Since my last post, I’ve been busy and didn’t have internet access.  :(

We came home from Atlanta on Wednesday. I worked Thursday for 4 hours and then I went to the airport for the second trip.  The flight to Vegas was uneventful. I sat in first class and watch We Bought a Zoo movie.  It was cute.  I got my bag, rented the car and headed to Target for birthday gifts.  I stopped at In and Out Burger and then went to the Excalibur.  Not too exciting of a night.  I was by myself the first night so I was lonely. I was in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 9.

I woke up early Friday morning and went to the airport to pick up Samantha. Her flight got in at 7am.  I drove her down the Strip so she could see all the cool hotels and then I took her out to Red Rock Canyon.  We did the scenic drive and even did some hiking in the rocks. It was fun. We stopped at Target so she could pick some things and we waited at the hotel until Carrie’s flight arrived.

After picking up Carrie, we went straight to Hoover Dam. It was just as cool as it was in December but the temperature was not. It was 120 degrees down there.  HOT! We went back to the hotel and went swimming, then In and Out Burger (again) and cruised the strip.  We walked down to the Luxor and Mandalay Bay and then headed to Bellagio for the dancing waters and then made our way back to the Excalibur. It was quite a long walk. 

Saturday we started out at the Rio for the longest buffet.  After that we checked out the M&M World and Coke World. Samantha and I rode the New York, New York Rollercoaster.  We drove down to the Mirage and went for a gondola ride at the Venetian, had dinner at the Palazzo and watched the flaming volcano at the Mirage.

Sunday we packed up Samantha and drove first to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and then to Pahrump for the birthday party for Allista, Gerald and William.  They had it at this Bounce place with indoor bouncing stuff. It was fun.  We hung out at the house after that until we had to leave to take Samantha to the airport.  After that Carrie and I just stayed around the Excalibur.  She had an early, early morning flight so we didn’t do too much.

Monday I dropped Carrie off at the airport at 5am and went back to the hotel and slept another couple hours. After I checked out, I meet a friend of mine that I used to work with who was also in Vegas.  I met her and her friend at the Caesar’s Palace.  It is so beautiful inside there!  It was nice to see her again. After lunch, I high tailed it back to the rental car place and back to the airport for my flight home.  While in security I was chatting with this nice guy from Newark, NJ and he asked me to join him in the United’s club.  Free food, internet and comfy chairs…heck ya!  I watched Joyful Noise and had a great meal and before I knew I was back in MSP.  It was so nice to be home and in my own bed again.

I am known to be fairly composed most of the time, but I am prone to meltdowns, especially when it deals with my camera or website.  Today was another meltdown.  We got on the Braves' Shuttle and got to Turner Park at about 6:30pm. Before we went in the stadium, we walked around the outside to see the statues. I went to take a picture and bam "No Memory Card."  SHOOOOOOOT!!!!!! (Well I didn't really say that but I want to keep it clean.)  My memory card is still in my computer...back at the hotel.  The stadium is not really transit friendly and there are no shops or really anything around the park.  We tried to find a store nearby...nothing.  By this time it is burning hot and I'm very upset.  I told Eric is doesn't even pay to go inside if I can't take pictures (a little melodramatic). Eric said that the Team Store would have one but I was doubtful.  So we started walking the 2 or so miles back to downtown, we don't see any buses along the way and we were on a main bus route. We finally got to the Underground Atlanta, a shopping center.  No card. We could have walked back to our hotel but our hotel is another half a mile or more away and the Braves Shuttle left from Underground Atlanta.  We found one at CVS pharmacy and spent an arm and a leg but Eric said it was worth it to stop my whining.  Now I have 2 SD cards for my camera...hopefully this never happens again.

The game was ok, not that interesting.  The seating arrangement is stupid.  I had section 220, Row 5, Seat 1.  I went down to Row 5 and they had seats marked as 101. I thought this was our seat but no we were on the other side seat 1.  So the rows went 1-10 or whatever from the aisle.  The other side of the row goes 101-110 or whatever from the aisle.  That is so lame! The were not many food choices and we had to walk over 10 sections away just to get a stupid hot dog!  When the Braves hit a home run the Coke Bottle would blow its top and fireworks would come out of it.  For strike outs there was a "South Gas" bomb or something that looked like a bomb that was light. The Braves' trademark tomahawk music and chop got annoying really quick.  As a result I was rooting for the Cardinals. The game was close, Braves beat the Cardinals 5-4.  I would say that Turner Field ranks near the bottom of my stadium favorites list.

