Atlanta and the Georgia Aquarium

Whale Shark and Manta Ray, Georgia Aquarium

Last Thursday, I loaded up our bags into the trunk of our trusty Honda Fit and waited for Hanna to get home from work. Later that afternoon, we were off on a roadtrip to Atlanta, primarily to visit the Georgia Aquarium. Before leaving, I posted about what I was going to take, camera gear-wise. Though it’s true that the three lenses and one camera body were no burden at all, I probably could have left the 35mm and 60mm at home, as I did nearly all my photography on this trip with the 18mm f/2. I will say that it was partly an issue of convenience, as I was busy with my family the whole time. However, I also found the 28mm equivalent field of view to be pretty much perfect for what I was shooting.

Midtown Atlanta from Piedmont Park

Anyway, enough of that. This isn’t supposed to be a post about gear, rather about the city of Atlanta and, in particular, the Georgia Aquarium, which was our main target destination and the catalyst for the trip in the first place. Let me just go ahead and say this: there’s a whole lot of cool stuff to see at the aquarium, but I could have spent the whole day in front of the whale shark tank, just watching the fish circle, the rays glide gracefully, and the whale sharks emerge from the gloom of the back of the tank, giant and gentle, sliding by the two-foot-thick acrylic window.

Whale Shark and Children, Georgia Aquarium

There is also a fantastic tunnel, and some great viewing ports, before you get to the big window.

Fish-gazing

Tunnel Photo-Ops

Because the aquarium was really the primary purpose of the trip, the bulk of our time was spent there, exploring everything there was to see. The rest of the photos that I got of Atlanta–Centennial Olympic Park, Lake Clara Meer and Piedmont Park, and Underground Atlanta, were really just incidental as we explored.

World of Coke, Pemberton Place, Atlanta

A great surprise that we hadn’t anticipated was the Korean food in Atlanta–apparently there is a sizable Korean population in this southern city, and there is therefore an abundance of Korean markets and supermarkets, traditional and modern Korean restaurants, and Southern/Korean fusion. Hanna and I were both able to satisfy our cravings at the very good Sobban–a modern take on familiar Korean fare, in a cleverly converted Arby’s–and at Ssam, which combined some of our favorite loves: burgers (me) and Korean food (Hanna). We are assured now that if we ever lose our minds and decide that we’d like to move to a city where we can spend hours of our day sitting in traffic at every hour in every conceivable situation, we’ll at least have good dining choices that won’t involve intense negotiation!