Atlanta, GA

Dec 23 - Jan 24

We were actually based in Athens, GA which is over an hours drive from downtown Atlanta. Its a nice college town northeast of Atlanta but close enough to see some of the sites in Atlanta. Our first trip in we went to see the Georgia Aquarium. Its designed with a central hub with spokes going off of it and each one is a different water environment. One is river habitat, one is ocean, one has the penguins, sea otters and seals, etc. Their main attractions are the Beluga whales and one section that is a giant tunnel with the fish all around you and at the end is a three-story tall wall where you can sit and watch the whale sharks and other fish swim by. Unfortunately only a couple of my pictures turned out because of distortion from the glass of the tanks.

While we were waiting for our time slot at the aquarium we walked across Olympic park and just as we got to the other side the parade for the Chik-fil-A Bowl was starting so we got to watch that too.

A few days later we went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Corteo. The acrobats were impressive as always but the show was not as good as others I've seen.

We also managed to get a little exercise on a trip to the Smokey Mountains. We spent the day driving through the area and hiking up to several waterfalls. We all thought it was a great break to get out and walk around in the fresh air. It didn't hurt that it was in the 60s for our outing either.







A few days before I left we were able to get a tour of the Atlanta Approach Control facility. They have the busiest airspace in the country and we got to see how they keep track of all the planes, how they hand them off between different sectors and how the air is divided up. Seeing them in action gives you a new appreciation for what they do and how each plane fits in the grand scheme of that airspace.