Spring fever has taken hold. We headed out to ZooAtlanta last weekend to enjoy the lovely weather and to try and catch a glimpse of the new lion cubs. They were not on exhibit, but the brood of new Asian Otters were most entertaining. Gallery is here.
technorati tags: zoo, gallery, photography
So we joined the brand-spanking new Georgia Aquarium last Fall, and soon after the opening discovered that you need roughly 6.5 years of advance booking to attend on a weekend. 
Actually, it’s more like 3-4 weeks, but being new-ish parents we just didn’t have much luck planning that far ahead given our work schedules and the little guy. We did finally manage to visit last weekend, and managed to enjoy ourselves, taking photos along the way (gallery here). If you have an aversion to crowds, you may still want to hold off. The place does not handle the flow of visitors very well, with various eddies and tide pools of visitors bunching up and screwing up my photos enjoying the varying views of the marine habitats. I’m a huge fan of aqauriums, and when I heard the main tank here is one of the largest in the world, I expected to see something like the old New England Aquarium I fell in love with during college. There, a continuous ramp wrapped around their centerpiece, a huge tank. In the Georgia version, there are only a few smaller windows into the main tank plus a huge ‘theater-like’ main window some 61 feet wide and 23 feet tall. It’s very impressive – but with the huge crowds, the setup of several (five to be exact) ‘exhibit areas’ tends to have visitors clumping up and blocking the best views. Patience is a virtue here!
technorati tags: georgiaaquarium, photography, undersea
Not that we’d been trying to show Sam how to do this, but after taking him to Amy’s performance with the Atlanta Ballet for the children’s showing of Peter and the Wolf, 
he picked up on that whole ‘applause’ thing. While he remained entranced with the performers from our front-row seat (we took advantage of a no-show), he loved watching the dancers and hearing not just one, but FOUR French horns. But whenever the crowd broke into applause, he just had to turn around. So yesterday, he decided to spontaneously clap first for Mom, then again when Dad came home from work. He’s a genius, I tell you! Click here to watch the video (Quicktime required).
technorati tags: sam, baby, clapping, atlanta ballet
In a bit of a role reversal, Sam’s weekly playgroup was held on a weekend so the member’s dads could get in on the action. Amy was working (Peter & the Wolf at the Fox with the Atlanta Ballet), so Sam and dad went stag. It’s a great group of people, and a very photogenic group of little boys and girls. Here’s the gallery. Above, Henry and Sam share one of the stand-up toys. And what do kangaroos have to do with our playgroup? Well, it has nothing to do with my name. However, it has everything to do with Zoo Atlanta being here in Grant Park, so each new crop of kids joins a playgroup named for an animal at our beloved zoo – and these guys were named after the set of marsupials that arrived while Amy was pregnant.
technorati tags: baby, playgroup, grant park