2008 Road Trip (Day 8) - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

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27th Dec, 2008

We started our trip at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. We spent nearly 2 hours there. They entry fee was $15 and it was a bit over priced. They have done a wonderful job of creating a lasting impression about the atrocities of terrorism and the trauma that the people of Oklahoma have undergone.

We had our lunch and then visited the Oklahoma Capitol Building and the War Memorial. We went to the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History that was located right adjacent to the Capitol Building. We spent nearly 2 hours there. They museum reflected the history of Oklahoma and they also had a good collection of Indian artifacts. There is a cafe inside the museum. This is our last official sight seeing spot in the Road Trip.

We left the museum and drove to Ardmore, Oklahoma for our night stay. There was a Garden of Lights in Ardmore. We checked-in to the hotel, freshened up and came out to see the Garden of Lights. I was surprised to learn that there was no entry fee. This is the best I've ever seen and it was almost a mile and half long. On the way back, we had our dinner in Burger King.

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2008 Road Trip (Day 7) - Little Rock, Arkansas

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26th Dec, 2008

We started our sight seeing with Central High School. It is located in a residential locality. They have a visitor center close to the school. The school was very majestic and has a historical importance. It looks like the school is being used even today. We spent an hour in that area and then went to see the State Capitol Building. After spending sometime there, we went to the Old State House Museum. It has a good collection of items used by famous people from Arkansas. Of course, Bill & Hillary Clinton dominated. The entry was free.

We then went to the Riverfront Park. Little Rock is not a 'little' city. The name was quite deceiving though. The Riverfront area was quite busy. You can walk down the Big Dam Bridge and take a Trolley tour of the city. My wife & daughter spent about an hour in the Children's Discovery Museum. My daughter liked it very much. The Riverfront park has a lot of play areas for kids. You can spend nearly 1/2 a day in that area.

We drove to Oklahoma City and stopped at Fort Smith, AR on the way. We visited the Fort Smith National Historic Site that served as a Jail & Execution Chamber for the Indians, during 'those' days. We spent an hour there and headed to Oklahoma City.

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2008 Road Trip (Day 5) - Atlanta, Georgia

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24th Dec, 2008

We had our breakfast and went to Atlanta Botanical Garden. This was reasonably good, even in winter. We spent nearly 2 hours there. There was a kids 'discovery' area in the park. I believe, the Garden would be at its best in Spring/Summer. There is also a small train ride ($2 charge). The conservatory had a number of tropical and desert plants.

We had our lunch and went to Atlanta downtown. The downtown was quite busy and a bit more spacious than other downtowns. We parked our car for $10 in the Georgia World Congress Center. There were cheaper parking areas available closer to the Centennial Olympic Park. We walked to the CNN Center. The CNN tour was closed for that day. We were disappointed. The CNN Center was HUGE and beautiful. I wish we were allowed to take the tour. There is a food mart in the first floor and many folks were sipping their coffee and watching news on the huge flat screen.

We then spent some time in the Centennial Olympic Park. They had a very tall Christmas Tree in the center of the park. There was a also skating area in the park, that was quite busy. They had a musical water fountain which was a attraction for kids. We spent about an hour in the park and went to World of Coca Cola.

You should learn from Coca Cola about how to charge people for advertising your brand. World of Coca Cola is a brand building center for Coca Cola. They had a number of age-old Coca Cola advertising posters and artifacts. There is also a demo of Coke manufacturing process. You get to taste 65 different varieties of Coke products across the globe. It was quite amazing to see that Coke has THAT many flavors. You can also carry a complimentary Coke bottle to home, at the end of the self-guided tour. We spent nearly 1.5 hours there.

We headed to Birmingham for our night stay. We stayed in the same hotel that we stayed on the 22nd night.

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2008 Road Trip (Day 6) - Memphis, Tennessee

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25th Dec, 2008

This is a day full of drive. We started at about 8 am from the hotel. There was a 6 hours drive from Birmingham to Little Rock, Arkansas. On the way to Arkansas, we stopped in Memphis to see THE PYRAMID. We stopped at Elvis Presley famous Sun Studio, but it was closed for XMas. So, we skipped the Civil Rights Museum also (assuming that it will also be closed). We took a number of breaks during the drive.

I was surprised to see almost all the shops closed on Christmas. Normally, I've seen that the shops will open in the evening during holidays. There were no open shops in the evening too. The roads were also completely deserted. You hardly see any people walking on the streets during Christmas. We made several trips to Grocery stores and were disappointed every time. It was unique experience. Fortunately, Walgreens was open. We could buy some milk there.

We watched movie and had dinner in the hotel room.

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