Hotlanta Part 1

It happened.  We finally slept in for a change.  So much so that we even missed breakfast at the hotel, which ended at 10 AM.  Our plans for the day were to go to the World of Coca Cola, the CNN center and maybe the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.  As usual our plans changed.  As Jackie was showering, Chris started thumbing through one of those “what to do around town” magazines that the hotel always leaves in the rooms.  He stumbled across a Braves schedule and noticed that they were in town today and they had an afternoon game.  When Jackie got out of the shower he casually mentioned to her that they should go, and to his surprise she said ok.  So we were going to a Braves game.  For Chris, this ranks right up there in the bottom 10 things I want to do in my life list.  Being a Mets fan, going to see a Braves game is about as good as having your eyes poked out with sharp, metal sticks.  So instead, we went to see the Pirates play.  They just happened to be playing at Turner Field against the Braves.  After a quick breakfast of a powerbar and juice, we headed for the stadium.  We got there at about 1:20, for a 1:30 start.  We ended up parking in one of the gypsy lots for $10, only about 3 blocks from the stadium.  We then proceeded to wait in line for tickets for about 20 minutes.  Looks like everyone had the same idea as us.  We ended up snagging some $13 tickets after applying the AAA discount.  We intentionally asked for the cheapest tickets they had because we had no plans of staying for the whole game, in fact we didn’t even care to really watch the game.  Instead we explored the stadium, ate some good food and drank some beers.  Jackie actually got a frozen daiquiri, which was appropriate on this 90 degree day.  The stadium was not all that impressive; in fact it was quite ordinary.  There didn’t seem to be anything that really set it apart from any other stadium.  The food wasn’t all that unique, except for one item.  They pretty much had the standard hot dogs, pretzels, pizza, popcorn, etc.  There was one thing that stood out though, a Dixie dog.  The Dixie dog is a half pound, foot long, flash fried hot dog with cole slaw, bbq sauce, bbq pork and pickles on it.  We had that with a good sized cup of very salty fries.  We did end up watching the game from several different vantage points throughout the stadium and we ended up leaving in maybe the 5^th or 6^th inning.  Once we got outside, Chris noticed that there was a geocache (www.geocaching.com) out in one of the parking lots.  Jackie stayed in the shade where she was asked for spare change as Chris went for the cache.  This was a virtual cache, meaning you aren’t actually searching for a container where you sign your name, but rather something interesting that is at the location.  In this case, the coordinates brought you to a bronze home plate in the middle of the parking lot.  As it turns out the parking lot was built on top of the old Fulton County Stadium, which is where the Braves played from 1966 until 1996.  The bronze plate was at the site of the original home plate in the old stadium.  There was also a physical geocache located in the parking lot as well, turns out that was placed in the spot where Hank Aaron hit his 715^th home run.  This was kind of neat.  We then met up again, walked back to the car, not before buying a bottle of ice cold water from some guy on the street, and we headed out. 

The next stop was the World of Coca-Cola.  This was originally on our list of things to do for the day.  We found a cheap place to park nearby ($6) and we bought our tickets and went inside.  Basically this is a museum for all things Coca-Cola.  They tell you about the history, they give you all kinds of information on rumors of the secret formula, they show you some videos, you see all kinds of memorabilia from the last 100+ years, you see the stuff being bottled, and you get to taste lots of soda.  They have over 60 Coke products from all over the world.  We drank some interesting stuff from each continent (except Antarctica) and we drank some nasty stuff.  Overall, we probably drank more soda today than we had in all of last year.  The nastiest soda was probably one called Beverly, which is a drink Coke produces in Italy.  It is made with quinine (think tonic water) and it has a distinct bitter flavor.  According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that for every 2000 people who pass through the tasting area, only 5 of those people enjoy the taste.  We didn’t like it but we tolerated it.  You even got to taste some unreleased flavors.  We tried strawberry Sprite, cherry vanilla Mr. Pibb, and some other interesting things.  After your tastings they give you a free bottle of coke and they dump you into the gift shop.  We bought a couple of things and made our way back to the car and drove back to the hotel.

On the way to dinner we saw something very disturbing on the highway.  No everyone has a friend or a relative who let them drive around in the back of a pickup truck at sometime when they were young.  Maybe you even sat in the back of the truck with your friend.  Things have changed and you don't see that much anymore.  Until today.  Today we saw, on the highway, a pickup truck that was weighted down with somewhere between 6 and 8 full grown men along with all kinds of supplies in the back up a pickup truck.  This was scary because not only were there so many people in that truck, the guys were sitting on the bed rails (the sides of the back of the truck), at least one guy was standing, and after they passed us, we had to drive about 85 mph just to catch up to them to take this picture.  Yes, this picture was taken while they were driving very fast on the interstate.

For dinner we went to Seasons 52.  This is one of our favorite restaurants.  Unfortunately the closest one to home is just outside of Philly so whenever we are in Orlando or other cities (like Atlanta) where they have one of these restaurants, we go.  They use all fresh ingredients and everything on their menu is under 475 calories, including the desserts.  They change menus with the seasons, which is why one time we went two nights in a row when we were in Orlando.  We were there just at the right time.  They also have a specials section on their menu which they change once a week.  They had their Spring menu out this time, Jackie ordered a swordfish ponzu off the specials menu, which was grilled swordfish with some awesome sauce, with some kind of Asian vegetables and rice.  Chris got the artichoke stuffed shrimp which came with spinach, pasta pearls and some kind of clam sauce.  We also split a flatbread appetizer and we had martinis.  Of course we had dessert too, which they refer to as “mini indulgences”.  They are essentially dessert in a shot glass (keeping it under 475 calories).  Chris had red velvet cake and Jackie got rocky road.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, which we may not have mentioned before, is only $45 a night for a Fairfield Inn with breakfast included!  We will stay one more day and night in Atlanta as we never made it to the CNN center or the MLK historic site.