Another night of anticipation meant another night of tossing and turning. Fortunately the king size bed prevented me from disturbing Rebecca. We ate our continental breakfast and then checked out of the hotel.
Our appointment at the aquarium was at 10 AM. It had been many years since I've visited an aquarium, so I was looking forward to our visit. I had only heard good things about the Georgia Aquarium, so expectations were high. Overall, we had a great time. Unfortunately, we got off to a bad start with "
Deepo's Undersea 3D Wondershow." This $5.50 show consisted of 15 minutes of cartoons telling us shark's are misunderstood and our friend, don't pollute or you will separate dolphins from their families, mess up the oceans and you mess up everything. The special effects were pretty cool and that is what they sell, because they can't sell the content. There's nothing really wrong with the content (except being friends with sharks), its just a waste of money. I'll leave my rant at that. The rest of the aquarium was great. I enjoyed all the exhibits. I guess I had built up the hype too much because it didn't seem that much more impressive than Tennessee Aquarium. Maybe I'm misremembering. Rebecca probably took 500 pictures of all the animals, especially the penguins. The largest tank was my favorite, because there is such an array of fish, and the large windows let them feel so close. When you think of fish, it is easy to get a simple description stuck in your head. However, after getting to see such variety on all accounts it is amazing and refreshing to see the beauty and creativity of creation.
Our next stop was across Centennial Park to the World of Coke. I had been to the old museum a couple times as a kid, so wanted to see what the new one was like. We also used my Coke Reward points for tickets, so it was free. The set-up was similar to aquarium, in which you start in a big lobby and kind of go to a certain area you want. Also similar to the aquarium, it was extremely busy being July 4th. Everything was good except the tasting area. That was my favorite part of the old place and in the new one they have changed the set-up to just a basic soda fountain arrangement separated by continent. After a little bit of tasting, we were all full of carbonation. If you're ever in Italy, don't drink anything titled Beverly.
The World Cup Mascot: 'Zakumi'
The tasting area in the old World of Coke
That completed all our events in Atlanta, so we hit the road again. Some riddles from the Franci kept us occupied until about Oxford. Once again the girls did played their role in the backseat. David sneakily got a picture of them.
Mom had some BBQ for us when we got back to Birmingham. Mrs. Kathy, Brad, and Lauren were also there to join us for 4th of July dinner. All of us then made the trip downtown to watch 'Thunder on the Mountain.' We went to one of Brad's friends apartments to watch from the top of his parking garage. Unfortunately it was not tall enough to see all the fireworks, so the Franci and us went to another parking garage that was three times as tall and also ran off our dinner in the process going up all those stairs. We still caught the second half of the show. We were a little further away than I would have liked, but still a good time.
Brad and Lauren
Dad stopped and got a small variety pack of fireworks for us to make our own show when we got home. The boys shot all the fireworks with only a few close calls to the audience.
Another busy day in the books.
