This past weekend, I went on a trip to Atlanta for a job interview, and while I was down there, I got to experience a bit of the city. I flew down there on a Thursday and stayed until Sunday. You could also fly out Friday night and leave Sunday night with the same weekend experience. If you’re interested in a little weekend trip, Atlanta is the place to be.
The first tourist attraction we experienced was the World of Coca-Cola. One of my friends loves Coke and was really excited to be there, which is why it was the first thing on our list. When we entered, we got a free Coke. The tour guide introduced us to the oldest artifacts of the museum and a few of the artifacts that were hanging on the walls in the front room. After that we watched a little video, then we got to enter the main museum. We saw the story of how the idea of Coke came to be, got to take a picture with the Coca-Cola Polar Bear, and we also got to see a bunch of old Coke products and items. They had bottles from all the states, and they had an entire wall of pins from the Olympics. They had an exhibit about how Coke is bottled and an exhibit with the vault that holds the secret recipe. There was also a 4D theatre attraction. The main exhibit was trying all the flavors of Coke from around the world. It was amazing and a sweet treat!
The next thing we did was go to the Aquarium, which was right next door to the World of Coca-Cola. There we got to pet sea anemones and shrimp. We got to go into this tunnel where we had large whales, sharks, manta rays and all different types of sea life swim around us. There was even a giant turtle! There were also puffins and penguins swimming around. In the penguin exhibit there was a little tunnel where we could be right in the middle of the flock. Sea lions and otters were exhibited, and we even got to see a dolphin show where the dolphins got to do flips and tricks. They looked like they were having an amazing time! There was even more to do, and they even had a night tour. It was just amazing to walk around and really get to see marine life.
After that when it was dark, we walked around Centennial Olympic Park. It was a really neat experience to walk around the park and see all the different Olympic themed monuments and signs. They had flags from different countries flying, had water spout up in the shape of the Olympic circles, and there were designs on the sidewalks. It was a lot less crowded when we went at night than it was in the daytime. Carriage rides and a big ferris wheel are next door.
The next morning, we decided to do a CNN tour where we got to see CNN Headquarters. It was a really cool trip to see exactly where the CNN news was filmed and where they worked. It would be a really cool experience for anyone interested in film or journalism. We even got our picture taken in front of green screens that made it look like we were CNN anchors! CNN boasts the world’s longest escalator, which is also a part of the CNN tour. There was also a part where we could volunteer to read a teleprompter or to do a weather report. We also got to walk through some of the offices where they were doing the news live.
After that we had lunch at The Varsity. The Varsity was really crowded when we went there, but the food was really good. I had the stable Varsity Orange drink. The onion rings were also really good and are made there by hand everyday. We also got to take home little paper Varsity hats!
The last thing we did was go to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historial Park. We got to see the house he grew up in and Fire Station No. 6. There was a block of old houses from that time period that people are still living in to this day. There are also several museums there we could tour and see, and the chapel he attended in was also there. We saw the reflection pool where his and his wife’s graves are currently. It was a really neat experience, and I wish we had had more time there, but we wanted to get back to the hotel in time to catch our plane.
Overall it was a really fun filled adventure and we packed in a lot of attractions and museums for how short of a trip it was. We got metro passes and road the train and a trolly wherever we wanted to go, although many of the attractions were walking distances from each other. The next time you’re looking for a weekend getaway with your friends, I’d recommend taking a trip to Atlanta.
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