Super Bowl Trip – Day 3: Sightseeing
We ate our breakfast buffet quickly and then got downtown as fast as possible to beat the crowds. First stop: the Georgia Aquarium. Lucky for us, there weren’t very many people here partly because we arrived when it opened. But the staff also said the majority of people were down at the Super Bowl Live Experience which was making it a lot quieter in the Aquarium today. Perfect!
The Georgia Aquarium
The staff said we missed the Griffin twins who play for the Seattle Seahawks. They were at the aquarium yesterday with their large entourage and camera crew. Which might have been cool to see them but I was happy with our quiet day. Exhibits were easier to view! It sounds like the celebrities and football stars are taking in all the area attractions as well over Super Bowl weekend.
I was fascinated by the diver who was assigned to clean the Red Piranha tank!
Hands down – this is the best aquarium I’ve been to. Sure, we’ve been to a lot of zoos that had nice aquatic exhibits. But most zoos focus on the overall quantity of animals. Not necessarily specializing in one particular exhibit. And obviously since it’s an aquarium, they can focus all their energy here so the quality of exhibits are top notch.
Several floor-to-ceiling exhibits can be found here including their Beluga whales (their oldest whale is 14 years old). They are so vocal with their chirps, clucks and squeals, they are called “sea canaries”.
They also have an interactive touch pool for the creatures you can touch and hold.
They had a really amazing Visual Voyager ride where you put on a virtual reality headset. It took us on perhaps the most realistic underwater ride I’ve ever been on. If you are in any way sensitive to motion sickness or sea sickness, be prepared for your boundaries to get tested! Joe and I are both prone to sea sickness and I felt the effects of the ride. It was probably a good hour before my equilibrium returned to “normal”. I swear, my body thought we were out on the ocean!
Of course, there are a lot of fun things for kids to do at the aquarium. We discovered a penguin tunnel that looked maybe tall enough for a 5-year old, although that didn’t stop Joe from crawling in there to explore. He was trying to communicate with one penguin who became interested in him.
Joe made a special friend at the Penguin Exhibit
Similar to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, they had the giant tube you walked thru with the aquatic wildlife swimming around you. They had an impressive jelly fish exhibit as well as penguins and puffins. The Asian small-clawed otters were extremely cute. We also loved the giant tank that held the huge whale sharks.
The Jellyfish exhibit
They also had some free shows that we really enjoyed. The sea lion show was so cool! My favorite sea lion was 14-year old Diego. They rescued him in the summer of 2005 when they found him hiding under a police car in San Diego (hence his name, Diego)
The other sea lion we loved was Neptune. It was a sobering moment when they showed us his x-rays that still show fragments of bullets in his head. He was also found with fish hooks in his flippers. All of their sea lions are in fact rescues. They are quite talented with all their tricks! We were not allowed to take photos during the sea lion show so I don’t have any pictures to share.
The sea lion show was well timed. As it got out, it was time to walk over to the free dolphin show.
The dolphin show was equally impressive and the theater was huge. The first 10 rows are called the Splash Zone and they mean it! We were in Row 7 and we got a fair amount of water (thankfully on my shirt and not on my hair 😊 But the people below us got soaked. This is because the dolphins will scoop up giant amounts of water with their tails and fling it into the audience on purpose! Well, they did give us fair warning. Their largest dolphin was 400 pounds. And another dolphin named Sidney easily could jump 15 feet out of the water over obstacles. It was another educational and entertaining show! Similar to the sea lion show, photography was not allowed.
We really enjoyed ourselves and spent all morning at the aquarium.
Next, we headed across the street and saw the College Football Hall of Fame.
Actually this was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. You get an “interactive badge/pass” when you arrive and program the badge with your favorite college team. Then throughout the day when you walk up to interactive exhibits, it recognizes you (Hello Kim….”) and it automatically brings up whatever is pertinent for your school of choice. I’ll explain…
One of my favorite interactive exhibits was pretending to be a guest announcer on College Game Day. You sit down in the video booth and it automatically recognized me and my team name (Iowa Hawkeyes). They give you a teleprompter with what to say (although Joe made up his own funny commentary of course) and when it comes time to pick which team will win the big game, they give you a giant Hawkeye head to put on (just like Lee Corso does at the end of his show).
Afterwards, they send the video clip to your email.
College Game Day was one of my favorite interactive exhibits at the College Football Hall of Fame
Another example of the special access/badge…. When I walked up to the face painting exhibit, it brought up the Hawkeye colors and logos. So it’s pretty cool how it recognizes your favorite school and tailors your entire experience to your school preference.
The interactive face painting exhibit
Upon arrival at the College Football Hall of Fame, you are greeted with an impressive display of 770 helmets in college football today. Using your access/badge, it will light up your school’s helmet so you immediately recognize it!
770 helmets make up the wall
Of course there were other exhibits – Calling the Game, Singing the Fight Song, the Ultimate Tailgating Experience, just to name a few. It was a lot of fun. We were there about 90 minutes.
We decided we would have a late lunch and walked 5 or 6 blocks to Mellow Mushroom. This was a great plan. The center of downtown was buzzing now with all the Super Bowl activities and the further we walked to our pizza spot, the crowd congestion just melted away. Mostly because we were walking in the opposite direction. It was a beautiful day to walk outside as it is 70 degrees today! We were both wishing we had a pair of shorts.
Downtown Atlanta – the Super Bowl Live Experience was hopping!
Apparently the big news of the day was Usain Bolt who was participating in the Super Bowl Live Experience and tied the NFL’s scouting combine 40-yard dash record. Anyone need a speedy wide-out?
Electric scooters are the best way to get around Atlanta. Although we walked, people were jumping on them left and right zipping around town. You can grab any of them and simply swipe your smart phone or credit card to use it. When you’re done with it, just leave it wherever you want. It’s that easy.
This lady was having a great time riding around on her electric scooter but was slightly out of control
There is a very strong police presence downtown and I felt very safe. Every once in a while, we’d see several charter buses surrounded by very loud police cars with their sirens screaming as they escorted them…somewhere. Who were they? Maybe they were team buses, or family members of the players or NFL staff. A policeman on the corner said that’s been going on the past few days. High profile escorts is what he called it.
We found our pizza joint — Mellow Mushroom. They specialize in stone baked pizza and so far, it’s the best deal for a meal. The chain originated in Atlanta in 1974 but there are restaurants all over now. The portions are huge and you don’t want to order anything larger than a medium for only 2 people.
Today’s lunch at Mellow Mushroom
Our pizza — the House Special: red sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, ham, Applewood smoked bacon, mushrooms, black olives, Roma tomatoes, green peppers, and onions. Fantastic!
We headed back to the hotel around 3pm to rest before tonight’s Taste of the NFL party which will be featured in my next blog. Stay tuned!
