We had breakfast as part of our package at this hotel, so we headed down to grab some before hitting the streets. It was a buffet with a cooked to order section (over the course of our days here we tried the omelettes, poached eggs and pancakes and all were amazing - it was nice to have some real food!).
Our hotel was right near Centennial Olympic Park, which was built for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, so there were quite a few restaurants and sights to see around here. Our first stop today was the CNN Studios to do their tour. The tour was really interesting, gave us some history of CNN and we were also able to walk through one of the sets, the research areas and also stand in the control room for a while, during the taping of the morning shows.
After this we went to World of Wade, oh wait, I mean World of Coca-Cola!! The first part was guided and they gave us some background on the history of Coca Cola and saw some advertising from around the world over the years. After this it was self guided. We wandered around the centre, checked out the vault where the secret recipe is kept and then went into the main reason for being there - the tasting room!! In the tasting room there were around one hundred different coke products from around the world that you were able to taste (I think we were lucky to try 20)!
We then grabbed some lunch at a burger place in the park called “Googie Burger” where you got to basically make your own burger. From here we walked through the park, and then it was onto the Georgia Aquarium (prior to this we wondered where everyone in Atlanta was because it was pretty quiet everywhere - we found them all at the aquarium!).
Georgia Aquarium is one of the largest in the world and is home to some animals that are are very rare to see in aquariums around the world, including whale sharks and beluga whales. They had a really cool penguin exhibit and ocean exhibit as well.
Once we had finished at the aquarium we headed back to the hotel, grabbed the car and headed out to a mall just out of the city, called Lenox Square. The mall was massive and after driving through through a more residential area back to the city, we discovered it was a really upmarket area (not that the cars at the valet at the mall didn’t give that away already)!
For dinner tonight we had planned to go to one of the restaurant/bars just up the street from our hotel that had a rooftop section. However, when we got there we found out that this one and the two next door were all closed for a function. So it was back to the seafood restaurant at the hotel, where in the end we ended up having a really great meal!
Tuesday was our wedding anniversary - we have been married 8 years and together for 15 years today!! Having done most of the big things in Atlanta on our first day, we ended up planning a bit of a quieter day today (well sort of)! Today we drove about an hour north of Atlanta to do some shopping at the outlets. After shopping and some lunch, our drive back into town took us via Walmart, Home Depot (just to check it out), Aldi (just to check it out) and the Mall of Georgia (another massive mall). It was almost 5.30pm by the time we got to the hotel (so much for a quiet day), so after a quick break and change of clothes, we headed back out for dinner. Tonight’s dinner was at the Cheesecake Factory where we had a really nice meal, complete with a couple of cocktails/beers to celebrate and snickers cheesecake for dessert - yum!
Here are some pictures from the last few days:
CNN Studio Tour
Centennial Olympic Park/Pemberton Place
World of Coca-Cola
Georgia Aquarium
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