The kids' school added in a fall break to the calendar this year in mid-October. We were excited for this long weekend, so made plans to go somewhere. We originally booked a condo back in Rosemary Beach, but the weather had other plans. The day before we were to leave, Hurricane Michael completely devastated the NW coast of Florida. We learned Wednesday night our place had no power and had remained under mandatory evacuation. Thursday mid-day, we found out there was still no power, so within about an hour and a half time frame, I packed up our bags and car, the boys got off the bus, Wes came home from work and we decided to hop in the car and drive to Atlanta. We didn't have a place to stay or know what we were doing, but Wes had already taken off 2 days of work and we had undergone quite a bit of stress with our VRBO situation, so we didn't want to ruin our time together. On our drive there, I booked a hotel in Atlanta for two nights and also a two night stay in Great Wolf lodge. We arrived pretty late due to it being a 5 hour drive, time change, and needing dinner. I think by the time we got checked in and the kids settled, it was mid-night ATL time. We got started bright an early Friday morning walking around downtown Atlanta.
The weather was gorgeous and we were staying across the street from the Olympic Park, so we headed over there in the morning.
The kids could hardly sit still for a few quick pics before they took off running in the fields.
They wanted to climb on just about everything and pose for all sorts of random pictures!
Ryan perfecting his handstand!
More requests for posing
Pretty cute actually
We passed various structures and statues on the way to the large Ferris wheel we decided to ride.
His dogs were barking as he likes to say, so shoulder ride it is.
And then we arrived. It was so much larger in person! It hadn't opened yet and there was only one family ahead of us.
Patiently waiting for it to open.
Don't let my smile fool you, I hated every minute of this. Since we arrived so early, we also got to load early. Well, they are individual gondolas that you ride in, and each party takes a minute or two to load, so about halfway through the loading, we were positioned at the top of the wheel. It took about 3 times as long to load as it was to ride. The riding was somewhat pleasant with cool views, but I was so distraught from the loading process, it was hard to relax and enjoy. Sitting stationary that high for that long was not something I love, I found out. My hands are getting clammy just typing this!
This was as the process was beginning. You can sense my nervousness! I was trying to remain calm not to freak the kids out. There wasn't much air coming in, so I was getting claustrophobic.
I think they overall liked it, but probably wouldn't really want to do it again either.
Charlie was the least fazed by it I think!
I was pretty happy to have my two feet back on solid ground, so we went and celebrated with some good food and yummy drinks for us and the kids at Ted Montana's grill. It was such a neat old school atmosphere.
After our huge lunch, we walked back through the park over to the Aquarium where we spent the remainder of the afternoon. This was by far the coolest aquarium I have ever visited. All of the different areas were so neat and carefully planned out. We could have spent the entire day there.
The kids were mesmerized and loved the shows. We first watched a dolphin show.
It was extremely impressive!
The sea otters were adorable
Looking for sharks!
They were all about to touch some starfish and were pretty excited. I opted to be the photographer!
Finally, they spotted one!
Then we headed to what was probably all of our favorite attraction, the larger than life aquarium.
It was massive and just amazing. So peaceful and it just felt like you were sitting in the middle of a movie scene. I could've watched the different fish for hours.
There was a huge sea turtle that Charlie had been asking about seeing all day. The workers said we may or may not see it as there is only one. Luckily, we spotted it. I didn't get a great picture of it, but they were pretty excited to find it.
They want so badly to go back. I think we'll have to make another trip here soon!
We headed back to the hotel for a quick rest before going out for dinner to wrap up our time in Atlanta. After breakfast the next morning, we loaded back up to drive to Great Wolf which was about an hour away.
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