Sick with a cold, working on 5 hours of sleep after an evening of cross-country travel, and up at what felt like the crack of dawn, we met up with Cookie and Barrie in the lobby of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis for a visit to the new Georgia aquarium.

I was armed with a pursefull of tissues and cough drops, so despite my constant sniffling I was able to enjoy the day (though those around me had to suffer frequent noisy nose blows).

We reached the aquarium around 10am, while it was still filling up and not too crowded.  Even the entryway was gorgeous and new-looking; you pass between two tanks full of enormous schools of jacks that crowd against the glass to check you out in return.

First, we hit Tropical Diver, full of the tradtional aquarium-fare: tropical pacific fish.  One especially impressive tank was full of fish from Hawaii and the south pacific, and I was amazed by the number and variety of critters they’d managed to cram in.  Unlike the Long Beach aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium uses a lot of live coral (about 40%), which added another dimension to the display.

Up next was the enormous Outer Reef exhibit, including the famed whale sharks.  Visitors enter through a hallway with small glass cut-outs into the bottom of the tank, where we caught glimpses of rays, enormous groupers, and a bit of whale shark tummy in the distance.  The cutouts get larger as you move down the hall, until we reached the entry to the acrylic tunnel beneath the tank.  There’s a little moving walkway that slowly takes you through the tunnel, with more than enough time to look up at all the critters cruising by overhead.  Besides the four whale sharks, we spotted zebra sharks swaying their enormous tails, a wobbegong shark lurking right next to the acrylic, schools of cow rays, and clusters of little fish zipping along right in front of whale shark mouths. 

There was a definite atmosphere of awe in the tunnel, and I was a little sorry to move on – until we realized that the next exhibit was a larger window onto the whale shark tank, with a much better view of them.

We stood in the gallery watching the whale sharks take turns cruising by.  Enormous groupers and napolean wrasses also hovered near the glass, checking out the visitors.  My growing need for water and rest finally drove us back out to the main atrium for a break.

Up next: the Cold Water exhibit.  I was expecting lots of Caliofornia tanks with kelp, and was a little disappointed that the kelp forest only merited one small tank with pretty boring critters (and only one or two garibaldi, even though the aquarium’s mascot is based on that fish).  Oh well – we’re not in California, after all!

The next tank made up for any disappointment – beluga whales!  They reminded me of enormous albino sea lions, actually: very agile, playful, and capable of more expressiveness than fish (or whale sharks).  There were three hanging out near the glass, turning somersaults, or zipping towards the glass with a last-minute swerve to avoid collision.  The smallest of them hung back towards the other side of the tank, scratching himself against rocks. 

We tore ourselves away from the belugas to polish off the rest of the Cold Water exhibit: penguins, sea otters, and sea lions.  The penguin display was pretty cute, but the otters and sea lions were nowhere near as good as the west coast versions.  Two otters swam back and forth in a small-ish area, and 3 enormous bull sea lions were the sole occupants of their exhibit.  Not a juvenile or female in sight.  It was pretty amusing to watch the guys fight over the best spot on a rock, nipping and barking at each other while the watching families insisted to their children that the sea lions were “kissing.”

The last two exhibits didn’t take much time, as none of us were particularly blown away by freshwater or Georgia critters.  Plus, we all have this kind of “pretty, pretty, next” attitude towards museums (or aquariums), and none of us are into spending long periods of time battling the crowds to see stuff.

It was noon now: time for our behind-the scenes tour.  The lovely Liz and Scott took our group of 17 around to check out the veterinary area, commissary, and topsides of the tropical diver and outer reef tanks. It was great to see the whale sharks from the top, and wow – that is one enormous tank.  Seriously.  All that live coral requires a lot of sunlight, so both these exhibits have huge skylights in the ceiling as well as dozens of high-powered UV lights that make it more than a little warm in there. 

We finished off our visit with a cruise through the gift shop, but nothing really caught our fancy.  By this time, the place was getting pretty swamped with families and strollers, so we hit the road, all piling in Barrie’s car to head home to Columbia for Christmas.