Lemurs

Yesterday was fun but I didn't take a lot of pictures because my camera died on me.

I went to the Atlanta History Center, which was really nice, and toured their Civil War exhibit and their Atlanta exhibit. They also have some historic homes on the grounds and I wandered through those as well. Pretty cool, but no photography allowed in the grand mansion. A museum is just sort of a museum so there isn't really much to say, but I did like this particular museum a lot in relation to some of the ones I've been to so far.

I did learn a few things, though. There are no Civil War-era buildings in Atlanta. The city was hit pretty hard by General Sherman and what wasn't destroyed didn't survive the growth of the city anyway. And none of the battlefields have been preserved because by the time they got around to thinking about it the land was too expensive for the government to buy. Progress makes me sad. Being at Gettysburg and thinking "It happened right here. Soldiers touched these same rocks." is really awesome. But then, at the same time, there's something to be said for being on a residential street that seems so peaceful and thinking "This was once completely destroyed by war, but look at what was able to grow back." It's a different feeling, and it's not without meaning.

After that I went with the family I'm staying with to Stone Mountain park which is about 30-40 minutes northeast of Atlanta. I wanted to go there originally but was going to bypass it since it was in the opposite direction of all the things I wanted to do here. Stone Mountain is the "Mt. Rushmore of the South." It's a huge granite "mountain" and carved into the side of it are Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson all on their horses with their hats over their hearts. It's lovely.

We hiked to the top of the mountain which gives incredible views of the surrounding area.

We hiked back down and drove the car around to the front of the mountain where the carving is and where a big lawn is. Every night they have a laser light show with fireworks on the side of the mountain. Part of it is a tribute to Atlanta, part of it is a tribute to the South, and the end is a tribute to the United States. They had a Civil War segment, too, which was pretty cool. How many places in the country are there Civil War themed laser light shows? I love it here!

Here are the pictures from yesterday:

 Not quite the top, but close. By the power lines is the Atlanta skyline. If you click on the picture you can see it bigger and better.

 It's so steep here that there is a railing to hold on to.

 Highest point.

 And the view from there.

That's the carving! Davis front, Lee in the middle, Jackson in the back.

 Baby warthogs!

 Lemurs! And in this picture you can see their fangs. Did you know lemurs have fangs?! Neither did I until today.

 He started to fall asleep like that.

 They were so cute!

 Baby panda!!! In case you didn't know, baby pandas are a really big deal.

A white peacock! I thought he was very pretty, I'd never seen a white one before.

In case you hadn't gathered from the rest of the pictures, I went to the zoo today. Atlanta has got a pretty awesome zoo. It's laid out a little funny and the map isn't super accurate, but the exhibits are good and it's in a nice park. I had a good time there. And my AZA membership got me 50% off admission! It's doing pretty good paying for itself. I also got a snow leopard Christmas ornament in the gift shop. I plan to have an animal themed tree. At first I thought "this is ridiculous, it's not even very Christmas-y" and then I remembered the cheetah ornament I bought last year and I decided I was already getting myself into it so I might as well keep going.

After the zoo I just explored for a little bit, then went and got ice cream and read a book for a few hours. Went and found dinner. A place called EVOS that is just burgers and fries, but they're grass-fed burgers and baked fries so it's a slightly healthier burger and fries, but the cost isn't any different and everything tasted really good. That was a good, random fined. I saw a Panda Express in a shopping center so I turned in but then I saw a sign that said healthy, fresh fast food and thought I should at least check it out before I committed to fried Chinese food.

I'm leaving for Tampa in the morning. Going to be a long day. It's an 8 hour drive and I'm going to try to leave early so I can get there at a decent time, but we'll see how that goes. Good thing I'm tired right now, hopefully I'll get to bed early so I can be up by 7 and on the road by 8, in Tampa a little after 4. That's the plan!

Time to pack up so I can read and then get into bed early.

The Aquarium

My first day in Atlanta what I really really wanted to do the most, more than anything, was go to the aquarium. It's supposed to be on of the best aquariums in the world. I'm not usually an aquarium person but I really had to see this place.

It was amazing. It's laid out well and the exhibits are great. It was just awesome. I took, lucky for you, tons of pictures. But mostly of the same thing. They have one tank, which I think is the world's largest tank, that has whale sharks! The biggest fish in the world! They had to fly them over from Asia and that in itself was a massive endeavor.

