In early March, 2/3s of my lovely future in-laws came down for a visit for a week. It was nice getting to show them around Atlanta and do tons of touristy stuff. And eat out for a solid week. My waistline wasn’t too happy about that.
Both the fiance and I had to work (me moreso than him), so I only got to really spend time with them on the weekend. We visited the new world of coke, which is INFINITELY better than the old world of coke; no wood paneling in sight!
Once you enter this world of coke, you get to sit through a mildly entertaining 10 minute commercial/movie that’s quite possibly one of the most bizarre wastes of money i have ever seen. The entire audience sat there with total “wtf??” faces after it was over. Then the screen lifts up and you walk into an atrium full of natural light. It’s really a beautiful space.
After the kitschy old advertising paraphenalia, you walk through a functioning bottling plant that’s running at a reduced speed. After you walk through the tasting room, you actually pick up bottles that were bottled at that plant. It’s pretty cute.
This is the crazy packaging robot that puts empty bottles onto the conveyor and takes full bottles off.
After exhausting the world of coke (which takes a while. I could sit near the Europe kiosk and watch people drink Beverly all day), we headed over to the aquarium.
I don’t believe I’ve ever mentioned the fact that my future sister-in-law is TERRIFIED of alligators. I can’t wait until my aunt wins in her quest to bring my in-laws down to south Georgia and she loses her shit because I basically grew up in a swamp.
And here is an otter basically using another otter as toilet paper:
After future Mom #2 and sister left, fiance and I decided to use up the rest of their city passes and visit the High and the zoo. The High was really interesting because there was an exhibit on John Portman (the guy who designed Peachtree Center).
Backstory: A few years ago, I was bumming around Sea Island on my way to St. Simons and saw this crazy house. I thought for sure that it was some sort of private resort based on how… utterly insane the pool area was. I snuck onto the beach behind the house to get a better look.
Well, it turns out that this crazy house is actually John Portman’s second home, Entelechy II. I read that he had a residence on Sea Island and immediately thought “I wonder if that’s the crazy house??” and I turned the corner, revealing the scale model of none other.
After the High, we took in the zoo. It was… zoo-like. Stinky and full of animals.
Adorable elephant:
When I was in middle school, I played flute in band (and was first chair for the longest time). At one of the concerts we did, we played a song called “The Dragons of Kimodo”. Whenever I see Kimodo dragons, I hear that song in my head now.
You probably don’t want to watch this. This is a snapping turtle during feeding time.