Posts in this blog generally fall into one of two categories: festival report or trip report. In the past, I've keep each category in chronological order, for instance holding up a festival report until I've posted reports for all festivals I attended before that one. I haven't previously cared about the relative order of trip reports and festival reports. For example, I posted about my fall 2006 trip to Montreal in the middle of posts about festivals I went to in the summer of 2007.
I'm now trying a new policy: I won't even post trip reports in chronological order. For instance, I'm about to post my entries from a September 2007 trip to Massachusetts despite not having finished writing about my June trip to Washington D.C. In short, I'm tired of having to postpone posting certain trip reports simply because I haven't gotten around to finishing trip reports from earlier trips.
For now, I'll continue posting festival reports in chronological order.
I welcome feedback on the new policy. Feel free to use the comments section on this post.
New Posting Order Policy
Chicago Rest
After Atlanta, I stopped by Chicago for a day (March 30 to 31, 2007) to visit my parents and one set of grandparents. I don't have much to report; I didn't do any touristy things. I simply had a few quiet meals and conversations. It's nice to see relatives I don't visit often.
Atlanta Day 7: Something the Lord Made and Thumbs Up Diner
Although scheduled to fly out of Atlanta in early afternoon, I didn't have anything remaining on my list of places in Atlanta that was itching to see. Hence, I decided to have a lackadaisical morning.
While getting up, I happened to turn on the television to the movie Something the Lord Made, probably a third of way into it. It caught my attention and I ended up watching it to the end. Something about the movie struck me as quite Southern. Perhaps it's simply the topic of discrimination. Here's my reaction.
After the movie ended, I went to brunch at Thumbs Up Diner. Here's my review. The only pictures I took this day are of this diner.
After brunch, all I had remaining to do was return the rental car and get to my flight. As I did so, it started drizzling. This was the first rain I saw anytime during the trip, a fact that's a testament to the good weather I enjoyed throughout my trip. Still, the person driving the shuttle from the rental car place to the airport had the same comments as the radio personalities I'd heard earlier the morning: they were all happy about the rain; it would knock pollen out of the air, thereby helping people with allergies and saving cars from changing color.
They also said I was leaving just in time to miss two major tourist events: the NCAA finals and the Masters golf tour.
Atlanta Day 6: Atlanta History Center, Botanical Garden, and Piedmont Park
These photos document the day's sights, especially the botanical garden.
Thursday morning I decided to grab breakfast at my budget hotel. I wasn't expecting much. And I was not surprised. They had a selection of packaged bagels and mini-muffin, all clearly store bought, and juice from concentrate provided by a machine. I selected a blueberry bagel, toasted it, and spread it with butter. It sufficed.
Fueled, I attempted to go to the Atlanta History Center. My lack of a good map of the area around my hotel in Smyrna, northwest of Atlanta, led me to get lost for roughly eighty minutes! This part of Atlanta, far from any area I've commented on previously, is fairly nice as well, though has some cookie-cutter houses. The Defoors, Northside, Moores Mill Rd, and West Paces Ferry are all quite nice areas. The latter is as nice as Ponce de Leon, which I previously wrote about and photographed.
Eventually, I made it to the History Center. Its exhibits covered:
- the olympics. The message seemed to be "look at us; we hosted the olympics; we're great."
- the civil war. A respectable, detailed history of the war. One sign stuck out, asking, "could people in one region dictate to all Americans what their rights would be?"
- folk and agrarian arts, including farming, pottery, cooking, woodworking, textiles, and music.
- Bobby Jones and golf. (Echoes of the guy I talked to at the cemetery the previous day. Atlanta's proud of Bobby Jones.)
- quilts. Some nice designs.
- the history of Atlanta and its sprawl. Interestingly, the part on the KKK was next to something on Gone With The Wind.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. This special exhibit had countless drafts of sermons. I'm not sure how I'd feel if, say, drafts of my old college essays were displayed in a museum. The exhibit also had his report card: mostly Bs. This must've been before grade inflation as, nonetheless, he was still the top in his class. In addition, the exhibit showed what books he had on his bookshelf. It's amazing how much one can learn about people and judge people by the books they own.
