Georgia Aquarium & Alabama/VT Game

Last weekend, I went on a wonderful trip to Atlanta with three of my favorite guys: Chad, Cason, and Cole (two of my awesome cousins)! We had tickets to the Alabama/Virginia Tech football game in the Georgia Dome, so Friday afternoon, we all met at my house and began our trip to Atlanta.

Join me on our journey. :) 

We stopped at Chili's in Montgomery to eat dinner. I tried one of their salads... so yummy with mandarin oranges, cranberries, and pineapple!

Always good laughs with these guys!

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn which was like .2 miles from the Georgia Dome, so it was awesome! I bunked on an air mattress at our hotel (which wasn't bad at all because my mattress was actually more comfy than the boys' beds, haha). I'm not naming any names (cough.boys.cough), but I may or may not have suffered through some snoring during the night... LOL. 

We had to be checked out of the hotel by 12:00 Saturday, so after packing and loading the truck up, we stopped at Subway for lunch. Check out this candid of the boys eating, hehe.

At this point, we still had like 4 hours before the game started, so we all started throwing out ideas of what we could do to kill time. Since our hotel was literally across the street from the Georgia Aquarium, I so kindly suggested we go there. Thankfully the boys agreed, woo! I had never been to a legit aquarium before, so I was beyond excited!!

Chad thought he would be cute and imply that HE was Georgia's most amazing attraction... hardy har har. :) Just kidding, I think he's pretty amazing I guess. ;)

Now on to all the wonderful fishies!! YAY! 

Jack Crevalles

Touch pool full of sting rays and wittle sharks.

 Lionfish

 All the alligator-type fishies along with real alligators (which were albino).

Electric eel, eek! That thing was massive.

 Red Piranhas... Anytime I hear the word Piranha, I think of Darla from Finding Nemo, haha. "I'm a piranha.. I live in the Amazon!" lol. 

Kelp Forest

Sea Stars, Sea Urchines, and Sea Anemones 

We got to touch 'em. :)

 HUGE Japanese Spider Crabs!

 Probably my favorite part of the whole aquarium... the Beluga Whales! :) (I took A LOT of pics of them, so bear with me, hehe.)

The whales get a treat every time they pick up one of those toys at the bottom of the tank and bring them to the top. I thought that was neat! They are so smart. Also, the water they live in is SO cold, so each whale has around 4 inches of blubber. 

We were all kind of obsessed with them! They were so cool; we literally could have spent all our time just sitting there watching them, hehe.  Even though dolphins are my favorite animal, I think Beluga whales just made my list of top 5 for sure. :)

Mini photo shoot with the Belugas in the background!

 Alaska Rocky Reefs

 Sea Otters... adorable :)

This one floated around on his back the whole time munching on some snacks, haha.

Penguins... Super cute little things, but they are stinky, haha. :)

Cason, Chad, and I crawled through this small tunnel to be able to see the penguins up close. 

Andddd more shots with the Beluga Whales. :)

Now on to the big tank, also called the "Ocean Voyager." This is a 6.3 million gallon tank that houses four whale sharks and four manta rays. SO cool!!

You get to walk through this awesome tunnel thing that is massive, and you have an amazing view of the HUGE tank. Did I mention the Georgia Aquarium is the biggest aquarium in the world?? How cool is that? :)

Here's a good view of the Ocean Voyager tank. You can see how big the whale sharks are in comparison to the people below. 

Jellyfish!

Another beautiful tank!

After we left the wonderful aquarium, we made a quick stop for smoothies before heading to the Georgia dome for the game. Mmm strawberry banana smoothie. :)

On our way to the dome, we just so happened to walk up on the Alabama players leaving their hotel to head to the game (they stayed at the Omni Hotel right by the dome.) We were super close to the great Nick Saban, too. You can see him (sorta) behind the guard, hehe. :)

Then we were off to the game, woohoo! Our main reason for coming to Atlanta. :))

Love these awesome fellas! They were pumped for the game (as was I). :)

Two of the best cousins ever. :)

With Chad and Cole. :)

Sweet boyfriend. :)

We were some of the first ones to actually enter inside the dome, so we decided to take advantage of the low amount of people and walk down close to the field. 

The boys checking out some of the players warming up. 

Photo shoot time, yay! I know the boys were thrilled. LOL! Gotta' love having a girl around constantly wanting to take pictures, especially at a football game. :) 

Our seats were awesome! We were in the bottom section about 30 rows up and on the 30 yard line... SCORE! Great view for sure. :)

Besides the fact that Cole and Cason had a drunk man throw up twice behind them (thankfully it didn't get on the them), we all had a FABULOUS time at the Alabama/Virginia Tech game! So happy the Tide brought home a victory (final score was 35-10) and so happy we were there to enjoy the game!

  ROLL TIDE, my friends. :)

After a quick stop at Waffle House for a late dinner, we hit the road back to Mobile! I of course fell asleep most of the way home, but Cason and Cole stayed awake to keep Chad company while driving. They resorted back to their Garth Brooks Pandora station, so they were happy campers, hehe. 

Last weekend was nothing short of wonderful, and I had the best time with three of my very best friends!

Love & Blessings, 

Claire

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