The Stepp's Trip to the Georgia Aquarium

Back in June of 2006 my mother and I were on the phone talking about a good trip to take for the day. Since summer down South can get so hot we got tired of being copped up in the house and we needed a day away from it to have some fun. We decided to head up to Atlanta to the Georgia Aquarium and make a day of it. My husband couldn't make it because he was working but that wasn't going to stop me from going. See my husband and I work as a team when we go through Atlanta. If you have ever been through or in this city you know you need to at least have one person driving and another person telling you where to go as he or she reads the signs. The traffic in this town can be completely nerve wrecking. Still though I felt pretty safe since my mom was going with us.

We left rather early in the morning and thought since the Coca-Cola center was right next door the more time up there in Atlanta we could take on both places. We made it up there with no problems. It usually is a 45 minute drive from my town to Atlanta and we made it to the Aquarium in about an hour or a little less. I was pretty happy that we survived Atlanta traffic and thought that since we had no problem making it up there we could stay pretty much all day until at least 4 o'clock that afternoon, well at least until the BIG work rush traffic hit.

Oh the Aquarium was a blast, and the Coke center really went above and beyond my expectations. I will tell you that if you ever plan on visiting Georgia you need to check out these two places because you will really enjoy the atmosphere. Great places to take children to as well.

Now it was about 3:30 pm and we decided to head back to our car so we could get a little leg on the traffic. I pulled out of the parking lot where we had our car at and thinking I knew where I was going I didn't even bother to ask my mother who was busy getting my son settled for the trip home with a movie. There was the first mistake I took a left when I should of took a right. Once you get downtown Atlanta you really have no clue where you are. All the streets look the same and with all the side street traffic I didn't even get a chance to read the street signs because I was more worried about not hitting someone and keeping to my right. Let's just say I kept to my right a little to much and we ended up circling the Aquarium at least ten times. Finally we figured out which road we needed to take and which lane to get into on the tenth lap of the place and so we got into that lane well far in advance. Bam, traffic jam. We were caught in stand still traffic for over an hour. We were only like a mile or less away from the on ramp for the interstate. My son's movie by now was over and he had to go to the bathroom. Why is it when you are stuck in traffic your child has to go to the bathroom? I wasn't about to pull over anywhere and find a suitable restroom so I just dumped the rest of the coke out of my Big Gulp cup and told my mother to climb in the back of the car with him to help him pee in the cup. As Gabe was using our brand new, in the car restroom we were hysterically laughing because we knew that only we would be caught in this kind of situation. After my son was done relieving his bladder my mother said "Amy put this back up there". I thought she was kidding. I wasn't about to drive for no more then five minutes with a pee filled up sitting in the cup holder beside me so I rolled the window down once again and dumped it out!

Finally we were on our way on the on ramp for the interstate and made it home at 9 pm that night. Remember we got in the car at 3:30 to head home and home was only about an hour away. Talk about a little road trip that wouldn't end. Even to this day when we go through Atlanta we all laugh about that day and my son still says "that is where I used Mommas car as a bathroom!"