Road Trip: South - inalnd trip

Day 4: Saturday, May 23, 2015 - Atlanta, GA

Weather: Low 80's. Partly cloudy.
Steps: 14,616 (Steve), 13,910 (Linda)
Drove: 38 miles

We woke and had a better-than continental-breakfast as this one included eggs and sausage. We ate a big breakfast (so we can eat a late lunch / early dinner and have a light snack later) and headed out to downtown Atlanta.

We acqiuired a City Pass to make our visit easier. Since we wanted to see what was included in the Pass, getting a discount on all the attractions just made it that much better.

While traveling across the city, we passed through Centennial Olympic Park. We unfortunately missed the Olympic Rings fountain show. This was one of the sculptures:

A view of the city skyline from Centennial Olympic Park:

Our first stop was the Georgia Aquarium. It was pretty amazing. Due to timing, we didn't have an opportunity to see the dolphin show (plus we just didn't feel like waiting on the line). The buluga whale had given birth and neither she nor her daughter were on display yet, but there was still plenty to see.

There were a lot of fish and other sea creatures. First, the jelly fish:

The tanks with the jellyfish were just that - tanks with jellyfish. The rest of the fish were all in some sort of environment that had sand, gravel or stone on the bottom and usually rocks and or plants of some kind. Some tanks were small with one or two types of fish; some larger, one even with a wave simulation; some that you stood in front of and some that you walked under. These pictures do not do justice to the presentation of some of the fish.

Some wierd / unusual fish,, such as the Weedy Scorpionfish:

Or the Warty Frogfish:

Various trout - rainbow, brook and some other one (this is one of the tank you walk under):

Seahorses, both regular and big-bellied:

Albino aligators:

Clown animone fish ("Can you help us find Nemo?"):

Piranha (the child's arm is neither bait nor in the tank, just in the way):

Sea star (I swear this looks like a Sponge Bob® character):

Weedy seadragons:

Spider crabs:

Spotted ratfish (spider crabs in the background):

Spotted scat:

Strpied eel catfish:

Otters:

And a brief clip of otters swimming:

And a brief clip of otters at play (I had just stopped the camera and the one otter started rubbing his chin for about 15 seconds):

Some penguins:

Quite a few more different fish in various tanks:

Tank with the wave (you walk both under and in front of this tank):

One great aspect of the world's largest aquarium is a tunnel that everyone can walk through that is at the bottom of the tank:

In the tank there are some very interesting fish and other mammals. The largest is the whale shark:

And some other fish from the big aquarium:

And a couple video clips from the tunnel too. Some matnta rays and a brief shot of the whale shark:

Sharks - the whale, great white and a saw shark:

After we were done at the five areas of the Acquirium we then traveled across the grassy plaza to the Coca-Cola® World exhibit. We learned about the history of Coca-Cola as well as how it is made.

In the initial lobby are some bottles in themes from around the world:

There is a room with a lot of memorablia and signage from around the world around the room:

Some smaller bottles decorated in the theme of each particular country:

More large coke bottles on display:

The Coca-Cola Bear, live:

Coca-Cola artwork from around the world:

Coca-Cola Santas:

We even got to try a number of different Coca-Cola products from around the world. I thought this was the most "meaningful" (and it was from Honduras):

After having our fill of soda (we also received complimentary little 6 or so oz. bottles of Coke too), we headed to the CNN Center. When you read this, read it to yourself in a James Earl Jones voice, precluded with "this... is":

We originally thought it was just the CNN studio. Well, we were wrong - it was far more than that:

The floor of the CNN center has tiles that resemble the continents. This was the best shot I could get without getting into trouble (these are South America and Africa):

I believe they stated this is the largest free standing escalator or something (this is the view up the escalator of which the top end of it goes into the globe in the image above):

We toured the HLN and CNN Studios and back offices - security was pretty tight at the studios:

Staff snacks (so even when you work for big name companies, they still feed you junk):

It was Saturday and we intended on attending Mass at a nearby church. But it was early enough for our lunch / dinner. We decided to go to Mellow Mushroom and have a Mellowterannean (grain crust, mozzarella, feta, olives, chicken and red peppers with tsatiki dipping sauce) pizza. It was very good:

The church, excuse me, Basillica, named The Sacred Heart of Jesus, was nice:

We made our way back to the hotel via MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit [Authority]) and a very short drive.