By the way, the Team Store had an SD card...Eric was right. Stupid me! :(

World of Coke and Fish

Eric at World of Coca-Cola

Yesterday was a busy day.  We got a lot done.  First was the time change snafu.  I forgot that we were in central time and Atlanta is in Eastern…so we brought the car back an hour late…oops!  On our way back to Atlanta from Auburn, AL we stopped at Auburn University.  We checked out their famous Sanford Hall and the stadium.  We made our way to ATL and dropped off the car and took the train into downtown Atlanta.  Thankfully we were able to check in early to the hotel to drop our stuff off in our room before we headed out to explore Atlanta.  First stop was Centennial Olympic Park.  If you will remember, Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympics.  They are very proud of that as you can see remnants of the event everywhere! I would be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed in the park, it was small!  We walked through the park to the World of Coca-Cola.  It was an interesting tour. We got to see the vault that holds the secret recipe (I doubt is actually in there), international and old commercials and the final stop was the tasting room of different Coke products sold around the world.  Some where good, others were horrible.  Barq’s Rootbeer was my favorite and I don’t even like Barqs.   I tried Coke and I’m not sure why I was addicted to it for so many years, it was horrible.

Whale Shark, Georgia Aquarium

After the World of Coke we went to the Georgia Aquarium.  Just like every other aquarium but apparently this is the largest one in the world.  It was nice, I got to see some whale sharks, beluga whales and the dolphin show was awesome…probably the best dolphin show I’ve ever seen. 

We ventured back to our hotel and just hung out.  Eric started writing his paper and I updated my website. 

Today I actually slept in until 9!  Amazing!  Our first stop today was the CNN Inside the Studio Tour.  It wasn’t that exciting.  We got to see the live CNN anchor.  After a Chick-fil-a.  I love Chick-fil-a but they aren’t in the Midwest so I take my chance to eat there while traveling.  Yum!  After that we headed to the Zoo.  It wasn’t anything spectacular but I got to see Kangaroos, Elephants and Panda Bears.   The things I can’t see at either of the Minnesota zoos.  

Now we are relaxing (Eric is sleeping) in the hotel before we leave for the Braves Game.   I can tell Eric is asleep because there is no way he would have left the TV on this channel. LOL!

I love being up so early whilst on vacation.  ARGH!

The last two days have been great.  We flew to Atlanta on Saturday.  Our flight was delayed for almost an hour for no reason at all.  It hadn’t started raining or storming yet.  Nope, we took off in the storm.  That was such a bumpy take off and the first 30 minutes was pretty awesome turbulence.  You know it is “awesome” when the flight attendants don’t even get out of their seats.

Kim, Eric, Uncle Dennis and Aunt Beverly

After getting our bags and renting the car we headed down I-85 towards Tuskegee, AL.  Silly me forgot that we actually go back an hour because it is in CT.  Duh!  We met Uncle Dennis at their house and we went over to the Strong Connection Family reunion.  It was interesting.  It was Aunt Beverly’s family.  We met at 101 year old civil rights participant.  I can’t remember what she did but it was in Selma, AL in 1965 and I think it was with MLK Jr.  We also got the meet Bev’s son Eric, his wife Tajuana, and daughter Erica and Kaci.  We also meet Andre’s daughter Ariel.   It was cool with tons of food, some that I’ve never heard of or tasted.  I have to be honest I wasn’t too adventurous…I had southern fried chicken and corn…I know I’m boring.  In the evening we went back to Dennis and Bev’s house.  We watched the movie Red Tails which is about the Tuskegee Airmen, it came out in this year.  It was interesting. Dennis pointed out things that were wrong about the planes…haha! We stayed in Auburn, AL for the night. It is about 15 minutes away.

Yesterday we went back to Tuskegee.  First stop was the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.  The site commemorates the contributions of African American airmen in World War II. Moton Field was the site of primary flight training for the pioneering pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen. It was constructed in 1941 as a new training base.   Very cool and interesting!

Eric, Tajuana and Kaci on their way to Orlando

After that we went back to Dennis and Bev’s house.  Eric and his family spent the night so we spent most of the day talking with them.  They are going to Orlando today and Bev is going along.  She didn’t realize they were leaving yesterday so unfortunately we didn’t get to see too much of her as she was busy packing.  Eric (her son) kept telling her 2 bags. Apparently she packs way too much. LOL!

After they left for Atlanta, Dennis took us around the area.  We saw the dam in Tallassee and the old Civil War Armory.  We drove up to Martin Lake and up to Horseshoe Bend Military Park. But it was closed already for the day.  :(

Today we head back to Atlanta or as I like to say HOTlanta.
More pictures at: http://kim-eric.com/2012/Atlanta/05.26.12/05.26.12.htm