Last week I (Andrew) did a father-son trip to Atlanta with Steven… no girls allowed :). We were REAL lucky with the weather, downtown ATL topping out in the low 80's and overcast both days… very nice!

On Thursday we flew up, played around the ATL airport for a bit (daddy still had English pounds go change to US dollars & refused to pay the bank's $15 service charge) and then headed to check into our hotel. Steven loved Marta and the fact we had to take an open elevator up to the 42nd floor (daddy was a bit disoriented by the rapid climb in the open). Then we headed over the Georgia Aquarium which was incredible… highly recommended. They have the largest oceanic habitat (6M gallons) you can walk completely around and also through a tunnel in the middle. The viewing wall is 60' long, about 20' tall and is made of 2.5' (FEET) thick acrylic… great viewing of the many grouper, various types of sharks (hammer head, saw, black tips) and four 30' whale sharks. We then headed to Centennial Park and Steven had a blast on the playground with the other kids. After sucking down some waters, we headed back to the hotel where we got cleaned up. Steven was wiped out so instead of "fighting" a cranky 4yr-old, we did room service while we watched pay-per-view ($15 for Monsters vs. Aliens on a old-skool tube never so good :P).

Next morning we slept in, watched cartoons and did more room service. Then we headed to the Children's Museum where there were a ton of hands-on things to do. I wanted to take him to the dinosaur museum (Fernbank), but he wanted to go back to the playground again. After lunch in the CNN Center food court (where he thought it was so cool where you could see the room we were in on the live CNN broadcast), we headed to the World of Coke (his choice… hey, it was a trip for him :P). Unfortunately it wasn't worth the $25 in tickets we paid and the 4D movie scared the crap out of him (due to a really stupid special effect).

We then headed to the hotel, got our bags and headed to the airport. Dinner and ice cream in the airport, flew home (he saved me from talking to the weirdo next to me… I was happy to read Golden Books over and over for an hour) and he passed out during the drive ½ way home.

A very successful trip! If you're interested, here are our pictures:
http://cid-bdded38f29ae68b5.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Father-Son%20Atlanta%20July%202009%20Trip