Atlanta

Day 94 - Atlanta, GA - SUNNY and Lower 60's:

Today was the first sunny day in a while for us and we took advantage of it!! We got up early and got breakfast. We had both planned to hit the gym but I was really exhausted. Instead Ben hit the gym and I took a nap. Once Ben got back we had lunch and headed out to explore. Our first stop was the Center for Puppetry Arts. This center is the largest non-profit in the United States. We took a guided tour through the center learning about many different kinds of puppetry including: hand puppets, marionettes, shadow puppets, rod puppets, and animatronics. We were able to see puppets from all over the world including India, China, Hong-Kong, Japan, and the US. Some of these puppets date back to as early as the year 815 A.D. One of the most interesting types we learned about was the Bunraku Puppet Masters. It takes three people to operate one of these puppets. The CRAZY thing is that you have to spend at least 10 years on each part of the puppet. You start at the feet and have to spend 10 years mastering the feet. If you're good enough you move to the left hand. You have to spend another 10 years there. Again, if you're good enough you get to move to the head and right hand. There are only a handful of Bunraku Puppet Masters in the world. Who knew?

My favorite part of the museum was the Jim Henson section. Jim and Kermit actually cut the ceremonial ribbon to open the center. They had a real Big Bird, a Kermit, an Ernie, and the ORIGINAL Swedish Chef in addition to many other of Henson's characters. There were members of Fraggle Rock, Dinosaurs (neither Ben nor I had any idea that he was actually the creator of Dinosaurs) and the Labyrinth. Henson was an incredible inventor and progressor of puppets and his work is still changing the world of puppets today with Jim Henson's Digital Puppetry. An INTERESTING NOTE: The same man has controlled Big Bird his entire life. He is in his 70's and still filming new episodes of Sesame Street. Also, like CNN, Seseame Street is not over dubbed in other countries. Each country has it's own cast of characters...for example South America has a different large bird (he's Big Bird's cousin). The shows in other countries focus on things that their students need to be exposed to...the only rules that they have to abide by are that it is educational, focuses on values of community, friendship, and learning. It was so interesting to learn about Henson and see so many of the characters that I grew up loving.

PS - Did you know that Rubber Ducky went up to number 6 on the billboard charts?

From the puppet center we made our way to Atlantic Station. It's a newer area of Atlanta where Atlantic Steel was once located. The area is being touted as a residential, working, and entertainment area all in one. I have always said that if I were going to live down here Decatur would be where I want to live...Atlantic Station is now a CLOSE second.

Our last stop of the day was Decatur. I really like this part of town. It reminds me a lot of Greenville, NC where my aunt and uncle live. It is very much a neighborhood. They do things like a beach day where 60 tons of sand is brought into the square and they have sandcastle building contests and such, they do a BBQ, Blues, and Bluegrass Festival, a Holiday Marshmallow Roasting, and a day called decorate Decatur. I think it would be a great area to live and enjoy. There are lots of nice restaurants, pubs, and coffee shops. Great live music and lots of community involvement. I still hold this as the place where I would love to live even if just for a short time. Sadly we did not get a chance to meet up with Gretchen's sister...maybe next time.

We headed back to the hotel for dinner, laundry and updating all of our data collection areas. Tomorrow we are off to the AQUARIUM!! It's supposed to rain all day so there aren't any big plans. Maybe we'll find a fun restaurant...Ben is excited to go to the Varsity but Gretchen (who used to live here) recommends Eats and La Fonda. Who knows what will happen!!!

Day 93 - Atlanta, GA - Cloudy Upper 50's:

We woke up bright and early for our complimentary breakfast and headed out for the day to explore a little bit of the south. Our first stop was the Inside CNN Tour. CNN's largest headquarters is located in Atlanta. I have actually visited and taken this tour before but I knew that Ben would really enjoy seeing the behind the scenes. Unfortunatley you are not allowed to take photos. It's a great tour though you get to listen into the live control room and hear the director and producers calling the shots as you watch it live on TV. After that you get to go to the studio (well above it) and look down to where they are filming. It's crazy to see all the work going on behind the camera and to see the show LIVE while everyone at home is watching it on TV. They also take you to HLN so that you can see the taping as it is happening there as well. It's fun to see the people that you watch on TV while they are working. We also walked by CNN Espanol. An interesting note is that CNN is not translated into other languages. What I mean is it is not a story that an english speaking person researches and then writes up and someone else translates it to Spanish. Instead they research and write their own stories. This is the same for all the languages that CNN operates. The CNN Center is a 24 hour operation. They are staffed at all times!

Within the building is a food court, hotel, stores, and attached is Phillips Arena home to the Atlanta Thrashers and Hawks. A neat feature of the food court is that the floor is a map of the world. There are gold plates on the map that indicate where CNN has locations. We ate our packed lunch in the food court before venturing out to explore.

