Atlanta

We left South Carolina bright and early at 7am to return to Georgia, "The Peach State". We had a 5 hour drive to Atlanta, the capital. We picked the most reasonably priced hotel closest to the World of Coca Cola. There was hardly any traffic on the roads into the city. We thought that it was very quiet for a Monday. And even as we walked towards Centennial Oympic Park, the streets seemed to be devoid of people. We discovered where they all were...lining up to enter the World of Coca Cola! The line fortunately, moved relatively quickly. Before we knew it, we were in! The children were excited, Mummy had given them permission to drink all the coca cola products that were available to try. If you are not yet aware, I am a coca-cola tragic and visiting this place is a dream come true! We filled ourselves with facts on coca cola as well as a multitude of coca cola products. It was so much fun! Walking out with sugar overload, we continued on our high by browsing through coca cola merchandise. Heaven! One of the small regrets that we have is that we do not have enough time to really see all the sights that we wanted. However, as we're unlikely to come back to this part of the United States for some years, we had to squeeze in as many cities as we could.

We're here!

The home of my favourite drink! Did you know that the logo is recognized by 94% of the population?

Let's join the line. Just like a ride at a theme park

Through security and another wait.

We're in! 

The dispensing urn. How coca cola used to be sold prior to bottles and cans.

One of the very first Coca Cola "ads"

A short film (another way to hold the crowds)

The 6 minute clip shows a family of polar bears, used in coca cola advertising

When the movie finished, the screen lifted up to show a passageway...

...into the world of coca cola!

Like at any other museum, Elliot takes his information gathering very seriously

Did you that there are only 2 countries where coca cola is not available? Cuba and North Korea

Trying to draw the famous logo

A serve of coca cola was only 5 cents, and stayed at that price from 1886 until 1959! It went up to 6 cents...

The beginnings of delivery

Coca cola vending machines world wide

Where the secret recipe is kept

The bottling process

Christmas Editions

What can you make out of recycled coca cola packaging?!

Coca Cola pop art

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Funky bottles

The children were really looking forward to this section

The cola varieties were grouped by continents

And then by country

It was busy so you've got to squeeze your way in!

Little Jonah managed ok by himself.

A special flavour for the season

Yes he is drinking water, plain water

One last cola product, this one to take home

Merchandise paradise!

Which magnet to get?!?!?!

We each got a take away bottle

Shopping completed!

There were many things that we had to give a miss. As we were in the world of Coca Cola for longer than we expected, the Georgia Aquarium will have to wait until next time. Also having to wait were the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site and Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The aquarium was right next door but we simply didn't have time to go in

Dinner was a casual affair at Ruth's. We sat in the bar section content to sip our water. As we were there before 6:30pm, we were able to get certain dishes at half price. Bargain! The beef sliders were delicious as were other dishes. We did something that was rare...ordered more food! The walk home through the Centennial Olympic Park was lovely with the park lit up with Christmas decorations.

Dinner!

Half price food!

We ordered more food!

Dessert was big. That round thing was almost the size of Jonah's face!

Atlanta at night

It seems like every city wants to have its own "eye"

St Augustine & Savannah

With a heavy heart, we walked off the elegant Disney Fantasy early in the morning. The seven nights flew by too quickly. At the same time, we were eager to meet up with my parents to start the next leg of our journey. The day was overcast which was a downer after a nearly a full week of sunshine. Perhaps it was meant to be a sign of the series of unfortunate events to come. I called my parents to discover that they had slept in! They had arrived in Orlando from Sydney the night before and had stayed overnight at the airport. The car pick up at the airport was riddled with problems. Despite our chain of emails confirming car type before we left, our 12 seater turned out to be a 15 seater which wasn't configurable! This made loading and unloading suitcases very difficult. The lady offered my parents a Chevrolet Suburban at $99 per day. Err...thanks but no thanks! She also insisted that Malcolm had to be added on as a driver and show his driver's license despite already having registered. They finally arrived at the port an hour later than scheduled but we were happy to see each other and get started. Our quick trip to the local Enterprise, Alamo's agent in the south, turned out to be a waste of time. We were told that we need not have stopped as Malcolm was already registered! Unfortunately, they didn't have any other cars that were suitable. They recommended other offices but warned that most would close after 12pm on a Saturday and remained closed on Sundays.

One last photo on the Fantasy

Malcolm concentrating on driving the 15 seater

Only space for one passenger at the front. Everyone else was right at the very back! There was no way to put the suitcases anywhere else but the front

Not sure how the police did this but it popped up on my phone. We heard later on the news that it was a woman who had kidnapped her daughter in the above mentioned car. For a scary moment, I thought there was some disaster. All I read was ALERT!

A brief stop for refreshments. The orange juice was freshly squeezed and very nice!

A gloomy day...

Crossing over the Georgia

We continued towards St Augustine. Historic St. Augustine is the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States. We had intended to visit Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, a fortress which served as the city's outer defenses. However, due to our big delay, we had to settled for a drive through the city instead. We had to hurry on to Savannah for an overnight stay at the Country Inn and Suites. We checked in and then explored the city by foot. It was a shame that it was raining. We walked to the Restored Waterfront area lined with shops and restaurants for some delicious southern dinner. It had been a long day and so we walked by City Market and then returned to the hotel to call it quits for the day.

Glad to finally arrive at our destination

Happy to be with Oma and Opa. At the pretty Savannah

Let's get fried food for dinner!

Malcolm's choice of beverage(s)