On Saturday evening we went to watch the USA Olympic Gymnastic Champions perform at the Infinite Arena, about 40 minutes north of Atlanta. They were on a tour of the USA and this was their one stop in Georgia. It was a fantastic, once in a lifetime experience for us and we were so fortunate to be able to buy tickets through Claudia's gymnastics club. It was hard to believe we were watching Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas perform just metres away from us. Awesome!! Yesterday was the Fall Festival at school, a fantastic annual event, organised by most dedicated PTA we've ever experienced. The girls took part in their respective grade fun runs, and both came 5th which was impressive. There were numerous free fun activities including a pony carousel, rides, cupcake walk, face painting and hair colouring. The plethora of local organisations which 'sponsor' our school were also there, promoting, donating and selling. Kerstin volunteered to help with the annual Book Fair, hosted by the school library, which this year had a pirates theme. Coincidentally, Kerstin has decided to be a pirate for Halloween this year, so her costume came in useful! Today we were invited to the third grade Wax Museum at school. This year it was Claudia's turn to research a historical hero and prepare a speech and costume. She chose to be Susan B. Anthony, the most famous leader of the American women's rights movement. Claudia did a fantastic job researching, writing a speech, preparing her poster and presenting.
Yesterday the girls came back from Swedish School with these certificates! They competed against other overseas Swedish Schools in running, long jump, high jump and throwing. There will be medals awarded for the top three times/scores in each event and age group around the world. Incredible!
On Saturday evening we were invited to go and watch the Lasershow Spectacular at Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is the world's largest monolithic granite rock and Georgia's biggest tourist attraction, situated 30km east of Atlanta. Of course, there's not just a huge rock to look at; the land around it has been transformed into a over-commercialised recreation area. The Lasershow is a display of laser lights, fireworks, animation and music, projected onto a carving in the rock of three confederate leaders. The crowds sit on the grass below the rock, squeezed in between all the commercial offerings. It was certainly another cultural experience and we'll definitely be going back soon to go to the top of the mountain and ride the cable car. All the guidebooks said 'get there early'... so we did! Well, 15 minutes before opening time on a Sunday morning in October! The National Air and Space Museum in DC is fantastic, and it's free! There are so many iconic planes and space vehicles from US aviation history on display here. Unfortunately, we didn't have as much time as we had planned, since we acquired our White House Garden Tour tickets the same day, but we whizzed around the highlights and we'd definitely go back if we got the chance.
We headed straight to see the White House when we arrived, despite the pouring rain, then we went to check out the excellent White House Visitor Center (and dry out!) While we were there, we were told that the White House Gardens were open to visitors this weekend, which only happens twice a year. So on Sunday morning, Jonathan and Claudia queued up with thousands of others, and managed to get us free tickets! We were so excited to actually go into the gardens and get so close to the White House and see the Oval Office. What an incredible experience we never dreamed we would have!
During Fall Break, we visited Washington DC and had a fantastic time! The capital city is full of famous landmarks, free museums and historic memorials. You could spend weeks exploring it all, but we packed in as much as we could in three days! We managed to get great hotel and flight package and stayed just a few blocks from the White House and the National Mall.
This afternoon we drove to Ponce City Market on the east side of downtown Atlanta for the first time. The market is actually a huge mixed-use development (apartments, workspace and shops) of an old Sears department store building, and opened after redevelopment in 2014. We wish we had discovered this place earlier! There is a roof terrace and garden but we'll save that for our next trip. Our most exciting find, apart from the impressive Food Hall, was Citizen Supply, an artisan marketplace for small and sustainable businesses. Fantastic! Kerstin has been away to Camporee with her Girl Scout troop this weekend so Claudia has been keeping us busy with baking, shopping and doing gymnastics. I have been keen to try making our own chewy bars, as the bars here are either full of sugar, or full of healthy ingredients but very expensive. Here's our first attempt at a no-bake (We froze it!) and no-grains bar which we created by adapting some recipes we found online. It's delicious!
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AuthorsSusan, Jonathan, Kerstin & Claudia Archives
September 2017
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