Category — Atlanta GA

Last week, I posted about our experience in Georgia Aquarium – The Planet Shark exhibit. So this week I will continue on our fun day in the Georgia Aquarium. After we were done with The Planet Shark exhibit, we headed down to the main area of the aquarium.

I wouldn’t want to bore every one to death of every single detail of our visit. It’s just better to experience it yourself.

But here are Our best family’s favorite moments.

Tropical Diver: Jelly Fish and Living Reef

In the Tropical Diver, we experienced the largest living reef exhibit with overhead crashing wave. This is probably one of the favorite in the Tropical Diver. I could imagine myself sitting there all day checking out thousand of colorful coral reef on display.

I was obsessing over trying to get that perfect blue of jelly fish. Well, you are the judge. How did I do?

Ocean Voyager: Underwater tunnel, Whale Sharks and Manta

When we were there, the movable walkway was disable. It maybe because it was already late in the day or it was broken. But either way, I like it. It allows us to spend more time to check out those thousand of fish swimming by overhead.

We pick up a fish guide at the beginning. It was a brilliant idea and perfect for kids to engage in the exhibit. Miss J and Mr. Z were busy looking for each fish and learned about each one of them.

Ocean Voyager: Diver Spectacular Show

Ok, it’s not really a show but we were there when there was the Diving program. It was a perfect timing. Kids enjoyed watching both fish and divers swimming around. It even made Mr. Rojo considered taking up diving… Maybe.. Maybe..

The viewing window is humongous. It’s the second largest viewing window in the world. There is space for everyone to enjoy thousand of fish, sharks, manta and other sea creatures. I think we could probably spend a whole day just sit there and watch the fish.

Georgia Explorer: Touch Pools and Big Whale Slide

Ok.. I’m kidding. I like various touch pools in the exhibit. The most prominent one is the touch pool for stingray and bonehead shark which is right in the entrance of the exhibit. Too bad Mr. Z and Miss J are a bit too small to reach the pool. Maybe the aquarium might consider a touch pool for children? Something a bit shallower that they can reach. Wonder if that’s even possible.

Then they turned around and headed inside the exhibit. A big whale slide was there to greet them and before I could say anything they were off. They ran up and down the slide a few times before we had to pull the plug and head out.

What a great day we had in Georgia Aquarium and thank you for providing us with complimentary passes.

Disclaimer: I received complimentatry tickets from Georgia Aquarium and The Planet Shark. However, this post is based solely on my experience and my opinion without any outside influence.

Over the weekend we ventured out downtown to revisit the Georgia Aqueium after our first visit a few years ago.

The Aquarium is conveniently located in downtown right next to the World of Coca-Cola and Imagine It! Children’s Museum of Atlanta. It’s perfect for visitors who come to visit or family who wants to have a fun day out.

Parking Garage – Little thing that counts

We parked in the covered parking garage and walked along to new (for me anyway) covered walkway along to the entrance. This is a new improvemt from our first visit. We no longer have to worry about kids running out into the incoming traffic. It’s little thing that makes parent happy.

The Planet Shark

Once we got in, we headed to the Planet Shark: Predator or Prey exhibition. I was giving the complimentary tickets to check them out. First of we stopped by the information table to rent audio tour for each kid.

I think it’s a great and very inexpensive way to keep kids engaged and interested in exhibitions.

So how did we like it? I like it. It’s very informative and interesting. Kids loved listening to their audio tour and check out different shark jaws, teeth and fossil.

It’s good to have great info to teach them that sharks are not as scary as they might thought. The fact that majority of sharks kill less humans than other accident gives me some comfort.

However, I don’t think toddlers will really enjoy this exhibit as much. Even though there are a few interactive part in the exhibit, the majority of information is on display so they might not have the patience to wait for it. Kids in school-age will love it. They will enjoy learning about Shark history and seeing some of the full-size sharks displayed in the exhibit.

Beware for little kids

A word of caution though, you might want to consider your kids fear tolerance. For us, Mr. Z is a fearless child. He was so eager to see the video of the shark stories and movies that played throughout. Miss J on the other hand was afraid and I knew that I wouldn’t want her to develop fear of water so we kept our visit to just the history and fossil part.

We pretty much zipped through the latter part of the exhibit where they shows authentic artifacts from the movie “Jaws”, stories from survivors or the feature films.

Our Verdict

It was a very positive experience especially coming from a person who was traumatized by Jaws movie. I just wish that I can spend more times there without my kids. Ok.. It sounds a bit bad coming from a family travel blogger. But I just don’t want to pay the bill for the therapist later in life so we try to steer them away from the gruesome and hard-to-watch exhibit.

Also for the additional cost for less than $6 more than the general admission fee, it’s really worth seeing this exhibit.

Disclaimer: I received complimentatry tickets from Georgia Aquarium and The Planet Shark. However, this post is based solely on my experience and my opinion without any outside influence.

A few weeks ago right before the school started, we planned our outing to celebrate back-to-school. I gave Miss J and Mr. Z choices on their outing.

Miss J with her free spirit, creative imagination, and sensitive emotion chose Imagine It! Children Museum. It’s one of Atlanta family favorite children museum. We had our membership from Creative Discovery museum that allow us to get in for free. I think I might get our membership here next year.

Originally, we planned to hit 2 museums that day. One for Miss J and one for Mr. Z. But as usual, we were slow getting start. We didn’t get to the museum till after lunch. So we decided to just let them play and enjoy their time there and visit Mr. Z’s choice the next day.

Every time when we visited Imagine It!, the first stop had to be the Tool Solution section. It’s a big giant structure with balls moving along the tube, water wheel, and even crane. Kids ran around picking up balls and putting them into the tube to see them moving to the next stop. Mr. Z waited patiently for his turn to operate the crane and he couldn’t be happier to drop the ball right on target.

It took a while before they agreed to move on to other exhibits. And Miss J gravitated toward the wall art. It was such a cool idea. Color paint the wall and then wipe it out and start it all over again. The station is equipped with pint-size apron and water color ready for the little Picasso to express their idea.

Another one of her favorite has to be the sand table filled with moon sand. The sand has super soft quality that you can pretty much sculpt it into fun shape.

As for Mr. Z, his second favorite has to be the grocery and conveyor belt section. I didn’t know he loves shopping this much. Next time I go grocery shopping, he will be my little helper. There were more kids than the little shopping carts so Mr. Z waited patiently (again) for his turn. It took probably a good 40-45 minutes before one of the kids gave up on this fun cart. Mr. Z didn’t waste his time filling up his shopping cart full of healthy food (I hope!).

I couldn’t say enough good thing about Imagine It! At first glance, it doesn’t look like a great children museum. With only one story, I thought it was rather small. But each exhibit is created with such details that kids couldn’t stay away from them. Plus the size is actually what make this children museum perfect for family with kids especially small children. It’s easier to keep track of your kids when there aren’t that many places for them to hide. I admit that I love the Port Discover Children museum in Baltimore. But at time, I also was so nervous. With multi-stories playground, there were several times that I couldn’t keep an eye on them. So I have to say that Imagine It! has grown on me and slowly become one of my favorite children museum.

Stay tune for part 2 of our back-to-school weekend fun!

Check out other travelers’ Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

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