Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Touchdown in Atlanta

The day started off early, as I woke up at 3:23 AM this morning. I rushed through getting dressed, eating some food, and packing my bags into the car. It was cold and windy out in El Cerrito, and I was glad I was wearing a sweatshirt even though later that day it was going to be very hot in Atlanta, Georgia. 
Stephen, Thao, Julie, Shanti, myself, and Justice at 4:00 AM
We all met at El Cerrito High School at 3:50 AM to listen to Don give his last instructions and take his last pictures. We finished the departure meeting and said goodbye to our families as the shuttle arrived to take us to San Francisco Airport. 

We arrived at the San Francisco airport, and after checking bags and traveling through security, we all went to Willow Creek Grill to get something to eat for breakfast. I made the questionable decision to get pasta salad which turned out to taste something like cardboard, old lime, and vinegar. However, I had a muffin and an apple I brought from home that I ate instead. 

We boarded our flight just before 7:00 AM and settled in for a long five hour flight. I slept on and off for about two hours, and watched the minutes tick by. The flight was pretty smooth but our landing in Atlanta was quite rough. Quite rough. As we got off the plane we were hit with the 90 degree air fresh from the tarmac at Atlanta Airport. While we had previously been glad for our sweatshirts and layers, all of us were eager to go to our hotel and change into shorts and short sleeve shirts!

We traveled from the airport to our hotel which was only about 15 minutes away. After setting up in our rooms and relaxing for an hour, we took a taxi to Centennial Olympic Park and walked through it on our way to dinner at Montana Grill.
View from Centennial Olympic Park
Montana Grill was amazing. I had an Avalon burger and it had melted Gruyere cheese, bacon, caramelized onions, garlic aioli, and arugula on top of a bison burger. It was juicy and tender and fabulous. If I ever come back to Atlanta I am definitely going back to Montana Grill.
Avalon burger
After everyone had a delicious meal at Montana Grill, we walked back through Centennial Olympic Park and walked past the World of Coca-Cola building which was unfortunately closed but we still enjoyed looking at their statues and building. 
Floating Coca-Cola bottle!

Great advice, Coca-Cola PR team
After we walked through the park we took a taxi back to our hotel. Tomorrow we are going to tour Emory University and then fly to D.C. 



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