Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Aquarium

My first day in Atlanta what I really really wanted to do the most, more than anything, was go to the aquarium. It's supposed to be on of the best aquariums in the world. I'm not usually an aquarium person but I really had to see this place.

It was amazing. It's laid out well and the exhibits are great. It was just awesome. I took, lucky for you, tons of pictures. But mostly of the same thing. They have one tank, which I think is the world's largest tank, that has whale sharks! The biggest fish in the world! They had to fly them over from Asia and that in itself was a massive endeavor.

I'm just going to put in the pictures, mostly without captions, I think.

 Albino alligator! Isn't he creepy looking?


 Hammerhead! But also a whale shark in the bottom left.
 Manta rays!
 Whale shark!


 Little seahorse! I had one wiggling around right in front of me but there was no flash allowed at the seahorses because they're sensitive to light so I could only get a good picture of the ones staying still.
 This was the warm water fishes, and it's all this darkness and you turn a corner and it's a spectacular amount of light coming through the water and all of the most brightly colored fishes. It was brilliant. (By the way, did you know you use "fish" as a plural when they're of the same species but "fishes" as a plural when it's multiple species. Your fun fact for the day.)
 Pemberton, standing with Coca Cola in his hand outside the World of Coca Cola. I went there, too.
Plethora of vending machines! I think they're really neat.

Okay, so another fun fact or two. The coke museum is in the same plaza as the aquarium and the aquarium is built on land donated by Coca Cola, which I think is really great because it's prime real estate in downtown.

The World of Coca Cola is full of the story of coke and how it came to be what it is today, a mini-bottling plant which works very slowly so it's possible to see what's happening, a popular culture exhibit and best of all! a tasting room. They have Coca Cola products from all over the world to try, arranged by country. Mostly it's Fantas and fruit sodas, but there are a few other kinds, too. I have to say, most of them are pretty nasty. A lot of them are sickening sweet. One, called Beverly, was just horrid. Then they have this brand new soda machines that are so so cool! They have touch screens and you pick your base flavor and then you pick what you want added to it. They had one at the place I had lunch at so I'd already experienced it a little bit. I got a raspberry coke at lunch and then cherry vanilla at the tasting area. Then at the very end, they gave everyone an 8oz commemorative glass bottle celebrating 125 years of Coca Cola. You're then shuttled through the gift shop to get out and it's amazing the variety of things you can get with their logo on it.

Afterwards I ran a few errands around the city and ended up in a neighborhood my guide book says was full of shops and restaurants and hung out there for most of the rest of the day.

Atlanta is such a nice city.

I am very, very tired. I think I'm finally coming down my caffeine/sugar high from the tasting room.

Good, good day.

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