After leaving CNN we headed to Centennial Olympic Park. It is a beautiful park that we all know was built for the 1996 Olympic Games. In the park are the Olympic Fountain Rings. I can see how these would have been popular during the games and still today on a hot summer day. They look like a lot of fun to play in. From there we made our way to Underground Atlanta. Here there are lots of little shops and a food court.

Our next stop was the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Area. Here we learned a lot and saw a lot about Martin Luther King Jr. as a young child. We had the unique opportunity to tour the home that he was born and raised in. Our tour guide told us many wonderful stories and the visitors center also was very informative. As you look through the pictures you will notice a picture of a concrete slab. This was located directly across the street from the King home and was the site of a corner store. MLK's best friend's parents owned this store. The interesting note, his best friend was white. For the first 5 years of his life his best friend was a little white boy. When the boys turned six they headed off to school. Of course at this time the school's were segregated and so they went to separate schools. It was not long before the boys parents would no longer allow them to play together. It was MLK's first experience with the injustice that he would later fight for. It is clear that MLK's neighborhood played a major roll in why he was as accepting of all as he was. He lived smack in the middle of two distinct areas. On one side of the street was a row of houses that were owned by company owners, job foremans, and high paid men. On the other were a row of houses owned by the working class factory workers. It was this that allowed MLK to understand that people were just people...it didn't matter what color or how much money they were all just PEOPLE. It's a shame that we are still fighting those same battles today.

After we toured the house we stopped in at the oldest firehouse in Atlanta. There wasn't a whole lot to learn but it was a neat tidbit to visit. Next we headed to Freedom Hall where we were ablt to see some artifact that belonged to MLK and his wife. They also had a room dedicated to Ghandi...a big inspiration for MLK and a room dedicated to Rosa Parks. Outside the Hall was a reflecting pool containing the body of MLK and Coretta Scott King. Across from there bodies is an eternal flame kept in honor of the dedication to civil rights and the continued fight for freedom.

Sadly we were not able to go inside the Ebenezer Baptist Church where MLK worshiped as a young man and presided over as an adult. It is currently under renovations. I was disappointed as I had looked forward to visiting this for quite some time but it looks beautiful in pictures.

We headed back to the CNN Center as we had bought tickets for the Thrashers game!! We grabbed dinner at Max's a coal oven pizzeria. It was DELICIOUS!! Probably some of the best pizza we've had on the trip! They also had $5 pitchers. Ben was SOOOO excited. I felt bad that he had no one to enjoy it with him but he managed to pull through. After eating we headed back over to the game. We had GREAT seats for the game even though we only paid $10 a ticket. They were playing Tampa which was fun as we had just come from there. It was a good game..unfortunately Atlanta couldn't pull it out in the end but we had a great time.

After the game we headed for the MARTA and made our way back to the hotel. It was a great first day!!

Day 92 - Tampa to Atlanta - Cloudy and Rain Upper 60's:

We began our day with a plan to stay in Tampa overnight and make our way to Atlanta the following morning. However upon waking up we decided to spend the morning in Tampa and then make our way to Atlanta in the afternoon.

Our first and only stop of the day was at the Yuengling Brewery. Yuengling is known as America's oldest brewery in America. It is currently in it's fifth generation of family ownership and well on it's way to the sixth generation (a rarity in companies these days). The original brewery is located in Pottsville, PA and still operates. Yuengling is one of the few companies that in today's economy is continuing to expand both in customers and in production. They are in the process of expanding the Tampa brewery. Once this is done the company production will go from 1.5 million barrells a year to 3 million. This will allow them to hopefully expand their distribution (Ben is hopeful that Maine is at the top of the list). We had the opportunity to see the brew room, go into the lab and meet the chemist (YES kids you have to go to school for CHEMISTRY to work at a beer factory), meet the REAL BeerMaster, and see the bottling area from above...an interesting note the can part of the bottling area only operates 67 days a year. The tour was rather boring and honestly not that informative. We weren't allowed to take pictures so we have nothing to show for visiting. I guess that's what you get for a FREE tour. I would strongly recommend the beer master's tour at one of the Budweiser factories. It was far more expensive but you actually get to learn a lot more about the production and process of creating and distributing beer.

After the tour we headed back to the hotel. We packed up and hit the road for the LONG drive to Atlanta. Now I know what many of you are thinking...WHY would you go to Florida, drive up to Atlanta, only to turn back around and drive back down to Florida...well it's simple. A good friend of mine from college has moved down here. Her younger sister who I've known since college is now a gymnast for the five-time defending national champion Georgia Gym Dogs. She has a meet on Friday and we are going to attend. We tried to find a better date or location but this was the only one we could possibly attend. SOOOO here we are in ATL!