Georgia Traveler; Kids Tour of Georgia

On this episode of Georgia Traveler, it's our Kids Tour of Georgia. We embark on an American adventure in Marietta, scrub in on a little cabbage patch delivery in Cleveland, and enjoy an interactive neighborhood for kids, and Gainesville. But we begin our Kids Tour here in downtown Atlanta at the world's largest Aquarium. Look how luxurious George is! That's fantastic. Well, see you later, see you later! I'm sure it's no surprise that the Georgia Aquarium is on our Georgia Traveler Kids Tour of Georgia. But here's a little something you may not know. This is the world's largest aquarium with 8 million gallons of water, holding the largest collection of aquatic animals, including the largest collection of giant

grouper, potato grouper, tarpon, batfish, sawfish, black tip reef sharks, giant hammerhead sharks, woebagon sharks, and of course the only aquarium with giant manorays who love to hammer it up for the audience. When a family or an individual visits the Georgia Aquarium, we want them to experience the dream that our founder Bernie Marcus envisioned several years ago, which was to build the most entertaining aquarium in the world where you could learn about conservation. You could learn research about our animals, plus we want people to have fun and go home with a memory of a lifetime, but they've seen the largest fish in the world. They've seen a wonderful beluga whale, they've touched a shark, they've touched a stingray, in essence they've had just the time of their life. Right behind me you see the largest exhibit in an aquarium in the world, 6.3 million gallons. In this exhibit we have some really exotic animals.

Our whale sharks, we're one of only four aquariums in the world to have a whale shark, the only one in the world that has four. We also have a beautiful manta ray in this exhibit, 90, our little girl, it's about 11 feet wide now, about 700 pounds and growing. So when you come back to see us, you'll be even bigger. We also have about 60 sharks in this exhibit. If you're enjoying the Ocean Voyager exhibit and just get this overwhelming urge to just jump in, well you can. If you're over 12 years old, the Georgia Aquarium offers a journey with gentle giants. If you're a certified diver, you can scuba dive, if you're not, we have a program for swimmers or snorkeling. And first you come in, you get educated on the animals in the exhibit, our conservation efforts with these animals. And you get to suit up in your own wet suit and jump in the water and for 30 or 40 minutes you're swimming around with a safety diver and a dive master and you see all of these animals in their habitat.

Class time was fun, but splash time was better. Getting used to a regulator is kind of strange, but your brain eventually adapts. Your swimming team is paired up. My trusty partner was Blair, who was here on a birthday gift from his wife. Now when you first submerge your face mask, it's hard to believe where you are. Whale shark just went under. The swimming rule is look but don't touch. The whale sharks actually calculate your swimming pattern and come within inches of your limbs. No worries though, even though their mouths are the size of my car, their throats are no wider than a quarter. The hammerheads? Well, that's a different story, so stay by your partner. These animals get well fed every day, so they're not looking for food when you're in the water. They are very curious and they want to know who's in their space. The adrenaline rush when you get in and see those animals circling around is quite enticing.

So tempting to reach out and touch them, but you know you're not supposed to. Right off, one experience, one experience. Even enjoying a full day here at the aquarium isn't enough for you. How about an opportunity to sleep or at least spend the night with the fishes? During that sleep over time, you get to learn about our different animals. You get to actually spend the night watching those animals as they live in their habitat here at the Georgia Aquarium. After the day goers were funneled out, it was time to talk to the overnight gang. I found them by the touch tanks and they were ready for the big night. What's it like when you reach out and touch them? It's kind of slimy. Oh, there's one right there. You did the two finger touch, right? Yeah. Gotta be quick. I think they really like it when you do that. Are you excited about the overnight tonight? Oh, yeah.

Tell me what you're looking forward to. I'm just sleeping in front of the tanks and counting fish instead of sheep. That's a good one. I like that. Are you excited about the fish watching y'all while you sleep? Yeah. It's like their guardians. Almost. And that's the way you gotta think about it. They're gonna eat you. Basically, you gotta think of it as their guardians. They're protecting you. The thousands of marine animals, both big and small, were on display for their final performance of the night. Young, inquisitive minds absorbing one of a kind visuals. Some of mother nature's most amazing creatures. The children in this room were down for the night. However, in the tunnel room... Come on, fight! Okay, now it's time for bed. So our crew went home for the night and left the fish to the kids. All right, Cameron. You slept here right in front of the fish all night.

