Atlanta with the Fishies

This year, we decided to celebrate Labor Day in Atlanta. Once upon a time, before we had kiddos, Dustin and I took a trip to Atlanta and, while we were there, visited the Georgia Aquarium. We have been wanting to take Xavier there for quite some time but never felt like we had the time to make the 4 hour drive.

We knew straight away that we didn't want to stay overnight. Dealing with packing all the 500 things we would need for Luke did not sound appealing so we opted to get up super early and get home a little later. Even though Tallahassee isn't the most exciting place we've lived, it is centrally located and a short drive to lots of fun, big cities i.e. Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta and Jacksonville.

We set our alarm for 4AM but our little guy woke us at 3:40AM to eat so while I fed him, Dust started packing up the car. By 4AM the only thing to do was get Bean changed and ready to go. When he woke up he immediately remembered that it was Aquarium day and perked right up! Luckily, by the time we were on the road he had fallen back to sleep and he and Luke slept the majority of the trip. We stopped right outside Atlanta to get breakfast and feed Luke and were at the Aquarium by 9AM!

Awake and Excited!

Once we arrived, we unloaded the car and walked the short distance through parking garages, roped off lines, security and, finally, the entrance.

As soon as we entered, we asked Bean what he wanted to do first. His response : BIG FISH! So we headed to my favorite part, the Whale Shark exhibit.

After traveling through the tunnel, we found ourselves in the gallery where you can really appreciate just how gigantic these sharks are. Here we stayed for quite some time.

Luke loved looking in the tank, too!

After we had spent time there, we opted to move on to the other exhibits. We spent hours walking through all of the different sections and Xavier was so excited to take it all in. Every time he was finished with a tank or section, he'd say "Ok- I want to see more animals!"

Here are the different entrances throughout the aquarium's main floor...

Tropical River

Ocean Voyager

River Scout

Dolphin Tales

Cold Water Quest

Beluga Whales

Penguins

Do you recognize those little heads near the penguins :)

This baby slept for a total of 30 minutes the entire day! He didn't want to miss out!

Daddy teaching Bean about fish!

Staring up in wonder :)

He couldn't take his eyes off the tanks!

After visiting most of the exhibits, it was time to go watch the dolphin show. This was definitely the "hairiest" part of the day as it was nap time. The auditorium accommodated 1800 people and it was packed. Of course after waiting for 30 minutes for it to begin, Bean decided he had to potty. Long story short, we all managed to get back to our seats just in time with only a few frustrated words and "eye-rolls" exchanged- haha!

The only pic I got of the show becuase pics weren't allowed

The show was pretty loud and it scared Luke a couple different times...poor baby! In the end, I snuggled him with his fluffy blanket and muffled his ears so that it wasn't as noisy. He loved this and took the second 15 minute nap of the day.

Bean liked the show and the dolphins. In the end, it was worth the fuss :)

After the dolphin show, it was 12:30. We had to work hard at keeping Bean from whining. We decided to go back to the whale shark exhibit. Here, he perked up a bit and once we got to the gallery, he used my phone to capture some pictures. He LOVED doing this and we had a lot of fun telling him what to take pictures of and playing a "hide and seek" of sorts. This little game was relaxing, fun and lasted nearly 30 minutes. Bean ended up taking nearly 200 pics on my phone...haha! I kept a handful for blogging purposes of course.

Next we jumped in the elevator and went upstairs to a new exhibit that is geared towards kids. This was arguably the most fun part of our day! There were games and activities everywhere you turned. Some of them included an ice wall, petting the star fish, educational video games, fitness challenges that compared you to animals, whale scale, blacklight fun....I could go on and on but suffice it to say we had a blast playing and learning with our little guy! This exhibit was on the top floor and had views of the exhibits below us so it was cool to see the tanks from that perspective. It looped around the whole building and we made this loop twice, playing all of the games several times.

blacklight baby!

Once we finished the upstairs loop, we decided to give the whale sharks one final look.

TIRED

By 3PM, we had seen what we had come for and decided to call it a day. Beanie was tired, we were tired, Luke was tired, and we still had the 4 hour drive ahead of us. We exited through the gift shop where daddy spent too much money on his favorite three year old while mommy waited outside feeding Luke. Next, we jumped in the car, got on the interstate and headed home. Luke has always been a great traveler but the last 2 hours of our trip were touch and go. He was not happy and wanted out of his carseat. Overall, we had the BEST day together and were happy to be home in time to snuggle up and relax before bedtime.

Until next time, Atlanta!