back to Atlanta - hooray!

[howdy it's the editor - nice to see you all again. Here are some pics from Atlanta, as well as a couple of text additions, our blog writers had forgotten a couple of happenings... happy reading]

It was a long day of driving ahead of us today, all 565 miles to Atlanta and a 1 day record for this trip. So as soon as possible we got out of dodge, it was such a long drive that we only stopped when absolutely necessary, even dad held on. The scenery was amazing for the first couple of hours - smow everywhere!

The first stop was lunch where Deanna made Mac and cheese with a side of tomato soup. The second major stop (not toilet) was for dinner - in fact outside the fireworks store @ the South Carolina border. Now many of you have not been to an American firework warehouse, so let me tell you what it looks like. When you walk inside the door to the left and right of you are rows and rows of fire works, crackers and even sky rockets!!! Around the walls are shelves and at the top are the biggest fireworks they have. We had to be very careful because many were very expensive. We ended up buying a box that exploded into colours for the finally, a packet of 4 of the biggest skyrockets and many little ones. + Much more. You need to get the fireworks there because Georgia has different rules and the fireworks aren't nearly as impressive. Dad says they are way bigger and better than even when he was a kid (all those decades ago!)

Finely we got back to the Seymour’s place and it was like 9:00 pm. Everyone was very happy – especially aunty Joe because we weren't expected until the following day. After the long drive we all talked and went to bed.

It was a good thing we got there when we did because it meant mum could lie in on her birthday. So while mum lay in bed & read her book half the day, we kids played on the bikes until tea. It wasn’t just bikes though; it was also cops and robbers and we watched T.V. We got to stay up until the parents went to bed and this was because Emma and I slept on the couch.

I liked sleeping on the couch because in the morning I get to watch T.V. so that is exactly what I did. After we had played together for a bit we got in the car, all nine of us and drove to the World of Coke. When you walk in you find yourself side by side with about 5 huge coke bottles. And you will all be proud when you read this but the biggest from New Zealand!!! The first room you go through to is full of old coke artifacts and thingymibobs (ed... I promise you, that is unedited!), it even contained the largest coke bottle opener. The next room along was a theater and the movie was all about what was happening inside a coke vending machine. Did you know that your coke gets kissed by a whole heap of love puppies before you get it? Or that the lid gets catapulted on? Well all that does happen right inside the machine (according to this movie anyway - it was extremely cool). Next we went up a flight of steps to the 4-D theater. This is like 3-D except 1 tiny detail - the chairs move and water gets sprayed on you. Not much I know. This movie is about the secret formula of coke and how a lady travels around the world trying to figure out what the formula was. At one stage a bug flies around you and pokes you in the back. We also went through two rooms that had yet more artifacts. But compared to what we were about to do - that was pretty boring.

The next was the tasting room this is a room where you get to taste fizzy drinks from all over the world. Most of them I didn’t like, which was a shame because when I got to the coke section I barely had any room for the good stuff. Then We got some free bottles of coke as we left (it doesn’t matter where you go, you always exit through the gift shop of course).

In the evening the olds went out for dinner for Mum's birthday. In America Deanna is old enough to babysit so us kids stayed at home on our own.

The next day, on Christmas Eve we went to Slap shots this is a roller-skating rink. There were also plenty of games to play. We played the games and rolled around the rink and before long we were the only ones left. With this type of freedom (not having to worry about banging into others) we had a big race. Since Dylan couldn’t skate properly he got the head start of half the rink. Two things happened, 1. Emma slipped and I won. But I was going so fast I just went bang against wall.

The other fun thing was letting off some of those fireworks. Only fire crackers - Dad calls them double happys and seems to be reliving his youth. He taught us how to light & throw them, drop them down bottles and cans, and also let them off in letterboxes. It's a pain that we can't buy decent fireworks in NZ any more. We'll be letting off the others sometime around New Year - can't wait cos there are some HUGE sky rockets!

That's all for now - love from Amy