Two stars and a wish for the Georgia Aquarium

As with all our trips, we are always excited to see animal friends on our travels and at the Georgia Aquarium I had a mission: a co-worker had told my husband that you can actually swim with whale sharks on Isla Holbox and Isla Mujeres in Mexico and the hubby wanted me to take the kids to see what they looked like so I could try and convince them that this was something they definitely wanted to see when we arrived in Cancun.  (Unfortunately we missed whaleshark season by a couple weeks this year.  The official date starts on June 1st, so we’ll have to return another time to actually see these magical creatures.)The Georgia Aquarium is definitely a gigantic aquarium and the kids and I had so much fun checking out all the different exhibits.

One of the standout exhibits was definitely the whaleshark tank and the guys and I rode the walk-a-lator a couple of times just to watch all the different fish swim overhead.  The whale sharks apparently were flown in by UPS from Taiwan and they’re each roughly the size of a bus and super gentle because they are baleen.

The other thing we really loved was the touch pool with the manta rays and baby sharks.  We spent a long time trying to touch the manta ray wings and it was neat to see so many kids so excited to interact with animals.

The only wish I have for the aquarium is that it is a little too noisy and overwhelming-these creatures are amazing enough to see, I don’t think you need all that extra pizzazz.  For example at the dolphin show we were told not to take pictures because the flash could be dangerous to the dolphins.  But then the spectacle started with a huge musical number, things flashing and thumping and roaring on screen, and the Las Vegas-esque show that began was so loud and crazy I can’t imagine how it’s like for the dolphins to perform it everyday.  I think most people would be just as content to see the trainers interact with the dolphins and wonder at these amazing creatures.

But maybe that’s me.  I’m happy that this place is popular and helping educate about these amazing sea creatures and yes, I’d go back in a heartbeat.

And one day, I totally totally want to swim with these beautiful creatures.  They are the size of school buses and there’s tons of them out there in the water.  How’s that for putting your own size into perspective?

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)