Not one, but two Nobel Prizes

More history and government than commerce today, we decided, and started our day at the Georgia State Capitol, just down the road.  First fun was getting in there.  We’ve already established that I don’t have photographic id and the two charming security chaps spent a while working a way round their rules and regs, finally accepting evidence of my home address and trusting my good character.

First surprise: The Georgia Capitol building is a workplace more than a showpiece.  We went straight to the 4th floor where there was a collection of historic ephemera telling the story of the history of the state legislature.

There were a few interesting artefacts too, including this tote bag promoting “participation above partisanship”.

I was especially interested in the “ERA” cabinet, learning for the first time that women still do not have equal rights in every state.  Mary was able to explain the details of course and we both knew that, were we living in one of these non-ERA states, we’d be out there campaigning!

Mind you, I’m not sure I’d want to be part of this kind of society.

We peered into the House

and then into the Senate, which, if we understood correctly, sit for around just one month per year. 

We chatted a while to the lady at the visitor desk who encouraged us to step inside the Governor’s office and sign his book.  His door had a very grand handle (!) and expecting a great crrreeeeeaaaak as I opened it, I ventured nervously inside.

I needn’t have worried.  The man himself wasn’t in the office this morning and his PA was utterly charming.  I signed his book and received some Georgia Peanuts from him in return.  I’m ashamed to admit that right then, I didn’t even know his name, but Mr Deal, thank you!

OK, from the Capitol, then, to the next place of interest.  More than that, though, for this is a National Historic Site: the Martin Luther King centre, comprising his birthplace, his church, a visitor centre and his grave.

We began at the Visitor Centre, where a short film gave us the background information to his life and work.  Some of it was familiar, but it was interesting to fill in the gaps and learn more about the context of his work.  There was an exhibition too, with this “march” as a centrepiece  and small round pods on various themes around it.  For some reason, this didn’t quite float my boat and I couldn’t help feeling that there must be more somewhere.  Not that there wasn’t plenty of information here – if anything, there was too much to stand and read at that time.

So we progressed to the next step, the memorial pool with the tomb set there at the end.  We were surprised that a figure of such national importance was commemorated in such suburban surroundings and felt that in some way, his contribution to US history had been under-valued.

A small exhibit in the hall nearby was similarly underwhelming with a few of his possessions and those of his wife, Coretta Scott King.  It was here we came upon the first Nobel Medal of the day, though.

From here, we went over to his birthplace but with the first timed entry available for late afternoon, had to make do with a view from outside.

I was pleased we’d visited the centre and certainly learned plenty about the man, his wife and his work, but I left feeling uninspired and rather disappointed by the whole experience.  I felt sure that such a charismatic character could have been better celebrated and was saddened by the lack of optimism and expressions of hope for the future.  After all, there is surely work still to be done to fulfil his dream and here could be the perfect place to inspire us all to follow in his footsteps.

Speaking of inspiring…

At the other end of the “Freedom Parkway” was another visitor centre; The Carter Center.  Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Library is here together with an exhibition of his life and work, too.

The story really did start at the beginning.

His years in the US Navy were shown and then his short political career before becoming President.

The story was well told with interesting detail and just the right balance of details.  As we learned more about the man and his family, we became more impressed by his approach to his work and to life generally.

 

I always find details like this interesting, enjoy seeing a person’s handwriting and love to see the scribbled notes alongside the formal typewritten address.  And yes, of course I’m delighted that someone thought to keep that bit of paper (even though it was an historical document, probably from the moment it was written!)

His four years as President were outlined alongside the events of the time and my question was answered: How come he didn’t serve a second term?  (Ronald Reagan and the Hostage situation in the US Embassy in Teheran)

Finally, there amongst the story of how he and Rosalynn have continued to work tirelessly for democracy around the world, to fight infectious diseases and encourage peaceful resolution of situations was the second Nobel medal of the day, less than a mile from the first one.

