Once we got settled in the hotel it was about 9 pm on Sunday. Turns out things close down early on Sunday there. We unknowingly went the opposite direction of the more touristy area looking for a specific restaurant. There was pretty much no one left on the streets except for a security guard who asked why our child was out so late and dozens of homeless men. As we got close to our restaurant one of those men told us it was closed and suggested another place we could go. Cade asked if it was any good and the guy said that since he was living on the streets he hadn't had the opportunity to try it out. As soon as we walked in we could tell it was kind of a dump and the food wasn't great, but it got the job done. As we walked back to the hotel it started to sprinkle and some really nice guy pulled over and asked us to take his umbrella. We didn't take it since we were almost there and it was only sprinkling so we weren't getting very wet anyway.
The hotel was pretty cool. It was a square with the inside empty (hard to explain). So when you walk in there is the lobby, bar, restaurant on the first floor and then you can see all the way up to the 22nd floor. It was a little nerve racking though because lots of areas just had metal bars as the edge and there were spaced far enough apart that small children could fit through and fall to their death. Luckily Conner was only interested in going up and down on the glass elevators and the escalators. We spent lots of time going up and down and up and down.
Here is a view from our floor, looking down.
Then we were off to the Coca-cola factory. They build up this thing about telling you the secret to the taste and it turns out the secret is basically the happiness it brings to the world. It was pretty ridiculous actually how they acted like coke brings world peace or something, but whatever. There was a 4D moving where the seats moved in a jerking fashion and it scared the crap out of Conner. We had to take turns standing up to hold him and he still didn't like it when he would hear the seats moving. But it wasn't surprising, his only fear in life is loud noises and even without moving seats, the volume of the movie would have been enough to bother him. At the end of the tour you can try over 60 of their products from around the world. That was fun, but after a few taste tests we were quickly feeling sick from all the carbonation. And some of them were purely disgusting.
Cade and Conner standing in front of bottles they have representing different countries. The coke factory and most of the other activities are near Olympic Park from the 1996 Olympics so I think these bottles were created for that.
Here are the boys on a screen showing pictures with fizz bubbles.
Here is the vault that supposedly holds the recipe.
When we first passed the line to meet the coca cola bear I didn't think Conner would like him so we skipped over that. But later he saw the bear and really wanted to go see him.
After the factory we headed across the street to a really nice park. Conner loved it and we went there everyday. Check out the cool swings they have.
They don't go that high but its so nice that the little kids can lean back and be comfy without having to worry about falling out.
After a long time at the park, we walked across the lawn to the Olympic Ring fountain show. It has definitely seen better days. Some of the fountains weren't working, but its still nice for playing in. There was this couple who were in their 50s and they just ran through that thing for at least a half hour. But I guess I lied before because I just remembered Conner's other fear in life: being splashed. He does not like splash pads and wouldn't get close to touching the fountain. Its pretty weird since he loves water and must touch any water that he sees, but don't even think of letting the water touch him first.
After that we walked over the Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles restaurant. There wasn't much that sounded great but what we got was good. Except the peach cobbler. I love cobbler and was excited to have some good southern peach cobbler. But it turned out to be peach pie just smushed into a bowl. I don't like peach pie. Thankfully though, on the walk over Conner fell asleep until dessert so we were able to enjoy a relaxing dinner.
Cade tried to get into some big football game, but he only had $35 cash and even at half time the scalpers were selling the tickets for $75. He was disappointed. In the meantime Conner had fun making faces at himself in the big mirror. We decided it would be easiest to keep Conner on Arizona time rather than try to move his sleeping up 3 hours and then back 3 hours just a few days later. So we spent some late nights hanging out in the room.
The next day we went to the Georgia Aquarium, which is the biggest in the world. Conner really liked most of it. He touched the starfish and looked at lots of the fish. There was a dolphin show that Conner did NOT like. Its actually more of a musical production and when the music started (which was very loud) Conner started whining and we were telling him how it wasn't going to be scary and he would like seeing the dolphins. Right then there was all this thunder and lightening and that was it for him. We again took turns holding him in the back of the auditorium so he wasn't disturbing everyone and he just about fell asleep but then the show ended. He did fall asleep later for about 45 minutes so Cade and I took turns going to see this 4D movie so we could watch it in peace.
He wanted to touch the stingray but it was just too far for him to reach.
Walking through the tunnel to see the penguins.
You can stand up in the tunnel at eye level with the penguins.
