🚙2009 ~ April 13-19 Traveling with family to Atlanta, & Pelham Ga

Day 1; Monday, April 13, 2009

My husband took me to Lora’s at 5:20 A.M. We loaded up the van and left about 5:45 A.M. The kids were actually up, ready, and had eaten breakfast.

We arrived about 11 A.M. at the Atlanta Aquarium. We paid five dollars for parking. 

We walked to the aquarium and stood in line for tickets. 

There were buses for school kids, teachers, parents, etc. The aquarium was full to capacity.

Georgia Aquarium is located at 225-Baker Street NW Atlanta GA.

We started at Georgia Explorer Discover this gallery was an interactive touch pool full of horseshoe crabs, sea stars, stingrays, and shrimp.

Next, we went to the Coldwater Quest, the chilly unknown, where we saw Australian weedy sea dragons, beluga whales, giant Pacific octopus, Garibaldi damselfish, and Japanese spider crabs hanging among rocky ledges and kelp for food. 

At the Ocean Voyager, we made a journey with the giant fish. Here we walked through an acrylic tunnel where we saw whale sharks, manta rays, Nandi, schools of predatory trevally jacks, squadrons of small and large stingrays, enormous goliath grouper, and hammerhead sharks. 

This tank contains 6 million gallons of saltwater with over 4,000 square feet of the viewing area and the window is 100 feet long. The tunnel has 185 tons of acrylic windows and is the second-largest viewing window in the world. It is 23 feet fall by 61 feet wide and 2 feet thick.

We made our next journey through the river scout where we found freshwater mysteries from Africa, South America, Asia, and Georgia.  

We saw Asia otters, Electric Eels, catfish, and razor-sharp teeth of voracious predators the piranhas. 

Last, we visited the Tropical Diver, the Coral Kingdom. We saw eels popping out of the sand, seahorses, jellyfish, and fairy bassets, yellow-headed jawfish, and at the center of this gallery is one of the largest living reef exhibits of any aquarium in the world. Living corals and thousands of colorful reef fish are presented in a faithful recreation of a tropical Pacific coral reef.

We ate lunch at the Aquarium and I ordered a dessert.

Jelly Fish 

We left the aquarium at about 5 P.M. and traveled to RHM located at 5420 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd. Northeast’s Atlanta, GA.

A storm had come through Atlanta and there were trees, tree limbs, and debris everywhere. 

The power was out everywhere and the red lights were not working so the intersection became a four-way stop but some people did not honor the stop.

Traffic was being rerouted because of the heavy rain and debris which was causing traffic jams. 

We got checked in at the RMH and unloaded the van.

We rode to Malibu Norcross at 5400 Brook Hollow Pky Norcross, Ga. 

We had a ticket for unlimited go-cart racing, duck boats, miniature golf, and a large pizza with cokes complimentary of Malibu Norcross management. 

We traveled through the 5 P.M. Atlanta evening traffic and arrived at 7 P.M. and we stayed until 9 P.M. 

We rode back to Ronald McDonald House where we took showers and dressed for bed. 

It had been a full day.

Atlanta Zoo

Atlanta Zoo

Day 2: Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Meadow and Marcus, Jr., both have an eye appointment. 

They were seen fairly soon but Meadow was referred to a Retina specialist on the second floor. 

Meadow finished seeing the doctors at 3:30 P.M.

The doctors said that Meadow will have to come back in May for eye repair.

We rode to the Atlanta Zoo, which will close in about one hour, but off we went to the zoo. 

Several of the zoo animals had been bedded down for the night but there were still several animals on view. 

We ate dinner at Steak and Shake.

Next, we rode to Mountain Marietta Park where we had unlimited tickets for go-cart racing and gaming. We stayed until 9 P.M.

We had another full day of fun.

 Wild Animal Safari 

 Wild Animal Safari 

 Feeding the animals at Wild Animal Safari 

The pacing Ostrich

A Day 3: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 

We checked out at 10 A.M. and we arrived at 12:00 p.m. at the Wild Animal Safari located in Pine Mountain Ga.

Lora rented a safari zebra van and bought several buckets of animal food. We load into the van and go through the locked gate inside where all the animals roam freely.

The animals know that we have food and they start coming toward us drooling. 

We feed the American buffalo, deer, cows, giraffes, gravy’s zebra, Kangaroo, rhinoceros, emus, yakatusi, Blackbuck antelope, elk, rhino, camel, and, buffalo as we wind through the 200 areas of the natural habitat of the animals. 

We drove past the caged Siberia tigers, black mane lion, and liger. 

Do not roll down your windows if you do not want a long drooling tongue in your face.

The van has bars on the back windows but the front windows will roll down. The kids loved feeding the animals and we took our time feeding and watching, and the kids squealed with delight at all the animals.

After the safari ride, we had a picnic. We sat next to the fence where an ostrich was pacing up and down.

