Christmas in Atlanta was a quite one…with one exception, drive through the ‘Magical Night of Lights’ at Lake Lanier. Driving around the 6 and 1/2 miles of winding roads decorated with over 1 million shimmering lights, from life-size themes like Aladdin-and-genie and Jack-and-the-beans to the Nativity scene and of course Santa Claus!
Thanksgiving in US marks the beginning of the holiday season…one whole week to enjoy (the weekend itself begins on Friday afternoon!) so obviously we didn’t waste any time in make the most of it and headed to Austin, Texas for our ‘mini’ vacation!After two days of simply lazing around, we decided it was time to go out n enjoy the sunshine!(since we had just ‘enjoyed’ a freeze warning in Atlanta)…and being just 2-hours drive away from Austin, we couldn’t not-go to San Antonio- supposed to be one of the most charming cities of Texas.
The first on the list was The Alamo, one of the most visited historical sites in the United States, made more fascinating by the 15-min lesson in the history of the place by one of the most enthusiastic guide I have ever come across (imagine competing passionately against the sounds of the Christmas carols outside!)
After that dose of history, we headed for the ‘River walk’ for a leisurely stroll along the pathways lining either side of the San Antonio River flowing through downtown, dotted with sidewalk café’s, street shops, cobbled pathways and arched footbridges. What we didn’t realize was we had happened to come to San Antonio on the day of the famous “Lighting of the River and the River Parade”….which meant we were spectator to the illumination of the innumerable twinkling lights, suspended in the trees all along the river followed by the awesome one-hour parade of decorated and illuminated floats and boats of costumed people, including Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus…talk about being at the right place at the right time!
Every weekend me n Rajeev would look at ‘local attractions in Atlanta’ and say “oh yeah we need to go there”. But you know how we always tend to overlook what’s in our backyard…so it took the arrival of Rajeev’s cousin Sharath (our very first visitor, yippee!) to push us beyond the doors of the innumerable (and I’m not joking) shopping malls, into the downtown Atlanta.
Maybe it was devotion or just the thought of familiarity that made us drive to this “Indian temple of Atlanta” despite of the chill…just for the sight of Shivji, Ganapati bappa and Venkateshwara..symbols in stone of our faith in Him and our destiny.
Next stop was the Georgia aquarium..its actually the world’s largest aquarium. Roaming through the huge underwater tunnel with the 20 feet or so shark whales moving by, actually touching the underwater sea life and the fish as they swim past you, going within inches of the penguins or just watching the color come to life in the innumerable beautiful fishes, it was …wow!
Atlanta being the headquarters for CNN and Coca Cola…a day out in Atlanta would have been incomplete without a visit there. I thought maybe we would just pose in front of the CNN building, maybe pick up a souvenir or two and then head off…but boy I couldn’t have been more wrong! Not only did we get a guided walking tour into the ‘live news studio’ of CNN, but also got to know the behind-the-scene process of the news broadcasting- from news production and weather forecasting to the million dollar equipments! (with a fee of 12$ per person.. it was certainly a fabulous marketing gimmick!)
Next day our “picnic” continued onwards to the High Museum of Art and the World of Coca Cola, onto the Centennial Olympic Park- built to mark the 1996 Olympic Games, and finally to the Botanical Gardens into the heart of a Tropical Rainforest (and believe me it was not just the freezing temperatures outside that kept us inside!)
And though I already miss the Bombay ‘Chowpati’ and the Necklace Road in Hyderabad, atleast now I know there are quite a few places worth exploring in this new “hometown” of ours!
