Atlanta

We’re in Atlanta now.  The people are friendly.  I’m surprised at how healthy everyone is.  Lots of people were walking, jogging, or biking.  We heard young kids talking about cardio and strength training.  One boy, maybe 10, stopped hiking to do pushups!  The bad part is that they are crazy drivers.  Maybe because it’s busy traffic with a lot of lanes, but there were multiple James-Bond-wanna-be’s quickly weaving through lanes.
 

We did a few drive-bys.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is in Atlanta.  It was founded during World War II in the South since there were so many problems with diseases such as malaria in this area.  At that time it was called the Communicable Disease Center and has been renamed several times over the years. They employ ~15,000 people at several locations with over half of them with advanced degrees.

I figure this could be one of the most important places in the world depending on what virus strikes in the future.  Or maybe they’ve already saved our lives multiple times preventing virus outbreaks.  Anyhow, they have a visitor center but it’s closed on weekends.  It was interesting to see how big a complex it is and to see the guard house that’s protecting the CDC.

Atlanta has a large Hindu temple.  Construction started for it in 2006.  It has 13 domes and reportedly cost $19 million to build.  We couldn’t get in the gates.  It turns out there are 3 gates.  We stopped at the 2 closed gates but didn't see the 3rd gate that was open.  However, it was still cool and even restful to see.