I'm just going to put in the pictures, mostly without captions, I think.

 Albino alligator! Isn't he creepy looking?

 Hammerhead! But also a whale shark in the bottom left.

 Manta rays!

 Whale shark!

 Little seahorse! I had one wiggling around right in front of me but there was no flash allowed at the seahorses because they're sensitive to light so I could only get a good picture of the ones staying still.

 This was the warm water fishes, and it's all this darkness and you turn a corner and it's a spectacular amount of light coming through the water and all of the most brightly colored fishes. It was brilliant. (By the way, did you know you use "fish" as a plural when they're of the same species but "fishes" as a plural when it's multiple species. Your fun fact for the day.)

 Pemberton, standing with Coca Cola in his hand outside the World of Coca Cola. I went there, too.

Plethora of vending machines! I think they're really neat.

Okay, so another fun fact or two. The coke museum is in the same plaza as the aquarium and the aquarium is built on land donated by Coca Cola, which I think is really great because it's prime real estate in downtown.

The World of Coca Cola is full of the story of coke and how it came to be what it is today, a mini-bottling plant which works very slowly so it's possible to see what's happening, a popular culture exhibit and best of all! a tasting room. They have Coca Cola products from all over the world to try, arranged by country. Mostly it's Fantas and fruit sodas, but there are a few other kinds, too. I have to say, most of them are pretty nasty. A lot of them are sickening sweet. One, called Beverly, was just horrid. Then they have this brand new soda machines that are so so cool! They have touch screens and you pick your base flavor and then you pick what you want added to it. They had one at the place I had lunch at so I'd already experienced it a little bit. I got a raspberry coke at lunch and then cherry vanilla at the tasting area. Then at the very end, they gave everyone an 8oz commemorative glass bottle celebrating 125 years of Coca Cola. You're then shuttled through the gift shop to get out and it's amazing the variety of things you can get with their logo on it.

Afterwards I ran a few errands around the city and ended up in a neighborhood my guide book says was full of shops and restaurants and hung out there for most of the rest of the day.

Atlanta is such a nice city.

I am very, very tired. I think I'm finally coming down my caffeine/sugar high from the tasting room.

Good, good day.

The ATL

I left Knoxville late this morning and made the drive to Atlanta.

I think I like Atlanta more than Knoxville. First impression is better anyway. I got a little used to Knoxville by the time I left it, since I get oriented in new places pretty quickly, and getting that sense of where things are makes me feel settled a little, but I don't know. I like Knoxville, but I don't know if it's the place for me. When I went to New Orleans last year it took me 2 hours into the first day to fall in love with it and from there my love for the city just grew. That's what I want it to be like when I pick a place to live now. The cost of living in New Orleans is pretty high, but I think I'm going to look again and look for some jobs and see if I have any luck.

If I haven't figured out what to do or where to go by the end of my time in Tampa, I think I'm going to do a drive through the Deep South to get a look at some places there. And I'm going to look on my way down through Georgia because on the way through near the coast I liked it an awful lot. We'll see. I'm back to square one, I think.

I've been thinking, again, some more, like always. And I have myself more confused than ever before. I know what I would really like to do, but I don't know if I would really like to live on those wages, living month to month and not having room in my budget to make me feel safe and comfortable. I did that in college for 3 years and it's stressful and unpleasant. I think a job I really loved would make it worth it, but I don't know if a mediocre job would. If I'm working two jobs to make ends meet, I want one of those jobs to be the thing I really really want to do. Not cleaning kennels at a vet clinic. If I'm running my savings out, I want it to be for a really awesome internship. If I went to the Himalayas to save snow leopards all I'd want is shelter and food, I wouldn't care about anything else because I'd be doing the coolest thing in the world. But if I'm miserable at my job, I at least want to be able to go to the bookstore once a week without thinking about how it's going to mess up my finances for a whole month.

So I don't know where to go, what to do, what to settle on. I hate the idea of just barely coming out on top every month and I hate the idea of giving up the idea of what I want to do just to make a little more money. I don't know where the compromise is.

That's what I have to figure out. On top of the whole where-in-the-world-do-I-want-to-live thing.

So there's all of that. Tomorrow I think I might go to the aquarium. They have a whale shark!