A Little Southern Hospitality, part 3

After touring Charleston, we drove down to Savannah, Georgia for the night.  We took an in-depth trolley tour of the city before walking around on our own.  It’s very interesting how Savannah is set up - like a grid, with around twenty squares spread throughout the city.  Lots of trees, too, surrounding the squares.  We stopped in Paula Dean’s restaurant/store before finding somewhere a little healthier to eat!  The next day we drove up to Atlanta.  We arrived just as a Georgia Tech game was ending, so it was a bit crazy getting around until we got to our hotel!  We checked in, and then went to No Mas, a great Mexican restaurant owned by a friend we know from San Diego.  We visited with her for a while and ate dinner, then headed home in more traffic that we later found out was due to a Coldplay concert!  The next morning we walked over to the Georgia Aquarium, which was very cool.  They have a HUGE tank there with all kinds of sea life, including manta rays and whale sharks.  There are also many other exhibits you can check out while there.  Across the way is the World of Coca-Cola, so we checked that out as well.  You can go through different rooms there that explain the history of Coca-Cola, show how it is bottled, and talk about all the different products that Coca-Cola manufactures.  Then at the end, there is a room where you can try products from around the world.  They range from not bad to downright disgusting! After, they give you a free bottle of Coca-Cola and send you out through the gift shop.

After Atlanta, we headed back to Birmingham, bringing our trip full circle.  We stayed for two nights, visiting with family, who were just wonderful and showed us around the city.  We went out to Brookside to see where my grandmother grew up, and also drove through areas that had been hit by recent tornados...crazytown.  After spending great time with family, it was time to say goodbye and head back home.

This was a really good trip.  I got to see lots of places in the South that I have been curious about.  I learned a lot of history and saw places that I normally would probably not have known to see.  Now, just a couple weeks until Mom and I are “on the road again...”