What A Day!

The Georgia Aquarium, the Atlanta Zoo, and the Cyclorama - all in the same day. We left home - Ann, Jordan, and me - about 6:15am, fighting the early morning traffic to Atlanta, to just make our 9:00am reservations at the Aquarium. People were already streaming in, but the crowds inside were not yet too large to enjoy things.

We started at the big fish tank - the 6 million gallon tank, which contains some 100,000 fish, including now four whale sharks. Ralph and Norton, the original two males, are now joined by two females, Alice and Trixie, and they plan on getting two more. These are all juveniles now - just 20 feet in length or a bit smaller - but they will grow to between 30 and 40 feet in a couple of years. The tank also contains huge grouper, hammerhead sharks, swordfish, stingrays, and a host of other fish. This is the largest single fish tank in the world, and the viewing window too is the largest in the world - about 30' x 40' and 2' thick.

There are five galleries, or exhibits, in the huge building - the Georgia Explorer, the River Scout, the Cold Water Quest, the Tropical Diver, and the Ocean Explorer. The latter is the big one described above.

At the left as we entered the aquarium is the Georgia Explorer exhibit, geared especially towards children. It features a number of touch tanks with rays and sharks as well as exhibits featuring sea turtles and othe sea creatures found arouond the Georgia Coast. The River Scout features a virtual fish city with colorful fish of varied species. One tank contained nothing but the flesh eating Piranha from the Amazon. The Cold Water Quest included an exhibit of penguins with a tunnel and turret that allowed us to crawl into the area and be right there among the penguins. Another exhibit was a large tank of beluga whales, the white, smiley faced whales from the northern waters of Alaska. The Tropical Diver exhibit contained weird species of creatures that resembled many-colored parachutists, jellyfish, octupi, etc.

Then, after a trip through the gift shop and lunch in the Aqua Cafeteria, we drove across town to the Atlanta Zoo. Before starting the trip we had read about the "A to Z" Marta bus - "Aquarium to Zoo" - that was supposed to make it easy to visit both places the same day. Just park in the all-day Aquarium parking garage, see both attractions, and then return to the parking garage. That proved to be a bust though. We waited at the Marta stop for a half hour, and no bus showed up. So, we drove. There was no reason not to have planned to do that from the start. It was easy, and there was plenty of parking at the zoo.

The middle of the day is not the time to visit the zoo. Most of the animals were taking mid-day naps, and most were doing so far back from the viewing areas. We did get to see the twin baby gorillas, though from a distance. We saw, elephants, and zebras, a lion, two giant pandas, some monkeys, a couple of Urangatangs, a reptile exhibit, some otters, and a dumb bird show. By the time we had walked the pathways of the zoo, we were tired, and our feet were sore. The next stop at the Cyclorama was a welcome place in the air-conditioning to sit down.

The Cyclorama is right next to the zoo in Grant Park. The show started with a movie depicting the battles that culminated in the capture of Atlanta during the Civil War. We then moved to the huge circular painting that is the attraction. The mural is four stories high and over 300 feet in diameter. Solid figures in the foreground blend with the painting in such a way that it is impossible to tell where one stops and the other starts. The seats rotate as lights highlight the scene along with a narration telling the story of the Atlanta siege.

Needless to say, it was a full day, but a good one that was both educational and enjoyable. We arrived back home about 5:00pm.