Tours Go Better With Coke

Hello readers. I want to issue you an apology. I've been sitting on these Georgia posts for WEEKS and just have not had the energy or time to sit and get my experiences to you all. Is it weird I'm starting to get anxious about how many people know about the blog...and how far I have yet to go? I mean, in 2011, this was just a kooky idea I'd come up with, and now I have organizations and museums checking out my posts across America (even my JOB wants to use my post from those dreadful mansions in Rhode Island for a presentation to a NATIONAL museum organization). Even my friends try to help, forwarding me special event Groupons and trip suggestions for new states. While I'm happy about all of this...it is a bit...different. I'm dedicated to seeing this through...even if it takes beyond 2016 (which I'm hoping it does not...I need some passport stamps!).

FYI...cruise ships don't stamp passports. Hence why mine is still super bare

Anyway, enough about my emo development as a travel blogger (is it safe to call myself that?). Let's talk about Atlanta. I used to live in Atlanta for a very brief period of time and yet the only "touristy" thing I ever did was visit the Underground...a bunch of generic stores with stuff I was never interested in purchasing that are literally, underground. Since I was coming down for Labor Day to see my god family and friends, I didn't want to make my schedule TOO jam packed (people tend to frown at rigid itineraries) but did want to get some sight seeing in. Enter the World of Coca-Cola.

This was the first thing I did when I came to Atlanta. I had my suitcase with me, and took the Marta train (which had vastly upgraded since my last ride on it ten years prior!) straight from the airport down to the area where pretty much everything major to do in Atlanta is situated. I walked a few blocks and eventually got to the tour building (it's pretty huge) and paid for a general admission.

The line to get IN...should've taken the hint but noooo...

Let me just go ahead and warn you now. There will be a LOT of people. You WILL stand in lines as if you are waiting for the newest roller coaster at your favorite amusement park. Once you get inside, a group of about 70-80 people are ushered into a small lobby with some jumbo-sized decorated Coke bottles...and one poor soul standing at the front trying to keep everyone interested by telling jokes and doing magic tricks. Now, if you know anything about me, I HATE not being able to hear what my tour guides are saying. And with people of all ages, races, and levels of quiet present, I pulled a young man to the side and pleadingly asked if there was a more exclusive, less crowded tour option. He and another of his co-workers brought me back out to the ticket booth, and upgraded me to a VIP tour for only $12 more. TRUST ME. IT'S WORTH EVERY DIME! Not only do you get priority access to EVERYTHING, you get discounts on pictures in the gift shop and other neat swag that the general public does not. You also get a dedicated tour guide and special earbuds so you can take an actual tour, not just aimlessly roam around and hope you can figure out what you're looking at.

Travelin' T, coming to you live from the VIP...tour

Now, you do a LOT on this tour, so I'll just give you brief descriptions of the different phases of the visit. First you enter a room full of Coke paraphernalia from all around the world. An employee warms up the crowd with jokes, encourages you to take pictures, and talks about highlights of artifacts in the room.

I was up front with my fellow VIPers

From there you enter a huge theater with a 10 minute movie that shows a bunch of different people celebrating random life occurrences (like a first grandchild, or a surprise birthday party) and how Coca-Cola is a part of all of that (you know, good times). We were specifically asked to not take photos or video in here, so I obliged. From there though, you go out into the actual museum (I think it's safe to call it that) where VIP folks had to put on our headphones. We had the chance to (cut the line) and take a picture with the biggest creepiest polar bear you can imagine though, which other than the hurt faces of the kids I got to cut in front of, was pretty hilarious to do.

Next we went into a mini production section (the slowest and smallest Coke bottling factory in the world!) where we learned about technological innovations in the making of Coke. The bottles we saw being made are special in that they make all the souvenir bottles you get at the end of your tour (but we aren't there yet...)

FIZZY-Bot making bottles of Coke

Next you go into the most museum-ish part of the building, the story of how Coke was invented, and how the company (and product) grew and expanded over the years. Here is where you'll appreciate that personal tour guide most, because it was SO crowded and there were SO few captions what without their explanations you'd miss a lot of cool information.

