This morning we spent the day in and near Atlanta. Our first stop was Ocmulgee which features burial mounds that were constructed thousands of years ago. The kids were a little nervous about visiting this site because I had broken my ankle at another burial mounds site in Iowa in September, but this trail was much easier to walk, and it wasn't raining. We watched a movie, walked around the exhibits in the Visitor Center, and then went on a short (1 mile) hike. The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge, and I bought them each a $1 Gatorade because it was warm out. Our second stop was the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Park site. They haven't reopened the Ebenezer Baptist Church or the Firehouse that are part of the park, but we were able to visit the Reflecting Pool where he and his wife were buried as well as see the exhibits in the Visitor Center. They have resumed giving tours of the home where he was born, but the only opening they had for 5 people was at 4pm, and we were only spending two hours at the park. After the kids received their Junior Ranger badges, we drove into Atlanta. We had tickets for the World of Coca Cola at 2:30pm. We arrived at the building at 2:20, but it took us twenty minutes to get to a parking lot that wasn't full. We paid $20 to park in a Salvation Army parking lot. Then when we arrived at the World of Coca Cola,
there was a very long line to enter the building. Once we finally entered the building we had to listen to a little speech and then watch a short, pointless movie before we were finally able to enter the museum. It literally took more than an hour to park and make our way into the museum! It was VERY crowded. Unfortunately, at that point we didn't have much time to explore the museum as we had tickets for a 5pm show at Medieval Times. We walked through some but not all of the exhibits. We didn't watch the second movie. We did spend some time in the tasting room where we drank a wide variety of drinks that Coca Cola makes around the world. My favorite was a Mango Lime drink. It was the first place we went on the vacation so far that I wished I hadn't included it in our itinerary. I had considered the CNN tour but didn't end up including that one. We are heading back to the same exact spot tomorrow morning as the Georgia Aquarium is right next to the World of Coca Cola. I am hoping it won't be as challenging to find parking at 8:30 tomorrow morning.
Our last stop of the day was Medieval Times. Several years ago, I had looked into getting tickets to
see this show in Baltimore on a day they were doing the program for school children. I remember going to Medieval Times with my family decades ago. On this vacation we could have gone to the one in Orlando, but I chose the one near Atlanta. It's something that's been on my mental bucket list of places I wanted to take the kids one time before they graduated from high school. One of the things Nadia is most looking forward to crossing off that bucket list is swimming with dolphins. We shall see when and where that might happen. We were assigned to cheer for the black and white knight. He won his first challenge but lost his second one. We were served tomato soup, garlic bread, chicken potato, and corn on the cob to eat without any silverware. We were given a plastic spoon to use with our small cup of ice cream. After the show, we checked into our hotel. We just have three days left of our vacation. I thought of Milo many times today because he's at a kennel this weekend for the first time in his life. I hope he's handling it okay. We will be home in 72 hours, Milo! We miss you!
We've stayed at Holiday Inn's several times on this trip, and they have excellent breakfasts although the rest of my family would prefer if they served bacon instead of sausage. Thankfully, only one hotel on this trip so far has served a "grab and go" breakfast. Two of the places we stayed didn't serve any breakfast, but I knew that when I made those reservations.
The kids say that their favorite part of the vacation so far was our time at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. My favorite day so far was last Sunday when we were in St. Augustine. I really enjoyed Castillo de San Marcos, the chocolate factory tour, and Fort Matanzas. As an added bonus, I ate some amazing key lime pie ice cream at Daytona Beach that evening. Other highlights of the trip for me so far have included spending time with friends and family and snorkeling with manatees.
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