After the History Center, I swung by Buckhead to give it another attempt at finding the cool part. I instead discovered a nice shopping district, but one that isn't made for people on foot.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden was my next destination. It's pretty. There was a special exhibit of glass flowers by Fräbel. These were amazing; I took a ton of pictures of them! There's also a frog pond and exhibit, warm tropical and southern hemisphere greenhouses, and a display of orchids. Other than those attractions, there's nothing too exciting.
After the garden, I went to the adjacent Piedmont Park. It's Atlanta's version of Central Park but is not quite so central. (Still, it isn't a bad park.) In getting to the park, I had to parallel park on the left side of a street--it was one way-- in an unfamiliar car. This was easier than I'd have thought.
For dinner, I drove aways north to get barbecue at Swallow At The Hollow. It was a unique place and quite an experience. Here's my review.
Atlanta Day 5: Sweet Auburn, Oakland Cemetery, Paper Museum, Underground Atlanta, and more
I was all over the place on Wednesday. Given how my day was filled with driving, exploring for an hour or two, driving, exploring, driving, exploring, ..., I didn't attempt to make a map of my route for the day. I do, however, have pictures.
To begin my day, I grabbed a quick, functional breakfast in my hotel. Of the fairly wide selection, I picked a satisfying raisin bran, a fine cinnamon swirl, a not yet ripe banana, and some orange juice, clearly from concentrate.
Sweet Auburn
First, I went to Sweet Auburn to explore the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Site and its nearby historic buildings. The center played recordings of some of his speeches; Dr. King was quite a speaker. Also, it's stunning to think these events and the segregation that preceded them only happened forty years ago.
I took a tour of King's church. The tour guide was great. One thing he described was how the church will look when it's finished being restored.
After touring King's house and the neighborhood, I tried to stick my head in a museum, the African American Panoramic Experience. The door was locked. Although there was a sign about ringing the bell to get the door opened, I took it as an omen and continued on.
For lunch, I headed to Six Feet Under, a casual seafood joint. At first I went into the wrong building. When I read the menu, I realized I was in the wrong place, left a buck or two to make up for the glasses of water and utensils they'll have to wash, and left. Once in the correct building (next door), I ate. Here's my review.
Oakland Cemetery
After lunch, I drove a few blocks to the main entrance of the Oakland Cemetery. The cemetery is actually across the street from the restaurant (but behind a wall). There I met an old guy who knows a lot of history. I ended up talking and walking with him for a while. Our speed in both of these activities reminded me life in Georgia is slow. He thought I might be in the cemetery to visit the grave of golfer Bobby Jones. I said no, but didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't know who Bobby Jones was. The guy was very much a local history buff and clearly proud of his town and state. I didn't want to disappoint him.
Incidentally, the cemetery, with all its criss-crossing paths and symbols on graves, would be a good site for a Game clue.
Paper Museum
Then I went to Georgia Tech's Paper Museum. It's small, cool museum. I especially liked the exhibit about how watermarks are made.
Georgia Tech
I glanced around Georgia Tech, noticing many brick buildings. I was also amused to see some Greek houses actually have Greek architecture (columns, etc.). Nevertheless, some of these Greek-architecture houses are made of brick.
Underground Atlanta
Since I had still more time, I decided to return downtown to visit a site I never made it to but wanted to see: Underground Atlanta. Underground Atlanta consists of several blocks of Atlanta over which wide bridges were built to improve traffic flow. Shops moved to the upper level. Several decades ago, the lower level was revived. From reading many guide books, I observed that the more recently a book was published, the more explicitly the book mentions that the area has gone downhill, becoming both shady and gentrified. It now has many cheap chain stores.
I took a short, enjoyable, historic walking tour of the underground.