I liked a little pinboard by the exit door where an invitation to leave a message for the former President had resulted in a few heartfelt greetings.

Regardless of how we’d thought of him as President and just going by what we’d just learned about him as a man, the three of us all agreed with this simple sentence.  Lovely, isn’t it?

Now, we’d all been hoping for Gerogia Peaches on this trip, but have we seen a single one?  No!  So our last stop was going to be the Ponce City Market.  We’d not looked into details but there appeared to be a food market and gourmet stores there and it had come recommended by a couple of locals.  Here’s hoping for peaches.

 

Not a chance!  This wasn’t a food market at all but a newly renovated hipster shopping and lifestyle venue and though there’s a Farmers Market from time to time, today was not one of those times.

It didn’t matter really.  We pottered  around a little, in Anthropologie and West Elm, then mooched in a huge Williams Sonoma before being drawn to a curious drinks store.

At the tap store, your drink of choice is dispensed to a closed container (their licence is only for drinking off the premises) and having made our choices, we settled down at a nearby table and decided where to have dinner.

We settled on Indian Street Food, which was good but not quite as good as the gelato we found for dessert, just around the corner.

We had to behave ourselves though

When in Atlanta

two brands are right up there.  Both begin with C.  We began with the first. CNN.

Mary had booked us a tour for this morning, so we were there, ready to go in good time.

We waited in the lobby, by the eight-storey high escalator and watched the news.

Well, what else would you do in a news organisation?

Having met our guide, Daniel, we got to ride that escalator: still the longest free standing escalator in the world, even though it’s been there since 1976.

At the top, we were able to get an overview of the process of putting the TV news together.  Here were two sets of screens; one was for the domestic CNN here in USA, the other for international CNN.  As you can seen, whilst we were there, it was reporting live from London where Parliament had been recalled to pay tribute to Jo Cox, the murdered MP. Daniel explained the series of screens; the preview screens and the cues and of course, the main live feed to each of the two channels.

The next stop was a mock up of a newsroom, where someone could pretend to read the news and appear live on TV.  Had we been in a large group, this could have been fun, but with only the three of us and Daniel, we left it to my hero to sit and read the autocue.  No, of course I’m not going to embarrass him by posting the photo I took!

We’d arrived in between live TV shows, so there was not much going on in the studio but Daniel was able to explain about the cameras, most of which are now remote control and the lights – notice the colour, a blueish pink.

From there we went into a no photo, high security area: the news room.  Here, rows of journalists and news gatherers were sitting in front of banks of screens, reading a variety of news feeds and monitoring stories from around the world.  Here too were the banks of Nielsen screens, constantly monitoring audience response and reaction alongside the social media monitors and online feeds.  It was here where we realised what a huge operation news reporting is these days and how quickly it’s still changing.  Blink and you could miss the big story and yes, it’s all live.

We were able to see into the controllers’ room where live CNN was being broadcast as we watched – exhausting?  You bet!  Daniel likened it to Air Traffic Control – 100% attention required of everyone 100% of the time in there.

Remember the cool blueish pink lighting in the studio across the way?  We followed Daniel over to CNN Espanol, the Spanish language service, where the lighting was anything but cool!  Here, it was noticeably warmer yellow – interesting, n’est-ce pas?

Our CNN tour concluded, we made our way across the Centennial Park (sweet of them to fly the Union flag, wasn’t it?) towards our afternoon location.  The second C  (and the third!)

There were rather more folks here than at CNN and we hadn’t planned ahead by buying tickets in advance.  Hopefully, we weren’t going to have a long wait.

Hah!  straight in.  Tickets bought, no queue and in we went.

The first thing to do was to visit the counter and choose our preferred variety (and a map).  I quite liked the cute aluminium bottle and have been trying how to wrangle it into my journal

The first “show” was a broad introduction to the brand, narrated by the excellent (and ever so enthusiastic) Auzhanae.

Isn’t she great?

