Last year (2019), Charles and I went on a total of four trips and I didn’t post anything about them. Liiiiike, nada. My motto for blogging and social media is “live first, post later” and so here I am… One whole year later. Publishing the first of many posts to come about our belated travels while we are housebound during a pandemic. (My form of “coping creatively”)
Starting with the Big Peach a.k.a. Atlanta. A short and sweet four day weekend trip that took place right around this time, last year, to celebrate my 32nd birthday.
My first time in this city did not disappoint.
Cherry on top? Getting to finally meet Disa and Valla, lonnngtime blog friends, which deserves its own post – coming soon. <3
Our first day in Atlanta, we arrived by plane early morning. An hour later, we checked into our Airbnb, took a nap and woke up hungry. So we made our way over to Mary Mac’s Tea Room for some Southern comfort food, per my girl Tia’s recommendation.
And by “made our way”, I mean we walked when we realized it was only a 30min walk away (us “city/public transportation folks” will walk allll over the place if it’s under an hour lol). It was a great way for us to get our bearings and figure out where our Airbnb was in correlation to downtown and beyond.
When we arrived at Mary Mac’s, it wasn’t too busy so we were immediately seated. A quick review of their menu, we decided to share an order of fried chicken that came with two sides and a vegetable plate which came with our choice of 4 sides.
When our food arrived, I was glad we decided to share because the servings were generous and, after our first bites, very tasty. We would take a few bites and then switch plates across the table every so often. I know it was good because I can’t remember us talking about anything in particular, our table was silent with the sounds of chewing bouncing off the insides of our skulls.
^^^ Since I’m the picture-taker in our partnership, Charles always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to “eating food” photos. Every trip we go on, my memory card always ends up having a few photos of him stuffing his face lol.
Bellies full stuffed, we decided to make the 30 min. walk back downtown, in the direction of the Georgia Aquarium. High on my travel to-do list, the Georgia Aquarium is currently the largest in the world (until Dubai finishes building theirs) and is home to over 100,000 sea animals, including whale sharks.
These sharks are kept in a gigantic 6.3 million gallon tank located in the Ocean Voyager exhibit which was our first of many exhibit stops inside the aquarium.
In addition to Ocean Voyager exhibit, we checked out the Cold Water Quest and Tropical Diver exhibits. We also saw the Dolphin Cove show which I was torn about… Something about seeing dolphins in an sort of captivity (even if it’s “for their own good”) just doesn’t sit right with me. Same with seeing the beluga whales in their tanks swimming in circles over and over again. Both the beluga and dolphins didn’t have as large water tanks as the Ocean Voyager exhibit and I remember thinking that I wished they did.
With that said, below are a few photos from our indoor aquatic experience.
^^ Every time the whale sharks would swim over this glass walkway, it would get dark because they’re so huge and blocked out the light above.
Objectively speaking, the Georgia Aquarium lived up to its reputation for me. It’s a non-profit science oriented institution whose mission is to “inspire awareness & preservation of ocean and aquatic animals worldwide”.
Beyond the beauty of it’s aquatic life presentations and exhibits, the Aquarium definitely had me and Charles talking on our walk back to the AirBnB about the ocean and water, in general, as it pertains to climate change. Glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising and, every year, the boundaries between land and water become more gray…
“What was/is the Georgia Aquarium actually doing when it comes to conservation efforts?” was a question that came up in convo which led to quick google search as we walked through the exhibits and this is what I found.
The Georgia Aquarium has four main initiatives they’re focused on:
1) One Ocean One Health: A research and conservation program that (using the framework that all human, animal and environmental well-being is connected and that by working to improve these areas together, a healthier world can be established) studies animals in isolation but also in the context of their environment and connections to humanity.
2) Seafood Saavy: A program empowers consumers and businesses to make informed seafood choices for a healthy ocean and ensure abundant supplies of seafood for the future.
3) Rescue: A program that focuses on the rescue and rehabilitation of California Sea Lions and Southern Sea Otters.
4) Veterinary Research: A partnership with the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Veterinary School that allows the Aquarium to provide a complete aquatic animal pathology and clinical medicine program while training veterinary residents, interns, and externs.
Taking all this into consideration, it seems like Aquarium is actively working to meet and support its mission, but I can’t really say they’re doing a good job with sharing info on their conservation and research efforts.
Walking through the aquarium, I would not have known about the initiatives listed above if I hadn’t googled it. In hindsight, I kind of wish they did a better job with integrating these initiatives into their aquarium experience…
- The dining area, which served pretty average cafeteria style food, could be a great space to share information about their Seafood Saavy program and provide more eco-friendly dining choices.
- For all the animals inside, I wish I knew how they got to be in the aquarium… What’s each animal’s story? How does their existence inside the aquarium benefit conservation efforts? Are there any plans for having them re-enter their natural environments?
- Where are these UGA veterinary residents, interns and externs now in their professional lives? How is the education they received through the partnership with the Aquarium being used towards creating a better, healthy world and ecosystem?
These are just a few thoughts that crossed my mind after looking further into the Georgia Aquarium’s site. The information shared online about these initiatives was very summarized and I just wish there was more “meat” to it, both on their website and with in-person experience they provide.
What are your thoughts on aquariums? Yay/Nay?
xo, Setarra
P.S. The Georgia Aquarium is currently closed as a result of Covid-19 but they do have live web-cams set up so you can see what going on inside. Their Jelly web-cam is my fave and has an unexpected calming effect to watch.
P.P.S. In case you missed it my latest post, “Celebrating My 33rd Birthday In Quarantine“.