Underground Atlanta could've been cool, plaques and all. But it simply didn't feel right. I found it hard to put my finger on why. It might be because of the stores selling schlock. It might be the way the plaques are put to the side, as if trying to hide the interesting history of the place. It might be simply that it needs better lighting. (As it was, despite bright sunlight outside and lit lanterns and lamps underground, it felt dreary.)
The Coca-Cola Museum, located (when I visited) next to Underground Atlanta, is moving/has moved. That means Underground Atlanta will have even fewer visitors in the future.
Because Underground Atlanta is adjacent to the central/main MARTA (subway) station, I decided to peek inside it. It seems like a station in any other subway system -- nothing distinctive. I'm a bit sad (but not too sad) I didn't have an excuse to ride it this trip; it would've been good to experience.
Virginia-Highland
I headed to the Virginia-Highland district for dinner. It's another nice, yuppie district with houses, trees, and cute stores. Although the retail portion is only on one not very long street, I nevertheless liked the neighborhood. It has character from many pubs, coffeeshops, hairdressers (yes, it has a surprising number), and more. I was amused to see one coffeeshop was the SF Roasting Company.
For dinner, I ate at Surin, a Thai restaurant. Here's my review.
Just south of this area is the neighborhood Little Five Points. It's a bohemian, funky area that looks much like SF's Haight (though for some reason felt slightly safer, not that the Haight is really unsafe). I spotted the type of stores one would expect: small, independent music stores, offbeat pizza places, and bars.
Incidentally, I thought about going to the Center for Puppetry Arts today. I was too busy to visit at a time when it had a performance I wanted to see. (I'm told it's not worth visiting at other times.)
Atlanta Day 4: High Museum of Art and Midtown
Tuesday morning began with more Dekalb leftovers: a ham and cheese croissant (which survived the night well), a tomato, a nectarine, more leftover yogurts, and a dried-fruit cake.
I took a goodly number of pictures this day.
After breakfast, we headed to the Atlanta State Farmers Market. I wanted to see what it looked like when it was actually open (see pictures). There were plant, tree, and sod dealers, and sellers of fruits galore.
After dropping Di Yin at the airport, I headed to Midtown. In Midtown, I walked this route as I explored.
My main Midtown destination was the High Museum of Art. The High turned out to be a respectable but not notable museum, mostly containing modern art. I appreciated that many pieces of art had signs with stories. The museum was very paranoid about visitors: not only did I have to sign a contract to allow me to bring in my camera, it prohibited pens (and hence I had to take notes in pencil), and it (as many museums are wont to do) forced me to check my bag.
A special exhibit on loan from the Louvre included instances of decorative arts such as busts, chairs, candlesticks, tables, and rugs. There were also a few paintings from artists such as Rembrandt; most were none too exciting. One exciting one was a painting by Morse (yes, the guy who invented Morse code wanted to be an artist): Gallery of the Louvre. The painting includes images of many other paintings. What a game great Game clue it'd make!
As for the High, its collection spanned a wide range. One neat exhibit displayed photographs of things in motion: pendulums, bullets, dynamite caps, safety glass cracking, two balls colliding, etc., some with multiple exposures overlaid. Other exhibits covered folk art (including face masks), statues, glasswork, furniture, sketches by Matisse & Picasso, and American Art from the late 1800s. In terms of paintings, I spotted a Mondrian rip-off by Diller and a number of paintings, including some Monet Houses of Parliament (these are everywhere) and a Pissarro. I definitely liked the impressionist paintings (in particular Hudson River paintings, which I knew I like) and the landscape paintings done by the Barbizon school. (I wasn't aware of this inclination. I'd never even heard the word previously.)
After I left the High, I walked a bit more (as documented in the photos). Midtown seems to have very few pedestrians. Eventually I found myself at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, another place that prohibits cameras.
