I am back home. It was indeed a short visit out to Atlanta, Georgia. It was mostly work during the day and evenings it was fun to step out and enjoy Atlanta evening/night life. Of everything, I totally over-indulged in the peach cobblers with peach gelato and peach sauce! Well! I am in Peach state!

Almost exactly two years to the date, I am in Atlanta, Georgia again! Last time around I stayed downtown a stone throw away from the Olympic park and the Aquarium. This time around I am still around in the downtown area, but a little further away.

This time around I have not planned to stay over. I would have liked to stay and visit the Botanical gardens and the orchids gardens, but it isn't going to happen. I am saving my really ample vacation time for family visits in July and then my own travel plans later on in the year. This is a working trip and will be short and sweet. Fly in on Monday morning (today) and fly out Wednesday night (in two days).

But, for now, I am in Atlanta! Home of the peaches and the hot temperatures (soaring in late 90's)

 

Trip to Atlanta, home of the Peaches, Olympic Park and Whales!

I was in Atlanta, Georgia from Friday, June 9th to Wednesday, June 14th. This trip was mostly for staffing the International Summit held by my company. The event did not start till Sunday morning, so going a few days earlier, enabled my team mates and me to organize the space, setup computers, printers, organize the team assignments, schedules and at the end of the day have some fun and enjoy being in the peach state.

We stayed at downtown Hyatt Regency, which is walking distance from the CNN building, Centennial Park and of course the Atlanta Aquarium. My friend and me spent an entire afternoon wandering in the Aquarium. It is one of the best I have seen thus far. The glass walls were not just from floor to ceiling, but also turned upwards to stretch over the ceiling to allow visitors to wander under the fish. The aquarium is divided into five sections; Georgia Explorer, River Scout, Cold Water Quest, Ocean Voyager and Tropical Quest.

Georgia Explorer features horseshoe crabs, large white shrimp, sting rays and many of them in open tanks which allowed visitors to touch them fishes. (I love the fish, but I rather fry 'em and eat 'em, rather than just touch them, hee hee).

River Scout features some really exotic fish from Africa (Cichlids... my favorite), South America, and Asia. This section also has those dangerous piranhas with their razor sharp teeth, and the worlds largest freshwater fish called Arapaima. It was fun to see playful otters too.

Cold Water Quest, features the Beluga Whales, California Sea Lions, African Black foot Pengiuns, Sea otters and much much more. There were giant Sea Spiders and Octopus, scary enough to give me nightmares.

Ocean Voyager, is indeed a Voyage under the sea, with thick acrylic tunnel under 6 million gallons of salt water and hundreds of thousands of fish of all sizes and variety (hmm, I wonder, if some of them get eaten by others in the tank!!) This tank is a representation of the Great Meso American Barrier Reef of Central America. It was definitely one of the highlights of the visit, with giant Hammerhead Sharks, Goliath Grouper, squadrons of large and Small Sting Ray, Snappers, Trevally Jacks, just to name a few.

Tropical Diver was simply great with all tropical fish of all colors, shimmering in the huge tank of cool blue waters. It was mesmeriszing to see the tropical coral reefs in all their vibrant colors and the jelly fish, garden eels, delicate and brilliant seadragons.

Sometime, when you visit my place ask me to show you all the pictures I have taken. Surprisingly, they came out pretty well. Here are some really nice ones. From left to right, and top to bottom the pictures show, African Cichlids, Some random fish whose name I don't know, Piranha, Giant Sea Spider, Sea dragon, Whale, and Tropical Yellow fish.