Ever since I was a little girl watching the Olympics in Atlanta, I wanted to visit this city. To me, Atlanta just sounded so huge and Southern. Alex for years has been telling us how the Atlanta Airport is the busiest in the world! Well, we did not fly to Atlanta. Instead, we decided to make it our destination to visit on the way to Clemson regatta at the beginning of our spring break trip. My mom was with us, so it gave her a chance to see Atlanta too (and she was excited to see a big city!).
The drive was not too bad at all--about 6.5 hours, so we arrived to Atlanta in early afternoon. After we checked in at our hotel--we stayed right in downtown for convenience of walking everywhere--we made our way to the CNN Studios, hoping to take a tour at the end of the day. Sadly, all tours were sold out by the time we had arrived. I was kicking myself for not booking tickets online while we were still driving as it had showed that they still had many spots available for the afternoon ones.
We had to quickly change our plans, so we walked over to the world-famous Atlanta Aquarium. The Olympic Park built for the Olympics of 1996 lies between the CNN Studios and the Aquarium. Here is our first family picture in Atlanta:)
After standing in line (mind you, it was already around 5 pm by then), we bought our tickets online as it was cheaper and got into the aquarium. The place was still pretty busy but we were able to see everything that was offered!
Yes, the size of this places is impressive!
My favorite were the penguins, of course:)! I still love them, although I don't collect them any more like I did right after Katya was born-haha.
The kids enjoyed the shows--the dolphin show and the lion sea show.
At one point we left the aquarium (got our hands stamped for reentry) and ran across the street to Subway to get a bite to eat as nothing sounded good at the aquarium.
We felt that it was an excellent choice to go to the aquarium in the evening actually, so our change of plans worked out for the best. It was a pretty expensive place though. Around $30 per person even for the evening hours.
We left the aquarium around 9 pm as it was closing. It was absolutely pouring rain when it was time to leave, so Robert and Alex ran to the hotel and got our van to pick the rest of us up. It was crazy weather and we all still got absolutely soaked:)
We rested okay in our tiny room that fit six people and in the morning, after breakfast, were ready to go to one place I was really excited to see--Margaret Michell's House. She is the author of the legendary "Gone With The Wind" book. This house in Atlanta is the actual house she and her husband lived in.
We took a tour around the house with a guide who explained a lot about her life, her career and what sort of person she was.
My mom loves the book and the movie, so it was very special for her to see the house as well.
It was interesting to find out how the book came to life because Margaret had to stay home with an injured foot (she worked for the local newspaper) and decided to write a book.
It was also interested to hear that most homes in the South had two books in their homes as a rule--the Bible and "Gone With The Wind". That is how influential the book has been for generations.
Katya actually has read the book and loved it! I remember watching the movie when I was only seven years old, at a movie theater when it was still the Soviet Union! It was very long but I remember vividly the colors and the drama:) I saw the movie a few more times since then and was very excited to show the movie to Robert a few years back (he almost was able to stay awake for the duration of it;).
So! If you are a fan of the book or the movie, this place is worth a stop. And they give military discount.
Our final big thing for the day was a PRE-BOOKED tour of the CNN Studios. I was glad we did that and didn't have to worry any more about tickets being sold out.
This is inside the big building/food court where you can go in for free. And this is where you stand in line for your turn to take the tour.
The tour lasted around 45 minutes. It was interesting even for those who don't frequently watch CNN (like us). We were not allowed to take pictures beyond this point, unfortunately. In short, you are taken behind the scenes of the studio and you are able to see where shows are filmed and prepared as well as what people do to make each news edition happen. If you are in town, this is definitely a unique thing to do at a world-famous place.
Finally, before we left the area, we went to Varsity, an iconic fast food place to get some hamburgers and hot dogs. Not usually the type of place I would choose for our family, but it sounded very vintage and cultural, so we went. The food was okay, but it was definitely a very special place to eat lunch at. On this wall, on the picture below, you can read all about the most famous visitors to Varsity--celebrities and presidents. Varsity is now celebrating 90 years old, so it's a pretty old place:)
After lunch, we headed out of Atlanta towards Clemson, only two hours away. We were again lucky with traffic as it was Easter weekend, but all the roads in the opposite direction were completely standstill.
Will I plan a trip to Atlanta for us again? Probably not, if it is just to see the city. I was not exactly impressed with it and on a scale from 1 to 10, it was probably just a 3 for me. On the other hand, my mom gave it a 9! So, don't skip it just yet:)
Lyana.
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