The Fed was pretty darn cool, one of the coolest places I visited in Atlanta. In addition to having general, interesting, detailed exhibits on the history of money, monetary systems, U.S. monetary policy, it had four things I want to point out. One, in the back of the building, behind a glass wall, was a hallway in which machines moved. These machines looked like black filing cabinets the size of refrigerators. These machines, I read, carried cases of money. No one was allowed in the hallway. The robots moved automatically. Doors opened and closed for them when necessary. Interlocks prevented two doors from being open at the same time. Only when a machine was in the correct room with the door closed did its cabinet unlock, allowing employees to get and process whatever was inside. This is how the Fed safely shipped money within its building. I wish I could've seen more of how the system worked and what each group of employees did.
The Fed also displayed 10k and 100k notes. Although not in general circulation, they're used to transfer money between government agencies.
Near this exhibit was an interactive one that asked visitors to identify counterfeit bills. Even the supposedly easy ones were pretty hard for me. The hardest ones were well nigh impossible.
In addition, the Fed had a neat map of the U.S. in which each state was made of its special issue quarter. No, I don't mean a map of the U.S. in which each state had a spot for the state's quarter; I mean a map where each state's geographical area was represented by a bunch of the state's quarters in the appropriate shape.
Finally, I returned to my car, drove a slight bit south, and walked this short route to see the few remaining sights I wanted to see in Midtown.
For dinner, found myself at Mezza, a Lebanese restaurant in a nicely forested district. Here's my review.
Atlanta Day 3: Cyclorama, World of Coca Cola, CNN Center, and Downtown in General
These pictures accompany the day's narrative.
We started the day eating a breakfast of Dekalb Market leftovers in our hotel room. We had: focaccia, a chocolate-coconut macaroon, a cheese danish, tiramisu, an almond date cake, and some grapes. Everything we had yesterday tasted the same as I described yesterday; the only notable difference was the focaccia, which smelled strongly yet still tasted the same. The almond date cake was new: it was sticky and had a fun liveliness like a slab of dried fruit formed into a bar, then with added nuts.
Grant Park & Cyclorama
After breakfast, we headed to Grant Park. Along the way, we passed through another area of nice houses. Once in Grant Park, we walked this route to the Civil War Museum and its cyclorama, the centerpiece of the museum. A cyclorama is a large cylindrical painting. (The paint is on the inside; people stand in the middle.)
Due to a recent change of policy, the museum wasn't supposed to be open on Mondays. However, the museum staff specially opened the museum for a class field trip. Even though the students never showed (!), the staff decided to be nice and keep the museum open for us few tourists who happened to be around.
Before seeing the cyclorama, we examined the tiny museum, filled with photographs, diagrams of battle plans (Grant Park was a battlefield!), and the train from the great locomotive chase (the actual event, not the movie).
Then we entered the platform in the center of the cyclorama.
Seeing the cyclorama, The Battle of Atlanta, was quite a theatrical experience. The room began entirely dark. As a narrator (actually James Earl Jones) told the story of the history of the cyclorama, parts of the painting were lit up. The audio used surround sound well: for instance, in discussing a battle portrayed in the painting, I could hear the sounds of horses and gunshots from behind us.
I learned some interesting facts about the painting:
- It's a big oil painting on linen, standing 42' high and 356' around the circumference. It's supposedly the world's largest painting.
- Although a fad in the nineteenth century, only three cycloramas survive in the country. There's only twenty left in the world. I was in Quebec last year. It turns out one of the few remaining cycloramas, the Cyclorama of Jerusalem, in North America was nearby.
- It appears 3-d because of a 30' deep diorama in front of the painting, including model figures, dirt, and railroads. The diorama blends well with the painting. The diorama used to be made of dirt, tree stumps, and so on, but they had problems with rodents and insects so it was redone with fiberglass.
- The cyclorama was commissioned by a military officer who participated in the battle as part of his political campaign. It portrays how Atlanta burned in the Civil War ("War Between The States") during Sherman's March to the Sea. He wanted to show the role he played in the battle.
