Up to Atlanta, Georgia - March 24th-30th 2007

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March 25th 2007: Stone Mountain Park and Georgia Aquarium

All of the movies are from the Georgia aquarium. Generally, if I have a picture and a movie of the same thing, the movie is better. Also, if there are multiple videos in a sequence (1, 2, 3, ...), it happens that the first is usually the best. I'd encourage you to watch all the videos enlarged: they're more impressive that way. Some specific remarks:

  • As you can see, the fish tank, big tank, and beluga whale tank are all impressively large.
  • The movie of sea dragons makes it appear that I've focused the camera on floating debris. But sea dragons are not floating debris! They're ephemeral, skeletal creatures. Pause and enlarge the video to study them. Or view and read about sea dragons on the web.
  • African penguins are bouncy.
  • African cichlids are colorful.
  • The way jellyfish (sea nettles, to be precise regarding the species) move is mesmerizing. Sadly, at this time my camera was running out of batteries and my backup set was in the car. The four movies I took of jellyfish are each frustratingly short. Yet, although no one movie captures a whole cycle of the contractions and expansions the body goes through, each contains segments of the movement, conveying the motion's essence.

There are movies associated with this collection.


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Random Sights While En Route
We found ourselves at John Howell Park when the road on which we were driving was blocked by a marathon on a perpendicular street. Rather than turning around immediately, we decided to get out and enjoy it. These tall trees are common in Atlanta.
Friendly passers-by took our photo for us.
Another shot. My attempt at a smile succeeded better than usual, though it's outclassed by Di Yin's.
Me and my slightly shaggy hair kneeling by some flowers.
We found ourselves at John Howell Park when the road on which we were driving was blocked by a marathon on a perpendicular street. Rather than turning around immediately, we decided to get out and enjoy it.

These tall trees are common in Atlanta.

Friendly passers-by took our photo for us.
Another shot. My attempt at a smile succeeded better than usual, though it's outclassed by Di Yin's.
Me and my slightly shaggy hair kneeling by some flowers.
Another random shot, this time taken from the car as we drove around trying to get past the marathoners.
A cute (and not atypical) side street. This one is fairly close to Stone Mountain Park.
Another random shot, this time taken from the car as we drove around trying to get past the marathoners.
A cute (and not atypical) side street. This one is fairly close to Stone Mountain Park.
Your Dekalb Farmers Market
Ah, vibrant nature! These trees are on one edge of the parking lot of the market. They're not out of the ordinary; while driving, we saw similar flora everywhere. This happened to be a convenient place to take a photograph. I did not include the market itself in this panorama, as the front of the market looked like any boring grocery store.
The one photograph I took inside the market before being told photographs were not allowed (!). Look at all the flags.
We bought lots of food from the Dekalb market for our picnic. From the left-to-right, top-to-bottom we got: grapes, tomatoes, tomato-and-onion focaccia, marinated mushrooms, lamb chile, lamb samosa, smoked fish, chocolate macaroon, cheese danish, ham-and-cheese croissant, and a slice of tiramisu. Obviously, we had leftovers and used them for breakfast the next day.
Ah, vibrant nature! These trees are on one edge of the parking lot of the market. They're not out of the ordinary; while driving, we saw similar flora everywhere. This happened to be a convenient place to take a photograph.
I did not include the market itself in this panorama, as the front of the market looked like any boring grocery store.
The one photograph I took inside the market before being told photographs were not allowed (!).
Look at all the flags.
We bought lots of food from the Dekalb market for our picnic. From the left-to-right, top-to-bottom we got: grapes, tomatoes, tomato-and-onion focaccia, marinated mushrooms, lamb chile, lamb samosa, smoked fish, chocolate macaroon, cheese danish, ham-and-cheese croissant, and a slice of tiramisu. Obviously, we had leftovers and used them for breakfast the next day.
Stone Mountain Park
An old, wooden mill.
A panorama of this part of the park. If you view the full-sized image, you can see a short stone wall in roughly the middle of the picture about a hundred feet from the camera's location. We ate lunch at the picnic table that's occluded by that stone wall.
The train that circles the base of Stone Mountain.
The bas relief of Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson David, and Robert E. Lee for which Stone Mountain Park is famous. It's the largest bas relief sculpture in the world. It was created by the same person who would later carve Mountain Rushmore. If you read the relief's history, it's a classic example of the funding troubles many large projects go through. This one, after multiple stops and starts, took about fifty years to complete. Also, Stone Mountain is the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. Sadly, this is my only picture of it and it doesn't capture its sheer mass. In fact, I didn't appreciate the sheer mass of it until later, as we drove out of Stone Mountain Park and got a distant view from which I could see the whole monolith. The base's circumference is more than five miles. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of it from this distant vantage point.
An old, wooden mill.
A panorama of this part of the park. If you view the full-sized image, you can see a short stone wall in roughly the middle of the picture about a hundred feet from the camera's location. We ate lunch at the picnic table that's occluded by that stone wall.
The train that circles the base of Stone Mountain.
The bas relief of Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson David, and Robert E. Lee for which Stone Mountain Park is famous. It's the largest bas relief sculpture in the world. It was created by the same person who would later carve Mountain Rushmore. If you read the relief's history, it's a classic example of the funding troubles many large projects go through. This one, after multiple stops and starts, took about fifty years to complete.

