Because everyone is our family has such crazy lives (Jackie's only 9- she'll get there soon enough), it's hard to see everyone in the house at the same time, much less have memories I can reflect on when I'm not in Chicago. These family trips we have in once in awhile are thus profoundly valuable to me because of the time we get to spend together in such close quarters. A unique thing about my family, although I can probably come up with quite a few, is that we have large age gaps (among the children)- I'm 20, my brother's 15, and my sister is 9. All of us are in different stages of our lives- one in college, another in high school, and another in elementary school. One would think it would be difficult for us to relate to each other because we are so far apart from each other in life experience, but I think we manage.
And our parents- well, I don't know how relaxing of a trip they have when we are around, but it never fails to make me grateful to know how much they continually sacrifice for us, for me.
We've been to a lot of places in the country, but our travels have not really taken us to the South. This time, we went to Atlanta and New Orleans, with a short and refreshing stop in Montgomery, Alabama. In the 'ATL', we went on the CNN and Coca-Cola tour, which was pretty cool. Fun fact: ATL has the 3rd largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the world! CNN's HQ is in Atlanta, although there are satellites in NYC, DC, and LA. The personalities (crushes) I most vividly associate with CNN, like Anderson Cooper, are outside of ATL, but we were able to look in on a live broadcasting.
On the Coca-Cola tour, they had some pretty cool things- my favorite being the very last part, where we were able to taste 64 flavors of Coca-Cola products from around the world. I had not realized there were so many Coke products unique to so many countries. I wasn't a huge fan of the flavors from Africa, but they had some wicked names:
One familiar guy was this one from two years ago. I remember we had Simba Guarana ALL the time during our missions in Paraguay. I started missing cold purified water after a couple of hours of having only this to drink. It wasn't bad- it was just Coca-cola appropriately saturated with sugar. Brought back good memories though. Had a full glass of it for memories sake. :)
We also went to the Georgia Aquarium, which is supposedly the largest aquarium in the world. To round out our trip in Atlanta, though... we also found our car broken into, our luggage strewn, and my mom's work laptop gone. Not the best thing to happen on a family trip, but my mom's rather calm and accepting reaction challenged me. Definitely not a way I would have reacted, I suspect. On Sunday, we headed to Montgomery and were able to make the last moments of service at the Dexter Avenue Memorial Baptist Church, where MLK pastored for 6 years. I took communion there, realizing that it may be the last time before I go to Turkey, where I don't think I will be able to be part of a church. It was quite moving- sitting in the pews where a movement for equality and justice was started.
On Monday and Tuesday, we were in Louisiana. We spent Monday in the French Quarter and walking around New Orleans. It was ridiculously hot and humid, but still worth it. The French/Southern/Creole architecture, the music that fills the streets, and the haunted charisma that permeates throughout the city makes it a unique spot in the United States.
The last day of our trip was around the city; we went on a swamp tour and a plantation tour. on the swamp, we fed marshmallows to alligators, and were able to pet them. The swamps in Louisiana are ones I have never seen the likes of. The green is more vivid than any color I have seen, the Spanish moss romantically drapes across the trees, and the little green leaves paint the swamp like a Pointillist painting.
After, we went to Oak Alley Plantation, where we would see how the rich, Southern sugar cane barons lived. I've honestly never seen a place like this. The Southern history and culture, especially when you factor in the Creole and European influences, is something you won't find much of in this country outside of Louisiana.
