Back Next Week

Our trip to Italy didn’t get going as smoothly as we’d planned, we missed our connecting flight to Rome. That left us in Atlanta with one day to kill.  Since my FosterDad loves fish, we thought we would make the most of it and visit their famed aquarium. My skepticism led me to think, we are from Southern Ca, this aquarium is in the middle of the South, not near any remarkable body of water, how great can this place be? We mentioned to the lady at the front desk of our hotel that we were going to go to the aquarium the next day, and she asked “Do you have a reservation?” We all pretty much asked the same thing, “Reservations for the aquarium?” She said “The Georgia Aquarium is very popular. Without a reservation you have to rely on general admission, if you do that, you could end up waiting for hours to get in.” Um, ok. So I reserved a spot for 10:00 am the next morning.

Sure enough, there was a long line of people waiting to get in. Since we pre-purchased our tickets, we got to go in right at 10:00.

I can’t even go into how HUGE this place is. Their biggest tank has four (4) whale sharks in it. What amazed me was not only the size but the selection of sea creatures in this aquarium. Themed rooms with everything from cat fish to not 1, but 4 beluga whales! In all my California aquarium trips I had never seen a beluga whale, but in Atlanta you can see 4! (and one of the employees said there was more in the back section of the tank that we couldn’t see!)

The sea otters were adorable and the sheer size of the place was overwhelming, so many fish so little time. We decided to take a break and see their little video, now this video wasn’t in your normal small theatre reeking of stale tourist, it was in a state of the art cinematic experience complete with a SHAG (My favorite artist) commissioned mural in the waiting area.

Needless to say I was quite impressed and am looking forward to my return to Atlanta to see the fish I missed and eat some more amazing soul food.

Click to see more pictures of the trip in the photobucket gallery

Here’s a few pics from the comics exhibit at the Skirball. It was mostly Golden Age stuff. The start of comics, how that adapted to rapidly changing world. As such, it mostly focused on DC comics.

click pic to see more

Sorry I don’t have more pictures, my camera battery died =(

There was another room that focused on Comic book movies, but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures there. Odd since everything there had been seen before on the big screen.

THey also had a fun ongoing Noah’s Ark exhibit.

Click to see more pictures

All the animals from the Noah’s Ark Exhibit were made from recycled materials further promoting the fragile state our land is in. When you visit the exhibit you are placed in a room where the Noah’s ark story is told to you, they hand out rain makers to the children so they can reinact the noise of the 40 days and 40 nights of rain. We then walked into the exhibit itself, as pictured above they made a large (not quite life size) model of the Ark which is amazing to think about all those animals in such a tight space. The had various stations where you can ‘make it rain’, float a boat, and even clean up animal droppings (why the kids had so much fun with that I’ll never know). We left before the concert in the ampitheatre but overall it was very fun and very educational. I highly recommend it, especially for those with young children.

We recently went to the Skirball to see the super heroes exhibit they had there. It reminded me of a very different exhibit we went to at the California Science Center a few years ago.

It was fun for adults, and educational for kids.

They had this room you had to get through in the dark too see what it’s like to be Daredevil. The had a Doc Oc area with prosthetic limbs. And Iron Man area where you could lift a car (a real car, not like the A-team van like Universal Studios used to have). There was a Magneto are where you learned about, . . well magnets, and if human mutations could actually be so extreme. They had a Storm area where you could lean about the weather. Some cool optical illusion and mind tricks at the Invisible Woman section, and much more.

Then for the growed up Marvel fans, there was a lot of great art and prints for sale.

There was a Marvel Comics time line, and a movie about Stan Lee. I don’t think it was a touring exhibit though, which is a shame because it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about super heroes.

and a little about my self, HA!

Where can you bump into Princess Ariel, meet Wonder Woman and clown around with the Teddy Bears? Where else but San Diego ComiCon, The largest pop culture, science fiction, movie, comic book spectacular around. I only spent one day at the Con and definitely wish I had taken time to experience more. I perused the schedule, and the panels alone are worth taking a day or two to experience. Eureka, Iron Man, & Alice in Wonderland were just a few of the sought after panels throughout the week. And for all you Twilight fans Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart left the twi-fans wanting more after their cast led panel. I went to the Cyanide and Happiness booth where the popular web comic was on site signing autographs and doing custom sketches and cartoons.

I was on sensory overload with all the costumes, convention displays and excitement at what’s coming out. The SciFi (Sorry ‘SyFy’) network had it’s own ‘Café Diem’ modeled after the restaurant in the show Eureka, complete with cardboard cut-outs of all the actors. The show Heroes was hosting a carnival with free games and rides. The only thing I would warn against is Convention ‘food’, there are so many fabulous places to eat around the convention center that I don’t see the point wasting more time in lines, way too much money and precious digestive properties on what passes for food in the convention center is just not worth it.

So, one day at the Con is highly recommended but if you can take it I would suggest at least a few days more. The Con has grown drastically since I last went in 2001, and though the focus on comic books specifically is waning, the toys, collectibles, and big budget movie marketing is quite a sight to see.

click on any of the pictures to go to the gallery