The main reason we decided to go to Atlanta was because Dave wanted to see the Braves play in their home stadium. We’ve seen them play in a few different stadiums, but not at Turner Field. Our hotel was only a couple of blocks away from the stadium and to get there we walked right by where the Olympic Torch from the 1996 games is kept.

Once we were there, Pete found his little league number outside the gates.   21 was worn by the left-handed pitcher Warren Spahn. Spahn was Inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame in August of 1999.

Once we were inside Dave took his standard “view of the field from way up high and behind home plate” photo.  We both were pretty excited about that thing in the upper left corner, to the left left of the Delta sign.

Still can’t see it? It’s a 40 foot tall, 15,000 pound tomahawk chopping mechanical cow.  Awesome! Dave wants one for his sports basement.  For the first time, I’m actually sort of glad we don’t currently have a basement.

And because I should include at least one photo of the actual game, here’s Dave’s boy Jeff at bat.

Dave was a happy boy.  He got his fill of baseball food: peanuts, beer, hot dogs, dippin’ dots, and of course a sno-cone.  10 points if you can guess what color it was.

(see those freckles I mentioned before?)

He was nice enough to share it with Pete.

I got to wear my brand new Braves’ jersey for the first time.  I think I need a couple more Braves shirts so that I can mix it up a little and keep the scrapbook pages from being too boring (I’m a dork, I know).

Oh, and the Braves beat the Giants (11-5).  There was much rejoicing.

Wow.  I haven’t had much to say since I got back from Russia have I? I’ve been doing a lot of reading since I got home and today I just signed up for a knitting class.  Aren’t you glad I’m not boring you on a daily basis with all of that excitement?

I did just get back from a weekend trip to Atlanta though and so I have plenty of other things to bore you with.  I flew down to Atlanta (my most favorite airport ever) Friday after work.  I was a little concerned when I checked in and did not have a seat assignment, but it all worked out okay.  Dave’s parents were waiting for me there (his mom actually flew in about the same time as  I did).  We went to our hotel, checked in, waited for Dave to show up, and then all had a late dinner together.

Dave’s been spending a lot of time in the sun this past month – you should see the freckles on that boy.  Okay, you probably will see the freckles, I have pictures.

Anyway, Saturday morning after Dave’s brother and his family showed up we decided to head to the Georgia Aquarium.  We had some time to kill before the baseball game that night and we like fish.  Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure everyone else that was going to the Braves’ game that night had the same idea.  The aquarium was packed.  I’m really hoping we can go back again sometime, especially since we missed the sea turtles (my favorite).

Despite the hordes of people Dave got some really nice pictures.  He’s good like that.

We saw a whole bunch of Jellyfish (Sea Nettles to be exact).

And a whole bunch of other critters too.  This aquarium has over eight million gallons of water in it. They even had a tunnel we walked through and so were able to see the fish swimming over and all around us.  Very cool.  I could have sat and watched them swimming around all day.

We were trying to figure out if the fish could see us too.  Most of them seemed pretty oblivious to all the people, except for this guy.

He was staring like that the whole time we were there.

We were not limited to fish though.  We also saw these Giant Japanese Spider Crabs.

And here is the Giant Pacific Octopus.  Did you know that the each arm has two rows of suckers and may have has many has 1,800 of them per arm?  That’s 14,400 suckers!

Of course our trip would not have been complete without some quality time with the penguins.  The penguins at the Aquarium wear beaded bracelets to differentiate between them. Females wear pink and males sport blue.  African penguins may have up to 300 feathers per square inch on their body.  They also mate for life.  Aren’t you glad I include all these little facts? You’ll thank me when you’re on Jeopardy.

I think we spent the most time with this Beluga Whale.  Did you know the beluga whale is the only whale with a flexible neck?  Well, now you do.  The beluga whale is also called the white whale.  This guy is not Moby Dick though, his name is Nico.  He’s 17 years old and 12 feet long.  He came to Georgia 3 years ago from Mexico City on a Boeing 767.

And look who else we found before we left! It’s Deepo, not to be confused with the Disney character with the simliar name.

Next post: the baseball game! You’re excited, I can tell.