Atlanta: Bring it On

What to do with a three day weekend? McKay and I decided on Atlanta. It rained all the way and our "walk the city" plans started to look pretty grim, however as soon as we reached Atlanta the sun came out and all was well. The first stop was actually in Fort Benning, home of the mounted cav. When we slowed down I smelled burning and it turned out that the left headlight of McKay's car was starting a little electrical fire, it had smoke and everything, so I unplugged it and that solved the problem. Fort Benning is huge and full of hills, tanks, and Army guys, so it is a little different than the Air Force base. I learned that there is no way we could go to Atlanta without seeing Francie, McKay's bestest friend from birth to 11th grade. So we went to her place first. She is cool, her husband Brandon is also cool, and her baby..cool by association. Therefore, our evening was also cool. We hung out for several hours, shared fun stories and had pizza. There was some great catching up and I have to hand it to these two ladies because there wasn't a single high pitched squeal of excitement. After dinner we headed downtown to our hotel where we discovered something peculiar...cheerleaders, everywhere. Atlanta was hosting the "Nationals", and for those of you who have never seen a cheerleader movie, the National Cheer and Dance Championships. 18000 cheerleaders have descended upon Atlanta, they were everywhere. Our hotel is the Ellis, it has the most friendly staff, sometimes a little too friendly, not creepy, but they acted like they were going to hang out with you and you were going to like it. Staying downtown was nice so we could walk to the Georgia Aquarium, discover that McKay left the tickets in the room, walk to the hotel, and walk back to the Aquarium in about an hour. The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the world, which is neat. They have a tank where you can touch hand-picked rays and sharks that like kids. We got to see two kinds of otters, river ones and sea ones. They are pretty cute and you kinda want to take them home because they are like swimming ferrets and they were snuggling with this big foam heart toy, but then you realize that they are not snuggling they are wiping their scent on it and boy talk about potent scent. Needless to say, if you have them they should be outdoor pets. The aquarium has three Beluga whales which are as if the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters turned into a whale. The main attraction is the large tanks that contains 4 whale sharks, a huge manta ray and a ton of other fish. We sat and watched the big tank for a while and took the tunnel that runs underneath. After the Aquarium we had lunch at this "southern diner" owned by a Turkish guy and the chef is Guatemalan. McKay had the Greek sampler with a gyro, some kind of grape leaf wrapped nugget of goodness and other tasty stuff. I had a turkey melt, you know, 'cause the guy is from Turkey...anyway, it was good. The World of Coca-cola was next. Coke is the ultimate in marketing and is so good at convincing you that you need it that my lovely wife holds them as gods from her college educated world (she has a masters in marketing, I'm so proud). They gave a tour of a mini bottling facility, gave a history of the company and showed a pop art gallery which was so lame. But the crowning moments were the taste test of 65 different soft drinks owned by the Coke company from around the world and the theater of commercials from around the world and throughout time. We found an awesome pina-colada soda from Africa and a hilarious commercial from Mexico. In the evening we went to Nava, a fancy southwest style place that was awesome. McKay got an enchilada filled with duck and stuff that was pretty good but I win at food. I had a rack of lamb that was awesome; it was so good that taste overpowered most of my other senses and before I knew it I dropped my silverware. The amazing dish even overpowered my subconscious, I may have stopped breathing.

Dessert was good too, mine was chocolate cake and McKay got this chocolate cube filled with chocolate mousse topped with white chocolate whipped creme. Nava also has a really cool decor: our booth was lined with pillows like it was a lounge. psst, our waiter was so sneaky I almost didn't see him, just where he had been. Monday morning we walked down to the underground shopping center and passed the chess park. Beware of Atlanta parking garages, when we left for dinner we paid $6 per day the car was there, but we brought the car back at 11PM and left the next morning 11AM they charged $6 for Saturday (11PM to midnight) and $15 (the weekday price not posted on the weekend) for all day even though it was only 11AM. We were miffed but the excellent breakfast at the Flying Biscuit helped. I once again won at food. Biscuits and gravy at a place with biscuit in the name seemed like a no brainer and the "creamy dreamy grits" are so good they melt in your mouth, ha ha, but they were amazing. It was a really great trip.

Creepy Piranha just stare at you, all of them

Nice view of the big tank

Cute little otter

Ooooo, moon jellyfish

Big chess game in the park

Booth at Nava with pillows and a painting of 5 angry dogs

Everyone in the World loves Coke, you should too!