The Exciting Adventures of Team Mo!: Meznmo in America...

So America then... We went with no particular expectations. I have to say that despite the fact that america probably exerts a huge influence on the NZ way of life, I had no idea what america would actually be like. This is not unusual for a simple kiwi boy who grew up for better or worse in his own little vaccuum, but it did kinda surprise me that i really had no idea what to expect. We arrived friday night in ti

me for a shared dinner at Nick and Michele's along with about 30-40 others: Nick & Michele's Families and Friends - i

ncluding a contingent of at least 16 kiwis - not a bad turnout at all which just goes to show how far kiwis will travel for a free feed (or two!). Well perhaps special people also had something to do with it! Awesome to catch up with everyone, though admittedly we were a little exhausted.

Wedding day, Saturday we went to the Georgia aquarium in the morning and were impressed by the otters, Beluga Whales and whale sharks - had this one wall probably a hundred foot across and half as high that was the wall of a fish tank (part shown with the whale sharks) which would look exceedingly cool in my living room one day - though i'm not sure i'd

put whale sharks in it... but the grouper looked t

asty! I'd probably rate Ocean Park as better overall, but this was definately very cool.

Mez and I went and had lunch near Centennial park which is in the centre of Atlanta city and was made for the Olympics in 1996. That weekend was a basketball tournament called final four which I think was the top four college (university) teams in the States - so they had a free concert in the park with local hip hop artists and Live who we didn't get to see because people with backpack's weren't allowed in. D'oh. Went for a bit of a stroll around town and then caught a cab ride back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.
Nick and Michele's we

dding was great - Skippy was best man and Ollie (Nick's Brother), Goldie and Rach

were all in Nick's party. Michele's bridal party was made up of her sister Elizabeth, and three friends. Qui

ck service in a

beaut wee presbyterian church (well quick by comparison with the Catholic ones we usually attend!) and then on to the reception which was at a gorgeous wee place called the Houston Mill House. Was a bit unfortunate that I asked the minister if it was ok to take photographs (she said 'no' so don't

have a lot of that...) Great laid back reception dinner punctuated by a speech from Rachel on behalf of the kiwi friends and Elizabeth from the bride's side! We (Grant, Dave, Mez and I, were sat in a separate room with all the University friends which made for a rowdy and entertaining meal! Drinks and dancing followed - a very cool night, and just great to be able to be there to share it with them...

Sunday was brunch with everyone, back at Michele and Nick's and then Monday we were off on our road trip. The American roading system i have to say is pretty impressive - up to seven lanes in each direction on the motorway through the city (and it still gets jammed!) and mostly 2-3 lanes out in the wops. Motorways are lined with huge tall trees which makes the whole journey like one through a great green coridoor though the view does get a little tiresome after a while. Beautiful though, totally beautiful. Junctions are numbered as in the british system, but they have whole towns of fast food outlets at each junction: Mcdonalds, KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell, Waffle House, Huddle House, Popeyes & Wendys to name but a few... Service stations are an intriguing mix of interesting foods, or psuedo foods. Skip had an interesting thought - that you shouldn't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognise as food... which pretty much ruled out all of it. But I was quite a fan of the beef Jerky...

Team for the road trip were as follows:

The Dazzling Dynamite Dave

The Gallant, Gregacious Goldie

The Gracious, Groovy Grant

The Magnificent, Magnetic Mez

The Magical, Marvellous Michele

The N-triguing, N-ergetic Nick

The Outstanding, Obliging Ollie with the Swimmingly Striking Sarah

The Rambunctious, Resplendent Ryan (aka Mo)

The Radiant, Resourceful Rachel

The Stellar, Sage Skippy

The Roadtrip was all about experiencing the culture of the south so we ate out a fair bit in some interesting restaurants: a Pub in Atlanta, BBQ restaurant chain on the road south, Japanese Teppanyaki in the South, Lunch on Cumberland island care of Wall-Mart, Mojito's at our cabin, Local seafood at the Crab Shack (including Shrimp, on Left), Thai, Mexican (on Right - Nick face pose), & the obligatory Subway.

The Local Wildlife was fabulous - in the wild we saw Armadillo's, Alligator's, a Chameleon (pictured mid colour change from green to brown),

A Tortoise, A Skunk, An Opossum, Vultures, Dung-Beetles, Scorpions (well they weren't exactly in the wild, more in our Cabin!), Heaps of what the locals call Noseeims (Very small Sandflies), Hawks, and a heap of waterbirds both sea and swamp varieties. Then there were the cages: Snakes, Alligators,

Macau's, Cockatoo's, An Owl, A Hawk, and then all the stuff at the Aquarium (notable were the Beluga Whales, Whale-shark's, Otters,

Sea Lions, and loads of Fish)

Places we visited were: Okeefenokee Swamp, Crooked River State Park, Cumberland Island,

Savannah, Tybee Island, Dublin, Athens, Helen, and of course Atlanta (Within which was the Georgia Aquarium, The MLK Jr Historic Centre, and Stone Mountain).

Most Bizarre: Hands down, no doubt about it, the weirdest place I have been to in all travelling to date is Cabbage Patch Land in Cleveland, North Georgia. Freaky. We even went through baby land and watched the live birthing of a Cabbage patch doll. A doll is 'birthed' every hour, with a full charade under the birthing tree. This you have to see to believe - a woman in a nurse's outfit talking about how the tree is 8 leaves dilated and then 10 leaves dilated etc. Terribly cheesy. And ugly dolls. Apologies to anyone who particularly loved their Cabbage Patch Doll.

Most Useful thing Learned: How to make a Mojito: Crush mint leaves with a mortar and pestle and add Lime juice and sugar syrup, Cover with crushed ice and then add Bacardi, Lemonade and a chunk of lime. Damn good.

Most Outlandish town: Helen. The North Georgian town of Helen was dying a slow death in the 1960's till some random at a town meeting piped up about his recent trip to Bavaria and suggested they remodel themselves as an alpine village. The rest as they say, is History and Helen now has over 2 million visitors a year. Unfortunately it's not filled with cool shops like in other touristy alpine villages, instead its full of kitchy souvenir shops and cheesy t-shirt shops... hmmm and a couple of mini golf courses. Translation: Cool to look at, don't bother stopping for long.

Coolest Town: Savannah. Very beautiful - this town was designed before it was built so is very well organised with little square parks on every few blocks. Loads of really cool and well kept houses, and all the cool cafes that go with a city that is home to a chic design school.