Atlanta

Shana:
Atlanta is home of prestigious headquarters like Coca-Cola, CNN, and of course (most importantly) the American Cancer Society. I was high impressed the ACS's prominent and imposing building right in the middle of downtown. I was almost tempted to go in, flash my old business card, and ask to chat with the President of The Society.

Our first night we stayed at our friend Sarah's house which is located about 1 block from Folton Prison (not to be confused with Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison which would have been much cooler). Nevertheless, we enjoyed a impromptu Beirut / Beer Pong (the name all depends where you went to college) party to use up the left over beer from Sarah's Crawfish Race and Boil (if only we had been in town for THAT).

The next day we toured the Coke Factory and become inundated with their messaging that Coke is what brings people from all over the world together and makes everyone happy. It's all about "living on the coke side of life" or something like that. But, we did have the chance to taste other sodas made my Coke from countries all over the world-- all of which were pretty gross. We'll stick with regular Diet Coke.

Next, we went to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and Museum. The old photographs, quotes, and videos were very inspirational yet reminded us how much turmoil has taken place in the places we were visiting. I found it incredibly remarkable that MLK gave his first notable speech (in which he talks about the "fierce urgency of now" often quoted by Obama) when he was only 26. On our walk away from the museum we chatted with a homeless guy who had taken part in the marches and protests in Atlanta. He remembered MLK confronting the police and going into "white" restaurants despite being scolded by both the white and black communities. It was impressive to talk to someone who had taken part in something so important yet was living in poverty today.

Later that day we enjoyed a free Jazz concert in Olympic Park and then went to see a Braves baseball game. It seemed unreal to us that we could purchase tickets day-of and get decent seats for only $11. Although the stadium was beautiful with high tech jumbotrons and kids games in the corridor, everything about it seemed very un-Fenway. As New England baseball snobs, we thought it was pretty sad that the home openner for Atlanta was not even closed to sold out and that everything was just a little too new and fancy instead of classic old school that we hold so dear. But, we did greatly enjoy our dinner of a Georgia Dog-- a hot dog with coleslaw, onion relish, and BBQ sauce.