Probably the coolest part of this section was getting to hold an actual Olympic torch. Remember the 1996 Olympic Games were in Atlanta, and Coca-Cola was a huge sponsor.

Can't you just hear the Olympic theme now?

Next is a section I nicknamed the "hater and biter" section. It talks about how so many companies tried to mimic Coke and make fake versions of the drink or to somehow tarnish the Coke image. It's here that you will get to see the vault that contains the secret Coke recipe that for years was stashed in an old lock box at a Suntrust bank.

Nothing like the real thing indeed...

Guard in front of the vault

Now before I go on...here is the only part of the tour I was ready to punch someone in the face. In this section you are CLEARLY TOLD to not cross a certain line because an alarm will sound. So what to these dummy parents let their kids do?? Cross the security line...which caused our earbuds to give a VERY loud screech and mechanical wail each time one of those little grubbers laughed and danced across it. I yelled at one woman to "get her kids together"- that REALLY hurt my ears!

From there you enter a room full of art inspired by or made from Coke and Coke materials. Tucked away in the bottom of a case was a bottle of the old "New Coke" that I'm sure most company reps would like to pretend never existed (this tickled me to see...I vaguely remember the huge brouhaha changing the formula caused).

From there we were taken to a 4D theater (and I was starting to wonder how much longer we would be on this tour). While you wait in line (again, much like a roller coaster set up) you watch a video of a woman that looks a LOT like Tracie Thoms ask a bunch of random people on the street what kind of flavors they like...or something like that. I wasn't paying much attention (or rather, didn't know I should have been paying attention). She runs off the screen saying she needs to find someone named Brigsby, and then you enter the theatre. No pics, you know, I was kind of in the moment. But you watch what seemed to be a 15 minute video of her and this Brigsby dude act goofy and discover more ways Coke is all over the world. It's 4D because the movie is in 3D (yes you get glasses) but your seats move and air and mist spray on you to coincide with the action on the screen as well. It was fun, if not a little corny.

Finally, after nearly 2 hours of tour guide led fun (thank you Deepak!) You are given an exclusive pin and dumped into the tasting room. Here you can sample Coke products from every continent (though really, if you are from America and you only stay at the North America section...you're pretty lame). This was fun in a way...some very interesting flavors from Africa and Asia (it was getting close to the time I needed to meet my friend so the rest of the world had to wait) but MAN those floors were STICKY!!! I almost broke my flip flops TWICE because the soles stuck to the floor. They should really have someone there whose sole purpose is to run a damp mop over the floor to clean up spilled pop.

The tasting room

After that, you picked up your souvenir on-site made bottle of Coca Cola and headed into the gift shop where there was a TON of red and Coke themed merchandise. Inside tip, that polar bear pic I took earlier? I got 30% off the purchase of it because I was a VIP tour member.

Thank you FIZZY-Bot!

I had to leave mine in GA with a friend though...it's not TSA carry-on friendly :-/
She's going to mail it to me though :-)

Overall, I had an amazing (if not exhausting!) time at the World of Coca Cola. They truly have set the standard for what a food or beverage factory tour should be (though to be fair, it wasn't a full fledged facility like other places). Please, if you can, buy the VIP ticket. It will really save part of your sanity. A special shout out should be given to the ENTIRE staff there. Not. One. Employee. was rude, unfriendly, or unhelpful. I mean...it was almost a little scary how nice they were. I was very impressed and pleased!

So. More on Georgia to come. I didn't do all the tours I wanted to do...but boy oh boy did I EAT a lot while I was there!

As always, thank you for following me on this journey and reading my blog. Even if it kinds freaks me out a little bit I appreciate your time taken to read it. See you on the next adventure!

Frankly, My Dear, You Give A Dam

Before I begin my post, I wanted to send a special congratulations to Miss Nevada for winning the 2014 Miss America pageant! My prior entry about Miss America contestants was really popular so I figured you all would enjoy that link. If you would like to learn more about the other contestants, you can read about them here. How fitting that she won right in the middle of my posts about her home state!

Speaking of Nevada, the very first excursion I booked was for the Hoover Dam using a Groupon from the Hoover Dam Tour Company. 

