Hotlanta - Part 2 - Where the Wild Things Are

You can't visit Atlanta without going to the Zoo & Aquarium.  Both attractions are part of the City Pass that also includes attractions like the Coca Cola Museum, or you can grab two park passes for just the zoo & aquarium.  This is what we chose to do.  To beat the lines at the always popular Georgia Aquarium, we bought our passes from the Atlanta Zoo's ticket booth.  You don't have to go to both attractions on the same day,because the tickets are good for 7 days.  We chose to visit both attractions on the same day, though, because they're not far from each other and we figured we'd get good and sweaty walking around the zoo, then cool off in the a/c at the aquarium. 

First up the zoo.  The Atlanta Zoo is one of only 4 zoos in the nation to house Giant Pandas.  Po, the baby panda is getting quite large.  Unfortunately, I got entirely too much glare from the glass when I tried to take panda pics, so here's a pic of the bamboo forest surrounding the exhibits.

Along with the baby panda, the zoo is also the proud home of a new baby giraffe, tons of baby monkeys and apes, and some baby tigers.  The baby tigers and their mother were still in seclusion, but could be seen on a video cam of the den space.  Here's the proud papa tiger.

The Atlanta Zoo has the largest captive gorilla family in the nation,



and several interactive exhibits including the naked mole rat enclosure, as well as the living tree house, and parakeet enclosure where the boys were able to feed the birds.

The elephant training was fun for the boys to watch.  It was a lot like dog training with sit & stay  type commands.

After all that walking around, the boys appreciated the CoolFog misting fans

before we headed to the Aquarium.

The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world with more than 10 million gallons of water.  It's largest tank, holds numerous rays, sharks, and other fish. 

One of the highlights of any visit is walking through the tunnel that runs through the big tank as sharks pass overhead.

It's hard to explain how enormous this tank is, but check out how tiny the people are in the main viewing room.

Identification cards are available, for an eye spy type hunt for all the aquatic creatures in the large tank.

The saltwater tank is only one of many exhibits including a coldwater area with belugas and penguins, a tropical exhibit with coral and jellies, and a river exhibit with otters and alligators.  The albino alligators really caught SB's attention.

There are plenty of interactive exhibits that allow you to crawl right into the middle of the penguin enclosure, the saltwater tank, or the freshwater river exhibit.  CG shouted that I better turn around here, if I didn't want a pic of my bottom.

The many touch pools feature diverse animals like shrimp, starfish, echidnas, and anemones.

But by far, the most fun touch pool is the one with the rays and hammerhead shark.  These animals are so silky smooth, and the rays will actually swim up and rub against your waiting hand.

 

There's also several shows including a 3D theater show and a dolphin show, but if running around is more your speed, letting loose in the play area with the big whale slide is a great way to spend some excess energy.

Thanks for popping in and checking out Where the Wild Things are in Atlanta.  I'm linking this up to Decor to Adore's Wayfaring Wednesdays.

Building Blocks in the Garden

Towards the end of our Atlanta trip, my parents asked if they could use our van to grab some landscape block from Lowe's.

They wanted to build some rings around their trees after we left.  It didn't make sense to let my parents do all that work themselves, so I insisted on helping out and getting the project done while I was there to help.  Here's where we started.  Naked trees with no definition between the lawn and the tree circle.

We started by laying out a circle of block, using a shovel to define the circle, then moving the block, and removing the sod.

We removed some dirt on the high side(the lot slopes up from the street,) and tamped down the dirt after leveling it.  The great part about doing this project in the Deep South is that you don't have to take into account a frost line like you do in the north.  You might get the odd snow flurry, but it never gets the sustained cold that leads to ground upheaval.

Each individual block was laid and leveled, removing or adding a little dirt as needed.  I would have taken more pics of this process, but I had to keep moving or my dad was going to do all the work, bad back and all.  Once the first course was laid and leveled, the second course went on easy peasy.  All the work is in getting that first course right(unless you're up north, then a good chunk of the work is in digging 2 feet to get past the frost line, leveling gravel, leveling decomposed granite, then laying the first course.)