The rest of the park was a walk-through where we saw 

pigs, monkeys, American Black bears, American alligators, rabbits, capuchins, baboons, donkeys, parrots, peacocks, skunks, swans, turtles, foxes, and wolves

We arrived at Andy’s at about 8PM and the kids were excited to see their cousins and ready to get out of the car after the three-hour trip.

Getting licked by Sampson

Day 3: Thursday, April 16, 2009

Sierra and Madison spent the entire day playing in Sierra’s room only coming out to eat.

The boys played outside building a playhouse in the woods. They were covered in dirt but they were having a good time so, that day we just let them have fun.

For supper, we had two large pizzas from Pizza Hut.

We rested on the sofa watching TV.

That night Meadow, Lora, and I slept in the same bed. Madison and Sierra slept in one bed and the boys slept on the floor.

The remainder of the time we were the boys put up a tent and they all slept outside. 

Have fun at Wild Adventures Theme Park 

Day 4: Friday, April 17, 2009 

Today Marcus, Jr., Nevada, Madison, and Sierra walked to the cemetery across the road and I gave Madison my camera to take pictures of the tombstones.

We went to 1:00-8:00PM to Wild Adventure Theme Park.

We ate corn dogs, funnel cake, and French fries.

The bigger kids ride all the big rides and Meadow and Montana ride all the smaller rides. 

We ate dinner at McDonald's.

While at the park Madison put her leg between two boards in a fence and got her leg stuck.

Lora had to grease her leg with suntan oil and Madison slowly worked it out. 

Montana and Meadow rode the Ferries wheel, merry-go-round, airplanes bug out, wild safari ride, snake, and swings.

I rode the smaller rides with the kids and I took many pictures.

We had Another full day.

watching the fish at the Flint River Aquarium 

Day 5: Saturday, April 18, 2009 

Lora, Meadow, and I rode to Flint River Park. The bigger kids want to stay and play, and Andy said he would watch them. He was going to watch the Alabama football game that afternoon.

Lora, Meadow, and I left about noon, Charity said she did not want to go with us so she went shopping with her friend Heather.

Lora, Meadow, and I went to Flint River Park where we walked around the park and looked at the Ray Charles Statue.

 We went to the Flint River Quarium to see the animals and fish that live in the Flint River and all the different types of catfish that live in the river. 

We ate at Barb Q sandwiches and fries at the Flint River Barb restaurant. Some back lady came over to our table and was telling us about a special school for children like Meadow she said the Lord told her to come over to our table and tell us about the school. We told her we were from Alabama.

After we ate we walked along the overflowing Flint River where we met this nice couple from New Jersey. There were misquotes and they started to bite us so we headed back to the park. We stopped at Winn Dixie and I went in and got a two-gallon bucket of Napoleon ice cream, two packages of cookies, pecan sandies, pecan sandies with chocolate chips, and two packages of ice cream cones. I went to bed with Meadow because she was tired.

Lora washed clothes until 9:30 P.M.

When Charity returned she and Andy went to Outback Restaurant for dinner and they brought their leftovers home with them.

Montana asking if he can go!!

Sierra and Madison

Nevada and Marcus

Montana in his Sunday Best.

Day 6: Sunday, April 19, 2009

Our last day which was Sunday, Madison, Marcus, Jr., dressed and went to Sunday school with Andy. 

Lora and I packed and cleaned.

We left about 10:30 A.M. Montana came up to Lora and said,” Aunt Lora, if you will take me with you I will give you all the money that I have in savings.” He was very serious about that.

Andy came back to tell us goodbye it was between Sunday school and Church. 

Inside Desota Caverns

Inside Desota Caverns

Riding the tubs 

Riding the potty seats

Visiting Desota Caverns 

Going inside the Caverns

We stopped at Childersburg, AL at Desoto Caverns.

We stayed until they closed at 5 P.M. 

We bought some fudge, and cokes and snacked.

We toured Desoto Caverns which, took an hour. We saw stalactites which are rock formations that hang down and stalagmites are rock formations that reach up, other mnemonics to help us remember this is that the two words differ in the sixth and seventh letters — using the sixth letter, stalactites come from the ceiling and stalagmites comes from the ground. 

We saw a light show beginning with the first day of creation to the seventh day on that day God rested. It was awesome.

We exited Desoto Caverns and went to the park area where there were rides, archery, cave crawl, and mine for gemstones, we walked through, a lost trail maze. 

Lora, Marcus, Jr., and Madison rode the Hamster wheel and we all rode the bathtubs and potty seat scooters.

A man walked up to Lora and said the Lord told me to give this to you and he handed her some more tickets and wrapped up in the tickets was a twenty-dollar bill. 

Lora thanked the man but she did not know about the money until he had walked away.

We stayed until the park closed at 5 P.M. 

Lora fed Meadow and we rode home in the rain. We did not know that there was a tornado warning all around us.

The Lord was looking out for us that day and we made it home safe and sound.