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Published: June 12th 2007
June 8, 2007
Our trip down to Georgia was relatively short and easy. We made our way over to Cumming, Georgia (about 35 minutes from Atlanta) to stay with Allison’s sister, Lorraine, and her three year old daughter, Josephine. Josephine was a bit shy at first, but quickly warmed up to us and played some hide-and-seek. As you can see from the pictures Josephine is the cutest kid. She has lots of energy, is always laughing and smiling, and is a joy to play with. During our stay, Josephine thought she had a different Aunt Allison (I guess the different hair color through her off) and claimed me as her own. That night, we got take-out for dinner and chatted with Lorraine for a while. Josephine and I spent time playing, drawing, and coloring pictures. After Josephine went to bed (or should I say lied in bed singing to herself for a while), Allison and I went for a walk around the neighborhood to stretch our legs. We even threw the football around for about 6.35 seconds before Allison got bored. We spent the rest of the night hanging out and talking with Lorraine.
June 9, 2007
We woke early the next morning (well 9:00 is early for me) and made the short trip to Atlanta. Atlanta is pretty much what you would expect from a large city. I’d say it’s probably the biggest in the south, but not as big as DC or New York. The weather outside was sweltering, as we are not used to the 95 degree weather (this must be why they call it HOTlanta….haha). To start, we took the Studio tour at CNN headquarters. The CNN building is huge, but it looks like they need every bit of it. The tour was interesting and showed all the parts and processes that go into making the news you see on CNN. We got a demonstration of how the weathermen do their reports (with greenscreen and special camera technology). We got to see the control room where producers make decisions on what to show on live TV from dozens of camera angles, live shots from around the world, graphics, and pictures. As we listened in, everybody was talking over each other and making lots of decisions in a matter of seconds. It was extremely hectic and looked stressful, but Allison thought it
would be a cool job to have (hectic and stressful - I think everyone knows how I would feel about that). We viewed the actual newsroom, full of over 100 computers, desks, and workers researching stories, and the anchors actually reporting the news. It was impressive to see how calm and professional everyone worked together, especially the anchors who read the news. We viewed a couple other parts of the CNN Studios and how they discovered, wrote, and reported the news before the tour was over.
After leaving the CNN building we walked through the Olympic Centennial Park. The park had lots of kids and camp groups playing on the large grass fields, and there were some nice looking statues, sculptures, and fountains. Next, we went to the New World of Coca-Cola. This was a giant place devoted to promoting Coke Products. We viewed a short video about Coca-Cola, then were free to walk around. First, we watched the process of Coca-Cola being made, processed, bottled, and shipped. It’s all done by robots and they produce an unbelievable amount of Coca-Cola per day. There were some rooms with many old Coke advertisements and artifacts. We viewed some art and
sculptures, walked through something kind of like a museum, and learned about Coca-Cola’s invention and history. We also watched a bunch of videos of old Coke advertisements which were pretty entertaining. Finally, we entered the tasting room, which provided over 80 Coca-Cola products offered around the world. All I can say is thank goodness I live in America. Some of the other drinks and flavors offered around the world are awful! All the best flavors are here in America, and there is some really weird tasting Coke products in other countries. Overall, the place is pretty cool, but I would recommend doing other things in the city if you have a chance.
We met up with Lorraine and Josephine in the city (they had spent the day at the Children’s Museum) and decided to check out Underground Atlanta. Underground Atlanta is just like it sounds, its underground. You take stairs down below the city where there is an entire mall. It looks a lot like a regular mall, stores lining the sides and kiosks in the middle, except you’re underground. After some browsing and small shopping we decided it was dinner time. At this point, it was raining really
hard so we took the MARTA. MARTA is just like the DC metro except a little smaller. We rode it back to our cars and decided to get dinner. Allison decided on another place from her Roadfood book, and this place turned out to be really southern. Mary Mac’s Tea House was its name, and the food was delicious. I had roast pork in gravy, Brunswick stew (lima beans, corn, and pulled pork in a barbeque type sauce), cornbread, and mac & cheese. Allison had baked chicken over stuffing, sweet potato soufflé, fried green tomatoes, and cornbread. We both drank sweet tea again, and it was another great southern food experience. Allison really wanted to meet up with Michael Vick for some dogfights, but I managed to talk her out of it. Then, the four of us headed back to Lorraine’s place, Josephine went to bed, and we played some Nintendo Wii. The next morning we ate breakfast, said our goodbyes, got one last high-five from Josephine, and headed over to Memphis, Tennessee.
Brian & Allison
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Benjamin Sanger
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Hey Guys!!!
You Are Huge Nerds!!! HaHa Hope the trip is going well cant wait to hear from both of you when you get back. I know a bunch of people who look at this site every day to get their updates so keep up the good work. Miss you guys.