This year I am making an attempt to use some of my vacation before December so I don’t take the entire month off and sit around home.
We have talked about visiting some places in the “near” South for a couple years now, so we decided to extend the Labor Day weekend a few days and head to Georgia. Left Friday night and drove until we got tired, then woke up in the morning and were at the Coca Cola exhibit shortly after lunch! It was interesting seeing all the old advertising Coke has used over the years (except for the “pixie” looking person with the blond flame upswept hair whom I find oddly disquieting.)
Next we tromped around Underground Atlanta. If you have been you know what it is, if you have not, most likely you could save a little shoe leather. Lots of flea market stuff, just down a level where the trains used to run. I can now say I have been there and seen it, but am pretty certain I will not ever visit again.
Having done those we went to hotel, rested the feet, showered and went to dinner at Fogo de Chão . Having now been to the original in Sao Paulo Brazil, the one in Washington DC and now Atlanta I may be able to claim some type of record. (As always employees are not eligible.) May have to try Chicago one of these days just to round it out. While the photo may not be technically correct, I liked this one since it has me drooling over the coming meal, and also has the name albeit in reverse, showing – my attempt at “arty”. Sunday we had tickets to see the Georgia Aquarium after lunch (you really need to have reservations) so we went down early to walk around Centennial Park and then eat at CNN building.
We didn’t leave enough time to take the tour of CNN but walking around the shops, and a quick lunch there was fun. You can get a DVD made of you reading the news from the teleprompter while sitting at the anchor desk for something like $20 if you like. It was busy the entire time so must be pretty popular, have to admit I considered it just for fun.
Then the main attraction the Georgia Aquarium. It bills itself as “The worlds largest aquarium” but we had also heard it was “only” about a two hour visit. When we have gone to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago we spent much more time than that, and even the National Aquarium in Washington DC we spent quite a bit of time, (That “aquarium” is another, somewhat disgraceful story though.) so we were not expecting a great deal.
We were very pleasantly surprised! It seemed small, but as we went through it was most enjoyable. Lots of critters to touch, and huge tanks… 6 million gallons several hundred feet long. The main viewing window of the main tank is 60 feet wide by 20 feet tall with acrylic almost two feet thick. They have some 20 foot long whale sharks in it and thousands of other fish, rays, turtles and other denzins of the deep swimming around.
The aquarium is divided up into sections, tropical, cold water, coral reef and so on. The whole thing is highly recommended for people of all ages…. the only down side, the crowds. They have actually limited the number of people they let in, and reduced that amount since they opened last year, but it was still very crowded, but with a little patience everyone managed to see what they wanted. Finally, we did end up spending over three hours there.
I only hope the pictures of Paul and I in the Penguin roost come out okay!
Until penguins learn to fly,
George
I enjoyed your blog about the Atlanta trip. It was a good summary of the events of our trip. I enjoyed Atlanta, loved the aquarium and even enjoyed driving up and down Peachtree Street on our way to the sites. I also enjoyed my piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. The hotel was very nice and we were lucky to find a room when everything was booked due to all of the events taking place that weekend including the Notre Dame game.