For the next couple of hours, we made our way through a succession of themed displays.  The first had a collection of historical artefacts and advertising material.

Another told the history of the product and the ways of protecting the concept from copycat products.

The spelling mistake might be a clue!

This display focused on the secret formula and the precautions taken to safeguard it.  Do you believe it’s really behind that door (bearing in mind that we’d just been reading that one of the security measures was to ensure it was never written down)?

More advertising material and promotional items were on display here too. 

Upstairs was a Disney-style show with moving seats, water splashes and fun.  It was a little basic and far from subtle but the group of summer school youngsters behind us loved it (and were probably nearer the target audience!)

After watching a few Coke TV ads from around the world (yes, including “I’d like to teach the world to sing”), we spent a short time in the last room, where we sampled Coke products from around the world.  Here was the good old Thums Up cola we remembered from India and Inca Kola from Peru amongst other strangely familiar products.  There was also the full range of Coca Colas – Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Classic, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, Caffeine-free Coke and the new green Coke, so if we hadn’t been totally bubbled out with Coke already, we could have engineered our sugar-rush here.

We decided it was time to go and exited through the gift shop, helping ourselves to another free sample bottle as we went (glass, this time, so no chance to squashing it into my journal…I’m thinking of maybe driving over the aluminium bottle, btw!)

Guess what was to be found in the gift shop?

Well, actually, there was all manner of T shirts, soft toys, glasses, homeware and anything (and everything) you can think of, as long as it can be made in red).

We resisted the temptation but many families left bearing numerous carrier bags reminding us of those leaving the American Girl Doll stores!

This evening, we visited Gus’s Fried Chicken, where Red served us a tray full of the most delicious things; more than we could eat, but declined to serve me a Blue Moon beer because I did not have appropriate id to show her   The lemonade was fine

We’ve had a great day here, then and still have a few things on our list to see.  But as they say around here, tomorrow is another day…

Through Georgia’s treasures

Whilst in the Augusta museum, I asked the young woman at the information desk if she could suggest any must-sees along the road between Augusta and Atlanta.  Clearly, I wasn’t the first to ask that question because she pointed out the leaflet with the list and giggled.

OK, so here’s the challenge! 

Rather than take the Interstate as suggested by the leaflet, however, we stuck to the local road.  We had all day to explore the area and we in no particular hurry.  For most of the way, the road ran parallel to the railroad, but there were no trains today, sadly.

There wasn’t a great deal of traffic.

Our first stop was in Greensboro where we pulled up outside the Town Hall and decided we needed to stretch our legs a while.

When we first came to the USA, we fell immediately in love with the wide open spaces and the big cities.  It took us rather longer to get to grips with small-town America though but gradually, we’ve become attracted to the charms of some of these quaint places.

Greensboro was closed.  It’s Sunday and here in Georgia, Sunday is a day for church and family, not for commerce. 

We didn’t mind.  We rather enjoyed a short wander around, admiring the small-town vibe which was apparent from the minute we got out of the car.

From Greensboro, we continued along the suggested route but chose not to stop at Lake Oconee, so my photograph was snapped as we crossed the bridge.  Yes, we missed the opportunity to visit the Ritz-Carlton there!

Our next stop was going to be Madison, described as Georgia’s Antebellum Showcase.  As we approached the town, I asked if we might possibly have been here before, because some things looked awfully familiar.

My Hero gave it some thought before looking at the map again.  Sure enough, when we were last in Georgia in 2001, we drove from Washington DC to Hilton Head and yes, our route took us through Madison on that occasion.  So here we were once again!

It is indeed a grand town, set around an elegant and leafy square.  It has less of a “small-town” feel to it and appears prosperous and well heeled.  We spotted a small crowd of people standing around a few outdoor tables and headed that way with a snack in mind.  The Chop House delivered more than a mere snack though, in the form of freshly prepared and totally yummy sandwiches which kept us going for the rest of the day.  Cheerful staff waited on a lively clientele of all ages: it was only when my Hero received a text message with greetings from home that we realised that of course, it’s Fathers Day.