Also, Stone Mountain is the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. Sadly, this is my only picture of it and it doesn't capture its sheer mass. In fact, I didn't appreciate the sheer mass of it until later, as we drove out of Stone Mountain Park and got a distant view from which I could see the whole monolith. The base's circumference is more than five miles. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of it from this distant vantage point.

A closer look at the carving. It's about 100 feet by 200 feet, and 40 feet deep. That's a lot of depth for something that qualifies as bas relief, but I guess the size of the other dimensions makes it reasonable.
The fountain by the base of the mountain near the carving. There's a light show I didn't manage to attend in which light is projected above the fountain and onto the mountain. There's a large park for seating to the right.
A closer look at the carving. It's about 100 feet by 200 feet, and 40 feet deep. That's a lot of depth for something that qualifies as bas relief, but I guess the size of the other dimensions makes it reasonable.
The fountain by the base of the mountain near the carving. There's a light show I didn't manage to attend in which light is projected above the fountain and onto the mountain. There's a large park for seating to the right.
Georgia Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium's entrance looks like the prow of a ship.
A good example of downtown's skyline. The edge of Centennial Park is in the foreground. Taken from near the entrance to the Georgia Aquarium.
Di Yin and I in front of some fisheees!
The same fishes, shot without a flash.
Georgia Aquarium's entrance looks like the prow of a ship.
A good example of downtown's skyline. The edge of Centennial Park is in the foreground. Taken from near the entrance to the Georgia Aquarium.
Di Yin and I in front of some fisheees!
The same fishes, shot without a flash.
More fishes.
A sting ray.
Luckily, the sting ray decides not to dive to attack me, instead continuing onward.
Some garibaldi fish.
More fishes.
A sting ray.
Luckily, the sting ray decides not to dive to attack me, instead continuing onward.
Some garibaldi fish.
Spider crabs are creepy. Make sure the brightness on your monitor is turned up enough to see these. Spider crabs can grow to have a leg span the size of a car!
A beluga whale. I believe this one was about ten feet long. Some beluga whales were on "indefinite breeding loan from the New York Aquarium."
African cichlids.
A tank of piranhas. I took this picture not because they look cool--because they don't--but because it was unnerving to see a whole tank of fish remaining absolutely stationary. Not one moved an inch. It was easy to visualize them suddenly attacking in the blink of an eye: a scary idea.
Spider crabs are creepy. Make sure the brightness on your monitor is turned up enough to see these.
Spider crabs can grow to have a leg span the size of a car!
A beluga whale. I believe this one was about ten feet long.
Some beluga whales were on "indefinite breeding loan from the New York Aquarium."
African cichlids.
A tank of piranhas. I took this picture not because they look cool--because they don't--but because it was unnerving to see a whole tank of fish remaining absolutely stationary. Not one moved an inch. It was easy to visualize them suddenly attacking in the blink of an eye: a scary idea.
I think it's an electric catfish resting at the bottom of this tank, but I'm not sure. Before visiting the aquarium, I didn't realize there was such as thing as an electric catfish.
A big fish tank.
I think it's an electric catfish resting at the bottom of this tank, but I'm not sure. Before visiting the aquarium, I didn't realize there was such as thing as an electric catfish.
A big fish tank.
The Colonnade Restaurant
The Colonnade Restaurant. A single-story restaurant with its own parking lot on an ordinary street, it looks like innumerable other restaurants throughout the country.
A pear with cheese. And mayo. Not your typical rendition of this usually high-class dish.
A roll and butter.
Fried chicken (right) and collard greens (left).
The Colonnade Restaurant. A single-story restaurant with its own parking lot on an ordinary street, it looks like innumerable other restaurants throughout the country.
A pear with cheese. And mayo. Not your typical rendition of this usually high-class dish.
A roll and butter.
Fried chicken (right) and collard greens (left).