- Since it's a circular painting, an entrance was needed to get the public inside and out. To solve this problem, the painters painted a wagon door in one segment of the painting and cut out the canvas from inside the door. We, however, didn't get to enter through the door; rather, we walked beneath the painting and climbed some stairs up into the center.
- The landscape, horses, and people were all done by separate artists. Perhaps this division of labor--in which each person does only and exactly what he or she is good at--should be tried with modern pieces of art, whether large or small. It might improve the quality (not that I'm claiming art not done in this way is bad quality). We might live in a too individualistic time, however, for artists to be willing to share the task of producing art.
We then drove downtown and strolled, walking this route. Sometime while walking we spotted a piece of art made in the pointillist style using fragments of newsprint. Neat. This might've been in the lobby of the Atlanta Insurance building: it displayed some artwork.
We walked through the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, a historic district. Although it had some plaques, I was generally disappointed with it. In general it doesn't look very historic--in fact, it looks pretty shoddy. The old Cocoa Cola old plant, seemingly located in a house, wasn't worth photographing. Later I learned the important, historic, pleasant section of Sweet Auburn was further east. I visited it on day five.
Our walking took us to the Sweet Auburn Curb Market in time for a late lunch. It's a little market with some freshly cooked and some prepared foods. It's certainly no Dekalb, but it's still decent.
We gathered food from a variety of stalls.
- Roasted chicken: very good, moist.
- Collard greens: very good. Puts the ones from last night's visit to Colonnade to shame.
- Cabbage: fine. Di Yin likes.
- Flattened corn bread (johnny cake) - more like a corn muffin.
- Crab cake: good, though a bit fatty.
- Berry smoothie.
We walked past the Capitol, but didn't have time to explore the museum inside.
In front of the capitol was a solitary man wearing a noose and shackles. It wasn't obvious to me what statement he was making. Later in the week, I saw the local news interview him. Apparently Georgia legislators are considering a bill to apologize for slavery. He was lobbying in favor of the bill.
Coca-Cola Museum
The Coca-Cola Museum was neat: a comprehensive history of the evolution of the drink, the company, the brand, the advertising strategy, and more. I particularly enjoyed the exhibits showing how the brand's colors and advertising artwork have changed over time. Supplementing this exhibit was a theater showing television ads. It's interesting to see how Coke advertises itself differently in different countries, and how those ads have changed over the previous several decades.
They had various tasting rooms. One room included many of the drinks the Coca-Cola company sells all over the world: dozens upon dozens of these specialized drinks for particular tastes. I had no conception of the sheer number of such products. Some I spotted and decided to write down: ginger beer, krest ginger ale, fanta tropical, smart watermelon (sold in China) (I tried), fanta passion fruit (I tried), smart apple (sold in China) (I tried: good, not too sweet; wish I could get it around here), and lift apple (sold in Mexico) (I tried: more cidery than China's version).
Sometimes it's interesting to see the sorts of objects for sale in a museum shop. This museum's offerings included sprite, tab, and hi-c t-shirts (all reasonable product ideas, though I've never seen anybody wearing one), and coca-cola shot glasses (huh).
From the Coca-Cola Museum, we walked through a sketchy area with people hawking electronics (this is an adjunct to Atlanta Underground, which I'd formally visit later in the week), passed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution building (wholly unremarkable), passed the State Bar of Georgia building (with an unusual monument out front--what does it signify?), and arrived at the CNN Center. Next to the CNN Center was a restaurant, Golden Buddha, which advertised Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Sushi. I guess people in Atlanta aren't usually any more specific when they go out to eat than simply saying they want Asian food. I'd be surprised if this place were any good.
CNN Center
The CNN Center, world headquarters of CNN, offered tours. Cameras weren't allowed. After going through a metal detector and bag inspection, we got to see one news room (usually used for weather reports) with a green screen. I learned that the teleprompter displays 150-175 words per minute, with only three or four words per line in order to minimize eye movement. The prompts are read via a mirror so the telecaster's face isn't directly lit by the teleprompter. The teleprompter uses symbols to direct the telecaster to make dramatic gestures. For instance, a circle means push, as in push the clouds away for a weather forecaster.
