Day 13

Today began with breakfast in the car on the way back into Atlanta.  The forecast for the day was rain after rain after rain, so we headed to Grammie's surprise - The Georgia Aquarium!  We've been to Atlanta bunches of times but we've never made it there, until now.  The aquarium itself looks like a normal size big city building on the outside, but the way they've architected it on the inside is simply amazing!

After waiting in line for a little bit (popular place, even on a weekday!), we headed inside straight for the dolphin show to get a good seat.  We did have to stop by a couple beautiful aquariums on the way.

Unfortunately, no pictures or video were allowed during the dolphin show, but it was pretty awesome.  We've been to a bunch of those too, but this one was quite a large Disney-esque performance with a story line and cast.  There were behaviors I'd never seen a dolphin do.  It was really an awesome show.  Next we headed to all the exhibits - first up, Frogs!  I've been the "Frog Class" at school for the last 3 years so naturally the kids think I like frogs.  It's not my first choice of favorite animals, but I humor them.  Brayden enjoyed dissecting one! 

We also did the 3D Ocean show which was fun for the kids too.  They're all finally become brave enough to keep the glasses on the whole time.  This show also Disney-esque with the water and chair effects that made Ryan jump to my lap pretty quick.  The show had a great message though - what we do on land greatly affects the animals and environment in the water.  I think the kids got it.

We saw otters, penguins, seahorses, sea dragons, eels, jellyfish, oh my!  But the most impressive part of the live aquarium was definitely this one:

which opened up to this massive viewing area the size of an IMAX theater:

The kids must have sat there almost motionless for 30 minutes.  We were all in awe of the giant whale sharks and sting rays.

After a trip to the gift shop also thanks to Grammie, we headed to Centennial Park Playground for some play as the storms has passed.  They were running around doing karate moves and sending messages across the playground.
 

This guy was apparently hiding and I almost gave him away.

And as usual, Laney was serving me some kind of food.  She even hold her hand like she's carrying a tray full of food!

We headed back to the campground for dinner and preparation to pack up in the morning.  I started laundry right before dinner in hopes to have it finished by bedtime, but the first finished load had me walking up the road around 9pm.  I had a flashlight, but ended up spooking myself on the way back so I left the other load in the dryer until morning.  So that must be where my jumpy kids get that from!