ARGH!!!

I had to run a few errands this morning and David had a couple of doctor's appointments and his antibiotic infusions so we were gone. When I returned home this is what I found waiting for me. Millenni decided it was acceptable behavior to knock over the trash can and distribute garbage all over the RV. What am I going to do with that sweet little dog????

update.... Millenni did it again! The trash can has now been relocated to a new spot underneath the sink behind a cabinet door! (where it should have been all along).

Atlanta

Since yesterday's post was about our trip to Atlanta I decided to continue on with talking about Atlanta today. We lived there for a year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Atlanta has always been one of my favorite cities. We had season's passes to both Stone Mountain Park and Zoo Atlanta and took advantage of going there often. Stone Mountain is such a fun place. There is a large grassy knoll in front of the stone, which is reported to be the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. The carving on the front is of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. There is also a sky tram that you can ride up to the top of the rock and the view is spectacular from up there. You can see the Atlanta skyline if you look toward the west. In the afternoon the grassy knoll starts to fill with people, lawn chairs, and blankets. Picnics are a favorite while waiting and once it gets dark everyone is treated to the most spectacular laser light show I have ever seen. It is hard to describe and more than you can imagine. It is one awesome show! The lights are set to music which changes each year to keep it current. There are some songs that remain each year like Georgia on My Mind, Rainy Night in Georgia etc… and the ending of the show is always the same with Elvis singing Dixie and the show ending with Lee Greenwood’s Proud to be an American. The show is basically in 3 parts, the first being current popular songs, the second a tribute to Georgia and the third is patriotic. It is very moving and brings tears to my eyes every time. I have always enjoyed going to Zoo Atlanta. They have a great orangutan exhibit and the best panda exhibit I have seen anywhere. There is a huge international food market in Atlanta that is a cultural experience to behold. We loved to go there and people watch! It is unlike any other market I have seen and you find people of all races and ethnicities, wearing their traditional dress and shopping for fresh foods that often appear as strange as the people buying them. We made many trips to Underground Atlanta and visited the World of Coke, toured the CNN building, visited Centennial Olympic Park, went to several Atlanta Braves baseball games and various other things. Always a fun place! Unfortunately most of my pictures are packed away in storage and I only have a few of Atlanta to share with you now.

Stone Mountain and part of the grassy knoll

the carving upclose, it is actually much larger than it appears, a grown man can fit inside an ear!

the sky tram that takes you to the top of the rock

Linda and the cosmic cow, like a lot of cities, Atlanta hosts a cow art festival, this one was my favorite

our house in Atlanta

Georgia Aquarium

After our stop over at the Mayfield Dairy, Hannah and I were back on the road heading to Atlanta. For her birthday gift this year we promised to take her to the Georgia Aquarium. Unfortunately, David was not able to go with us due to his surgery so it was just us girls. The drive was easy since we are only 90 miles from Atlanta. We arrived an hour ahead of our entrance time. (Since the aquarium is so popular there are large crowds and they limit the amount of visitors each hour so when you purchase your ticket you are given an entrance time). We decided to walk through Centennial Olympic Park and over to the CNN building where I knew there was a food court and we could eat lunch before going into the aquarium. By the time we finished and walked back it was time for us to enter. This aquarium claims to be the largest one in the world. It just opened up last year and seems to be an extremely popular place. Once inside we first went to the Deepo 4-D Theatre for a fun experience. I just love those 4-D places. We had to wear our 3-D glasses and we were sprayed with water, soaked with bubbles, zapped on the backs of our legs by an electric eel and jellyfish danced on our heads during the course of the movie. It was a lot of fun! There are five major areas inside the facility and our favorite was the one called Ocean Voyager. It is the large tank where the big whale sharks are located. There are now five whale sharks as two more had arrived the day before we got there. Apparently this is the only aquarium outside of Asia where you can see whale sharks. They are the largest fish in the ocean… yes they are fish, not whales! They were awesome and we enjoyed our time watching them. Another favorite was the penguins. We spent several hours walking around inside and enjoying everything. Below are just a few of more than a hundred photos I took of the day. I still think the National Aquarium in Baltimore is my favorite. I have been to a lot of nice aquariums but the one in Baltimore has them all beat in my opinion. Baltimore has the best sharks, the best rays and an awesome and educational dolphin show. Among my other favorites are Atlantis in the Bahamas (best open air and best tunnel for viewing), the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California (the awesome Sun Fish) and one in Monte Carlo, Monaco (an educational experience). Hannah and I both had a fun-filled day.

Hannah sitting at one of the tables in the CNN building food court

Hannah standing in front of the CNN building

Hannah is all smiles with Deepo

one of the pretty jellyfish

one of the whale sharks swims by with a school of fish surrounding it

some of the cute little penguins

Mayfield Dairy Tour

On Saturday, Hannah and I went on a road trip. Our first stop was the Mayfield Dairy to take a tour of how they package milk. We watched a short movie first then our tour guide took us inside the facility and told us a lot of good information. We had to wear silly yellow hair nets while on the tour. Afterward, we went to the dairy bar and Hannah enjoyed a strawberry ice cream cone made with Mayfield's own ice cream of course.

Hannah didn't like having to wear the hairnet

Hannah and the big Mayfield mascot cow

Yum! Mayfield's strawberry ice cream

as we were leaving we saw a couple of Mayfield trucks pulling in