Historical Landmarks

After a wonderful dinner at the Dosa Camp in Alpharetta and a long night chatting with Ramsi and Nasa, we left the next day to Montgomery, Alabama. I have been to Montgomery before in 2003, and knew the places that Shankar had to visit. Our first stop was at the Rosa Parks Museum. The Rosa Parks Museum, a tribute to the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement", is part of the Troy State University.

The museum is a must see if you are in the area. It is a great place to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement and the dramatic events that took place in Montgomery during segregation and all the great souls that fought for the equality of men. The feelings one goes through as you walk along the exhibits is something that cannot be simply described by words. Montgomery is a place that you need to experience personally than read about.

Our next stop was the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as a pastor and during which he started leading the National Civil Rights Movement. Though we made it during their open hours, the caretaker was not available and we couldn't go inside. It was a bummer, but we were able to go to the Parsonage and take a tour. Details in the next post!

Georgia Aquarium

Our next stop in Atlanta was the Georgia Aquarium - the largest aquarium in the world with more than 8 million gallons of water. They had two prime attractions - the whale shark and the Beluga whales. Security was crazy in the aquarium - luckily we did not have to wait long owing to the City Pass, but people were not allowed to even take in chewing gums.

Anyways, we spent about 4 hours in there, and we were really excited about the whale sharks - the largest fishes in the world and these are only ones in an aquarium outside Asia. There were supposed to be 4 of them, but we could make out only 3 and here is one of them:

This California Sea lion was all set for his meal, and could not stop himself from peeking in through the glass in the door, may be watching his food being prepared. It was very funny to see him keep doing that. An impatient one!

Here is the star of the aquarium, one of the Beluga Whales - these are the only whales with a flexible neck! This whale can also swim backwards, though we didn't see it. The aquarium is hoping to breed the Beluga Whales in captivity. The aquarium maintains a webcam for both the whale sharks and the beluga whale. Please take a look when you get a chance.

The most fun we had was watching these curious Garden Eels, poking their head and attempting to come pout of the sand, though even after 5 minutes, we never saw one leave the sand completely.

Another awesome exhibit, was the Lake Malawi Cichlids. They are the classic example of Sympatric Speciation - formation of new species in the absence of a geographical barrier, for example within a lake (I know this sounds geeky :)). It was neat to see many species of Cichlids in the same tank! I wish there was some write up there on the significance of these fishes.

CNN Tower

The CNN Center in Atlanta is also a tourist center, where we can take a guided tour on the news giant - get a glimpse of the newsroom and how they work. After a late start, mostly because of me chatting with Ramya and delaying her too, we made it to the CNN center, also across from the Centennial Park around 11 am.

The tour was 55 minutes long, and it was pretty interesting for us to learn more about how news is processed & delivered to us. Only disappointment was pictures were not allowed. Oh, and even though we go up an escalator, we have to walk down like 13 flights of stairs - so not for the weak legged.

From the CNN center, we went to SbyDee, a new Thai restaurant near Georgia Tech. The place was recommended by our friend Goutham, and he also joined us for lunch. The place was nice, not crowded and the food was excellent. We had vegetable tempura and a cashew curry. Today's good Thai food helped us alleviate the disappointment of the Thai restaurant we stopped at on our first day of this trip.

World of Coca-Cola

The World of Coca-Cola is the largest museum for Coke and all the products of Coca-Cola. The museum has moved to a new venue at Pemberton Place, across from Centennial Park in Atlanta. Given the Holiday season, the place was so crowded and thanks to the city pass, we did not have to wait for a long time.

I have to mention that tourist spots in Atlanta had the most security I have ever seen other than airports. We have to walk through a metal detector, leave my tiny swiss army knife outside and can't even have chewing gum on you. That seemed a little too much. So anyways, after a long line to pass the security check, we were let into the lobby (below).

Then at some specified intervals, all of us were herded into a corridor - called the loft, which has coke ads from all over the world. We had to stand here for another 15 minutes, trying to read these ads and watch little facts about coke on big flat screen monitors. Again we were all herded into the Happiness Factory Theater, where you get to watch a lame animated shameless self promotion movie. Opening from the theater, is the hub, with few exhibits and the Coke Polar Bear (not a real one).

The place got interesting after this, you can see a working bottling unit, and video feeds from real factories. Adjacent to this is a milestone gallery and a display of coke products. There some pretty neat coke bottles, some from China & nearby countries and those that were made specially for night clubs. I would like my coke in such a bottle. On level two, there is a pop art gallery with works by Andy Warhol and other coke fans, and more coke products from around the world.

