Two Days Of R&R in Atlanta
Debbie and I spent a couple of days in Atlanta. It was her surprise gift to me, an opportunity to reconnect and step away from being too scheduled and too busy. We stayed at the Omni Hotel. According to my calculations it cost about the same as four nights at the Holiday Inn. However, for the price we received amazing service and a great room on the 28th floor overlooking the skyline of the city.
The Centennial Olympic Park is adjacent to the hotel. The photo above is a view of our hotel from the park. We spent several hours casually sitting and watching the people go by. I met an interesting gentleman who insisted he was a millionaire and part owner of Nascar. When I told him I was not interested in auto racing, he looked at me with incredulity and proceeded to stagger away, to pester someone else. Then I was able to continue to feed the pigeons and watch the children play in the fountain.
One day for lunch we dined at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was vaguely familiar with the place. Upon entering the restaurant, immediately I noticed an interesting motto emblazoned upon the wall. It read, "LOVE ALL. SERVE ALL." I was thinking this needs to be on the wall of my church! Our waitress was nice, although a bit disconcerting were the safety pins in the cheeks and the purple hair. I walked around the place a bit, and viewed guitars from Eric Clapton and Gene Simmons. The various rock videos blasting from the walls became irritating after a while. I told my wife it would have been a nice place if only they had cut out the loud music. She thought such a statement did not deserve a reply. We toured the World of Coke and the Aquarium. The former was basically a tribute to commercialism, which disappointed me because I think Coca Cola is the best tasting drink in the world. The experience was redeemed somewhat at the end, as I was allowed endless samples of flavors of Coke from all over the world. I particularly liked some of the South American varieties, although I think they gave me Montezuma's Revenge.
The Aquarium is an amazing experience. The variety of sea creatures, and the fantastic views are so available that it is easy to overlook how very incredible is the scene before you.
Above are a couple of photos. Usually I will edit such pictures to remove distracting factors, like empty space and strangers. However I came to notice the lady in both photographs. She looked familiar. I thought, and then it came to me. I was being stalked by Ashley Smith, the hero of the Brian Nichols ordeal a few years ago in Atlanta. You can google her story and her face to discover that, indeed, she is the lady following me at the aquarium. I can tell you, right now, this is going to get old having beautiful women and celebrities follow me around all the time. I have not bothered to tell my wife about this personal cross that I must bear, lest she roll her eyes and refuse to respond once again.
Should you ever come to this area, I would love to meet you and point you to some great things to do!
06.22.07 (11:00 pm) [
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posted by:
eraserhead667 (
reply)
post date:
06.22.07 (8:34 pm)
I may be way off on this, but it is my understanding that the Coke bottled in Mexico is like the old Coke here - back when they actually used sugar rather than that horrid high fructose corn syrup everyone is poisoning us with now. I had a bottle of Coke from a Mexican grocery a while back and I was totally knocked out - the best darn Coke I've drank in years.
posted by:
Seochris (
reply)
post date:
06.22.07 (9:23 pm)
Seochris Here
Pr You are looking so younbg and dynamic in these pics. I hope the short holiday break was refreshing.
posted by:
LadyG (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (1:34 am)
What a wonderful surprise, the pictures are amazing, glad you both had a good time.
posted by:
surrogate (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (4:15 am)
Sure hope you let scuba show you around the aquraium. Best tour of a place I ever had. Surely you were there at the same time.
posted by:
PastorDave (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (5:48 am)
Reply to: eraserhead667
We have several Mexican groceries around here, but it never dawned on me that they get their Coke from Mexico. I did notice they have a prominent display of goat's meat. Several years ago I spent a week in Mexico. Being afraid of the water, I drank Coke the whole week. The bottles were fatter, and so was I after a week of sugared drinks.
How about that. You and I have a drink in common!
posted by:
PastorDave (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (5:50 am)
Reply to: Seochris
This was following a week of Vacation Bible School at church, so I was tired and glad to get away for a couple of day. Young and dynamic? I like that. Perhaps's I'll put it on my card- "PastorDave - Young & Dynamic"
posted by:
PastorDave (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (5:51 am)
Reply to: LadyG
Nice surprise indeed. She's thoughtful. And, she seemed pleased with the power drill I gave her for Mother's Day.
posted by:
PastorDave (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (5:54 am)
Reply to: surrogate
Alas, I wouldn't know scuba if I saw her. As much as she writes about herself, she's never posted a picture that I know about. I'll bet we bumped into one another somewhere along the way. The aquarium is so very crowded, almost to the point of diminishing the enjoyment. One of these days scuba and I will meet up at one of these places.
posted by:
bawdy (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (11:26 am)
Does love all, serve all extend to democrats? Leave it to you to take the rock out of the Hard Rock Cafe. Goof. Glad you were afforded a time-out to enjoy the big city.
posted by:
PastorDave (
reply)
post date:
06.23.07 (7:00 pm)
Reply to: bawdy
I'm pretty sure I can love someone without voting for him/her. And, yeah, I'm thinking they should play country music or maybe some jazz. It would make the meals so much more inviting. Surely you can see that?
posted by:
Lisa (
reply)
post date:
06.24.07 (8:05 am)
you and the missus are cute :)
posted by:
almsthvn (
reply)
post date:
06.24.07 (5:50 pm)
LOL! You crack me up.
country music at the Hard Rock Cafe.
I do love the motto though - Love All. Serve All.
posted by:
Robin (
reply)
post date:
06.25.07 (5:05 pm)
Have you ever been to The Varsity? We watched "A Hot Dog Show" on pbs and my daughter is convinced that we have to find the varsity next time we go by Atlanta. Is it any good or just hype?
posted by:
heavyarms (
reply)
post date:
06.27.07 (9:45 am)
Reply to: eraserhead667
It is true that Coke bottled in Tijuana is sweetened with cane sugar and some of it finds it way to the US. However, it sells for about $1.20 a bottle. And it's made with Mexican water.
The closest to the original formula you can get from US sources is the kosher Coke formula. It is sold in 2-liter bottles with a yellow cap, and is easiest to find around Passover. The regular Coke formula is kosher, but most observant Jews don't consume corn products during Passover, which rules out HFCS, so the kosher formula is sweetened with cane- and beet-derived sucrose (which is essentially the same thing.)
Dave:
Speaking of capitalism, I went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Washington, DC once when I went to the National Scout Jamboree back in '89. The restaurant was not open yet (it didn't open until 1/1/90), but the gift shop was. Got a sweet watch. It was all black, with the HRC logo in the center and the "love all. serve all." motto at the bottom. The face fell off after about 2 weeks.
posted by:
heavyarms (
reply)
post date:
06.27.07 (9:48 am)
Reply to: Robin
I went the Varsity when my church high school choir did a mission trip to Marietta. We went there for lunch before going to a Braves game. It was just a crowded hot dog joint, neither the dogs nor the atmosphere were anything special.
