Road Trip to Atlanta

May 20-23, 2008

This past week Liam and I took a road trip to Atlanta to meet some friends from Indianapolis. It was great to see everyone, I miss them so much. We had plans to go to the Georgia Aquarium and the Atlanta Zoo.

I was so excited about going to the aquarium, it is the world's largest and has 4 whale sharks and even a hammerhead shark (pictured above). Mike and I have always dreamed of going scuba diving with the whale sharks in Belize but have been unable to plan a trip there due to the short amount of time that they are there each year. So this would be so exciting to see...the 4 whale sharks at the aquarium range from 17 feet to 19 feet long and could grow to 35 feet long!

It was everything I had dreamed of, there was a tunnel that you could stand in to see the whale sharks and then also a big glass wall that you could watch from too.

The glass wall was really neat because you could sit down in front of it and watch the fish go by. Liam seemed to enjoy all the colors and watching the fish float by.

While we were there I did a little research into a new program that starts in July...diving with the whale sharks!!!

I am so excited about this and surprised Mike with the details when we got home. I have made reservations for Mike, my brother John, and myself to do this in November. Now don't worry about how big the whale sharks are they can only swallow things smaller than a quarter even though their mouths are 4 feet wide. It is a little intimidating to think about getting in the water with something so big but I just can't wait to do it...when else will we have a guaranteed dive with a whale shark? It will be an experience of a lifetime. The other neat thing is that my sister-in-law, niece, and Liam will be able to watch us! I wonder if Liam will be old enough to recognize me with scuba equipment on?

Well after all the excitement of the aquarium I wondered how the zoo would compare...it was pretty nice. We had an enjoyable day there. My favorite was the gorillas. The exhibit was quite expansive had about 4 different groups of gorillas...I think they said there was 27 gorillas in all! There were a lot of babies in the exhibit, this mother had twins and brought them right up to the glass for us to view. Amazing!

My friends boys (Pete and Blake) really seemed to enjoy the zoo and were able to run off some of their crazy energy! It was great to watch and

something to look forward to when Liam gets older.

The other really neat exhibit at the park was the pandas. When we went in to see them one was up moving around. Pete was standing by the glass and it stood right next to him on the other side. What a sight!

Well I could not have asked for a better trip...I am thankful for having such great friends! I am looking forward to moving closer to home so that I could spend more time with them.