dancing, now, add dolphins. It's like that.  So we thought for FUN, ONE LAST TIME we'd sit down close.

We had to change seats once because Miles reached behind us and plucked a pretzel off the plate of a man behind us. He was turned, didn't notice, and suddenly Miles was eating a big old pretzel that I am SURE this guy paid 6  bucks for. We moved ONE section over - to dead center.

It started out ok. A little dolphin mist and splash. That's when the full attack began...

If you've  never been the victim of five dolphins doing everything they can to soak you with water, and the same number of humans giving them rewards to do so, then you've never been in this particular hell. The amount of water coming off this tank and literally drenching us looked like this...

Jurassic World only had a dolphin. It wasn't a mososaur at all.

As my children shrieked and screamed, and tried to escape up the seats and sobbed and begged the strangers behind us to help us, I considered my poor parenting choices and had to laugh. In fact, I laughed so hard Julia started screaming STOP LAUGHING.

This picture does not adequately show how wet we were, and how unhappy everyone was. But we were trying to cheer Julia up. Every time the dolphins came out she'd start sobbing. She also wiped her sea horse paint all over my shirt, ruining it.

We were wet inside our shoes and top of our heads, and everywhere in between. We had planned to go have a nice dinner - kind of a fun end to a family day out. However, we now smelled like wet dolphin water and weren't fit to go anywhere (not even the Varsity) so we settled on Chinese.

We were eating in Duluth - so if you're local you know how completely accurate this is.

The day wasn't a success. It was perfect family day, ruined by the dicks of the animal world - DOLPHINS.

Oh well, maybe in two years when we go back the trauma will be worn off and they'll have a different show. Additionally - we will NOT sit in the splash zone.

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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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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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The Wonder of The Whale Sharks

I didn't realize it had been five years since we had visited Georgia Aquarium. How did that happen? Well of course there is the fact that it's HELLA expensive. (I'm bringing back HELLA).  But they had a good offer on annual passes and we LOVED the aquarium in the past so back we went.

It never occurred to me, until we were INSIDE that the girl had never been there. We are now at the stage where she is such a part of our lives in Georgia that I don't realize we had years here before she joined us. She bounced through the open atrium leading to the exhibits shouting THIS IS AMAZING at the top of her lungs. 

Then we got to the big tank.

The big tank at the Georgia Aquarium is one of the wonders of the world to me. Fish bigger than anything I've ever even imagined are swimming right in front of us. It's peaceful, it's majestic and I can't begin to describe the level of peace it gives me. I think I could sit there, with a drink, and just watch the fish for hours.

We saw the penguins which weren't there when we were there last, and the new dolphin show which is now a staple as the twins think dolphins are the BEST THING EVER apparently. They loved them on our dolphin cruise at the retreat and now this. I thought Charlie was going to come unhinged he was so ecstatic.

The twins have definite things they like vs show disinterest in for sure. So we try to plan our visits to allow time for restroom/diaper changes, and being aware that sometimes it's just too much for them. But the plus side of us ALWAYS going and doing so much is that they like it and participate. You just have to realize that when you say "LOOK OTTER !" they might wander off to look at a dustbunny.

But that's ok too. The see the otter, in their own way but the dustbunny is more interesting at the moment. Things they ARE interested in you can hardly tear them away from.

As for me, I can't wait to get back and sit in wonder of the whales, the sharks, and the creatures of the deep.
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The Wonder of The Whale Sharks

I didn't realize it had been five years since we had visited Georgia Aquarium. How did that happen? Well of course there is the fact that it's HELLA expensive. (I'm bringing back HELLA).  But they had a good offer on annual passes and we LOVED the aquarium in the past so back we went.

It never occurred to me, until we were INSIDE that the girl had never been there. We are now at the stage where she is such a part of our lives in Georgia that I don't realize we had years here before she joined us. She bounced through the open atrium leading to the exhibits shouting THIS IS AMAZING at the top of her lungs. 

Then we got to the big tank.

The big tank at the Georgia Aquarium is one of the wonders of the world to me. Fish bigger than anything I've ever even imagined are swimming right in front of us. It's peaceful, it's majestic and I can't begin to describe the level of peace it gives me. I think I could sit there, with a drink, and just watch the fish for hours.

We saw the penguins which weren't there when we were there last, and the new dolphin show which is now a staple as the twins think dolphins are the BEST THING EVER apparently. They loved them on our dolphin cruise at the retreat and now this. I thought Charlie was going to come unhinged he was so ecstatic.

The twins have definite things they like vs show disinterest in for sure. So we try to plan our visits to allow time for restroom/diaper changes, and being aware that sometimes it's just too much for them. But the plus side of us ALWAYS going and doing so much is that they like it and participate. You just have to realize that when you say "LOOK OTTER !" they might wander off to look at a dustbunny.

But that's ok too. The see the otter, in their own way but the dustbunny is more interesting at the moment. Things they ARE interested in you can hardly tear them away from.

As for me, I can't wait to get back and sit in wonder of the whales, the sharks, and the creatures of the deep.
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