Road Trip: Day 9 (There's No Place Like Home)

We made the final leg of the journey home today. We started the day going by the new and old Louisiana state capitols, and then we crossed the Mississippi River for the last time. When we got to Lafayette, we decided to stay on I-10 into Texas and drove through the Sam Houston National Forest before finally arriving home.

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Road Trip: Day 8 (Gulf Coast & New Orleans)

We were planning to get up early and take a dolphin cruise, but a thunderstorm ruined those plans for us. We'll have to try again when we go to Galveston or come back to Florida.

In fact, this storm knocked down a power line beside our hotel, so we had to pack up and leave without electricity. Luckily, we packed up most of the stuff the night before because we were expecting to have to leave pretty early.

We decided to go back to the beach even though it was still raining some, but this time we decided to skip Pensacola Beach and go a little farther to Navarre Beach. Little did we realize at the time that we actually went halfway to Destin, Florida. ☺ The trip was well worth it, though, because it was a really nice beach.

You can't really tell, but I'm actually standing under an umbrella while taking pictures of everyone in the water. ☺

After we dusted the sand out of our shoes, we headed back on the road again. We stopped by the USS Alabama in Mobile to take a couple of pictures.

We decided to get off of I-10 and take US 90 so we could drive along the gulf coast. We went by the Biloxi lighthouse, and Mara and I got out to wade in the gulf again. (Jack was asleep, so John stayed in the car with him.) We also saw some sculptures that were carved out of tree that were severely damaged in Hurricane Katrina.

We went through New Orleans and tried to drive by the French Quarter, but it was so busy we could barely move. We ended up eating dinner outside of town at a seafood place before getting to our hotel in Baton Rouge.

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Road Trip: Day 7 (Centennial Olympic Park, Alabama, & Pensacola)

Today was the day we loaded up the car to start our journey back home.

We didn't want to leave Atlanta without going to Centennial Olympic Park, so we took a quick walk down there after breakfast. The fountains were neat because they were in the shape of the Olympic rings, and you could stand in the middle without getting wet.

Mara enjoyed sitting and just staring at Pemberton Place.(Really, I think she was longing to go back to Georgia Aquarium.)

We stopped by Varsity before leaving town to try one of their milkshakes before heading to Pensacola, Florida.

Our drive to Pensacola took us through Montgomery, Alabama, so we took a slight detour to drive by the state capitol.

After we checked into the hotel, we went down to Pensacola Beach for dinner. We ate at a place called Hemmingway's right on the boardwalk.

Even though it was dark, we went and dipped our toes in the water, which was a first for both of the kids.

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Road Trip: Day 6 (Georgia Aquarium, World of Coke & 4th of July)

Today was the day Mara had been looking forward to the most on the trip. Today we went to the Georgia Aquarium, the only place in the U.S. that is home to whale sharks (and mantra rays). I made the mistake of telling Mara a couple of months ago that she can go swimming with them after she turns 12, and she has already been planning a return trip here in five years. All before she even got here.

So, once we were finally in the doors, our first stop was the Ocean Voyager exhibit. This is one of the windows on the way to the large viewing area.

Then, we had to go through a tunnel where all of the sea creatures swam over you.

And then we finally made it to the viewing area where Mara was enraptured by all of the creatures and kept asking the aquarium employee questions about them.

From there, we went to see the belugas and were surprised to find out that we had seen three of the four before. I knew that we had seen Beethoven, the one on the far right in the picture below, before because he was born at SeaWorld San Antonio in 1992 and was back there for a little bit to help SeaWorld's breeding program. Come to find out, Maris, the one who sadly lost a calf earlier this year, was also at SeaWorld in 2009 while the Georgia Aquarium constructed its new dolphin show area. The youngest of the belugas (Qinu) was also born at SeaWorld San Antonio and was one of the ones we watched perform with her mom in 2008.

Mara got to touch an anemone, which stuck to her fingers when she touched it.

We stopped by to see the penguins, and Mara was able to pop her head up in the middle of the exhibit. (It was too tall to be able to see Jack in there.)

It was then time for us to go to the dolphin show. They don't allow you to take pictures during it, but I snapped this picture of Mara and me before the show started.

After the show, we stopped to watch the dolphins swimming around in their tank.

And then Mara and Jack stuck their hand in a tank, trying to touch some rays and bonnethead sharks (cousins of hammerheads).

We visited TJ, the loggerhead turtle who we saw featured on the show Ocean Mysteries.

Based on talks with staff at the Tennessee Aquarium, we thought we were going to get to see more cuttlefish at this aquarium, but sadly, they had an issue with them and didn't have any on exhibit.

We couldn't leave without taking one more peak at the Ocean Voyager exhibit. I do think the whale shark is close to moving over the killer whale as Mara's favorite animal.

(I wish I had gotten this picture when we were there earlier in the day because no one else was around. Mara's in between the two people who have their arms up.)

After the aquarium, we walked across Pemberton Place to go to the World of Coca-Cola where we saw the vault that house the formula and discovered the secret ingredient (us). We even got to pose with a replica of the Olympic torch and taste different Coca-Cola drinks from around the world as well as get our own bottle to take home.

After going back to the hotel for dinner, we headed back to Pemberton Place to watch the fireworks from Centennial Olympic Park.

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