Staycation - Day 3!

Well, tomorrow is our 5-year wedding anniversary - WOW! Interestingly enough, we have started a neat habit of driving on newly opened roadways each year on our wedding anniversary. Two years ago we drove on the new bridge that took us from Hwy 316 West to I85 South. Last year, we drove on the brand new flyramp from Hwy 316 to Pleasant Hill Road as well as the new I85 HOV lane from 316. Today we made our way to downtown Atlanta. We got there quickly via the HOV lane, btw. Our first order of business was to drive across the newly opened 14th Sreet bridge. It was pretty! I love the leaf-shaped safety grates and the neat light poles.

Our next stop? The Georgia Aquarium. David and I had never been before and luckily, we got there right as it opened at 10am. There was very few attendees thus far and were so excited to not have to wait. We each got Atlanta City Passes for a great deal. This place is AWESOME and far exceeded our expectations! Monday morning was a great time to go. We got to see everything very easily with no crowds. We loved all the critters. I especially liked this big 'ol loggerhead turtle and this neat crocodile (I'm trying to make it look like I'm holding his/her hand). The sea otters were adorable but never stayed still long enough for us to take a decent picture. They were so playful and fun to watch!

All the overhead tanks were amazing. The tunnel through the big tank was super cool and the picture window view of the big tank even cooler. David got this cool shot of both a whale shark and manta ray.

After making our way through all of the exhibits, we went to see Deepo's Undersea 3D Wondershow in the 4D theater. How do you like us in our fancy 3D glasses? I think David looks like some crazy Hollywood producer or director - lol! Anyway, the show was fabulous, as we never had a 4D experience like that. I won't spoil anything for anyone, but I highly recommend this. Green Wendy loved the message that it teaches as well. :-)

Sooo, by this time, we are uber hungry. We grabbed some surprisingly yummy grub from Cafe Aquaria. Funny...David wondered why they didn't serve fish - lol! Afterwards we went on our Quick Dip tour. We had no idea what this was, but both the 4D show and the Quick Dip tour were included with our Atlanta City passes. Well, let me tell ya, the Quick Dip tour was COOL! There was only 4 of us total on the tour, not including our guide. We got to go to the top of the Riverkeeper tank (where we had an excellent view of more fish and of course, our favorite sea otters). From there, we made our way to the top of the BIG TANK!!!! The whale sharks like to hang out at the top of the tank, so we got to see them from a neat different perspective from this vantage point.

In all, we made it through the whole thing in about 3.5 hours. We had an excellent time at the aquarium and I know I/we will go back. It is by far the best aquarium I have been to! Time is of the essence though, and we headed out to our next stop with our City Pass...The World of Coca Cola.

Now, I had been to the World of Coke a few times before when it was at Underground, but this was many (many) years ago. This new WOC is far superior to that one (with one exception - the Coke doesn't fly through the air into your cup anymore!) Anyhow, we got right in, with no waiting. We enjoyed all the historic marketing memorabilia, ads, displays, pop art (remember Max Headroom?), etc. There was a really trippy little movie they showed called "Happiness Factory". It was very much along the lines of Alice in Wonderland. Get this.....one of it's stars was this cute, funky girl named Wendy! Trippy, indeed. From there we headed to each of the exhibits throughout the museum. Here is a cool pic of a soda jerk at a antique soda fountain. If you look closely in the mirror, you can see a happy couple smoochin'. ;-)

Now, y'all know how much I like to reduce, reuse and recycle. In fact, I wish I could use my garbage can for recyclables and my recycle bin for my trash! Be that as it may, David spied something outside one of the windows that he knew I would love. Check it out now, funk soul brother:

This, my friends, is mulch. Not any old mulch... It is recycled Coke bottle glass mulch!!! It was so sparkly and pretty! I loved it! One more thing that we enjoyed at WOC was yet another cool 4D movie experience. Technology sure has come a long way. (Gosh, I sound old!)

So you think we'd call it a day after World of Coke, but nosireebob! We walked over to the CNN Center and went on the behind the scenes tour! It was interesting, and something I've always wanted to do, but after all the awesomeness of the first two facilities, this one was a little bit of a let down. Mind you, it was still really cool to go up the longest freestanding escalator in the world, see the newsrooms (no celeb anchors, darn it!) and to learn what goes into producing what we see on CNN and HLN each day, but where was our next fancy 4D experience?!?!? As Yoda would say: spoiled, we were. ;-) Security was tight and no photographs were allowed, so I'm sorry to say that I don't have any to share from this adventure.

Ok, so now we are a little pooped but very content. We made our way back across beautiful greens of Centennial Park, with a gorgeous, clear blue sky above and lovely sunshine. Here's a pretty pic of the skyline, a pic of me in one of the fountains, and another of some blooming (knock out?) roses and leaves changing on the maple trees, with the WOC in the background.

We drove home (in the fast HOV lane!) and had a yummy homemade dinner of pork chops, stuffing and steamed edamame. Dessert was ice cream cones and later, hot Jasmine tea. Right now, DJ is asleep on the couch with Sandy in his arms (she is also asleep and both are snoring!) and I am happily updating my blog and watching Big Bang Theory. More adventures to come!!!