Chapter 5: The One With Whale Sharks
Once the delectable chicken and waffles were gone, we still had some time to kill before our 2:30 entry to the Georgia Aquarium. We took a walk around
Centennial Olympic Park, which was just on the next block.
This park was dedicated as part of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta and served as a public space/community center both during and after the Games. It was also the site of a bombing during the Olympics that resulted in 2 deaths (one via heart attack).
The park has some beautiful features. There are statues dedicated to both the founders of the Olympics and the locals who brought the Games to the city. And there are fountains and water features everywhere. I can report that I felt 10% faster while in this park.
The central feature is the Fountain of Rings, which basically serves as a mini-water park for kids. And the parent who loses the short straw and has to chase the kids out of there.
Some of the fountains even look like they might have come from a Disney park.
I liked this feature—a pergola decorated with the flags of every nation. I bet it looks really cool on sunny days with the light shining through.
When we’d killed enough time and successfully managed to keep Drew out of the water fountains, we made our way back to the Aquarium.
Just across the garden was The Place That Shall Not Be Named.
Somehow the Aquarium let our family through security, and we were in. Most of the exhibits are walk-throughs, but there are two shows offered at various times throughout the day—a dolphin show and a sea lion show. We decided to make a beeline for the dolphin show to make sure we got a seat and then we could enjoy the rest of the aquarium at our leisure.
The Georgia Aquarium was once the largest in the world, until it was surpassed by an aquarium in Singapore in 2012. It consists of seven major exhibits. The big draws are the aforementioned dolphin show and the massive 6.3 million-gallon salt water tank featuring the ginormous creatures of the ocean.
We followed a crowd into the theater for the dolphin show and were seated fairly quickly. Once seated, we were told over and over again that the first ten rows of the theater were the designated “splash zone”. Anyone seated in those rows was running the risk of getting slightly wet. Or maybe soaked. So Julie and I started counting rows…
7. Should we move up?
Nah.
No photos during the show, so that’s the only one we could get. If you’ve ever seen a dolphin show before, this was about what you’d expect. Lots of jumps, flips, and other stunts, bringing kid volunteers up to pet the dolphins and make them wave their flippers, and the requisite splashing of the audience. I can safely report that row 7 survived relatively unscathed, save for one stray splash that caught my leg. The show itself was a lot of fun.
We took our time exploring the various exhibits. There were a lot of fun interactive features to keep the kids engaged, such as these little crawl-through tunnels in the penguin exhibit.
Nearby was a beluga whale. Didn’t seem to be making any attempt to find Dory’s parents via sonar. That movie was full of crap.
Here are some other creatures we encountered, including a couple of albino crocodiles.
This was a neat coral reef exhibit, featuring tropical reef fish. The pool extended up to the roof over our heads and was set up with a wave simulator, so every so often a small wave would come crashing over us and into the reef. It was a neat effect designed to make you feel like you were underwater, swimming around the reef.
As you can see our boys were very impressed.
After touring the smaller areas, we wandered back to the main saltwater tank. The entry leads you to a moving walkway (or you can walk under your own power) in a plexiglass tunnel that travels underneath the tank. It’s awe-inspiring to see these giant sea creatures effortlessly gliding all around you.
Ever notice that rays are always in a good mood? I’d love to know what their secret is.
One of the whale sharks (they have four that I counted) swam over my head, and I was able to get this shot of it with my phone. They’re just incredibly massive.
We're gonna need a bigger boat.
Once we got to the end of the tunnel, the hall led us through some more exhibits. We got to see shark eggs under a microscope, and one display even showed the beating heart of a shark fetus, which was incredibly cool. Finally, we emerged into a room about 3 or 4 stories high, dominated by the saltwater tank.
Sitting in there, just watching the whale sharks, sea turtles, rays…it was mesmerizing.
After a while, we moved on to the sea lion show. This was on a much smaller scale than the dolphin show, but it was still cute. Once that was over, we’d basically seen everything the aquarium had to offer. It was about 6:00 p.m., so we would have been justified in leaving for dinner. We all looked at each other and decided…
…we’d go back through the saltwater tank exhibit again.
Hey, look! Another happy guy.
We finally tore ourselves away from the display and left for the day. Everyone had a great time here—the Georgia Aquarium is highly recommended!
We had a short drive about a mile north to our dinner destination:
The Varsity.
The Varsity is a classic drive-in fast food joint, and an Atlanta institution. It was first opened in 1928, and by 1950 laid claim to the title of the world’s largest drive-in restaurant. They specialize in burgers and chili dogs and fried pie, and now have several locations throughout Georgia. The servers take your order after spouting their famous catchphrase: “What’ll Ya Have, What’ll Ya Have?”
They also have their own lingo for various orders, but I found that it wasn’t necessary to learn it—I could just order the number of various combos and did just fine.
I had heard competing stories on this place—some people swore that a visit to Atlanta was not complete without visiting The Varsity and “having the experience” at least once. Others swore that the consequences to my digestive tract would be worse than a visit to Taco Bell. In the end, we decided that we didn’t want to miss out on an experience, so we went for it.
We drove over but didn’t want to eat in the van (3-year-olds and chili dogs are not a good mix), so we went inside to eat. We went up to the counter and told the lady what we’ll have, and then Scotty and I waited for the order while the others went to get seats. Somehow, the kids ended up with the camera again.
Since you guys liked the other ones so much, here’s another artistic shot for you:
Our order came up, and we sat down to scarf down some greasy drive-in food. We tried a little of everything.
The verdict: meh. The burgers were not great, Bob.
The chili cheese dogs were decent—passable. If I went again, I’d get that. With the onion rings, not the fries. The fried pies were the best part of the meal. Overall, I’d say I’m glad I did it once, just to say I have been to the Atlanta institution. But I wouldn’t rush back.
Our accommodations for the evening were in a Country Inn, and I have to say my vacation planning skills were on full display here. While searching for a relatively inexpensive place to stay, I wanted to stay close to the city, because I had one more attraction to visit the following morning and didn’t want to mess with Atlanta rush hour traffic. After various searches turned up far too many instances of price gouging, I finally stumbled upon the Country Inn. And then I saw the clincher—it was right next to the Atlanta Braves baseball stadium. Perfect! My boys love baseball—maybe we could see a game, or at least check the place out. Combine that with an affordable price and short drive the next morning, and it was a no-brainer.
Except I’d forgotten that the Braves had just opened a brand-new stadium that summer, which was located far north of the city. We were situated next to the old stadium, on the south side of town, which could charitably be described as…well…
There were no signs of life at the baseball stadium except for the homeless guy asking me for money so he could ride the bus. And I finally shattered my long-held Hotel Swimming Pool Theory, which stated that if the hotel has a pool, the kids will want to use it, regardless of the maintenance, upkeep, or even physical presence of water. This pool was outdoors, and filled with a scummy green water with thousands of old leaves floating in it. Shockingly, the kids said they wanted no party of it.
We took most of our belongings with us into the room that night. Thankfully, the night passed without incident. Unless you count the various snide remarks about my vacation-planning skills.
Coming Up Next: A stop to pay respects to an iconic American hero, and then the real driving begins.