Atlanta Trip

Hi everyone! We recently went on a mini-vacation to Atlanta. Our whole lives we had always just driven through Atlanta on the way to Florida and never had stopped to visit. When Matt's family invited us to go on "Bobby's Braves Adventure" (this is what they named the trip in honor of our nephew who loves the Braves, especially Chipper), we decided to extend the trip and make it our anniversary celebration. We arrived late Thursday night and stayed through Sunday afternoon. Here is a list of what we did each day and what we thought about each place in case any of you ever want to visit:

Friday:

Toured CNN studios-This was really neat. We saw how the news was broadcast. The most interesting fact is how the "green screen" works. All TV cameras are made to not pick up the color green because it is the only color pigment not found in human skin. You will never see a newsperson wearing green because it won't pick it up. Fun fact 2: They used a green cloth to make Harry Potter disappear in the movies, and Lt. Dan in the move Forrest Gump wore green socks to make his legs disappear.

Georgia Acquarium-My favorite part was the Beluga Whale exhibit. Overall, I thought that the Chattanooga Acquarium is just as good.

World of Coca-Cola-This was kind of boring. The only good thing was that at the end there were 60+ varieties of Coke/Coke products that you could taste from all over the world. We didn't taste everyone because some of the names didn't even sound good. The tour leaders will tell you to try the "Beverly". This, by far, was the worst drink I have ever tasted in my entire life.

We finished our sight-seeing much earlier than we expected that we had time to go to the world-famous "Varsity" and eat hamburgers, fries, onion rings, and there specialty, fried apple pie. The food was great and really cheap. If you ever drive down I-75 through Atlanta, you will see the sign for The Varsity to your left just before you get to GA Tech campus on the right. I encourage everyone to stop here once in their lives and try the food out.

Friday night we had tossed around the idea of going to a fancy restaurant, but in the end we decided to go to the Braves game. We decided this could be Matt's turn this year to do what he wants for our anniversary. He is just as much a part of our marriage as I am, so he should do things he wants to do to celebrate it as well. The best part was the fireworks show after the game. If you know Matt, you know how much he loves fireworks. This has been the 3rd show we have seen since April.

Saturday:

Underground Atlanta-We arrived to Underground Atlanta when it first opened. We were not impressed at all. Actually, we were a little scared. It seems to be in a pretty rough area. I don't recommend going here, EVER.

Atlanta Zoo-The zoo had your typical animals. There were large exhibits of gorillas and orangutans. The orangutans had a tree that had a computer in it to stimulate the monkeys. We had never seen that before. The monitor that was explaining it to us said that they use the touch-screen computer to test the knowledge of the orangutans. I definitely think that the St. Louis Zoo and Memphis Zoo are better than this one. There weren't any sea lions or any show that showed of the animals' talents.

IKEA-Matt let me go to IKEA, and boy was I impressed. This store is an organizer's dream! I could have spent all day there and still not have been done. I was able to buy a few things to organize our home office. The prices are very reasonable. I will definitely be going back one day.

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we went to the Braves' games with Matt's family. I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I really do enjoy watching it live. It was fun to see how excited Bobby was to be at the Braves stadium. He was pretty sad Saturday night because Chipper wasn't playing due to a quad injury. Thankfully, they had him pinch hit, otherwise I don't know if we would have been able to get him to come back the next day :)

We found a place at the top of the stadium where Bobby could "run the bases."

This is Bobby running the actual bases on Turner Field. Children who are 4 yrs.-14 yrs. can run the bases after every home game on Sunday. Well, Bobby isn't quite 4 (he will be 3 in September), but he was able to get out there. He may have been the slowest, but he finished :)

I'm glad we took this trip and were able to tour Atlanta. The next place on my list is Chattanooga. This is a pretty close drive we could make if Matt ever gets a weekend off :)