Vacation 2016 - Atlanta

We arrived in Atlanta Sunday evening.  Our hotel was in a great location - right in Downtown Atlanta - although as it turned out, there was a lot of road noise throughout the night. We did not anticipate that.  The hotel was great until about 5 minutes in when we realized that it had no pool. Mommy fail! Harrison was devastated. So he and I went on a walk around the block to cool ourselves and look for something to do. We were within a very short walking distance to Centennial Park and its Olympic Ring splash pad.  So Mommy saved the day - or so I thought.

When we got there, it was very crowded and big sis was not interested in splashing around. So that meant that H wasn't interested either. Instead we sat and watched other people have all the fun.

And maybe did a little complaining...

 But then we rode the SkyView which seemed to make the little one a little happier.

Some things I learned on this vacation:  1;  Harrison is still exhausting when you get him in a big city full of lots of people. He doesn't listen or pay attention any better than he does at home. Shocking, I know.  2. When you have a child like my Little Man, dress him in brightly colored clothes. I didn't plan that, but it worked out well. We just looked for his shirt and usually could find him easily. A neat parenting tip that I didn't really think of purposefully but benefited from.

We headed out to the Zoo Atlanta on Monday. I enjoyed that very much. They had pandas and a large gorilla exhibit. Plus the kids got to feed some pretty birds and see the usual residents of a zoo.

After the zoo, we headed to Legoland - which is in a very affluent part of town, by the way. Let's just say our new Honda didn't really fit in with the Porsches, BMWs, Range Rovers, etc. But Harrison loved it. (And it was located close to a Cheesecake Factory, so a win for all involved.)

 Harrison built a car and raced it with some others.

 He also landed himself in the "jail" of this pirate ship activity area.

The best reason to visit Atlanta is to go to the Georgia Aquarium. Nathan and I could have stayed there for hours just watching these sea creatures swim around. This is a whale shark. They are just something to behold.

They also have some manta rays that are quite large. There is one swimming right at me in this picture. There was also a cute sea turtle but I didn't manage to get a decent picture of it.

The World of Coke is just across the way from the Aquarium, and Harrison ran into this little guy while we were there. The best part of the World of Coke is the tasting area. You can drink Coke products from around the world. Some are great, but some are really bad. There was one called Beverly that was especially bad - so I was told.

Atlanta also has a Children's Museum and Harrison thought this place was great as well. It had a little cafe area, and he and Jillian spent quite a bit of time there. By the end, he was pretending to cook and she was cleaning up after all the small children who had scattered everything all over.

 We also played in this sand/playdough kind of stuff. Some of us play nicer than others.

To keep it real... H wanted to do something (I don't even remember what it was) but he wasn't getting his way. So he decided to sit and cry about it. You know because nothing says, "Thanks, Mom and Dad, for this great vacation. I am having a great time!" like sitting in the middle of a super fun place and having a fit.

I did not include all the pictures but Nathan may have been was bothering Jillian in the moments just before this one was taken. He may be looking innocent, but rest assured, he very rarely is.

While the boys rested, Jillian and I visited the King Center. She is thinking about researching him for her History Day project this coming year, so I wanted to take her there. The exhibit there is very good. We also got to see the Ebenezer Baptist Church as well as MLK's birth home.

Our last night there, we drove out to Stone Mountain Park. We did this when we were there 6 years ago, but H wasn't born and J was little. We all completed the SkyHike - which is a ropes course. All 4 of us did all 3 levels. Harrison acted a little afraid at times, but I honestly think it was more about being silly than being scared. We don't have any pictures because they don't let you take anything with you. Then the three that aren't me did a little rock wall action.

If you don't know, Stone Mountain is just that - a big rock. On the side of the rock, there is a carving of Robert E. Lee and a couple of other Confederate heroes.

 They also have markers for all the states of the Confederacy. We found Arkansas's.

But the main reason for going is that they do a laser show after dark on the side of Stone Mountain.
Everything shuts down about 8, so you have lots of time to sit and wait for the show. So here we are - on our last night - sitting and waiting. But I did get some good snuggles from my Little Man while we enjoyed the cool show.

We got home about bed time last night. Everyone showered and slept in their own beds. It was nice. I have got almost all the laundry done and we cleaned house before we left. So tomorrow my real vacation starts (haha).