Towards the end of last month, Christa and I had to make a return trip to Georgia to take care of some personal business. Enroute we caught the Dallas Cowboys vs New Orleans Saints pre-season football game in Shreeveport and cruised through Atlanta, Georgia. While in Atlanta we stopped in to see the newly opened Georgia Aquarium. Those who know me understand my attraction aquariums and I have made it a point to visit many in my travels around the country. Opened in early summer, the Georgia Aquarium had already seen it's 3 millionth visitor. This was a beautiful, first rate aquarium boasting to be the largest in the US and possibly the West. I'm not sure if there isn't something larger elsewhere, but this is certainly impressive. I recommend this as a must see. We did not travel via RV for this trip as speed was a factor, so we did the hotel thing. I can say that if I have my choices I will stay with the RV gig, I just did not get that much out of the hotel stay. Overpriced, older and not taken good care of was the general impression. And these were the big name guys, in one we even had mushrooms growing by the toilet. I mean, we didn't stay in Presidential Suites, but neither did we stay at "roach motels." Executive business I would call them. The end result was to put me off of hotels yet again. Anyway, that is not to say we did not have a good time, we did, and we got to see some old friends before the trip was over and we had to head home.

After paying for you tickets this is the hall leading into the interior. Pretty cool.

The main hall where a number of exhibit halls branch off, including a fairly nice food court with typical fare for the tourist. One exhibit that I do not show here is the Baluga Whale area. My pictures did not turn out well, so aren't shown.

The aquarium is complete with a kiddie hands on exploretorium. You get to touch various animals on display.

One of the side exhibits showing invertebrates and other oddities. The simulated whale skeleton on a sea floor was quite a touch.

The whole aquarium kind of revolves around the main tank, so you weave in and out of several exhibits before getting to the main viewing room. Here we walk through a glass tunnel with the tank and it's inhabitants gliding overhead and to the sides. We caught our first glimpses of the whale sharks here backlit by the sun.

You can get an idea of the size of the whale sharks in this blurry picture. The big fellow is quite a ways over in the tank, but compared to the humans in front you might be able to gain some insight into his size. The little golden fish schooling around him are 1-2 feet long.

This is a reef exhibit showing off the smaller, but more brilliant inhabitants, in the sea. I could sit here and watch it for hours. Complete with wave action, this was beauty to behold.

The main exhibit, this is the one everybody comes to see. They say that this tank is big enough to hold 6 full grown adult Whale Sharks at 25+ feet in length. There are numerous large schools of other fish, sharks, and rays.

This a picture of the large male Whale Shark measuring in at a little over 16 feet. He is huge. Sorry about the clarity of the shot, no flash, hand held, shooting through thick glass, yada yada.

...and this wraps up our visit to the Georgia Aquarium. A really fantastic visit. As many of you know I have a fancy for aquariums and find these to be a real treat. Following this visit we finished our business in Georgia and returned home to Seguin and the new house. We have since moved in and are decorating the thing.