We returned to the car and drove on further, past Heritage Hall, where I remembered visiting on that road trip in 2001.  When we are home, I must take another look at that road trip journal and see what we did and where we went!

We came upon Rutledge next, but feeling full and a little less energetic than earlier in the day, we simply stopped, took a quick look around, reset the satnav and moved right along.

I was more curious about Social Circle.  After all, somewhere with such an unusual name must be interesting, wouldn’t you think?  (Well, I did.)  But it wasn’t to be.  Social Circle didn’t have the immediate charm of Madison, nor the small-town vibe of Greensboro though it did have a line of beautiful lilac trees!

 

There remained just two further stops on the route and the afternoon was passing.

Downtown Covington was grand.  Set around an elegant square with the Town Hall standing prominently in place, this was another example of from our imaginary images of “small town America”.

We were glad we’d stopped here and admired the neatly tended flower beds and well maintained buildings.  Still, we scooted out of town and over the county line before Boss Hogg caught us!

As we left, there was another well maintained building by the side of the road which caught my hero’s eye!   A stop here means a break from driving, of course, and a peaceful half hour with his Kindle whilst Mary and I take a look around.

I’ll admit that we were just too lazy to get out of the car in Conyers.

Or at least, I thought we had been, until I saw this photograph.  Of course, I jumped out to take a picture of the main street! 

That was all, though…

As we left, we spotted an engine in a shed, though, not that we had any idea what it was.  My hero decided he’d investigate later, once he had chance to do a bit of googling.

That was made easier by the signpost on the next junction – it was The Dinky.

Onto Atlanta, then.  Arriving late Sunday afternoon with very few folks about was a good idea and made finding our hotel relatively straightforward.   The city isn’t laid out in the grid pattern that makes finding places easy, but with the help of our trusty satnav, we were soon there.

We now have a couple of days to explore the city.  Stick with us and see what’s what!

Georgia, Georgia…

The soundtrack in my mind has changed, of course.

We left Charleston this morning, driving through the suburbs past “tires for hire” and the Piggly Wiggly supermarket.

We passed so many churches we lost count, but the church we spotted when we stopped in Summerville won the prize for the most original setting.

We’d read about Summerville and its reputation as the home of “Sweet Tea”, a southern speciality.

Enjoying a walk around this cute small town with a cup of sweet tea in hand, Mary spotted a sign worth pursuing.

People, Places and Quilts is a charming store with several rooms full of fabric and gorgeous samples.  My hero found a comfy sofa with a book of Gary Larsson cartoons to entertain him, so we were all happy.

I rather liked the pinboard with paper patterns displayed – how things used to be done pre-technology.

We were heading for Augusta today though, so rather than linger longer in Summerville, we hit the road again.

These long straight roads are a great opportunity for me to set up the “studio” in the back of the van and catch up on some of my journal.

Today was a page about the ice cream in Charleston and another with the plantations on.  I managed to complete most of the cutting and sticking, leaving the writing until I have a steady table to sit at.

Thankfully, I’d more or less cleared away before we had to screech to a halt.

I managed a decent photo of the sign for Denmark, South Carolina.

We’re in Coca-Cola country here and some vintage signs are starting to appear.

The Heritage Corridor was signposted all the way, but we had no idea what it was about until now.  I took a photo to remind me to look it up later!

By now we were heading into Georgia and my hero had instructions to give me plenty of notice so I could have my camera ready to take a photo of the “Welcome to Georgia” sign.

The border was the Savannah River.  I sat with camera in hand, at the ready.

And the silly auto focus decided I wanted a clear shot of those blips on the windscreen.  Bleh.

Hey ho.  Here were were in no time, downtown Augusta, Georgia.

We’re only here overnight, so wanted to make the most of our time and headed straight for the History Museum.

