Tag Archives: georgia

In Pictures: Georgia Aquarium

28 Feb

I accompanied Jeff on a business trip to Atlanta in January of 2011. Besides the food, there were a couple more cool things about Atlanta. The coolest was the Georgia Aquarium.

 

Typically, I love aquariums. When I discovered that the Georgia Aquarium was actually one of the world's largest, with a total of 8.5 million gallons of water, I knew it would probably be cool.

 

I was right.

 

There were some interesting looking fish.

 

 

And cool spider crabs.

 

 

There were beluga whales! They are fun to watch.

 

 

I saw this colorful guy.

 

 

And this albino croc.

 

 

River otters are always cute.

 

 

There were multiple touch tanks, including this one with stingrays and small sharks.

 

 

Your requisite electric eel.

 

 

A pretty sweet giant octopus.

 

 
I especially loved the penguin exhibit. You could crawl up under the tank to a viewing hole where you could see the penguins up close and personal.
 

 

As you can see, the penguins get rather curious about the people in the viewing holes.

 

 
They're so cute!
 

 

There were these garden eels, which I haven't seen in many aquariums.

 

 
There's a nice jellyfish exhibit.
 

 

And there are sea otters! In case you didn't get enough otters already – and how could you, really?

 

 

But the main event is the big tank. This tank alone has 6.3 million gallons of water. It also holds 4 whale sharks – it's the only aquarium outside of Asia that has them.

 

 

The whale sharks are really impressive.

 

 

The tank is simply enormous. There's a tunnel running through it that you get to go through, and one huge glass panel that you can sit and look at.

 

 

There are also two manta rays in the tank. These are the first manta rays on display in the US, ever. According to the Georgia Aquarium, only 4 aquariums in the world have manta rays. I was able to find that the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is one of them, having the second largest aquarium tank in the world (the Georgia Aquarium's being the first).

Since my visit, the Georgia Aquarium has only become cooler. They now have dolphins. If you want to visit, check out their website for details. It's open every day from 10-5 (Saturday 9-6). Admission is around $30, depending on the day of the week. Check the website for combo tickets as they can be a pretty good deal if you want to visit more than one Atlanta attraction.

Have you been to the Georgia Aquarium?

Travel Photo: Atlanta, Georgia

1 Jul

A list of the rules in Atlanta’s MARTA (the subway), with helpful stick figure illustrations. I’m particularly fond of the illustration for vandalizing.

Travel Photo: Atlanta, Georgia

5 Mar

An octopus clings to its tank at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia.

Foodie Friday: Atlanta Eats

6 Jan

Last January I headed to Atlanta to take advantage of Jeff’s business trip. I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t like Atlanta, but I did like the food. Here’s where I went.

Dogwood

I’m starting with Dogwood because it was the best place I went in Atlanta. But, tragically, it’s closed! So unfortunately you can’t go forth and love it, too, but you can enjoy my pictures.

We first got the pimento grits. These were the best grits I’ve ever eaten.

Next I had this delicious salad of butter lettuce with buttermilk dressing, truffle cheese, and chives. Need I say more than truffle cheese?

My main course was fried chicken with mac and cheese and green beans. I had never had really good fried chicken, and this was really an eye-opener for me.

Overall, Dogwood was incredibly delicious with great service. It was pretty expensive but worth the price. It’s really a shame it’s closed.

Rare

Yelp described Rare as soul food tapas. I was totally in for that. Sadly, it is also closed.

My pictures are poor quality so I’m just going to quickly explain what we got. BLT salad with a fried green tomato – totally delicious. Deviled eggs – not great. Georgia Street Taco with fish and black-eyed peas – yum! Curry Chicken Kebabs – spicy and nice. Lobster Mac and Cheese – as good as it sounds. Braised ribs – also nice.

So this place was quite delicious as well – another shame! I promise none of the other places I’ll mention are closed.

The Varsity

This place is an Atlanta institution. It’s a super greasy and cheap diner. Their gimmick is that when you walk in they start yelling “what’ll ya have” at you and don’t stop until you order. Maybe some people find this charming but I wasn’t a big fan of it. I had a chili cheese dog, onion rings, and a Frosted Orange. My body couldn’t handle that much grease – maybe that’s why I forgot to take a picture. If you like things that are just totally greasy but otherwise not great, you’ll like it. The Frosted Orange was good but induced a wicked brain freeze. They also have good ice cream.