We were shown the newsroom. It's a big room with no walls. Everyone works there: producers, directors, affiliate processors (i.e., they read the newswire), writers, copy editors, main desk, weather. Normally there's 75-100 people in the room. During major breaking news, the number can grow to three times that.
During the tour, we walked by a memento from Saddam's Airport. (I think it was the "M" from the airport sign.) It felt somehow wrong for a news organization to collect pieces of the news (i.e., items owned by a foreign, fallen government).
Something else on the tour also made me think: the televisions showing competitors' channels. While it's good to keep track of the competition, the guide said the monitoring is partially to "keep the news in line", which I take to mean both in line with what stories they're choosing to report and in line with the facts they're reporting. It feels almost like implicit convergence/consolidation of the media.
Turner Broadcasting owns not only the large CNN family such as CNN Espanol (whose newsroom we saw), CNN Money, and CNN International, but also channels I never associated with it such as the Cartoon Network and Court TV.
Some questions answered during the tour were clearly dodges, such as the third frequently asked anchor question. Also, I found it interesting to hear about the jargon that's evolved in the control room.
This time, the attached gift shop had shirts with important messages worth remembering: "find the facts" and "hold people in power accountable."
Leaving the CNN Center, we walked through Centennial Olympic Square/Park. There were many strange numbers embedded in the ground; I wonder what they mean. Regardless, the site would make a good Game clue.
Evening
In the evening, we returned to one pleasant district, Ponce de Leon, to go running among all the unique houses. We jogged this route.
For dinner, we revisited the Dekalb market for supplies. We then headed to our new hotel room in the Best Western in College Park and ended up eating:
- tomato basil soup: thick, with whole leaves of basil
- pasta and artichoke salad: standard)
- woodstock water buffalo vermont black currant yogurt: weird; solid like cake frosting though not as sweet
- redwood hill farm cranberry orange goat milk yogurt: quite good
- tomatoes
- nectarines
- seaweed salad
- smoked turkey leg: fine
- focaccia: still the same leftovers
Our new hotel had a microwave and living room, yet was cheaper than our previous one. If only we had known about the microwave, we would've bought different food.
Atlanta Day 2: Stone Mountain and Georgia Aquarium
These pictures and movies record the day's adventures. They include at least as many observations as this blog entry.
We decided to begin our visit to Atlanta with a stop by a farmers market followed by a picnic in a famous park. It was a simple plan, but events didn't go simply. Our guide books didn't have great maps so we had a little trouble getting to the highway and figuring out which highways we needed to take. Then we ran into worse trouble: a marathon closed many roads. We tried dodging this way and that. In the process, Di Yin noticed many swings on porches. Eventually we got out and walked around a bit, partially to release some frustration from running into the marathon repeatedly, partially to enjoy the perfect weather.
Back in the car, we eventually made our way around the marathon and soon drove down a lovely street, Ponce de Leon, with interesting houses and pretty "new green" trees. At some point, Di Yin commented on the radio station we happened to have chosen. "Are we really listening to Christian reggae?"
Your Dekalb Farmers Market
Once at the Your Dekalb Farmers Market, we explored, and bought a huge amount of food. It's not a farmers market in the traditional sense because all the stalls are owned by same company. Rather, it's more, as one person described it, an "atmospheric grocery store," a bit like Berkeley Bowl but bigger. It's definitely impressive; I wish we had a store like it in California. NPR's All Things Considered produced a cute profile of the market.
The market seems to be run by black muslims, judging by the quantity of middle eastern foods and spices at the market and the relatively little amount of pork. Di Yin observed many employees appeared to speak French with a Haitian accent. Perhaps this is related to the observation that nearby parts of town seem to have more Caribbean restaurants than one would otherwise expect.