My sister and I were picked up at our hotel at 9:20 am and we made a few stops at other hotels to pick up other tourists. We were transported to what looked like a huge bus depot, where we boarded a coach bus to take the drive out to the Dam. On the way out, our driver told us a few stories about the housing boom and bust that had recently happened, as well as some tidbits about the Vegas economy (and thanking tourists such as ourselves for being such a large chunk of it). There was a documentary playing about the construction of the Dam, but I think I was the only person that was actually paying attention to it. 

A view from our drive

After about 20 minutes or so we made our first stop at Lake Mead- a man-made lake created by the Dam that is a popular tourist attraction in its own right. Everyone got out and took pictures, and the driver got some sort desert critters that looked like squirrels without tails to come up to the area we parked in by feeding them peanuts. I didn't get any good pics or video of them-- they were really hard to see due to their sandy colored fur.

Lake Mead

Yours truly at Lake Mead...pardon the squinty look
It was SUPER hot and sunny that day

We stayed there maybe 10 minutes, and headed on to the Dam. We went through security screenings very similar to an airport before we were truly inside of the Visitor's Center (TIP: Outside food and drinks are not permitted. Only bottled water!) There, we watched another movie about the making of the Dam (this one was maybe 10 or 15 minutes long) and then were lined up to be split into groups to enter the Power Plant. We got to see all sorts of inner workings there, but as we just had the general tour, we weren't permitted to get up close and personal with the machinery. 

Power Generators inside the Dam

Tour guide explaining how the water in the Dam works and is diverted

One of the Large water diversion pipes

After you left the Power Plant, there was a mini museum dedicated the history and construction of the Dam. It gave insights into how the public felt about the construction, what engineering and financial hurdles the project managers faced, as well as what the lives of the workers were like. There was a replica of one of the generators you could walk through, and then a part that talked about all the accolades the Dam has won as well as how it has affected the region's economics and ecology. I especially liked that they highlighted the role African Americans played in the construction of the Dam.

Display about workers in the museum portion

Photo of some of the African Americans that worked on the Dam

But, most people come to the Hoover Dam to take pictures of the Dam itself. There are two observation areas once you get outside, as well as the original Visitor's Center and a few cool statues dedicated to a lot of things related to the Dam. We stayed out there a total of maybe 20 minutes. It was SUPER hot (over 100 degrees) and really bright out, so all that light reflecting off of the light colored Dam was a bit blinding. I got a few shots of the Dam, the Colorado River, and the statues though. (Didn't want to disappoint my readers!) The original Visitor Center has a 10 minute movie you can watch, but we had to get back to our bus by then and didn't have time to stay.

The Hoover Dam

The view down

Colorado River and the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

Statues near the Dam

After we boarded the bus again, we were shuttled off to Ethel M Chocolates where because we ran over at the Dam, we only got to tour for about 20 minutes. From there, we were all dropped off at our respective hotels. 

I enjoyed my trip to the Hoover Dam. It's one of those American Icons that you hear about, and I was glad to check it off of my list.

I've got a few more entries to go for Nevada, and then my next "new" state won't happen until July-- when I venture off into Oklahoma! In the meantime you can look at the rest of my Nevada photos on my Facebook page.

As always, thank you for reading, and we'll see you on the next adventure!

I'm a Gold Digger

The land that would eventually become America's 49th state (Alaska) was purchased from Russia in March of 1867. Not even 30 years later gold was discovered, and the Klondike Gold Rush began. 100,000 people from all over the world (but largely America) made the journey towards Alaska. Of those, only about 30,000 actually made it there, and out of that number only 4,000 found any gold. It was a very rough and tedious task to undertake, all on the hopes that one would find a big hunk of yellow metal and become rich.

If only it came out of the ground this way...
Image from www.munknee.com

Let me tell you, that they were much better than I am to have that much hope. I panned for gold for 15 minutes and only found a few dozen flakes. It was tedious and not fun after the novelty of being a city girl gold prospecting wore off. Let me explain...

I did a cruise excursion to the AJ Mine/Gastineau Mill during our (too short) port stop in Juneau, Alaska- the state capital. Early in the morning, myself and about 10 other cruisers hopped onto our mini bus, and took the 10 minute ride up the steep (and scary looking!) wooded mountain side to reach the first part of our experience: the mine entrance.

