Welcome to Shamu Stadium

It's a new show in the Shamu Stadium - - - it's called One Ocean.

This particular day the show included five killer whales.

They were very impressive. Such a wonder to see something so huge, jumping completely out of the water.

It was like they were playing!

This was my favorite photograph from our day at Sea World!

I wonder how many pounds of fish it takes in treats to get through the show?


One huge difference we noticed in this show was that the trainers no longer get in the water with the whales.
They used to swim with the whales and ride them around the tank.
This was as close as the trainers came to getting in the water.



The sun was starting to set, hence the pinks in the water and the pink/red reflecting on the whales in some of the pictures.

The whales still kick up the water - soaking anyone in the bottom section of the stadium - the splash zone.

He is literally spitting water out of his mouth - hahaha!

How can something this huge seem so graceful?

Another favorite photograph.

And, of course, they waved good-bye to us at the end of the show :).

Then we headed out to the parking lot to head back to the hotel. What a beautiful sunset!
If you haven't been to Sea World lately, you should definitely check it out!

And On the Fifth Day God Created the Creatures of the Sea

Not long ago, I won some annual passes to Sea World in a local auction. We hadn't been to Sea World in years.
We had a great day there recently!

The dolphins were a lot of fun! They were circling around - splashing and playing - while they were waiting to be fed.

I was pretty happy with some of the photos I got.

We laughed as we watched them play!

And, they had a little competition for the fish the trainers were throwing out over the water.
Then we went inside to the lower level where we could see the dolphin swimming.
I don't really have a clue how to take underwater shots, these were the best of what I took.



Next, we headed over to the sea lion tank. This was the coolest bird! And I have no idea what kind he is, except fluffy and pretty!

The sea lions weren't exactly happy with the birds getting part of their fish the crowd was feeding to them - hahaha!

I never realized how loud sea lions could be! Unbelievable!

Then there was this little guy - sitting there all alone - waiting - and waiting!

This is a close-up of the water in the photo above. I loved the way the sun was shining on the water -
making little starlight points in the sparkles! More photos to come soon from our day at Sea World :).

Lowry Park Zoo

The Lowry Park Zoo is my favorite place to go take photos. Normally there are a lot of babies.
Not true on this particular trip. This beautiful primate, known as a mandrill, was located in the Asian Gardens.

My favorite primate is the Wolf's Guenon, also in the Asian Gardens.

Yesterday, I talked with a blog friend living in Malaysia. She has wolf's guenons living in her neighborhood.
These little guys always want their picture taken. They pose for the cameras :).

Normally the black and white colobuses are good for a couple babies, but not on this trip.

Also in the Asian Gardens (can you tell that was my favorite part of the zoo?) are the nicobar pigeons.
They aren't so excited about my camera. I love their rich colors!

A cownose stingray. What a name - haha! but it fits.

Lionfish. Isn't he pretty?

Here you have an American Bald Eagle. This particular one is at the Lowry Park Zoo because it only has one wing.

I did not look up the official name for this guy. We have an abundance of these where I live. Our very own alligator.
I'd just as soon see them at the zoo instead of out on our lakes and waterways. Sorry, guys, nothing personal.
Well, maybe it is personal. I just don't care for the alligators. At all.

This is a gopher tortoise. We have a bunch of these, too. Sometimes in our yard. We used to have a dog who would
literally go find these and bring them to our porch. What a hoot! We'd put the turtle back in it's hole, and the dog
would go get it and bring it back to the porch. I guess he just liked them :).

Well, I learned something. I thought these were just 'flamingo's, but apparenty they are a special kind. They are Caribbean Flamingos. Who knew?

And there you have just a few of the pictures I brought home from the Lowry Park Zoo. If you ever get the chance to go there, be sure to take a camera.

You can see some of my earlier posts on the Lowry Park Zoo here, here, here, here, here, and here. This last one was a good day for babies :).

Swimmin' With the Fishes

Aren't these colors beautiful? This is what you see as soon as you step inside the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. Kali and I were able to visit the aquarium with my sister-in-law and her family.

The Georgia Aquarium is currently the world's largest aquarium with over 8 million gallons of water. It was a pretty amazing place. The first thing I noticed in the above tank was the orange striped fish, but the fish was not the focal point of this tank. Check out the Garden Eels. I'm told they are afraid of people in the wild. If challenged, they will flip over and shoot back down inside their holes to hide. They almost looked like rubber pencils.

Welcome to the jellies room. I didn't make note of specific names of the different types. I was trying to figure out how to get some decent photos in a room lit with black lights, whoa! My nieces shown above are not normally this color :O), thank you Mr. Black Light.

In this picture of Kali, you can get a general idea of the size of the tanks at this aquarium. This one was easily 15' high and spanned the entire length of the room, probably 40'. They were huge and filled with various types of fish.

They also had smaller specialty tanks. This pokey fellow is a zebra turkeyfish. Who knew that was a real fish?

Beautiful pink starfish. It was kind of sparkly.

These anemone were in a touch-tank. You could touch them to see what they felt like. Yeah, I was good without that part.

This was one of the river otters. They were small, like little puppies. Very playful and fast! I took about 20 photos and this was the best one!

The beluga whale has always been my favorite ocean critter. These two were really beautiful to watch! Such graceful swimmers!

I think it might be approaching naptime :O).

Living in Florida, I don't always get excited about seeing an alligator. But, how could I not take his picture when he swam right to me? And, he has such awesome teeth - lol!

This is an Elephant Nose Fish, named for the obvious reason.

Kali took this shot of the piranhas. Pretty cool looking fish.

Then we stepped into the "big fish" rooms. Here you were surrounded by water and fish. You walked, or rode, through a tunnel with fish literally swimming overhead and on both sides. Above is a shot of a huge stingray and a goliath grouper.

Same grouper. He seemed somewhat interested in the people watching him and would swim right up to the cameras. He was probably the fish I enjoyed the most at the Aquarium. Those are yellow-tailed snappers with the yellow tails :O) (duh.)

A 6' sawfish. Just beautiful!

Maybe I missed the connection to "aquarium". This little guy is a gecko, one of four in their new Gecko Display. Not sure what that has to do with the ocean, but it must have some relationship.

One tired little angel. She has a wonderful grammy who got her a stuffed beluga. Grammy likes belugas, too :O).

Yeah, I know this isn't a fish, not even close. But you know I like taking photos of cute little statues and she certainly qualifies for that! I found her in the gift shop. Don't you just love her wreath made of seashells?

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I hope you enjoyed your stroll through the Georgia Aquarium. It was definitely worth the trip.