Playing in the play area.
The shark and fish swimming above our heads.
Us looking at that shark and fish.
Check out that monster fish.
You can see the huge frog under that curvy branch.
These frogs were awesome, look how colorful they are. They were all bright neon colors in yellow, blue, and green.
After the museum it was more time at the park. Then we walked over to The Varsity. Its just a hamburger joint but it was built in the 20's and on game days they serve over 30,000 people. Most of the food wasn't that great but the onion rings were delicious!
By the next day Conner was really behind on sleep and Cade had to go to his conference so Conner and I mostly hung out in the hotel so he could get some sleep. I noticed that there were news crews at the hotel across the street so we took a walk around and found a small group of protestors against Mitt Romney. He was doing a fundraiser across the street at the Marriott that day. On our way back to our hotel we saw this guy wearing a BYU shirt and I thought it was funny to run into some Mormons on the street in Atlanta, but then I saw he was smoking, so I guess not.
For dinner we went tried another southern place, Pitty Pat's place or something like that. This food was really good. Corn bread and muffins, fried chicken, collard greens, pecan pie.....mmmmmmm. (Ok so the collard greens weren't great and I was too afraid to try the pickled watermelon rind, yuck) I really wanted to come back the next day for the peach cobbler but we just couldn't make it.
Ha ha...check out this mount that was on the wall, complete with his hooves and the gun that shot him.
While Cade was at his conference again the next day I took Conner to the Atlanta Children's Museum. It said it was best for 2-8 year olds so I wasn't sure how much he would like it but he LOVED it. We were there for about 3 and a half hours, and would have stayed longer but they closed at 4. The things that were there really weren't that special but Conner thought it was great.
Here he is at the fishing pond, we spent a lot of time here.
We also spent a lot of time at the train tables. Conner loves trains right now and makes the cutest "chuga chuga" sounds.
There was also a grocery store and farmer's market to shop at, a ball jungle gym thing that was too advanced for Conner, multiple block areas with various sizes of blocks/legos, a painting area that Conner wasn't allowed to use because he refused to wear an apron, and a few other areas. After the museum we went back to our favorite park until Cade met up with us an hour and a half later. (See how great this park was that the wanted to spend so much time there.) Conner is pretty good at making friends, he just finds some kids and starts following them around and doing whatever they do and laughs and laughs.
Here is one of his friends. This nice kid kept rocking the "boat" for Conner.
After Cade met up with us, we headed over to the CNN center. We wanted to take a tour, but they had stopped for the night. But it wouldn't have worked anyway because Conner was crashed out in the stroller and the sign said the tour had to walk down 8 flights of stairs.
But Cade did take a picture out front.
For our final night we took a carriage ride around the city. The driver has been doing it over 30 years! It was fun and interesting, although we don't totally believe everything he said. Sometimes it sounded like he was just making things up as we went, but who knows. Conner loved every minute of it and he didn't want the ride to end.
The next morning the housekeeper woke me up again and opened the door before I could there, we're talking like 5 seconds. She was really starting to get on my nerves. I'm not even sure it was 10 yet and she should really give people a chance to at least answer the door before she opens it. After that I packed us up, checked out, and Conner and I just wondered around the block and in the elevators until Cade left his meetings at 1:45 and we headed for the airport. Conner fell asleep for like 1 minute while waiting to board the plane and then we woke him up hoping he would go to sleep when we got on, instead of waking up. Well he didn't go back to sleep for half the flight. It was a little rough but luckily the guy who sat with us said Conner was better than his kids would have been. Its probably not true, but at least he was nice. It was obvious from his conversation that he was LDS and Cade never mentioned that he was too and you could tell that the guy wasn't sure how to explain some things about his job (he works for the church) and Cade kept asking questions about it. I asked Cade why he didn't just tell the guy so he would know that we understood what he was talking about, but Cade says he was testing the guy to see how good of a missionary he was! Um hello, he already said he was LDS Cade, what about you?!
Overall we had a fun trip. It was great how Atlanta has so many things to do all in one spot and within walking distance of the downtown hotels. It was a great place to tag along on a business trip. And the people were really nice. Multiple times on the street people asked us if we needed help finding anything.
Overall we had a fun trip. It was great how Atlanta has so many things to do all in one spot and within walking distance of the downtown hotels. It was a great place to tag along on a business trip. And the people were really nice. Multiple times on the street people asked us if we needed help finding anything.