We had to wear safety helmets to go inside (I mean, we are going inside of a mountain after all) and were escorted by John Hughes. He was really nice and seemed truly interested in not only the entire culture of mining, but in telling us about it and learning about what we did in our non-vacation lives. He told us that he was half Welsh and half Tlingit, and that he also carved masks that were sold in the gift shop we would see later (great self plug, I gotta admit- tell us about the stuff you make before you take us into a mine that could potentially be dangerous).

John and I outside of the mine

What I expected was a ride in an old mine cart on a rickety railway a la every adventure movie involving mines and treasure ever. Instead, there were easily walkable wooden walkways covered in highly textured... stuff... to prevent slipping and falling. John stopped us at various points in the mine to show us different steps on how ore was actually marked, drilled, blasted, and hauled away. I got a few videos of some of the demonstrations, and you can check them out on my YouTube Channel here. All in all we spent about 45 minutes in the mine, which is much colder than the outside, so if you get the chance to go, take a jacket. I had a chill with a heavy cable sweater and corduroy jacket and pants on.

At the mine entrance

John giving us a demonstration of one of the machines

After that, we were bussed back down the mountain (just as scary and steep and bumpy going down as going up!) to an outdoor heated pavilion where we learned this history of the mine and how it used to actually operate and were showed pictures of the mine during its heyday. This was particularly cool, and a little eerie, when you realized the nature-covered structure you are facing is actually the ruins of the pristine looking mine in the photograph.

THEN....

...AND NOW!

After that presentation, which lasted about 10 minutes, we were free to roam the grounds (taking care not to go beyond the rope barriers for safety reasons), and to go to the gold panning station, where everyone is guaranteed to find gold or garnets to take home with them!

Walking around the grounds, there were a ton of old rusty machines and vehicles that were used at some point in the mine's active days. To me, they were beautiful, and the conservationist in me was flabbergasted as to why they were allowed to rust and decay out in the elements without any sort of protection. Why, in a few years most of them will be too rusted out to be recognizable! But perhaps that's part of the "charm" *history nerd shudder* they were going for.

Beautiful and tragic all at once!

So, back to this gold panning. This was done under another awning (no heat this time) in dim light. Two guys showed us how to agitate our gold pans so that the silt and sediment and rocks would eventually filter out to leave us with pretty gold flakes or garnet grains to put inside of our little take home valves. I stood there for fifteen minutes, scooping two pans worth of gunk, and still needed help to get the last few bits of unwanted matter out. It was very slow, and in all that time I only found about $5.00 worth of gold. Now, if I had that much trouble in a touristy fashion, just imagine those poor souls 120 years ago having to do it all on their own without help!

See those light colored flakes to the right of the bottom circle of my pan?
That's my gold!

15 minutes of tedious work for about $5 worth of gold

I really enjoyed my time there. In talking with the two guys who helped us with our gold panning I learned that a lot of college kids from the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest come up to Alaska to work for a year or two, save up their money, and then use it to pay for college. I also learned Alaskan colleges tend to be extra generous with scholarship money. John also told us that with just a high school degree you can start off earning $80K to work in the mines, and that again, a lot of young folks come up and work for a year or two before heading off to college or other locations. While I don't think I personally have what it takes to do such intense manual labor, I applaud them for finding ways to make college more affordable!

The gift shop on site was pretty standard, but the prices were slightly less expensive than the "main" Alaskan tourist shops located in downtown Juneau. The biggest highlight was the lack of a huge confused crowd like in the shops at the port. When we were in Juneau, there were two other ships docked. Now my ship (the Carnival Miracle) holds more than 2000 guests- and we weren't the biggest ship there. So imagine 6000+ people clamoring for t-shirts and ulu knives in a handful of stores---- stressful to say the least! Anyway, at the gold mine shop, I picked up a cute pair of earrings made by a local artist using Alaskan clay and white gold. I love them, even if they are a bit different for me, and was happy to support the local arts scene!

Kinda quirky, but they were calling to me!

Well folks, I still have a TON of things to blog about from Alaska and Washington. I truly appreciate everyone who follows me along my journey via the blog, Facebook, and Twitter, and as always, I'll see you on the next adventure!