They plan on adding soil and flowers to the base of these trees.

I'm sure the flowers will look terrific when in, since my mom has the ultimate green thumb.  Here's a closer look at the roses and palms in her front garden.

Healthy nectarine trees.

Persimmon trees dripping with fruit in the backyard.

The veggie garden is growing like crazy.

Their bittermelon vine needed a heavy duty arbor.

They've planted lemongrass all around the perimeter of the garden to keep the snakes away.  It must work, because even with a creek at the back of the property, I didn't see a single snake in the garden.  The boys did see a couple when they went down to the lake to fish.

Inside, my mother has tons of thriving greenery, too.  Ranging from succulents like these.  Do you see the elephant in the trunk of the middle one?

To giant palms.

Thanks for popping in and spending some time in my parents' garden laying block with me.

Hotlanta - Part 1 - The Accomodations

We just got back from a fantastic week in Atlanta, so I have a ton of blog reading to catch up on.  I answered e-mails on my awesome new phone, but spent very little time doing any web browsing, because I figured I couldn't tell the boys to go easy on the laptops, if I was mesmerized by the screen, too.

WD playing War Crack Warcraft.

Through the magic of pre-writing and scheduling posts to launch, I was able to continue to post this past week, but we've been enjoying fun in the hot southern sun for the past week.

Normally when you read one of these travel posts, there are some pics of the hotel room or cruise ship cabin.  We stayed at the Hotel Mom and Dad.  My parents love having their kids and grandkids visit, and retired to a home that perfectly accomodates all of us(4 kids + spouses, and 5 grandkids so far.)  This trip it was just us visiting, but we've all converged on their home before.  CG and I stayed in the cavernous upstairs master suite.  I know all my fellow bloggers are drooling over the campaign furniture and wondering why I haven't gotten my hands on it.

I could do cartwheels in the en suite bath.  There are separate his & hers vanities, a jetted whirlpool tub, and in the other direction there's a 6'x3' linen closet(larger than the one that serves my whole house,) a huge walk-in shower, and a large toilet alcove.

Your unpacked luggage can go in the campaign furniture, or the ample hanging space in the walk-in closet.

Whirling Dervish's and

Snuggle Bunny's generously sized rooms

are connected by a Jack & Jill bath.  One of the knocks against J&J baths is that people forget to unlock both sides, and you have to go around anyway to get in.  This bath is set up with the double vanities in the initial shared space with a door to the right that leads to the shower/bath and toilet area.  All the private space is behind the one door while the shared J&J vanity space has the double doors.  Forgotten locks aren't an issue.

As nice as the accomodations were, the boys didn't spend very much time in their rooms.  They were too busy playing games like bocce,

and fishing

with their Papa.

My parents' home has a lakeview, and it's a good thing because it was just a short walk back when they were caught fishing in a sudden downpour.

Most of the time was sunny and hot, so the boys had a great time in the subdivision's pool.  Atlanta kids are back in school this week, and WD found it particularly nice to be swimming when school buses had been by in the morning.  We won't head back to school til after Labor Day.

SB was having so much fun in the pool.  The pool goes from 3' in the extreme shallow end to 5' in the deep end.  Perfect for a beginning swimmer who's been a little afraid of the deep end.  Here he is jumping in without his swim vest

into water above his head.  Woohoo!

During the hottest parts of the days we retreated back to the air conditioning and played video games in the gaming room, ping pong in the large game room, and watched movies in the theater room.

But for me the best part about staying at Hotel Mom & Dad?  The home cooking.  Pho(noodle soup,) Bun Rieu(crab soup,) Banh Xeo(vietnamese filled rice crepe,) Banh Cong(shrimp toast,) too many missed authentic dishes, most of which I inhaled before thinking about my camera.

Thanks for popping in and checking out the home side of our Atlanta stay.  I'm linking up to Decor To Adore's Wayfaring Wednesdays.