The Smart Road Trip

The Cali Garmo and his smart car Mandelbrot take on the US!

Atlanta, GA

By thecaligarmo, Published on Mon 01 April 2013
Category: Capitol

[![Atlanta, GA]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0004.jpg){.post-img width="250" height="376"}]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0004.jpg Buildings in Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA!!! Such a fun city! I got to see one of my favorite brothers (Martin Celaya!) and got to hang out with him for a while! Atlanta had a super nice downtown mainly because it was where the olympics were a while ago and thus had to look pristine . It seemed like short of a few things there isn’t much to Atlanta. They have some fun things to do as a tourist, but the living situation is not so fun. The druid hills community is very gorgeous, but the traffic is nightmarish. Even Los Angeles had less traffic… But since I wasn’t commuting it wasn’t so much of a problem. Let’s first talk about the first thing I did when I hit Atlanta… Go and visit the capitol!

[![Atlanta State Capitol]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0434.jpg){.post-img width="450" height="299"}]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0434.jpg Atlanta State Capitol Building with Liberty Bell

The Capitol building was structured after the US Capitol in order to appeal to the union after the confederacy fell. Inside there are paintings of prominent union and confederate soldiers. There is also a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. since he was born a couple miles from the capitol building.

[![Lamp Post in Atlanta State Capitol]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0448.jpg){.post-img width="250" height="376"}]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0448.jpg Lamp Post in Atlanta State Capitol Building

Now of course there was tons to do as a tourist in town. I did the Georgia Aquarium which I didn’t fully enjoy, but that’s mainly because I’m not big on aquariums. If you like aquariums then it’s probably epic amazing for you. Highly recommend it for those people. I also went to the World of Coca-Cola which was kind of amazing. I did the VIP tour which I highly recommend. If you end up being the only person on the tour then you get a private tour of the whole facility which is super nice. I got to learn so much! I even ended up teaching my tour guide how to make sushi… we were that close =P The best part of the coca-cola tour is the end though. You get to try different coke products from around the world. They had so many flavors that by the time you tried each one you were completely full (and had a massive sugar high). There were so many amazing flavors!

[![CNN World Headquarters]({static}/images/2013/03/DSCN0641.jpg){.post-img width="450" height="338"}]({static}/images/2013/03/DSCN0641.jpg CNN World Headquarters

I also went to the CNN World Headquarters and did a tour. I did the VIP tour for this one as well although I don’t recommend it as it’s the same thing as a normal tour. And if you go early enough those tours are equally as empty. It was kinda fun going through the newsrooms though. I also checked out the Fernbank Science Center which was a ton of fun. They have pretty good planetarium shows. It’s also free to go in and have some awesome amphibians and reptiles on display.

[![Fernbank Science Center]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0002.jpg){.post-img width="450" height="299"}]({static}/images/2013/03/DSC_0002.jpg Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, GA

I also got to go to the CDC since Martin works at the CDC. I got to go through their internal museum which was super cool. In Atlanta I also found my favorite supermarket of all time: Buford Highway Farmer’s Market. They had food from all around the world and even had the stuff I needed to make sushi for Martin!

Of course I didn’t cook every night I was there! I also went to Mary Mac’s Tea Room which had decent food. The fried okra was fairly normal, but the biscuits were really good. I got a tomato pot pie which tasted like an epic disaster, but the peach cobbler more than made up for it. We also went to Thai Chili for a goodbye lunch was really delicious.

Martin also took me to this super nice bar at the top of the Westin called Sun Dial. It’s a rotating bar that gives you a 360 degree view of Atlanta which is super nice. The drinks there were epic amazing as well. If you want to just chilax for a few and have a nice cocktail, this is the place to go.