Trifter

On a hot summer day, in downtown Atlanta, I headed over to the Georgia Aquarium to see just how big the world’s largest aquarium really was.

Image via Wikipedia

The building has five sections, and I aimed for the huge underwater tunnel exhibit right away. As I stepped into the clear tunnel, I immediately found myself surrounded by swimming fish, and “ooohing” and “aaahing” people. Above me a massive whale shark passed by, followed by a parade of fish: hammerhead sharks, sawtooth sharks, manta rays, and the list goes on and on. OK. I was impressed! They passed so close you could see the muscles contracting on the ray’s bellies. And the tank was loaded with fish! Everywhere you looked you saw something incredible.

Image via Wikipedia

After staring for a long time, I continued around the path which opened up into a room with a massive window view of the aquarium. Again, very impressive view. A sample chunk of the clear walls showed they were around 2 feet thick! The aquarium has pictures of kids having a sleep-over in front of this window. I think that would be extremely fun to do.

Image via Wikipedia

The other four sections of the building include a large tank with beluga whales (awesome!), two otter exhibits, breath-taking displays of jellyfish, a unique petting tank where I was able to pet rays and small hammerhead sharks, and quite a few other cool exhibits of ocean creatures. I must say though, that in my personal opinion, the underwater tunnel area was by far my favorite section.

Image via Wikipedia

The one downfall to visiting this aquarium was the cost. The general admission was 26.00, and I’m not rich. I had expected to be at the aquarium for a good part of the day, but saw everything, and even went back for a second stay in the amazing tunnel, in less than 3 hours. Of course, the only exit from the building is through the gift shop. 

So, bottom line…was it really that big and amazing? Yes, it really is impressive. In particular, like I mentioned before, the underwater tunnel area and the large viewing window. You feel like you are in a different world. You will see crazy, wonderful, enormous and tiny creatures close up, an opportunity you will most likely never have in nature.

Another Great Aquarium:

• The Shedd Aquarium

More Eye-popping places to visit:

• The Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth Minnesota – Over the top spectacular!
• Crater Lake
• Water Towers with Pizazz; Including the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle!
• Minnesota Water Towers to Gawk at; Like Paul Bunyan’s Fishing Bobber – A Must See!
• Cape Canaveral National Seashore