Random Thoughts of Mine...

Last week I was on vacation in Atlanta, Georgia to visit one of my cousins who had moved there. We had lost touch for years but thanks to both our moms, we were able to get back in touch. It was great to see my cousin, Linda (not her real name) again and spend some time with her.

The weather was mostly rainy last week. It rained almost everyday that I was in Atlanta, but we did have some sunny days. When it wasn't raining the weather was very nice. We did go to some of the malls while we were there. The Atlanta metro area does have quite a bit of empty shopping centers. A sign of the economic times I'm sure. Despite that, there are still a majority of open stores for you to window shop at.

On Saturday, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. It is billed as the largest indoor aquarium in the world. Saturday morning was a beautiful morning as we drove to the aquarium. Coca-Cola was started in Atlanta so that museum is there too, as you will see in some of the pictures. We didn't go to that museum but maybe I will go next time I'm in Atlanta. The Georgia Aquarium has over 8 million gallons of water indoors. It's really nice inside. When you walk in, you see fish swimming on both walls heading to the main atruim. The atrium has the entrance to all the different exhibits in the aquarium which are divided into diferent areas. The Ocean Voyager exhibit is probably one of, if not the, best ones in the aquarium. This is a huge tank that includes whale sharks, manta rays, sand tiger sharks, groupers and many other fish. You walk under the tank into a tunnel where you get great views of the fish swimming by. Some of the fish swim slowly by checking you out at the same time you are checking them out too. You turn around the corner and eventually run into the theatre in which the "screen" is a huge window into that tank. Aquarium staff host shows where they talk about some of the fish in the huge tank and how some were aquired. There were some other areas with beluga whales, alligators and river otters in them. People kept crowding around the otter that would come up to the class while it was playing with a toy cup, so I couldn't get any good pictures of it splashing around. When you look at the pictures, you can see some of the many different species of aquatic life that is contained in that aquarium.

On Sunday, we went to the Atlantic Civic Center for the King Tutankhamum exhibit. This month is the last month for it in Atlanta, so I was glad to go see it. There were thousands of artifacts from all over ancient Egypt. I was amazed to see some that were made of wood that was at least 3,000 years old! Quite a few of the objects still had traces of paint on them, while some still had most of the paint on them. One of the objects from King Tut's tomb was his wooden bed that was painted white with reed matting that was still intact after over 3,000 years! I would love to visit the ancient sites in Egypt one day! Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures inside, but it was still enjoyable, none the less.

Despite the rain, I still had a good time with my cousin and will go back to Atlanta to visit her again another time. Check out the pictures in my new Atlanta album, too.



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