Summer Vacation - 2002
Atlanta, Georgia
July 5 - 13
I'm still working on this page, so come back again to see what's new.
- Sharon and I drove down, starting on Friday, July 5. We stopped that night in Charlotte (actually it was in
Fort Mills, South Carolina) to see the Charlotte Knights play the
Durham Bulls. The Bulls won easily, 11-2. You can read a game summary by
clicking here. There
were fireworks after the game which were pretty good.
- We completed the drive down on Saturday, with a stop in Atlanta at the
Margaret Mitchell house. Margaret wrote Gone With The Wind.
- We spent the week at
Fairfield Plantation in
Villa Rica, Georgia. We had hoped for a place at the beach, but when you
wait to long to made your time-share exchange request, you end up in Villa Rica. It was a pretty nice place - 2 bedrooms and a loft.
It could have slept up to 8, so we had plenty of room.
- On Sunday, we saw the
Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0. It was a good game, but would have been
better is Chipper Jones, Javy Lopez, and Sammy Sosa had played. Greg Maddux pitched 7 shutout innings for the win,
and John Smoltz got the save. After the game, we went to the
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.
- On Monday, we went to the
Cyclorama in Grant Park, and stopped by the
Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.
We also picked Matt up at the airport on Monday. He had planned to go to a concert on Saturday, so he did not ride
down with us. Unfortunately, the concert got rescheduled. After the airport, we found a
Build-A-Bear Workshop where Sharon
built a bear while on vacation for the second year in a row. Myrtle (thhe bear from last year, built in Myrtle Beach)
now has a new friend - Javy (named after the Braves' catcher Javy Lopez).
- We went several places on Tuesday - the
CNN Studio Tour,
Centennial Olympic Park, the
Coca-Cola Museum, and Atlanta Underground. The Underground
wasn't anything great, but the other places were good.
- On Wednesday, we took a tour of
Turner Field, the home of
the Atlanta Braves. Afterward, we went to
Varsity Hot Dogs,
which was one of the places featured in a
PBS show about great hot dog places across the country. We then visited
Hazel and Joel Mason in Jonesboro. The Masons are long time friends of the family. I've known them since 1963 when we
lived in the same house in Germany.
- Thursday was our day at
Stone Mountain Park. We rode the Skyride up the mountian and walked the 1.3 mile trail to get down.
We also rode the train and boat, visited the plantation area, and saw the 4D show. We also stayed to watch the laser and
fireworks show that night.
- Our choice for a radio station in Atlanta - Peach 94.9 (WPCH).
- We drove home on Saturday. We stopped at a good place for lunch -
Gary's Bar-B-Cue in China Grove, NC. The drive home was a little over
600 miles.
- I got 10 bottles of hot sauce and 3 jars of salsa to add to my collection.