Jellyfish, Manta Rays and Otters! Oh My!

When we last left our Atlanta Adventurers (Pup, Ninja Kitty, Coco and MeMe), they had just eaten a fantastic meal at The Porter and set off for the Georgia Aquarium. A few fun facts about the Georgia Aquarium before we continue with our story: It's the world's largest aquarium; its tanks hold more than 8.1 million gallons of marine and fresh water; and it is the home to more than 100,000 animals of 500 different species. UNBELIEVABLE! Now let me give you the top ten reasons why Ninja Kitty loves the Georgia Aquarium:

10. It's pretty.

9. You can touch things...like baby sharks, sting rays and anemonaenenane.

8. They have some pretty cool merchandise like stuffed toy jellyfish made with scrunchies.

7. Their merchandise also includes an extensive line of otter toys of various sizes and cuteness.

6. It's MASSIVE! Therefore leading to a great amount of exercise for the day.

5. The jellyfish tank will put you in a relaxing trance.

4. Questionable-looking cartoon characters walk around looking questionable.

3. They have otters (Small Asian Clawed Otters to be exact).

2. They have one of the most exhilarating rides in the world...the people mover in the tank tunnel clocking at a whopping 1 mph.

1. Did I mention the otters do tricks?

So there you have it! And now back to our tale...

As you know, we were off to the Georgia Aquarium to see all of its glory. I was excited, Coco was excited, Pup was excited and MeMe wanted to go to The World of Coke. But I had been building this up to Pup so the experience had to knock his socks off. I was determined to make sure he saw, smelled and touched everything he could! And this is what happened.

The fish that greeted us at the entrance

Coco is sooo excited for the touch pool

Lord knows MeMe was excited to touch some creatures!

Coco "testing the waters," if you will

Mames demonstrating the two finger touch ("Solo dos!")

Coco touched a shark...she was happy

Pup being birthed from the vagina slide

Pup playing with other kids...that fat one was a bully

The aquarium even had a river cooter! Imagine that!

MeMe looking bored...the river cooter didn't interest her

Creepy piranhas that sat still in the water

We turned around a corner and look what we found!

Little bebe otters performing for their food

Doesn't it look like they're part of a bebe otter a capella group? No? Just me?

I then began to feel sad for leaving Bartholomew Cubbins at the house

But we found new friends to play with to take Bartholomew Cubbins' place (but only for a few fleeting moments)

Pup wouldn't let me get monster truck sized Bartholomew Cubbins because he was "too big"

Same old, same old--MeMe gets attacked by a toy manta ray...you can't take her anywhere

It seems like MeMe may have found a new friend

Coco refused to take a picture with the very nice breakdancing shark

By the anemonaeneanne touch pool. I was told they were very squishy.

The biggest crabs I've seen in my life!

Some fun little sea dragons swimming around

Upon seeing this tank, I was reminded of the song "Baby Beluga"

We finally made it to the water tunnel...it felt like we were on the most insane rollercoaster ever

In this picture, you can see the wind from the tunnel blowing into Pup's face

Pup's amazed by the monster manta rays hovering above

I believe the woman in the front is scared for her life...yes, the people mover was just that ridiculous

And as if things couldn't get any better, we were introduced to the jellyfish

Bunches of jellyfish all bunched together

Coco taking one of 1000 jellyfish pictures

The prettiest jellyfish there ever was

Pup teaching Coco about the makeup of a jellyfish

The largest tank in the WORLD! Please note the humongous whale shark swimming around like he owns the place

I figured out that the Georgia Aquarium is quite clever.  The reason why you ask?  They put the exit in the gift store!  So parents are forced to cart their little bebes through the store and are basically strong armed into buying their kids one of these fine toys...

MeMe and the fish they call "Deepo" which suspiciously sounds a lot like "Nemo"

The otter merchandise extravaganza began with the Harry Otter shirts

Coco and Bartholomew's cousin Frank harmonizing to "You're a Grand Old Flag"

Oh look! MeMe found an otter of her own!

MeMe doing what she does best--freaking out Coco

I wasn't really sure what child would have a name like "Haul Booty"

The Georgia Aquarium was such a memorable place but I think the image I'll cherish most is the one of this woman smelling her fingers after petting some kind of sea creature. Ahhh...memories.

Pup and Ninja Kitty Take Hotlanta

Pupster may be my bf (boyfriend) but I’ve always had another bf (best friend): Coco. Coco(see her blog @ afquinn.blogspot.com) and I met in the fall of 1999 during our freshman year at St. Bernard Prep School in Cullman, AL. We’ve literally been best friends since then and now we’re going on 10 years of best friendship. Needless to say, I was uber-de-duper excited to see her for the first time in a year. More importantly, I was excited to introduce the boyfriend to the best friend.

