Vacation 2010: Homeward bound!

After hoping for blueberry donuts at each hotel breakfast buffet we'd seen, the boys were delighted to find them on the final morning of our vacation. (Unfortunately, the "chocolate" donuts there were inedible.)Soon after leaving our Mississippi pit stop, we crossed Ol' Man River.

From there it wasn't long before we saw a highway sign for Dallas.

And then: TEXAS!

It was so good to be back on Texas soil and driving on familiar highways!

It was still daylight when we pulled into our driveway that evening.

We began our trip with 55,777 miles on the Trailblazer.

When we got home?
59,091. That's 10 states (plus the District of Columbia) and a whopping 3,314 miles over 13 days!

What a trip, what great memories, what a blast. Whew!

Vacation 2010: Atlanta - Georgia Aquarium BONUS FEATURES.

Our fishy friend:

(If you listen closely, you can hear Brett say, "I think he's purty. He needs a home in Texas.")

Close encounter of the whale shark kind:


Window on the watery world:


Synchronized school and weird wigglies:


I don't think you're ready for this jelly:


Our friend Ray:


Belugas and seals:

Vacation 2010: Atlanta - Georgia Aquarium.

Not quite five years old, the Georgia Aquarium has already gained a fantastic reputation. Since it's the world's largest aquarium with eight million gallons of water, LOTS of people flock there to take it all in. And that's what we found when we arrived that morning: LOTS of people.

We had planned to go to the World of Coke first, but when the ticket line for the aquarium was crazy long, we went ahead and bought tickets for that. Instead of getting tickets for a later admission time, though, our tickets were for right then. Oops. As it turned out, we had a great time at the aquarium, and by the time we left, the line for World of Coke was prohibitively long. So much for our "aquarium now, Coke later" plan. I was disappointed to miss out on that attraction, but really, the aquarium alone was worth the stop in Atlanta.


After walking into the large center area, you can visit any of the exhibits. They include:

• Cold Water Quest, home to beluga whales, harbor seals and penguins
  
• River Scout with alligators and freshwater fish, including piranhas
  
• Georgia Explorer, which has touch pools and a shrimp boat mock-up
  
• Tropical Diver, home to jellyfish, coral reefs and Nemo-esque fish
• Ocean Explorer, the big daddy with the 100-foot-long walk-through tunnel, gigantic acrylic viewing window and the 6.3 million gallons of water

Here are just some of the many, many highlights:

in the Ocean Voyager tunnel

This guy quickly became our favorite. The pattern on his "skin" (scales really) was interesting, and with that knot on his head, he always looked concerned. And then we saw him eat and enjoy a post-meal burp. Gross! Funny, but GROSS!






The ginormous viewing window in Ocean Explorer is 23 feet tall, 61 feet wide and 2 feet thick. Impressive.


This school was in the Tropical Diver section.

We could've watched the jellies dance for hours.

R&K with a friendly whale shark

Ryan and Katie get up close and personal with the rays in the touch tank.

This little guy was positively needy! He kept coming around and out of the water to get a touch or two. Very ChaCha-esque.


Shrimp boat in Georgia Explorer section (whale slide is to the right)


"As you will, blue gill!" (It's a music camp joke. You had to be there.)



Check out the fish I saw in the River Scout section!

Otters! They're so tired out, and they haven't even been on the road for 13 days!

The belugas were so graceful in their big Coldwater Quest tank! But then one of them took a dump and it wasn't so pretty.

Sea dragons look like they belong more in a Dr. Seuss book than in an aquarium!



Before leaving the aquarium, we had to walk through Ocean Explorer one more time. That tunnel is so much fun, and the big viewing window is hypnotic.

From there we walked out to find our World of Coke plans obliterated (So. Many. People.), and all the restaurants in that Centennial Olympic Park area were packed. Hungry and tired, we hit the road and found a Cracker Barrel, Katie's favorite. There we were able to fuel up and regroup, and I changed our hotel reservations so we could get farther east and lessen our driving time the next day. (It's funny because I had already changed our reservations to allow for MORE time in Atlanta, but since we left earlier than planned, I ended up changing them again!)

By this point in the trip, we were all pretty road-weary but so very thankful for all the amazing things we'd seen!

Stay tuned for video from our aquarium adventure, including the burping fish!

Vacation 2010: Kill Devil Hills, NC, and Columbia, SC.

Another advantage of our OBX hotel was its proximity to the Wright Brothers' memorial. On this stretch of land not far from the beach, the age of flight began.




This stone marks the starting point for the first flights.

Nearby there's a centennial marker that was placed in 2003.

Then there are these stone markers to designate the distance traveled by each of the first four flights. After we saw the third marker, I thought we'd seen 'em all. Then we saw the fourth one WAAAAY down the path (852 feet, in fact).


We were all inspired to take flight!

It wasn't hard to find the brothers' inspiration!

Also on display are models of their rustic on-site camp.


These guys from Ohio set up this home-away-from-home while they conducted their tests.

"They taught us to fly."

The memorial pylon marks the location of the glider tests in 1902.

There's Amelia Earhart!

It really was interesting to be in this spot where such a world-changing event took place.

After that educational stop, we felt obliged to pay a visit to Duck Donuts. We'd seen signs for it all over town, and our boy just happens to be a connoisseur of the donut. Unfortunately, these treats paled in comparison to our fave, T&D. After that stop plus a little souvenir shopping, we had to hit the highway for our long drive to Atlanta.

Along the way we passed an exit for Farmville, which shares its name with the Facebook phenomenon.

Hello, South Carolina!

At a truck stop, we were well aware that we were in SEC country now!


I was thrilled that our path took us through Columbia, SC. A dear friend from college is a professor at the University of South Carolina, so we dropped by his home that afternoon.

Although we missed getting to meet Ed's husband, we at least got to visit with Dora the cat and Elvis (holding one of Ed's books). Ed was the ringleader of our big spring break road trip to Graceland 20 years ago, so our Memphis visit on this vacation brought back lots of memories.

Considering his travels (he had just returned from a semester in Ireland), I was thrilled that Ed was in town when we passed through. It was great to see him!

From Columbia it was on to Atlanta, our last tourist destination of this incredible vacation.