New World of Coke

Ok, I have to admit it, we never went to the Old World of Coke, so I have no idea if this "New" world of Coke is better or worse, but it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. I took Alex and my friend Susan's daughter, Natalie, into Atlanta on Tuesday during Spring Break. Our original plan was to go to the Altanta Children's Museum, but it wasn't to be.... Target sponsors a free day at the museum on the 2nd Tuesday of every month - this month that Tuesday fell during Spring Break, so the line was tremendous! Look!! We waited in line from 12:45 (the museum was opening from 1 pm to 7 pm for the free day) until almost 2:00. At that point, the museum was at capacity and could only let people in as people left, so we decided to bail. The New World of Coke is just across the street from the museum, and even though it wasn't free, it was way better than standing in line all day. One of my friends, Tabatha, and her kids and a friend from her church came down too, but they waited it out. I think that they were in line for between 2 and 2 1/2 hours, but they had a great time and the kids really loved it. Oh, well, there is always next time! Alex, Natalie and I had fun at the New World of Coke. We got to see all sorts of memorabilia and got our picture taken with the Coke polar bear. It was pretty fun!

Alex posed to get a soda at the old soda fountain and relaxed on the American Idol sofa. There were tons of pictures and there was a "pop art" computer set up where both Alex and Natalie tried out their creativity. Natalie's is the one with the hearts - go figure! :) One of the best parts of our visit was the tasting room. As many of you know, Alex doesn't like soda, or anything fizzy, but he tried a bunch of things! They were all separated out by continents and then had what country the drink was from. Alex tried something called "Beverly" which was from Italy and said it tasted like vinegar and salt. All of the comments I heard told me that it was nasty, so I didn't try it. After all of the odd stuff, it was nice to just have a regular old Diet Coke. At the end of the tour, each person gets an 8 oz. bottle of Coke. Alex insisted that he wanted to drink his with dinner that night. Needless to say, he only drank part of it and then poured the rest out. He said that it was "horrible and wonderful all at the same time!" Doesn't he have a way with words?! lol

We also took a walk through Centennial Olympic Park. It is a very nice park. It has one of those fountains that comes up through the concrete and the kids can play in the water. There are also a couple of playgrounds for the little kids and lots of open space. It's fun to look at all of the names on the brick pavers. Alex kept thinking that he saw Ms. Susan's name. What a silly guy! Downtown seems to be mostly back from the tornado, but there are still tons of buildings with boarded up windows and two of the big Olympic torch pillars in the park fell and there are just bases there now. Here is a picture where you can see the boarded up windows in the high rise buildings.

Well, that is about all that I have to report for now. There is a slideshow of all of the pics from the New World of Coke on the right side of the page, so you can check those out too.

The Latest and Greatest from Georgia

Hello everyone! We are having lots of fun down here - the weather is getting nice and spring has definitely sprung. This is the end of Spring Break week here. Alex is camping with his dad and Grampy...it has been a bit rainy here - I'll let you all know how that turns out :)

Here are some pics from the last goings on....

Alex went on a field trip with all of the 3rd grade classes and their musice teacher to Spivey Hall - a concert hall at Clayton State University, which is just south of Atlanta - at the end of March. They had to "dress nice" according to the permission slip. I knew that Alex was going to need some clothes, but holy cow! He insisted that he wanted a suit. Luckily it was just before Easter and Penney's had all of their dress clothes on sale!! He got a nice black suit with a grey pinstripe in it and a grey shirt with a nice tie. Of course, he also needed shoes - the only shoes he has now that fit are skating shoes! - so we got him some really cool shoes too. Check out the finished product: Isn't he handsome!?

Of course, no post would be complete without photos and videos of skateboarding! We have been to the Factory - where we usually go - and to the Woodward Skatepark in Duluth (northeast of Atlanta), plus the Ronald Reagan Park in Gwinnett over the last week. Here are some pics....

Alex is going to be entering a skateboard competition at the Factory next Friday, the 18th. He is getting excited about that. You'll hear and see more about it later. Pray that he doesn't hurt himself!

As for me, I'm doing well. School is fun and we are getting close to the end of the school year. I am going to be teaching over the summer - no work = no money :) - and we are preparing for the summer program now too. I'm doing lots of things at church and really enjoying them all. The worst thing happening now is that I have some massive allergies to the tree pollens down here! I have been to the doctor twice in the last week and I am now on some good meds. My doctor gave me a cortisone shot and Flonase and another med call Xyzal which is finally all working to help my throat not hurt and my nose not be too stuffy! I have also been able to sleep a lot better. Guys, you can't imagine what the pollen is like down here! There is sooooo much pine pollen all over that there is a yellow coating on everything - cars, the ground, railings, just everything! I don't think that the pine is what is bothering me, but there are some other trees that are high in the pollen counts right now that must be the culprits! Well, I'm gonna go for now, but I have more pics to load later. The NASCAR race at Phoenix is getting ready to start, so I gotta go root for my guy - Go Jeff!!! #24!!