The last stop was the tasting room, where they had tasting stations from all over the world, with 70 different products. We each tasted about 12 products - it was the place to spike your blood sugar. There were also stations where you can sample products that are in the making, a Christmas special peppermint flavored drink and a coffee flavored one. The entire experience ended in the gift store (of course), with so many coke products that you never want to see in one place, unless you get high on coca-cola. They were also very expensive, that our only souvenir was the sample coke bottle that they give out. Well, something for all the lines and waiting I suppose.

We had another long walk back to the car and headed to Alpharetta, to see our friend Ramya, who is behind our detour to Atlanta. She made Poori & Masal for dinner, Strawberry delight for delight - it was loaded with nuts & an instant hit. I was super tired and hit the bed early. However, Amy had declared herself the center of everyone's attention and kept everyone busy with petting her.

Lunch in Atlanta

After a long walk in the zoo, our stop was at Underground Atlanta - a mall and also where we thought the Coke Museum was. After we got there, we realized that the Coke Museum has moved, but it was a good place to grab some lunch. The Atlanta information center located in the Underground, was very helpful and pointed us out to Tringali's - an Italian restaurant above the mall.

The place was wonderful, with a fine dine atmosphere. We were way under dressed for the restaurant, but still enjoyed the service and the food. We started off with a Caprese salad, and then the Eggplant Parmesan. The serving size was plenty and the meal was delicious. And don't miss out on the bread and real butter. We even took some bread for Amy :)

We were a running short on time, since most of the tourist places closed around 4 pm (except the Coke Museum, which we later found was open till 6 pm) and didn't have any time for shopping. We had bought the City Pass, on which you save some money by buying tickets to at least 6 places at once and didn't want to waste it. Parking was plenty near the Underground and hence we decided to walk to the Coke Museum, called World of Coke now. We crossed Centennial Park - in memory of the 1996 Olympics. They had a huge Christmas tree (above) and a skating ring that was crowded. We had a good walk after a big lunch!

Atlanta Zoo

Day 2 in Atlanta we went to the zoo. Not just that we love animals, but Atlanta zoo is quite famous. It is not a zoo where no matter how much you try, you barely see half the exhibits. We were able to cover the entire place in about 4 hours, with ample time watching the critters.

After watching the meerkats taking turns, looking out for things flying in the sky, we were thrilled to see the silver back gorillas relaxing and the otters playing.

The next stop was the main attraction of the zoo - the Giant Panda. The Atlanta Zoo has three of them, a mother (below) and a baby (on top) that is the first one to be born in captivity in the US, and an adult male. However, all of them were sleeping when we were there. We were walking around seeing all the other exhibits when someone mentioned that it was feeding time at 2 pm and all the sleepy ones will be awake. We doubled back and were lucky to see the adults up and eating. This is the male and the female only showed her back to us for the most part. And the baby - missed the meal.

Atlanta - Day 1

We reached Atlanta around 9.30 pm on Christmas Eve and stayed with my childhood friend KKB and his wife. She had made a wonderful South Indian dinner of pearl onion 'sambhar' and potato fry. This is the first homemade meal for us in 4 days and it was splendid.

On Christmas day, we had a late start, had another home made meal of Indian rice cakes - Idlis, with chutney, then headed for the Temple. The day was cloudy with a little bit of rain. Most places are closed today, with the exception of places of worship and ethnic restaurants / movie theaters. First, we picked up Shankar's cousin Ram, then went to the Hindu Temple of Atlanta. Shankar and I haven't been to a temple since we came back from India last July and this was a good opportunity.

The temple also has a kitchen and we had Tamarind Rice and Yogurt Rice for lunch. They are food items we grew up with and part of our comfort food list.

We went to a movie theater in the mall next for National Treasures - 2. I was not impressed with the second one as I was with the first. It was good time pass before dinner. Atlanta has one of the famous restaurants from Madras (Chennai), called Saravana Bhavan. This is a classic restaurant at home and we were excited to be able to go to one in the States. This branch had opened very recently and one of our other friends Goutham also joined us for dinner. We had food items that are hard to make at home, and it was a lot of fun to meet up with friends and family on Christmas day :)

Ruby Falls

Our next stop from the Rock City was the Ruby Falls, located inside the Lookout Mountain. This is the largest indoor waterfalls open to the public and we had to walk through a cavern to get to the actual falls. The geologic formations were pretty interesting en route to the falls. There is no natural opening to the cave (there was one, but it was closed) and so no bats inside.

We had to walk almost half a mile to get to the falls. The falls itself is 145 feet high and was quite a sight. Since it was Christmas Eve the falls was lit up with colorful lights choreographed to music. However, we could have only 5 minutes there and it was the disappointing part - didn't think we would be brought back so soon after paying so much.

Once we were out, we headed straight for out next stop - Atlanta!