We’re in cotton country here, and with Diana, our guide, pointing out the highlights, we spent a happy hour learning a little about the area.

There were displays to tell the story of Augusta from the very first people until the present day.  Our favourite?

This old fire engine with its highly polished detail and those two “armchairs” up front.

Of course, golf featured quite large in the story.

As did the Godfather of Soul.  (change of soundtrack!)

Augusta was not exactly busy on this Saturday afternoon and we had the museum more or less to ourselves and really appreciated the 1:1 attention from Diana, too.

It was pretty empty outside too!  I can’t imagine many places where downtown on a Saturday afternoon looks like this, can you?

Though there are interesting buildings here and there, sadly we won’t have time to explore further.  We’ll just have to read a little more and find out what we missed.

We soon found out where everyone was this afternoon, though – at the Mall!

We were headed for our hotel though; another Hilton brand but one which is new to us.  We have a spacious bedroom…

a bathroom, of course,

and an enormous sitting room

and kitchen/work area.  It’s a little excessive for just one night, but it’s good to stretch our legs a bit!  Mary has almost the same set up too – we ought to have arranged a party!!

Instead, we did what everyone else was doing this evening

The Plantations

We couldn’t spend time in Charleston without visiting at least one plantation so it was time to crank up the Chrysler and head on out of town.

It was another sizzler – warmer than yesterday in fact, and as we drove out on the highway it was already registering 88F.  It was good to be leaving the built environment behind.

Half an hour later we were driving through swampy woodland, discussing the term “bayou” – was that a bayou we just passed, I asked?  Who knows…we need to research!  (Just did…the answer is yes, it probably was)

Our first destination was Magnolia Gardens, widely advertised as the best plantation gardens in the area and the oldest, by far, but more importantly, recommended to us as a “must see” by our friends Bill and Wendy. 

Unfortunately, we’d missed the magnolias, the camellias and the azaleas but the hyacinths were looking great!

We got tickets for the house tour starting shortly, so made our way over there as instructed.

When we got there, we had a surprise.  We’d been expecting a “Gone with the Wind” style mansion set in some kind of plantation though hadn’t thought much about it until now.  But here was a rather simpler home and there was no plantation in sight – or at least, nothing we could recognise as such. 

But before we gave it much further thought, our guide arrived and we learned more about what we were to see.  There had been a grander “mansion” on the site – two previous incarnations, in fact.  But both had burned down and when it came to rebuilding, the family chose to create a rather simpler affair, because it seems, they were hardly ever here.  We learned that many years before it became commonplace to do such a thing, Magnolia Gardens were opened to the public and the owner, John Grimke Drayton actually made a reasonable living from the proceeds.

No photos were allowed throughout the house but believe me, it was no Calhoun Mansion inside but a simple home built and decorated in a modest style.  What was really interesting though was not the house itself but the story of the Drayton family which can be read here too.  Wandering through these rooms on a sticky hot Charleston day, it was easy to imagine why several family members didn’t like being here at all.  The idea of the mosquitoes was bad enough but we learned too that the plumbing had been done in such a way that the phosphates in the ground leeched into the water, leading to kidney problems in those who lived here until the connection was made and the problem corrected.

More recently, the house had been used for entertaining and the guest list included people such as Eleanor Roosevelt, the Gershwin brothers and Orson Welles.  Oh, and we learned about the plantation as well: this was an area where rice was grown until the Civil War, after which time a labour shortage led landowners to seek a different means of making a living.  They’d discovered phosphates in the soil around here, which could be strip mined but in doing so, the land was ruined (poisoned) forever.

We were fascinated by all of this and delighted to find such a contrasting story to that at the Calhoun Mansion yesterday.  There were links to the Charleston families we’d heard about yesterday too and we were able to piece some of the history together, making it all the more interesting.

