This is a blog post I meant to write a few weeks ago but, due to studies, I am only just getting round to writing.
It was on a Friday night that I received a Facebook message from my brother saying that he was meant to be coming to Dallas on business from New Zealand where he lives. He reckoned that he would have the weekend off and wondered if he could come and visit. Therefore, despite arriving in Dallas early on Thursday morning and then having to work on Thursday and Friday, Tom got up early on Saturday morning to fly in to Atlanta for a bit of a flying visit.
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| At the Varsity |
Before I knew he was definitely coming I had made arrangements with the two other Candler students who were doing their church placement at Decatur First UMC and a couple from the church to have lunch at The Varsity restaurant in Atlanta on that same Saturday. Therefore, Tom landed into Atlanta and we drove straight to The Varsity. I say straight, however, our GPS took us the wrong direction down the road, so we did take a bit of a detour. The Varsity was started in 1928 by a man who had been told to leave Georgia Tech College for selling hot dogs on site. So, he set up across the road from Georgia Tech and it is now supposedly the largest drive in restaurants in the world with space for 600 cars in the car park and seats 800 people inside. Their emphasis is on fast service and their specialities are burgers and hot dogs.
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| At MLK Center |
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| 50th Anniversary of "I have a dream" |
After lunch we attempted to go and see the Atlanta Cyclorama (read an earlier
post for information about that) but unfortunately there was an event on that weekend so the car park was full and so we had to abandon that plan. Therefore, we went straight to the Martin Luther King Center. I had been once before, but it is the kind of place that rewards more than one visit. It is important to be reminded of the injustices people have faced, and continue to face; and also the cost people have paid in order to fight that injustice. It was also good as there was a special feature for the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. We also had the opportunity to visit MLK's birth home. Unfortunately, people are not allowed to take photos inside.
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| At The Flying Biscuit |
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| Shrimp 'n' Grits |
In the evening we went out for dinner to one of the Flying Biscuit restaurants. This is another Atlanta institution serving good Southern food. We went out with my flatmates and all had a good dinner. On the way back we went via 'The White House' a residential home in Atlanta which is possibly slightly over the top - but impressive none the less. I'm just glad that I don't have to live opposite them!!!
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| The White House |
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| At the World of Coke |
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| Tom at World of Coke |
Sunday morning we went to The World of Coco-Cola which for most of its history has been based in Atlanta. We had pre-booked our tickets which meant reserving an entrance time as their website recommends this. Their website also said people must arrive within 15 minutes of their reserved time. However, due to various reasons, we were a bit late arriving, meaning that we had to run down the street to get there on time. We just made it, only to be told that we didn't have to worry about what time we arrived! It was interesting reading about the history of the company, especially as Candler School of Theology and Emory University owe so much to Coca Cola. It was slightly sad to see them celebrating its global appeal by showing a film which included a person rowing crates of Coke deep into the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. However, it was a good fun morning.
We had hoped to get to the Cyclorama in the afternoon before Tom had to get back to the airport to return to Dallas. However, it was once again crammed full. So it meant that our final Atlanta culinary experience was lunch at Waffle House - not necessarily the best final memory for Tom of Atlanta, but hopefully he had enough good memories to replace it!
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