My brother and sister-in-law insisted that we take the kids to the Georgia Aquarium. They had been to Ripley’s in Toronto but keeping in mind my love for penguins, belugas and all things fluffy, I could not say no. Georgia Aquarium is the world’s largest aquarium, so keep in mind that it is a full day activity if you plan to visit the aquarium.
Some useful tips:
- Always just always pack a lot of snacks when you leave the house for a full day endeavor. My kids act like they have just come out of a famine struck entity as soon as they leave the house. Vending machines and cafes at such places have water and snacks at almost double the usual price.
- Take the pushchair along even if You feel none of the kids would sit in it. It will save you the hassle of carrying jackets, baby bag, dolls and at times human babies.
- Never wear jewelry, that you feel can get stuck somewhere or slide off your fingers, to a public place as huge as an aquarium. I lost and later recovered my diamond bracelet so i am talking from experience.
Georgia Aquarium offers some wonderful activities in addition to having penguins (am I talking a lot about them? Sorry, true love is hard to hide)
Photo credits : Tanzeela Hasan
From whale shark to Nemo to the upside down jellyfish, marine life has such beautiful variation that it just blows your mind. I had never seen an upside down jellyfish before so that was a wonderful discovery. I also saw the Beluga whale for the first time in my life and immediately fell in love.
Photo credits: Tanzeela Hasan
They had a glass walled tunnel leading to the penguins, in case you want to take a selfie right next to the cuties. It goes without saying that I crawled trough the tunnel with Muhammad and Zoey. 
Photo credits: Tanzeela Hasan
Sure, I look scary but focus on the penguins!
The best part about the aquarium was the Dolphin show. The kids loved it especially the part where the dolphins splashed water on us with their tails and because we sat in the third row from the bottom, so my parents do not have to climb all the stairs, we were drenched. Also, I figured Zoey sounds exactly like the dolphins while screaming.
There was an interactive area where you could press the buttons and guess the animal sounds, feel a huge block of Ice, touch a screen to light up fish and walk a bridge made with ropes etc.
Photo credits: Tanzeela Hasan
We skipped the 4D show because the kids had gotten tired, hungry and thus cranky. To find about all the activities that you can do please visit Georgia Aquarium’s website .
We chose Thai food to comfort us after a tiring day and I had one of the best Thai food I have ever had at Tuk Tuk . Their appetizer dumplings and green curry was just mind blowing.
We spent the next few days chilling at home, just to go out at night for food. Another food place worth mentioning is Antico , that offered baked to perfection pizza among other things. Their Gelato is something you would not want to miss.
Photo credits: Tanzeela Hasan & Hasan Hamza
Stone mountain is another tourist attraction point if you are ever visiting Georgia. It is a granite mountain with Confederate memorial carving on it. To know more about the history of the carving please reach out here.
You can either climb to the top that takes about 45 minutes or take the cable car. We took the cable car and with my recently acquired fear of heights I won’t say I enjoyed it a lot. But the view from the top was beautiful, it was around sunset and you could see downtown and the neighboring areas. It was super windy so all the pictures came out quite Bollywoodish with our hair flying around.
Photo credits: Hasan Hamza & Maleeha Ahmad
This basically sums up our trip to Atlanta. I always take a lot of pictures to go back to that time as I am very very forgetful and I wrote all these posts by going through the pictures and remembering what happened when. Take a lot of pictures, of places you visit, of your loved ones. They will bring back such beautiful and memorable moments which you would have forgotten about.
Until next time!
fromhereonwards 