How was it? It was awesome. Awesome. Before you went to bed last night, asked if you were scared, and you said, no, I kind of looked at them as guardians. Tell me about that. How was it? It was actually just like they were guardians. I mean, they would swim past, and they'd like stay there for a minute, and then swim on. Tell me what your favorite fish is in this whole thing. The man's a prey. I mean, not just because it does flips, but because of how smoothly it glides through the waters. Beautiful. We played hide and go seek in the aquarium. That was really cool. Most people are good to say that. My favorite part was viewing the whale sharks, blue goils, and the penguin. So whether it's a night sleeping under the fish, or an afternoon with the fish, the Georgia Aquarium offers kids an aqua marine experience. You can't find anywhere else on Earth. We love Georgia Shabbler. Let's journey to a nursery away in the hills to Cleveland, Georgia for some cabbage patch thrills.

Millions of fans, those young and young at heart, can still recall bringing home their very first cabbage patch kid. Today, some of Pop Cultures' biggest names are fans of the wide-eyed, soft-sided, double-dimpled, Dudley kids. That's the wonderful thing about being here at Babyland General Hospital is that people come in maybe a mother and a daughter, but then they bring back and ensue and it's the whole entire family. In fact, our collectors, some of the stories that they've told is that they adopted a baby in 1983 when they had first heard about cabbage patch kids. And 20 years later, they're still adopting their babies and they've got hundreds of cabbage patch kids. It's something that the entire family can do,

and that's another fun thing. In 1976, Cleveland native Xavier Roberts began hand stitching what were then called little people using a German technique called needle molding with American quilting skills he learned from his mother. Fans can still find cabbage patch kids made by hand and at Babyland General, even the cabbage leaves are hand stitched. At the heart of Babyland General is the cabbage tree because as everyone knows, that's where cabbage patch babies are born. Dr. Amplers, it's time to go. Dr. What's the status? Dr. Valerie, we have a mother cabbage dilated 10 leaves apart. That's normal. That's normal? Yes. Babyland General is a magical place where children can bring their parents,

celebrate with friends, help out in the nursery or take the most important oath of all. The promise to love and care for your very own cabbage patch baby. With all my heart, to give, to give, my special cabbage patch kid, my love and care. And I will, in every way, be the best, adoptive parent in the world. Congratulations! I'm ready to cut the cord doctor. Well, not the cord yet. Let's do an easy autumn. Very good. Just right here, if you can get that right there

and push, don't push each other. Here we go. Baby's head is first. That, thank you, doctor. Thank you, doctor London. Here we go. Head first. And perfect, beautiful blue eyes. Just a little difficult to hear. Go ahead and, doctor Valerie, you're doing great. Yes, yes. Are you okay? Oh, I see. Yes, it's a beautiful blue eye. It's a beautiful blue eye. It's like a beautiful blue eye. Oh, let me get the blanket. Okay, very good. Here we go. Oh, baby. Oh, a beautiful girl. Oh, it's a girl. Recently, baby land general moved from its original location in busy downtown Cleveland to a sprawling new home just minute away. The visitors are always welcome and admission is free. We broke ground in 2007 and we are finally culminating a dream that Xavier had when he first started. One of the things that Xavier always said, dream big.

And when he first started hand stitching his babies and then he opened baby land general hospital was a 14,000 square foot facility. And the one that we are in now is 70,000 square feet facility. And the backdrop is on 100 acres with a beautiful mountain setting. Oh. Oh, doctor Valerie, I think with all this rain we've had lately. Oh, my goodness. Looks like another baby on the way. Oh, my goodness. Let me cover this one. Here we go. Okay, got that baby. Got this one. And here we'll need a clip. Just a tiny little clip. Very good. Perfect. Oh, my. Oh, my goodness. Looks like another girl. Another girl. How great. Oh, beautiful baby girl. Yes. Oh, good. Good timing, doctor Valerie. And another baby girl. She is gorgeous. Beautiful twin babies. Oh, my great.

I wonder. Must have been a lot of... Dr. London. We have another baby, doctor Valerie. Another baby. What a special baby land general. Push. Push, good, good. Oh, how perfect. Oh, my. Oh. Well, we finally got a handsome little boy. Boy, little boy. Oh, great. Oh, you're doing so good here. Thank you, Dr. Valerie. Yes. Thank you. Oh, that's... Oh, mother cabbage. Oh, this is so well. Three. Oh, great. Oh, you did so great. Thank you. This is Shelly. She is three years old, right? And she is going to help me choose a cabbage patch exclusive, which I understand you can only get here at baby land general hospital or you can get it online. So you're going to help me choose one, right? Which one? You like this one? Okay. You want to help me get it out?