Ninja Kitty/Kiwi and Coco circa October 2005

Coco and I planned a jam-packed trip thanks to our attention to detail and absolute boredom at work. We did so much that I had to split up posts in an odd sort of way. You can thank us both for your handful of days filled with blog amusement and entertainment. You're welcome.

Much Awaited Arrival, Beers Galore and Corn!

Pup and I left LA on a nonstop red-eye flight to Hotlanta. We arrived in the dirrty South at 5:50 a.m. and were greeted by Coco, MeMe (another close friend from back in high school) and the new pup Norman who is such cutie!

Please take this time to note the adorableness of Norman

Norman's best otter impression

Once we got to the O'Quinn residence, the exhaustion from travelling set in. It was no surprise that Pup and I were ridiculously exhausted from our night of travel. I definitely believe that red-eye flights are efficient (flying while sleeping is brilliant) but I've found that Pup and I don't fly well during the night hours. We wised up for this trip and popped some Tylenol P.M. to help us sleep and let me tell you, that stuff really works! I passed out and whenever I woke up, the world felt like it was melting around me. Quite the experience.

Anyways, Coco had to go to work so Pup, MeMe and I hit the hay...not in the same bed though. Fast forward to 4 hours later: we finally left the house to meet up with Coco for lunch at The Porter (http://www.theporterbeerhouse.com/). Coco chose this restaurant specifically for Pup's love for beer. Kudos to Coco because their beer selection was out of this world and Pup was more than ecstatic to find one of his favorite brews.

The insanely long beer list--pages long

One of Pup's fave beers, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Let it also be known that the Porter was the place where Pup ate his first hush puppy! This historic moment is documented below:

The fanciest hush puppies I've ever had (with a special applesauce dip)

Pup going for a puppy

Pup savoring the tastiness

After stuffing ourselves silly on some tasty food (despite the salty fries), we made our way through Atlanta traffic to get to the Georgia Aquarium (http://www.georgiaaquarium.com/) which I will post about later on this week. *Apologies for this but I took too many pictures of the aquarium and was thus forced to dedicate a whole post to its awesomeness

For some post-aquarium drinking, Coco took us to the Sweetwater Brewery (http://www.sweetwaterbrew.com/) for their Friday tasting, but as we drove by, all we saw was a sea of people. Not just people though. They were all your typical Southern frat boys and sorority gals. Men wore the customary khaki shorts and colorful polo shirt; some wore baseball hats with their perspective SEC football team and of course the black sunglasses with those purple-y UV blocking shades and handy dandy neck strap were running rampant. Also, I'm pretty sure I saw a girl wearing pearls...yes, pearls.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the madness mainly because I was in such shock. So off we went to find something to do instead of sit in a small crowded area full of boozers. Lo and behold, we found ourselves at another classy restaurant with a good beer selection.

Abigail looking lovely with her hefeweizen

Pup pretending that he's holding a beer stein...so cool

MeMe and I ordered some corn to tide us over before dinner at Cracker Barrel

Really going for that corn

We again found ourselves satisfied with sweet tea and good beer as we made the trip down to Coco's family mountain house. We capped off the fun-filled day with a visit to Cracker Barrel for some traditional Southern cooking. I decided to go with a classic, chicken 'n' dumplins, which I heavily washed down with a nice tall glass of sweet tea. Needless to say, after a day like this, I was mighty happy to be back home in the South.

When Ninja Kitty's Bored at Work...

she watches Pup dance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17KUOQOlt8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2seAJsrtIbQ

Pup's so talented and strangely looks just like Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Weird...

THIS JUST IN!

BREAKING NEWS

At around 2:40 p.m. PST today, Pup disclosed to Ninja Kitty that he has never eaten the heavenly glory that is a hush puppy. It is speculated that gasps could be heard across the country when this secret was revealed.

"I can't lie and say that I wasn't appalled by the fact that Pup has never had a hush puppy," Ninja Kitty stated in an exclusive interview. "I thought I knew him, but obviously I have no clue who this person is or what he eats."

An unnamed source provided us with today's shocking conversation.

Ninja Kitty: oh man...i really can't wait for some southern food
Pup: Me niether
Ninja Kitty: i'm craving a hush puppy
Pup: I've never had one
I used to think they were only shoes for a long time
Ninja Kitty: GASPPPPPPPPPP
i might put that on the blog!
i am so appalled by that

Ninja Kitty is currently dealing with the situation as best she can and is looking forward to force feeding Pup an obscene amount of hush puppies when they go to Atlanta during the Labor Day Weekend.

Pup was not available for comment.