Beautiful Atlanta

Today was Photo-Op Heaven!

1. Reconstruction of Jimmy Carter's Oval Office

2. Carter and his nobel Peace Prize

3. Sweater he wore to encourage turning down the thermostats to save energy

4. Bronze statue recognizing Carter's work in Africa to eradicate conditions that cause blindness.

5. Homage to Nemo

6. The Georgia Aquarium

7. Jelly Fish

8. A great "water tunnel"

9. Cavorting Beluga whales

10. Getting up close to the exhibits

11. Inside the CNN Center

12. Globe and the top of the world's longest escalator

13. Hum Vee used in Iraq by CNN reporters

14. Millenium Park (CNN in the background)

15. Millenium Park statue to those who made the 2000 Atlanta Olympics possible

Busy day, busy day! Staying at a wonderful Amerisuites (soon to be a Hyatt) and the shuttle was at the ready this morning. We were dropped off a mile or so away at the CNN Center and walked right up to get tickets for a tour. The center is fabulous! Ted Turner purchased the Omni Hotel and resort here in downtown Atlanta. He kept part of the hotel and remodeled everything else (amusement park, skating rink) into this center for his Cable News Network. We started off by riding up the longest escalator in the world. It seemed to go on forever. Our guide is attempting to work himself into a photographic position at CNN and this is his entry level job. We started at the top and worked our way down. We saw the room where they do the broadcast live and watched all the activity. Saw CNN International as well as CNN Espagnol and CNN Headline News. It was a fascinating hour tour and well worth the $12.00. I even got to sit at a desk and pretend I was a news anchor. This could be a new profession for me!!!!

We then walked over to the Georgia Aquarium through Millenium Park. This was the unfortunate site of the bombing during the 2000 Olympics. But the park is beautiful and downtown Atlanta has a lot to recommend it. The Aquarium is not the Montery Bay Aquarium but there were some things I really liked. The exhibits were all off the center of the building and you returned to the middle of the building each time you completed an exhibit. This makes it very manageable and able to see all the exhibits in shorter periods of time without walking miles and miles as you do at Monterey. On the other hand it is much smaller and not as detailed. Some of the exhibits you can tell from the pictures put you almost right into the water, or so it feels. Very enjoyable and then it was time to move on. (We really covered the territory today and much of that is thanks to the hotel shuttle)

We called the shuttle which took us back to the hotel where Lee and Judi got out and I continued on to the Carter Library and Museum. I am a big fan of Jimmy Carter and I do feel he is a man of very high character. I enjoyed the museum very much and now I have seen 2 Nobel Peace Prizes in the last two days. The grounds around the museum and Carter Center are lovely with a couple of small lakes. The large tiled pool at the entrance is empty of water as is another large fountain in Millenium Park due to the terrible drought that is occuring in the south. We are also asked in restaurants if we wish water as it is not brought automatically.

Lee and Judi enjoyed the afternoon at the Atlanta History Center. It is located in the Buckhead area of huge palatial mansions one after another. In this residential area the homes were visible from the street and surrounded by lawns and lovely gardens. One of the houses they toured at the History Center was the Swan House built in the 1920's which was very large but had a feeling of coziness. They got a real feeling for the people who lived there including the mistress of the house who had the sweeping staircase polished every day but made everyone including her family use the back staircase to go upstairs. And as Lee said, "Now thousands of tourists tramp up and down the staircase every year!" They visited another section of the History Center which housed an outstanding collection of American folk art from the Civil War to the recent Olympic games. As our common complaint goes, "There wasn't enough time to see everything!"

We met back at the hotel and proceeded a couple of blocks up the street to Ray's Seafood Restaurant. It is in the quite upscale tourist/shopping district and we had a wonderful dinner. Will be tucking our full little bellies into our beds for we head on to Nashville tomorrow. Stopping first to get the Green Avalon serviced. It has been a courageous and reliable steed and gets to go into the barn for an extra ration of oats! Tomorrow from Grand Ol' Opry Land!

Nighty night from the GGG's