Because they're not easy. You ready? Okay. Let's go. Oh, my goodness. Wow. She's pretty. Do you have a name you want to give her? What do you think? In a bell? That's a beautiful name. Well, say hello, Annabelle. In addition to being the home of cabbage patch kids and cabbage patch babies, the new baby land general was also designed as a baby land general was also designed as a meeting place for corporate retreats. But who wants to spend all day in a meeting when you have all of these friends waiting to welcome you? Just north of Atlanta an adventure awaits from planes and trains to several spinning things. American adventures awaits your arrival. I'm here to American adventures in Marietta and no better place to have our Georgia traveler kids tour of Georgia.

But I needed someone to keep me safe here on all the rides, brought along my nephew, Austin. And you know what? I even got a shirt for him. A Georgia traveler shirt. Made it myself. It's all fitted up. Perfect sizing for you. Let's see how we do here. Hey. There we go. What do you think? This shirt's too big. Ah. Maybe you're right, but you know what? Let's go anyway. Ah. It's open to all kids of all sizes. We've got something for everybody. We have wristbands that people can do it all day so they can go on the rides as many times as they'd like. Or if they choose they can go on specific rides once or twice and just do specific things. We do have a lot of safety requirements for the rides. We have height requirements for them so they have to be at least 36 inches to do a lot of the rides. Smaller kids can ride with adults. We do have an accompanying wristband for the parents. Some of the rides, like the coaster, the scrambler, took the world good for the adults as well as the go-karts. Other rides like the truck wagon here, adults can't ride again. It's just size-wise and for safety's sake.

Austin, I don't know the guys driving this. Be careful. I'm not allowed on the train, unfortunately. Maybe they'll let me on the crazy bus. We've had a good time going on a few rides to swing the train. Now it's time for the crazy bus. You ready? I'm good David. The crazy bus is closed. That's crazy. I guess we'll ride something else. Alright, Austin is off getting some lunch. I found a couple more American adventurers here. I've got Samantha. Your favorite ride so far. How about you, Garrett? I like the scrambler on the roller coaster. What was about the scrambler you like? It's been so fast in it. It kind of circles so much. See, when I spin a lot, I start to feel kind of funny. Does it do that to you?

No. Alright, Austin, you've been talking about this ride all day. This is your favorite one, the scrambler. Well, what does it do? It scrambles. Oh, no. If you could come here every day during the summer, would you come here every day? Yes. Alright, would you ride the scrambler every day? What do you think about the super slide? Tell y'all go on the super slide with that fun? Yeah, but I wish I went faster. Really? See, when you're my weight, you go a lot faster. So the trick is to eat a lot of cotton candy while you're here. You'll get real big, and you'll go real fast. I don't want to get big though. That's a good point. Stay slim. You know, it's helping. Alright, guys. Well, can I get a high five?

Woohoo! Alright, well thanks a lot. See you later. I'm inspired by Garrett and Samantha's awesome sliding experience. Costin, my sister and I took to the slides. With my superior weight advantage, I was sure to win. Right? Alright, and three, two, one, go! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Oh, Costin! Let's go in! He's going to win! Ty! She lost. She beat her. Well, super slides. It's about 60 feet in the air. And it has three lanes. And the kids wide down on sex. And they love it. They just go over and over and over again a lot of times. Next, it was off to the go carts and experienced for older kids. You know, usually I am the one to get stuck with the slow cart, but not this time. At least on this day, speed was my middle name. As for the bumper cars, the same story. Ultimate domination.

Except for the part where I was ganged up on an end. Meanwhile, while I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, some other American adventurers took to the putt putt course. A golfing adventure with water and challenging obstacles that would give a tour golfer fits. But that's not all. One of the coolest park adventures lies inside the main building. Along with over 75 cool arcade games and a rocking dance machine. Check out the news. American adventure serves up the foam factory. The foam factory is a three-story play place. It has a lot of foam balls on the ground. Conveyors, vacuum to suck them up with. It's got three large slides, as well as some guns and things to shoot the balls on the upper levels. Craziness and the foam. Domination on the roads. And a spinning good time with my fearless nephew. Make American adventures a place I've got to revisit. Over and over. Over and over.

