Making Lemonade

We got up at 3 AM to catch the 3:30 bus to the airport. That went smoothly, but when we got the airport we discovered that we had an unplanned 36 hour layover in Atlanta! Apparently the flight to Chile that day was cancelled, but we did not get the news, and they left us with this overnight layover!

On to juggling a trip replan. I called our hotel in Santiago, and changed our reservation, but found out that they could only accomodate our first night. I was later able to email the Santa Rita Winery to reschedule our tour and lunch.

In Atlanta, Marianne suggested that we go to the Delta help desk and tell our story. They verified that our return flight was not affected, we still have a long layover in JFK. To help us out, they made a reservation at the airline discount price at one of the local hotels, saved us about $50. When we got to the hotel, we dropped off our bags, took the shuttle back to the airport, and took the subway into downtown. We got off at the five points station, to find we were in a bad neighborhood, lots of beggars, poor black folks. We walked on the main street to the CNN building.

The CNN tour was interesting, letting us see how they put the news together. The tour includes some time on a balcony overlooking the news room. The CNN building is huge, and of course we only saw a small fraction of it. The tour cost $13 a person, but worth it.
The statue is of Andrew Young.
We asked for advice about dinner, and the young man sent us to Ted Turner's Montana Grill. It is an old fashioned place, with dark wood, old western music, prints of old western paintings, and buffalo on the menu. We had burgers, and enjoyed it.

We both agree that the people of Atlanta are very friendly and helpful, more so than Colorado. Southern Hospitality seems pretty real.

Our plan for Tuesday is to go the Martin Luther King National Historic Park, and then to the High Museum to see the terra cotta soldiers from China.