I observed one fact that made me happy: this market doesn't mislabel pasilla peppers, as most markets in California do.
We also observed one consequence of being in a conservative Southern state. No alcohol is sold on Sunday.
Stone Mountain Park
We drove to Stone Mountain Park and drove around it, discovering how pretty it is, while looking for a place to picnic. We found a pleasant one where birds were chirping. We ate:
- ham and cheese croissant - good. sharp cheddar makes a difference.
- lamb chile - remarkably good and meaty. Also has beans and three types of peppers.
- marinated mushrooms - I'm definitely a fan.
- lamb samosa - oily fried skin. all meat interior. simply unpleasantly overwhelming.
- focaccia - a little oily.
- cheese danish - soft, sweet cheese. I think we liked it.
- tiramisu - "wow." "wow." It was all rum and expresso, no cream.
Georgia Aquarium
After a short walk in the park (sneezy for some, as everything was in bloom), we got in the car and headed downtown. Once again, we drove through Decateur, one particularly nice area of Atlanta. After debating about where we should actually go when we arrived downtown and fighting a bit of traffic, we ended up at the Georgia Aquarium.
Originally, I was planning to skip the aquarium, just as I planned to skip Six Flags (which the tourist books also make a big deal about). Aquariums are usually the same everywhere--just fish--and rarely excite me. I'm glad I was traveling with Di Yin, because she convinced me to go to the aquarium. And I'm really thankful I did. Built two years ago, it's the world largest. And boy is it impressive. I realized I could make an awesome Game here, not only because of the "can you spot these fish" handouts it provided when we entered.
The pictures and movies capture most of my experience at the aquarium. Everyone was nice (nicer than in many other cities) about getting in the way of pictures -- if they did, they apologized and quickly moved on. The most awe-inspiring exhibit was the transparent tunnel under a huge tank filled with giant groupers, hammerheads, sting rays, and whale sharks. I have videos of it. Part of the awe comes from the reaction of the other visitors; when we returned to the tunnel later and it was less crowded, it didn't seem as impressive and moving.
There's many aquatic creatures I didn't photograph, including senorita, halfmoon, horn shark, rainbow seaperch, seat otters, octopus, longnose gar, and razorfish.
I'd guess the clear material the aquarium uses as walls for its tanks is six inches thick. At first I thought it was glass, but learned it's actually acrylic. When I was reading about the material, I finally realized why we had to pass through metal detectors on the way into the aquarium: so people don't bring in a weapon and break a tank open--that could be disastrous.
There's an exhibit describing how the fish get from the other side of the world to the aquarium: UPS. UPS uses uses a 747. (UPS is based in Atlanta so I guess it's natural they provide the shipping.)
One exhibit allowed visitors to touch an anemone. Another allowed touching of a cownose ray. One of these had limited times (fifteen minutes every hour); the aquarium didn't want the creatures to get stressed.
Buckhead
To kill some time before dinner, we headed to Buckhead. Buckhead supposedly is Atlanta's hip, trendy neighborhood, full of fancy shopping boutiques and cutting edge restaurants. The cool part of it is reportedly so crowded, so much like Mardi Gras, with so many people on the streets, that's it's difficult to drive.
We couldn't find this part of Buckhead. We found the intersection of Peachtree Road NE and Wieuca Road, which had three shopping malls on the corner facing one another. Perhaps the cool section was in the little streets by the malls?
In any case, we gave up and headed for the nearby outlet of Chapter 11 books, a small, local, supposedly good chain bookstore. We couldn't find it! We had the address, but it wasn't there. I even booted up my laptop to check the address online. It was correct. I guess that outpost of Chapter 11 Books filed for chapter 11...
Bookless, we headed to Colonnade Restaurant for our first meal in Atlanta of true Southern cooking. Here's my review. After dinner, we had a tasty dessert back at the hotel of chocolate covered crystallized ginger. Mmmm.
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