As we left to explore the gardens,  Mary asked about the “Grimke” name, for she’d recognised it from her knowledge of two sisters who feature strongly in the quest for equality and women’s suffrage.  Sure enough, they were related to the family here, though their Southern upbringing motivated them to move north and devote their lives to working as abolitionists and political activists.  Ed, our guide, told us of a recent novel based on their lives: The Invention of Wings , now on both our reading lists!

Wandering around the garden – well, not exactly wandering but actually, following the suggested route, we chatted about what we’d seen and learned.  We’d really enjoyed the tour and the wild, uncomplicated garden was the perfect location to reflect on the story.

We’d learned that what we’d regarded as the front of the house hadn’t really been the front at all, since most people had arrived by boat from Charleston and would have approached the building from the side facing the river.

Before long, we too were standing by the river, imagining how it had been when this was the main route to and from the estate.

Actually, we didn’t have to imagine too much, for there was a reproduction of a photograph taken at the time, with a steamship offloading a party of people coming to visit the gardens just as we were doing.

The gardens were lovely, not in the conventional planting, but in the natural abundance and the seemingly untended and relaxed style.  Clearly, much work is done here, for otherwise the garden would surely soon be overgrown and totally wild, but the gardeners are successful in knowing when to stop!

Oh, and the light and shade was magnificent.  I have no idea what these flowers are but they were looking stunning in the sunshine, overhanging a deep, reflective pool.

Soon, we were back at the house and, of course, we exited through the gift shop!

I was interested to see cards inspired by the gates we admired yesterday in there

though my purchase was actually a pack of praline pecans, a local speciality we’d intended to try yesterday but missed out on.

(Thanks Bill and Wendy – your recommendation was spot on!)

After a spot of light refreshment we drove back through the swampy landscape, past a bayou or two (!) heading for the second plantation of the day: The Charleston Tea Plantation.

Whilst stopped at a junction, I had time to take a photograph and look more closely at the trunks of the palmetto trees here.  Since we arrived, I’ve been intrigued by that regular interwoven pattern on every one.  Isn’t nature wonderful?

The tea plantation is on an island and as we crossed the waterway, we spotted a bit of fun going on there.

This is a flat, open landscape with as much water as there is land.  Interesting.

The tea plantation visit began and ended in the gift shop!  A welcome sample of iced tea made a good start to the factory tour.

Not that there was a lot going on today. All was empty and silent so we simply followed the story as told in overhead video presentations.  Ten minutes later, we stepped out to join the trolley tour of the plantation itself.

This was a long established tea plantation and it’s changed ownership a few times.  Now, it’s operated by the Bigelow family and produces the only US grown tea.

We joined the trolley tour driven and guided by Beau, who spoke with an accent uncannily like Francis Underwood from House of Cards!

 

He drove us out into the original plantation, where there was a wide range of long-established tea bushes growing.

Here, comparisons could be made regarding which species grows well under these conditions and those species can be selected for propagation and replanting in greater numbers.  Blends are then created to suit the tastes of the largely American customer base, most of whom drink tea iced.

The tea is harvested from the new shoots, dried, shredded and oxidised to create the end product.

Next stop was the propagation depot.

We saw where new bushes are grown from cuttings and how the whole process is managed using automatic climate control.

Not much was going on in the plantation either, but a little light maintenance was being done here.

A little more back breaking work was going on in the neighbouring area too and having seen what there was to see, Beau left us with a little South Carolina philosophy: start the day slowly and then taper off from there”.  Quite honestly, in this heat, it’s hard to imagine being able to do much else – unless of course, you are a worker in a tea plantation and have work to do!

Returning to Charleston over the bridge again, we consulted the weather forecast.  The temperature had crept up to the high 90s by now and the promise of thunderstorms seemed fairly reasonable.  No sooner had we got in than the sky darkened, a breeze blew up out of nowhere and sure enough, a clap of thunder heralded a heavy rainstorm.

It didn’t stop us heading out for dinner and then on to our favourite Jeni’s ice cream afterwards though.  After all, what are umbrellas for?