Savage Pizza

We were walking through Little Five Points and found this place. I liked everything about it: the comic book decorations, the super friendly and helpful staff, and the delicious pizza! I was too caught up in our White on White and Roasted Potato Pesto pizzas so I forgot to take any pictures.

Carolyn’s Gourmet Cafe

Look at that taco salad. How does it look to you? Because to me it looks just like it tasted: mediocre. Sadly it cost $9 and was just not good. Wouldn’t recommend this place.

Reuben’s Deli

This deli fulfills all my deli dreams. High quality ingredients and perfect sandwich execution combine to make exactly the deli sandwich I always want. Go here!

The Vortex Bar and Grill

The picture is of the Little Five Points location, but I actually went in Midtown. I chose this place based on it being on Man Vs. Food. I ate: fried cheese balls with jalapeno ranch, and a pesto burger. I think the best thing was the jalapeno ranch – but this is a seriously good burger joint with a fun attitude. Recommended!

Think Sushi

It was good sushi and made to order. But a bug flew in and crawled around on our table – not their fault probably, but it was a roach all the same and I don’t think I could come back here.

So there you have it, my culinary adventure in Atlanta. Savage Pizza, Reuben’s Deli, and Vortex Burger win for deliciousness (and still being open…).

Delicious Inspiration for Today

30 Nov

Pimento cheese grits at Dogwood in Atlanta, Georgia. Easily the best grits of my life.

City Review: Atlanta

14 Apr

City: Atlanta, GA
Geographical Location: Southeastern USA
Population: 420,003 (city); 3.49 million (urban); 5.29 million (metro)
Size: 132.4 square miles (city); 1,963 sq mi (urban); 8,376 sq mi (metro)
Climate: humid subtropical

My Time There: I joined my boyfriend on a business trip there for 4 days in early January 2011.

Weather: 3 out of 10. Winters are mild; I was there in early January and it was in the 50s – pretty excellent. However, they don’t call it Hotlanta for nothing. From what I hear, summers are terrible, probably worse than in DC. Hot and humid – no good.

Food: 6 out of 10. We definitely found some delicious stuff, though it was almost exclusively American places, with a Southern cooking focus.

Walkability: 2 out of 10. There are sidewalks (in mostly good repair) but it will only be you and sort of sketchy people on them, except for a few touristy areas. Nobody walks around – I was walking and I did not feel safe in some places in mid-day.

Bikeability: 2 out of 10. No bike lanes that I saw, and no people on bikes either.

Public Transportation: 6 out of 10. The metro system, MARTA, will take you to many places in the city and there appeared to be a decent bus system. However, we were questioned about feeling safe on MARTA (which we did) so apparently there is a stereotype that it is unsafe.

Vegetarian-friendly: 4 out of 10. Happycow.net has quite a few listings for Atlanta veg places; however, none of them are in the downtown area – all in the burbs. There were veg options at some of the places we went.

Beauty: 3 out of 10. From what I saw, it was not that easy on the eyes.

Museums, Etc.: 5 out of 10. There are a number of museums, though they all cost money. The Georgia Aquarium is top notch. The World of Coke is cheesy, but fun for the tasting you can do.

Cool Shops: Downtown area: 0 out of 10. Little Five Points: 8 out of 10. There was nothing cool downtown, but Little Five Points was awesome, chock full of interesting stuff.

Free Stuff to Do: 0 out of 10. I really found basically nothing to do for free there.

Great Outdoors: 2 out of 10. There were a few parks, but nothing really close by in the way of hikes, that I know of.

Cleanliness: 3 out of 10. The downtown area, at least, was not particularly clean.

People: 3 out of 10. I know one nice guy who lives there, but people on the street were weird or sort of hostile.

Cost of Living: $ out of $$$$. Food was cheap (even the fancy places weren’t too bad), and a quick Craigslist search just revealed that I could be living in a 4 bedroom home with what I pay for rent in DC.

Tourist Congestion: 3 out of 5. Apparently tourists come to Atlanta. I’m not really sure why.

Safety: 2 out of 5. I did not feel particularly safe anywhere in Atlanta (a little better in Little Five Points). The guy I know who lives there says every apartment parking lot has to be locked up tight. Not great.

Overall Thoughts: I was not enamored of Atlanta. In fact, I didn’t like it. It was sort of dirty, and nobody walked around. It’s easy to drive around in – traffic in the downtown seemed pretty light even during ‘rush hour’. However, that’s not what I want out of a city.


UA-31887525-1