The Atlanta History Center has a section on The Turning Point of the American Civil War.

Atlanta was the turning point of the American Civil War. The Atlanta Civil War started on 22 July 1864 and Atlanta lost it’s battle in September 1864. After which General Sherman ordered the town to be burnt down. Atlanta is referred to a phoenix as it rises from ashes.

There are more than 1400 original Union and Confederate artifacts, photographs, videos, etc in the DuBose Gallery.

More civil war exhibits. (more…)

The Metropolitan Frontiers has exhibits from Indian settlements to the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement.

The exhibits explore Atlanta’s story through rare objects, photographys, antique clothing, videos and hands-on displays. This is from the Rural Region exhibits.

Atlanta was originally called Terminus, because it lays at the end of the rail line. In 1843, it’s name was changed to Marthasville in honor of Martha Lumpkin, the daughter of then governor George Lumpkin.

The railroad stop then changed to “Atlanta”, possibly a feminine version of “Atlantic”, part of the railroad name. Another theory is it came from the middle name of Martha Lumpkin, “Atalanta”.

Nevertheless, the name Atlanta was officially adopted in 1845.

An antique automobile in the Transportation Center.

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We started day 3 with breakfast at the Waffle House. Unfortunately, Ben forgot to put back the memory card into the camera after downloading the previous day’s photo into his notebook. So, no photos for breakfast. After breakfast, we returned to the hotel to get the memory card.

Our first stop was the Atlanta History Center. The Atlanta History Center includes exhibits of historic houses, historic gardens, the American Civil War, Metropolitan frontiers, Centennial Olympic Games Museum, Bobby Jones, etc.

There are two farm house tour; Swan House and Smith Family Farm. We signed up for the Smith Family Farm tour because the Swan House was closed for renovation.

We came across a white hibiscus on the way to the Smith Family Farm. Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia but i don’t remember seeing a white one before.

Smith Family Farm tour begin on this front porch. It depicts the mid-nineteeth century way of life of an upper middle class family judging by the size of the house and the number of glass window pane it has. The glass window pane was taxed annually during that era. There is no photography permitted inside the house. (more…)

Ben decided to watch a baseball game at the Turner Field. It is something he wanted to do for a long time.

There are many parking lots near the stadium. The nearer to the stadium, the more expensive the parking fee. I remembered our parking fee was USD10. We saw some nearer parking lot fee was listed as USD15. There were some tailgating parties taking place in the parking lots.

Turner Field is the home of the Braves. We caught the last game of the season between Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals. (more…)

After the visit to the World of Coca Cola, we strolled over to the Centenial Olympic Park which is located on the south side of the World of Coca Cola and Georgia Aquarium.

The Centenial Olypmpic Park was built on a run down part of the town for visitors to the 1996 Centenial Olympic Games held in Atlanta. Now, it serves as a gathering spot for residents.

The layout of the 21 acres park; the largest downtown park developed in country in 25 years. The cost for this project was entirely from private sector donations in the form of commemorative bricks as seen on the above photo.

The statue of Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic movement in the Centenial Olympic Park. (more…)

World of Coca Cola is just a stone throw away from the Georgia Aquarium. It’s one of the top attractions of Atlanta and it’s included in Atlanta city pass admission.

I’m not a fan of soft drink. But the rest of my household love soft drink. But their choice is Pepsi over Coca Cola.

The lobby where we waited for the guided tour.

Faces around the world whom Coca Cola aims to deliver to.

The earliest Coca Cola dispenser. (more…)

We had lunch at Cafe Aquaria in the Georgia Aquarium for convenience sake.

We shared half a roasted chicken. The roasted chicken was smeared with some sweet chili sauce. Ben had the chicken breast while I had the leg. Ben commented that the breast was dry but mine was ok.

The roasted chicken was served with fries. Ben had most of them.

I would rather have a dessert. I had a chocolate eclaires. Our bill came to USD16.63. (more…)

After breakfast, we went to our first destination which is Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world.

We bought the Atlanta city pass for the entrance since we planned to use the city pass for other attractions too. The city pass is USD69 per person. It’s a saving of 45% for the admission to the best 5 attractions in Atlanta.

Georgia Aquarium is the gift from the co-founders of The Home Depot, Bernie and Billi Marcus to the city.

One of the attractions in Georgia Aquarium is the AT&T Dophin tales. It’s a dophin performance incorporated with Broadway style musical. Unfortunately, no photography or video recording during the show. (more…)

We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott at Cumberland because this is the nearest hotel to Ben’s Atlanta office which located just across the hotel.

We went for a walk in the surrounding area after breakfast.

We had breakfast at the hotel bistro. Ben had a sandwich for breakfast. His breakfast came with a small bowl of mix fruit. The mix fruit bowl consisted of grapes, pineapple, honeydew, strawberry and cantaloupe. His sandwich came with egg white instead of whole egg for a healthier version.

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Ben planned to bring me to a BBQ dinner. Unfortunately, that restaurant was full. On top of that, there was no parking at all.

So, Ben changed to plan B and brought me to a popular fast food joint in Atlanta. It was Varsity. It’s a drive-in with indoor seating available too.

We opted to dine in. It was a big restaurant. You can see that from the size of the ordering counters.

We ordered a few items to share. Among them were chili dog, chili burger, onion ring, etc. (more…)