Over and over. Again. There's an imaginative place in Gainesville that lets children run the town. A role-playing interactive neighborhood for kids known as Inc. If you're ever traveling, Georgia, looking for the perfect adventure with your tiny tike, drop into Inc. in Gainesville. It's a neighborhood built just for kids. I was a stay at home mom and with three small children four walls get really, really small. We started having some play groups together at the house. And kids would play together and the moms would hang out together. And eventually my house just really, really got way too small. So we had to find another location. We created Inc. Our interactive neighborhood for kids.

A place where families and students and teachers can come and play and learn at the same time and have fun. At Inc. kids can do more than just play grown up. The whole environment, the whole world, is just for them. Where you want to go next, put your favorite thing. Yeah. Yeah, okay, that answers it. How about being the vet for the day and rescuing their favorite pet and making them better, or even being a doctor or a nurse and bringing somebody back to their normal health state? Let's see, we got a library. We got a grocery store. Do you want to go shopping? Yeah. Okay then, here's your cart. You want to push it? Pick up some groceries? It's something that we have to do on almost a weekly basis and go and shop even to our bank. Where they can be the bank teller or even receive money out of the ATM machine. All of those seem to be great learning experiences and things that they'll take home with them.

The interactive neighborhood for kids is a great experience for children from two years old, like Connie here. Say hi. The kids as big as me. How do you get out of here? Our normal age range is about two to ten to twelve, just depending. But my phrase that I like to use is, everybody's a kid at ink. Woohoo! That was fast. If you can imagine, you're a kid and you can be a kid at ink. So all ages. All right, all more. All right, we're leaving. Ink is truly a community project with exhibits donated by private citizens and the local government. Our fire truck is on permanent loan from the city of Gainesville. It's in 1927, American The Finance Fire Truck. Its name is Leaping Lena and the reason it's name is Leaping Lena is

when they step their foot off the clutch, it pops or leaps. So it got its name early on. I'm too old to drive this thing. Looks like you're going to have to be in charge. We got a fire over in Smirna. Let's take care of it. All right, fire chief. He wears many hats. There is so much room here at the ink museum. I mean, this room alone, you could fit an airplane in here. Whoa! All right. The gentleman came through and said, you need that airplane. And I said, create it for us. And he actually got some individuals together. Worked down it on the weekends for a year and a half to create our phenomenal polka-dotted airplane. Hey, y'all, who's flying this ship? All right, where are we going? Antarctica. Antarctica, here we come.

How does this thing do in icy weather? Inks philosophy is to learn by doing. It's something they take very seriously. And what we're going to do is we're going to use this sheet and we're going to go into the grocery store and help identify things in good, good, and strong. It's all through hands-on learning and just using your imagination and creating. And yes, it is a very educational environment. We all learn better by doing. We remember better by doing things. And this is all the concept of ink. Another great thing they have here at ink is the 50s diner. You have the old 45s. You got the old Coke machine, the jukebox, all kinds of things. And the kids have even cooked something up for me. In the microwave, that's kind of 80s. But all right, let's see, we got an oven mitt. We got a pickle in a pan. And a pizza. I guess I'll go with the... I'll leave for somebody else. I want them to take home a positive experience. I want them to feel really good about themselves.

Everybody needs a little positive energy and hopefully we've created that from ink. Ink was so much fun. Connor had a great time. And you want to know something? I did, too. Hey, Connor. Take, bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, that concludes our Kids Tour of Georgia. Val, George and I hope you join us next time. Until then, Pleasant Journeys. On the rules of most every day, looking for place where you can play. Looking for the best place you can. Two, one. If you're ever enjoying the Ocean Boyd, your exhibit. All right. And three, two, one. Where's George and Tramper? Well, we're from Georgia. We're from Georgia. Hello. Hi. Yeah, we'll cut it away.

What's your name? Lakeland. Lakeland. All right. Are you excited about the name? It's all on. Yeah. Just scary a little bit. It may be. What do you have to say? No. What do you say? Tell them your name. What's your name? McKenzie. McKenzie. My name is in. Don't do that. Yeah, don't do that. Georgia Traveler is produced in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Well, we're from Georgia. We're from Georgia. And we travel. And we travel. That's why we call. Woohoo! That was fast.