Atlanta, December 28th-30th 2023
By Coot
This is blogified review I originally posted on my Instagram.
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I enjoy reading Trey's reviews on stuff and decided to write my own review about our little trip!
Trey and I went to Atlanta with our friends Will and Sarah to see Sonic Symphony on December 29th. Despite it being just a quick lil thing, we packed so much into our time! We had ZERO plans aside from the symphony and everything turned out fab.
The drive there was pretty fast and that night we ate at a cool bar and restaurant with pinball machines and a comic book store!
On Friday, we started our day by going to the Center for Disease Control museum and were surprised that we had to navigate around barricades to get to a security checkpoint. Then they took Trey's license and had us pop the hood and trunk open and made everyone go far away from the vehicle. They checked all the nooks and crannies of the car and even used a mirror to check underneath it. We were NOT expecting such security measures but it was very interesting!!
They gave us a pass to park in the garage and then everyone had to get their licenses scanned and go through a metal detector once we were inside. It sounded like other visitors were also shocked at the security procedures, so we weren't the only ones caught off guard. The museum is in front of and connected to the rest of the CDC, so it makes sense.
The museum itself was very informative. Of course, it was very pro-CDC and sort of glossed over some of the controversial bits of their history, but I'm happy they acknowledged events like the Tuskegee Study.
There was an exhibit on lingering health effects of 9/11 and a photo series called Ghosts of Segregation on the first floor. Ghosts of Segregation was interesting and showed many southern buildings that retained features from segregation- separate entrances, bathrooms, and windows. (Alas, no pics from this but NOMA has two photos from this permanently.[edit from 2025- click the link to see and learn more. You will never look at an old building in the South without looking for these “ghosts”]
The museum begins on a lower floor and is a chronological journey from the CDC's predecessors all the way to the 2001 anthrax attacks (the museum mentioned COVID-19 in some text, but has not created a new section for it yet). There were lots of old informational posters and booklets from around the world and old equipment used to test for, treat, and prevent disease. It was a really cool museum and it was totally free! I wish it had a gift shop.
[2025 edit- Honestly one of the coolest museums I have ever been to and I have been to a LOT ! Just a neat museum that won’t take all day AND it is free AND you get to be checked for bombs! What more could you want?]
Next, we went to look at shops on the area and walked around. We didn't end up buying anything but it was fun to just see the different shops. We headed towards our next destination and stopped at a burger place that ended up being themed around old horror and sci fi movies- Grindhouse Killer Burgers. It was very tasty!
Then, we went to the Center for Puppetry Arts. Half of the museum was about puppetry around the world and the other half was all Jim Henson. It was neat to see how puppetry evolved around the world, seeing famous stop motion puppets(Corpse Bride! Rankin-Bass Rudolph!) and then standing right next to Big Bird!
We had some time to kill between puppets and the symphony and we went to IKEA, which gave Trey ominous vibes.
[2025 note- I have zero pictures from our IKEA detour, but we were there for hours. We also attempted to visit the MLK Jr. National Park in-between our museum visits, but we were rained out]
We went to the symphony and got a "blue blur" cocktail. The symphony was great.
^Uninhibited joy
The first half was mostly classical medleys from the 2D games and the second half was rock covers of the 3D game themes. The crowd was amazing and there was much love in the room for a little blue hedgehog. Hearing a theater full of people react to the gameplay on the screen was crazy. I may have cried a little.
[Note from 2025- The Sonic fandom is notoriously neurodivergent and the crowd reflected that. At one point, the singer asked the audience to raise your hand if this was your first concert and SOOO many hands were raised, mostly from adults. It was incredibly moving to see so many people try something new and scary, all because they love a blue hedgehog!!! Lots of cosplays, plushies, t-shirts, laughing and crying in the theater. Honestly, I am crying just from trying to type out this memory. This tour lasted from 2023-2025 and it had to be so many people’s first time at a concert. That is amazing. ]
We were all tuckered out by the end of the night (after stopping for some late night Cook Out!).
On our way back home, we stopped to look at toys on Trey's request. I ended up spending $100 on Beanie Babies and Trey bought nothing 🙃.
I took pictures of the rest stop maps on our way there and back and it turns out we stopped at twin rest areas. Neat.
A great trip with great people and a nice way to end a busy year!