means something different in Atlanta than NJ. C and I went to a sleepover at the Atlanta aquarium this weekend with his Cub pack. We got backstage tours of all the sections and got to see the public areas without having to fight through 543 other tourists. We saw the Cold Water exhibit (buluga whales, penguins), freshwater exhibit (alligators, piranhas), Tropical (all the brightly colored fish and funky jelly fish), and the dolphin show. We also got to see the pump rooms, the animal hospital, and the scuba divers cleaning the tank. The highlight was sleeping in the auditorium with the football field-sized window of the ocean tank, complete with whale sharks, huge manta rays, and lots of other fishes making their rounds. If we hadn't spent the day driving to Atlanta and in the zoo and facing a 6 am wake up and return drive to CLT on Sunday, it would have been tempting just to stay up and watch the fish most of the night. Sunday morning we got to watch the feeding of the whale sharks--which they do from rafts they pull across the top of the pool. We watched first from the tunnel and then from the auditorium. The whale sharks just swim behind the boats with their mouths open and suck in all the shrimp that are dumped out. C seemed to enjoy it all. He asked and answered questions of the guide. And fell asleep immediately in the car and slept until near the SC/NC border (about 3 hours).
The Atlanta zoo was small, but had a good panda exhibit--@4 adults and 2 babies--chomping gleefully on bamboo branches. The boys took their time and genuinely seemed to enjoy watching the animals. And the virtue of going in Feb is that kids do not constantly ask for ice cream or slushies!
Tomorrow we're supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow. So we may have snowman pictures to post. Then again, late in the day, snow is supposed to turn to sleet, so it may just be a mess. In any case, we're likely to be holed up at home for a few days. Pray the electricity stays on!
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